I have been thinking about this subject over the past week in preparation for this blog post, and it has been quite tough to choose one thing over the past (ahem) 50 years which, to me, has been the most important (to me) invention. Since the 1970s, we have seen the emergence of the mobile phone, the internet, more sophisticated computers, online shopping, ATMs, CDs and DVDs (now eclipsed by Blue-Ray discs), MP3s, eBooks, and automated machines which can tell you everything from the news headlines to playing a favourite song just by the sound of your voice wakening it up. Life in the 2020s seems to be more ‘plugged in’ than I can remember it as a child and I’m not necessarily sure if this is a good thing.
Yes, I have multiple Spotify playlists which I listen to on a daily basis – probably listening to music through this platform more than actually putting one of my hundreds of CDs into my CD player. But that’s because it’s more convenient. And, although I still have a CD Walkman, carrying that about when I’m exercising outdoors isn’t really practical. Yes, I’m writing this blog on the internet (more out of wanting to document my thoughts as my reach with this blog is pathetically low), and I do get some shopping online. It’s very different studying for degrees nowadays than it was when I was a nursing student in the 1990s; to write essays we had to scour little drawers in the library to find the particular article we wanted and then, armed with that info, you went in search of the journal or book. Tough luck if someone else had it out on loan/borrowing it at the time. It was even more fun when your whole year group was writing the same essay – 30 people trying to gain access to one article was a bit like trying to be first into the January sales!
Nowadays, libraries have everything a log-on away. Everything is a lot more instant – which can only be a good thing, right? Social media means that you can have immediate conversations with people you have never met on the other side of the globe (or even in your town) – surely that has to be good for loneliness? Personally, I am weaning myself off social media – I very rarely use my Twitter account any more (it’s too full of celebrities seeking the most followers/validation and such like. I’m going to be deleting that platform soon), and I am rarely on my Facebook. Instead of easing loneliness, it actually makes me feel worse. When I see people who I thought were friends meeting up for events that I haven’t been invited to, or someone I know ‘unfriends’ me [once a real-life acquaintance who I had known for 30 odd years blocked me on Facebook because I wished her a happy anniversary. Ehhh?? By the way, she was still happily married to the same man so what was that about?], or I am forced to see the wondrous evidence of everyone else’s perfect lives (or so they like to depict them), it makes me feel inadequate, sad, and that I’ve done something wrong. Have I said something to make people not like me and not want to be friends with me? Why isn’t my life like that? And why is it that people who ‘cut you dead’ when you see them in the street ask to be your Facebook friend? It’s all a bit beyond me, I’m afraid. So, I keep my Facebook and Instagram use to the bare minimum and am hoping to purge myself of them completely within the next few years.
But, on the flip side, social media has helped me gain contact with a lot of my old school friends (I loved my school days) and I enjoyed a wonderful reunion with them all again last summer. I have also met some remarkable people who have helped me raise shedloads of cash for charity that little introverted me would never have managed to raise by myself. Additionally, over lockdown, being able to go online (Youtube) to join the services from our church gave a form of constancy and much-needed solace. I do think, though, that social media can never replicate actual face-to-face conversations. I do enjoy hearing news of people directly from them in person, seeing facial expressions, etc, rather than impersonally over the web. Same with shopping, I’d much rather go into a shop and buy things rather than get them online; the latter seems so impersonal. I prefer to live ‘in the moment’ and enjoy real life around me than to live through what I see on a screen. So, although the internet is good for some things, to me it isn’t the greatest invention of my lifetime.
Mobile phones – again, I could quite happily live without mine. I am slowly downgrading the type of phone I have and am wanting just the basic remodel of the Nokia 3310. I only have one friend who calls me (I know – I seem not to have many close friends just now!) but otherwise I only use it to call my Dad, or to make appointments. I don’t need the internet on the go, although Google Maps is useful sometimes when I get lost (a frequent occurrence!), as is Spotify (for listening to music on the go. I’m not really a podcast person). When waiting for a bus, or an appointment, nearly every other person waiting has their phone out and are aimlessly scrolling. Meanwhile, I whip the book I have brought along with me out of my bag. I’d rather hide in some quality fiction than in the fiction of social media!
Talking of books – eBooks. Now, I have numerous Kindles. I have about 1000 books on them (most stored on the ‘cloud’). My Kindle is great for taking on holiday when I’m scared I might run out of reading material, or for reading during the night when I can’t sleep. But, there is nothing that beats a physical book. So, I could live without my eBook reader – I would just have fewer books.
So, what is the most important invention in my life-time, in my opinion? I think it has to be the advances in the medical world, particularly the invention of the MRI (imaging machine). Cancer can now be cured, or better controlled, and so many new procedures (such as laparoscopic surgery) have meant that fewer people have to have open surgery for appendicectomies or for gall bladder removal, etc. Due to my extensive medical history, I have had so many CT scans that I am not allowed any more in my lifetime. Instead, I have to have MRIs. Indeed, without my latest MRI, the cancer I had would not have been diagnosed so accurately. They’re noisy brutes – I wasn’t even offered earphones or music for mine – but extremely effective. And what is more important than diagnostic tests to enable individuals to get effective and prompt treatment for their illnesses? I am hoping that I won’t need any more scans – but should it be necessary – I will be indebted to Paul Christian Lautebur. Without his invention being trialled in the medical field, in the year I was born, I wouldn’t be here now. And nor would many millions of others.
So, three cheers for medical advances and, especially, Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The one thing in the past 50 years that I literally could not live without.
If anyone is reading this blogpost, it would be interesting to know what you consider to be the most important invention that has emerged in your lifetime.
June's Jottings 