Do you ever wonder what’s the  next new thing to be invented, reinvented, produced and delivered to us? Ten years ago, blogging was something a handful of people did. Now companies, CEO’s, universities,  presidents, grandmas, employers, movie stars, quilters, news stations and teachers all have a reason to put their words in a post and hit the publish button.

I worked with a brilliant guy in my past and I often asked him this question – what’s the next new thing? Years ago he told me about a new concept called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) which was difficult for me to grasp at the time. Now, I use VOIP with Skype and my phone.

What’s the next new thing?

When I first browsed the web, Netscape was the only choice…Amazon was a place far away and Google was a funny word.

AOL had the market with the disks they mailed on a regular basis so we could connect to the internet.  Connecting to the internet meant dialing a certain number where everything took it’s own sweet time. While the computer was connected, the phone was unavailable.

In the past ten years, I’ve seen flash (or thumb) drives replace cds (which replaced floppy discs). With each year, the amount a flash drive holds increases and will soon be able to hold a terabyte of memory!

The big deal ten years ago was the Blackberry. Now a Blackberry is old fashioned compared to the iPhone family that continues to ‘wow’ the world. The ‘land line’ is a thing of the past as our children subscribe to cell phone use only. I recently discontinued my land line due to the cost and the handful of calls that I received.

Back then a chat was something I did over the phone – today it’s a text using dozens of acronyms. The preference seems to be to send a text rather than make a phone call.

We no longer need a VCR recorder because of programs like Tivo and On Demand that allow us to record a host of programs to watch at a later time. In fact, we can  skip watching TV and tune into our computers and watch our favorite programs on Hulu and other such programs.

Our televisions have gotten flatter and wider as have our computer screens.

Film cameras are no longer produced and digital cameras are being replaced by cell phone cameras.

A decade ago I was so cool jogging with my neat yellow Walkman. Cassettes were soon replaced by compact discs and now, thousands of songs are downloaded into a device as big as my thumb or onto my cell phone device.

Books were either hardback or paperback. Now, we have to decide if we want to use a Nook, Kindle, Sony, or some other type of e-Reader. Libraries are in the process of going virtual as well.

A social network was a gathering of people, like you might find at church or on a Friday afternoon meeting face to face, perhaps. Online social networks like My Space, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and other sites allow many people to connect via their fingertips. They share videos, photos and information for their friends and family to see across the miles or across the world.

Oh my goodness! So much has changed, evolved, and emerged in so little time. What’s next?

Related articles

• Evolution of Cell Phone Design (mycricket.com)
• Malls halt plans to track consumer movement via cell phones (news.consumerreports.org)
• Vonage (marsha4852.wordpress.com)

If you know or think you know, let me know!!!