Over the Weekend Assignment- Sofia Corelli

After searching the web databases for the earliest uses of the word “computer”, the results were pretty shocking. I think for our generation it’s weird to think about computers being a pretty recent device, because for us, they have always been around and they are a part of our everyday life. Some of the earliest articles I found containing information about computers were in the 1960s. These early articles were talking about computers in way different terms than we talk about them today. Most of the articles were talking about how the introduction of computers was affecting certain parts of their lives. For example, one article said that computers started to be used to keep track of runner’s race times. For us today, that seems silly because we have much more advanced means of doing that now. Another article stated, “The Computer is too slick, too flashy, too sophisticated.” For the people back then, the computer was such a new device that only the richest people had them. They were the flashiest and most complex things out there. For us today, the computer is something that everyone has. You can find them at any library, any household, etc. There are so many flashier, newer, and more fascinating devices coming out these days that the computer has become common place. We can even fit a whole computer's worth of information on our iPhones these days. So, all in all, the computer went from being an innovative device that began to make things easier to do, to an object that we use probably once an hour. If someone had a computer back then, it was shocking, whereas now, if someone doesn't have a computer, it's shocking. What was new and exciting back then has become a background object in this world of constant technological advances.