histormeme

[histormeme]

Video Games Leveling up our Lives

There have been many different technology advances all throughout time. Many that have impacted our society in the fullest extent while some that have just been undetected and still yet to be discovered. There have been many that actually shaped the society in the way we think, live and even have to become a necessity to help us get through the day. A big major form of technology that has had a huge impact on this modern society is video game consoles such as the xbox, playstation and just recently the nintendo switch.

These consoles have opened up a whole new wave of nerd culture and different world for many people and many ages and personalities. I bet you’re thinking that they aren’t a very good influence on the younger generations and believe that video games are “poisoning our kids minds and it’s where they learn all their bad behavior”...well although there may be some truth in that, that’s not always the entire case. I believe it really does vary from mind to mind, where some people get more of a positive reaction from all the consoles and games put out while others not so well get the message that you’re not really supposed to copy what you see all the time. 

History! (x)

Gaming has taken it’s technology to a whole other level with implementing virtual reality and 3D graphics nowadays but where did the revolution start? I bet you’re asking what the first console ever created was? Well it all began with the lesser known Brown Box which was created in 1967 which consisted of a literal brown box with two controllers attached invented by Ralph H. Baer. After that which followed in the creation of the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. Throughout the years after that the Magnavox actually created a type of series console within itself which I’m assuming started the trend  of Xbox, Xbox 360 and Playstations one through 4. 

Now throughout the whole Magnavox series the first popular name we all know and remember is obviously known as the Atari console series. Then by 1978-1980 is when Nintendo made a come up in the world of gaming consoles and gaming itself with the Coleco consoles. Right after that era of Nintendo then comes up the so called “golden age” of gaming which includes more Nintendo along with the addition of Sega and the creation of RPG games which is a shorthand for roleplay games pretty much. These games include classics like Pac-Man, Sonic, Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros.

Up above pictures some well known characters that we all have grown to know from Nintendo.

Struggling to one up the already successful Atari, Sega then created the Genesis in 1988 and two years later the SNES. Surprisingly the creation of these consoles had pushed the Atari off the charts and created a new generation of gaming consoles. 

It was then by the year 1994 where the gaming industry wars begun when the Playstation was released. The first addition to the ever on going console wars between Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox. When really in the end we all know PC is master race. Then later in 1996 the Nintendo 64 was released. By these two consoles releasing, it created a huge boom in the gaming community with the addition of series we all love and grew up with such as the Super Mario Bros series and Legend of Zelda just to name two out of the many.

By the time the 2000s hit there were consoles such as the Playstation 2, the Nintendo Gamecube and these are the years Xbox started to make it’s stand and mark it’s start. After all this the gaming consoles just kept the ball rolling with the modern releases of the Xbox 360 years later following the Playstations 3 and 4. Then with Nintendo pumping out the Nintendo Wii, WiiU and Switch. These additions created different forms and styles of gaming leaning more towards the Nintendo side with the creation of wii-motes and mobile gaming and implementation of virtual gaming becoming a thing. 

Games have paved the way of so many different genres and styles. These themes including horror, sci-fi, RPG, casual and intense while the different styles include virtual reality and basically created a type of game where you’re not stationary and sitting in one spot anymore. It has really created a spin and make you feel like you’re a part of the game and experience them in a whole new way you never would’ve even dreamed of. 

Video games are destroying our minds, they say...

Video games and console gaming as a whole has created quite the stir within the technological advancement timeline. Gaming has really made it’s mark on today’s society and found a place for it to thrive and hold its own ground as a whole. It can take you on a journey through many fantasy lands and places you would never dream of ever getting the chance to go to. Gaming society has many different types of people both young and old take a liking and even obsess over it. Age isn’t a stigma as much as gender has when it comes to gaming culture. By that I mean that gaming has a whole stereotype where gender has created quite a stirrup where if basically you’re a girl gamer then you’ve either become part of a meme or your gender somehow results in you being the worst gamer in the world and lack in any type of skill. It has created a sort of toxicity and negative normality side to the gaming community where if you are good then you get told you have no life or lack in any type of socializing skill and if you’re bad then you get put down and yelled at. All of these are ways to showcase how gaming and consoles affects our mental state.

[histormeme]

The Era of the Glowing Picture Box

By now you would’ve thought that televisions have lasted for as long as man has been alive and wondered how people ever got through their days without their dramatic television shows. Television specifically colored television is what we are so used to by now and can’t go without. Surprisingly, a lot of people nowadays can’t even find the attention span to watch black and white television anymore! They think of it as more of a “classic retro aesthetic” than something that used to be a norm of the generation. Without television we’d be at a lost without our millions of varieties of channels we can watch, HD and non HD, many variations of channels of food, sports, cartoons and so called “reality” shows. 

Backstory Time!

“Color television had its beginnings in the late 1940s alongside black and white television. It was not a commercially viable until the early 1950s. At that time, two competing color mechanisms were being championed separately by CBS and RCA (which at the time was affiliated with NBC). Eventually, CBS dropped their own color technology, which was incompatible with existing black and white sets. During the early 1960s color television grew at an amazing pace, especially on NBC, culminating in the color revolution of 1965.” (x)

The date was January 12, 1950 when colored television was first introduced to the public on only just eight television sets in Washington while the first colored commercial took place on June 25th, 2915, which was an-hoc network of five stations in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. RCA were the ones to create the system and broadcast on WNBT. 

By 1958, there were already over 3,000 colored TVs in the United States. As years grew the numbers kept rising as tv shows and that form of entertainment became more and more desirable and more of an unnecessary essential in homes around the world. It’s crazy because there usually isn’t even just one television per home! It’s one for each room in the house and that can be a lot of tvs depending on the size of the house. For example, in celebrity mansions there could be about 5-8 rooms including the living rooms and dens and who knows what else in there, so that’s one tv per room which makes a total of 5-8 televisions just in that house alone! 

Televisions were a new, hip thing that had entered the lives as many so before that they would surprisingly be more active and socialize more and go do things like reading, playing outside and going out to the park to play sports or go shopping. Television was just something that you do at the end of the day or use it as a thing to escape boredom when all those other things just aren’t making your day go by quicker or you’re just bored of everything else. So basically it was a last resort or option type of thing. Not like today where most people don’t know their neighbors or have trust issues with people because (with no thanks to the television genres of mystery, horror, crime and thrillers) they believe a murderer or serial killer is in their area or anywhere and everywhere at any time. 

Television in your life today! 

Back then, times were a lot more simpler. By that I mean people used to live off of watching TV with only about 3 channels to choose from. Most networking nowadays is based off of what the people (yes including you yourself!) want to watch and some channels leaning more toward a shock factor to gain their audiences. It’s crazy because with all these different types of networks, comes with a lot of competition between them. Times with television nowadays is very open and you have to approach it with a type of mentality where you can’t believe everything you watch even the channels like the history channel, discovery, and various, if not all, news channels as well! A lot of people tend to believe everything they see and hear without fact checking so it tends to obscure people’s mentality and ways of thinking so this is where debates start sparking and sizzling. 

What people always seem to forget is that television shows are made just to entertain and not inform. They could inform, but they aren’t obligated to. They are made to appease the viewers and make a profit out of it which also relates to the modern day entertainment factor which correlates to YouTube which has the same standards as televisions shows when it comes to entertainment, biases, and shock factors for entertainment requirements if I’m being quite honest. 

Television has become such a staple in our society that a lot of parents have come up with phrases such as “watching too much television will make your brain rot/melt” or “watching too much television is bad for your eyes” which I mean that second one could be true but you know, nobody wants to actually believe that. This first phrase could relate to what I was talking about earlier how television shows aren’t always legitimate in a sense that a lot of it is just for pure entertainment and a way to pull in viewers which makes revenue for the companies and brands. Our brains can’t actually melt due television, unless you know your TV explodes in some freak accident, but more so in a sense of warping our perceptions on certain aspects of life and making us believe that wrestling is real and that there’s going to be gold at the end of a rainbow every time you see one. 

[histormeme]

Tune In Next Blog For Another Great Point!

When it comes to our ever developing, fast paced society we never know what kind of new things can be invented or discovered at any given time or what can be thrown at us! The world can go from driving in complete silence to socializing with whoever kept you company during the trips to the store then next thing you know all we need is an aux cord and our premium membership of Spotify to keep us company on our ventures. Some people are known to have difficulty sitting in silence during their drives and others rely on some type of audio such as music, talk radio or podcasts blaring through their speakers to help keep them awake on late night commutes. The car stereo has become a hell of an invention that has certainly made it’s way into our hearts and cars as time progressed. It is something that certainly evolved and developed into surround sounds and booming bass sub woofers in the comfort of your own car! I know personally I hate going without having my aux cord in the car and don’t know what I would do without my Spotify account to keep me company on my drives. 

History: The first radio was introduced in 1922 by Chevrolet. It's price ranked up to $200 and had an antenna that covered the car’s entire roof, batteries that barely fit under the front seat and two gigantic speakers that attached behind the seat. You might as well have been taking the entire band that you were listening to along for the ride because of how excessive this whole set up was.

Monophonic AM radio has been the norm for a long time, beginning with the first in-car audio system. In 1930, Paul and Joseph Galvin and William Lear developed the first automobile dashboard radio and named it the "Motorola," otherwise known as motorized Victrola and in a Studebaker. A little along down the line, push button preset stations were created so the drivers weren’t taking their eyes off the road trying to shift between different stations before playlists ever became a thing. I couldn’t even imagine how unsafe this was and how crazy drivers went or what kind of cars we’d see cruising down in their ridiculous excessive set ups! 

During that time, this article starts to go on about comparing texting and driving to back then which was station searching and driving, the common ground being the ‘being distracted while driving’. 

Did you know in 1930 a law was proposed in Massachusetts and St. Louis that banned the radio while driving because it was argued that it distracted drivers and the tunes would make them fall asleep?!

It’s kind of ironic when you compare that to modern times, don’t you think? Now we use the radio to help keep us alert and aware while driving because driving in silence can be so tedious and just flat out tiring especially during late night commutes. It would be crazy to see people getting tickets or pulled over just because they’re bumping their tunes in their car. Obviously people would still do it but it’s a really silly reason and one of the most ridiculous if you think about it. Although, I do wonder how people who have the really loud bass heavy songs playing how they hear the different emergency vehicles sometimes...Anyways, it’s amazing to think just how simple yet advanced the type of sound systems we have in our time compared to the dials and knobs from the first ever car radio. 

Our mental state today as a society because of this certain invention & the wrap up: The car radio has a really vast and wide affect on our minds as people. It broadcasts sounds and songs that can take a toll on our emotions and affect our body as well. For example, if a very fast paced song would play, it could cause us to drive faster and start speeding because it would get our adrenaline pumping. A certain news announcement such as traffic on a certain freeway or a distressing political related headline could be reported and would cause us to feel anger and rage which would lead us to start speeding and becoming a very angry driver which of course would cause us to coin the term “road rage”!

As we all know our mental state as a society today would be very different if we never even had the blessing of what we call the radio today. Other than being a reliable source of entertainment and music, another reason why the radio is a great and beautiful invention is because it can be some of our daily news source and outlet such as finding out traffic updates and current affairs. Although a lot of it can talk about pointless things about celebrities and what’s going on in their lives, there’s those very few times and moments where it can talk about the current state of the world and events that happened nearby depending on what station we are tuning in to. Some of us may hate the radio only because we’re tired of hearing the same songs played throughout the day every hour on the hour but all in all we wouldn’t be the people we are today without them! 

[histormeme]

Ring Ring Pick Up the Phone!

Technology is an always changing thing that has taken it’s place in our world and embedded itself into our society as a thing some of us consider a necessity of our daily lives. It’s ever growing and there is always a new type being made whether it be the next edition of phone or computer. It’s a thing that has kept us as a society ever growing and shaping even our own personalities and how we think. Now I know what you’re thinking...

”I’m not THAT obsessed with my [enter most used piece of technology here]! You’re just being stupid now. It’s just something I totally use everyday and would freak out if I ever lost it or even if it died! :)” 

But you know, we’re not obsessed and it doesn’t affect us whatsoever. It’s almost impossible to believe that there was a time in the world where we as mankind went without technology such as smart phones, computers, video game consoles and all of these different things that we tend to struggle without nowadays. Even something that’s as common as Internet! The World Wide Web where without it we’d be oblivious to anything and everything going on in other parts of the world and in a more simplified example the freaking weather outside. Isn’t that insane?! We rely on our smart phones for everything and anything from calling to navigating and even for pure entertainment. 

Fun Fact: The telephone was created in 1876 and around the same time so was a talking telegraph! It lead to controversy, court cases and many articles and books about it according to this article! 

(According to the article in 1871, Meucci had an announcement for this cool new invention of the talking telegraph.)

The first telephone call was made in March 10, 1876, between Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas Watson. Therefore the first words spoke were, “Mr. Watson come here, I want to see you.” (x) Being in that situation, I don’t know how I would even find the words to respond! 

About Me Creator Edition! Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born American scientist who worked at a school for the deaf while attempting to invent a machine that would transmit sound by electricity. Bell was granted the first official patent for his telephone in March 1876, though he would later face years of legal challenges to his claim that he was its sole inventor, resulting in one of history’s longest patent battles. Bell continued his scientific work for the rest of his life, and used his success and wealth to establish various research centers nationwide. 

Two years later he established a school for the deaf in Boston, Massachusetts, and the following year became a professor in speech and vocal physiology at Boston University. While teaching he experimented with a means of transmitting several telegraph messages simultaneously over a single wire and also with various devices to help the deaf learn to speak, including a means of graphically recording sound waves.

In 1874, the essential idea of the telephone formed in his mind. As he later explained it, 

“If I could make a current of electricity vary in intensity precisely as the air varies in density during the production of sound, I should be able to transmit speech telegraphically.” 

Two years later he applied for a patent, which was granted on March 7, 1876. 

What Is Going On In This Thing?!

Displayed above is how a telephone line works and how all of it comes together so that we can hear what we hear through a phone! 

The telephone has two parts which is the receiver and transmitter. When a person is speaking  it creates sound waves and carries them throughout the phone to the receiving end. Low voltage currents travel through the carbon grains as shown up above and travel through to the other end. 

Telephones Throughout the Time

Through the years, displayed up above in the simple timeline, the telephone has made it’s way from becoming a no-screen to a full touch-screen type of device. How would you think if the timeline was reversed and what our mentality would be if we still had old phones just like the first one displayed in the top left hand corner? It’s an interesting thought because as I was stating in the beginning of the blog entry that we may not think or admit it but our phones are something that consume a good amount of our life in today’s society. We use them to help us get through our daily routines and wake up in the morning and rely on them so much that use for things like alarm clocks, timers and even a scanner isn’t necessary anymore. It becomes another expense that we’re not interested in buying. Even with books, movies and music! E-books and music subscriptions have been very popular to the point where book stores and music stores that carry CDs & DVDs are being impacted greatly. That also goes with the whole torrent-ing business on the internet but that is going away from the point. 

If we had the very first phones in this generation with the mentally a lot of us have today. I don’t think we would not be able to thrive because of how it affects us even when we don’t have it for a couple hours. Sure there are some other ways for us to go about our day but it would still be very difficult and cause issues.

It’s important just how far technology has come today especially looking back at our different generations of the telephone and where we are with smart phones now. It’s crazy just from where we started with a basic phone with no mobility whatsoever can become something completely mobile and have so many other options other than calling could become such a necessity to our lives. Nowadays a lot of homes don’t even have a home telephone, the ones where we plug into the walls, we use our cell phones for everything now so it’s become a staple in our society.

[histormeme]

Hi my name is Angelica! 

I am an avid show go-er, memer and vocalist

:^)