A Tech Jones
Chapter 5: Digital Immersion
TODAY'S RAMBLINGS
4 Minute Read
Happy Friday. This is the fifth chapter of A Tech Jones.
Introduction and Chapter 1: Not a Zero or a One in Sight
Chapter 4: Reach Out and Touch Someone
Digital Immersion
While I participated in - and benefited nicely from - this era, the dystopic world captured above by today’s AI says much. What seemed so nice and empowering and fun and productive turned out to have a dark side.
Many dark sides.
Because the sheer scale of everything enabled by the technologies of this era may prove to destroy us. On a macro level . . .
or on a (terribly sad) micro one . . . this is from cdc.gov:
But the gloomy stuff doesn’t happen quite yet, so let’s start with some fun at home.
HDTV | Flatscreen TVs | Surround Sound | WiFi
I wrote a previous series about my escapades with the technology that changed our homes forever - it’s here if you want to go deep.
If not, suffice it to say I lived in this world, up close, from late 2001 through 2017. I include all of these technologies in one section because they’re all part of the same thing.
Early on, technology in the home moved extremely quickly.
We went from old-school standard definition tube TVs to what were loosely called Big Screen TVs, in what felt like a matter of months. These were ginormous rear projection models and were the first affordable high definition televisions - HDTVs - with bigger-than-ever-before screen sizes.
At the time, it seemed like nearly everyone was finishing their basements and putting one of these in.
Sure, there were 34” tube HDTVs already, but they were tiny in comparison.
And I could write an entire book on the concept and history of high definition itself, and the tech involved in delivering it. You’re welcome, because I won’t, but here’s a photo so the kids can see the change we experienced. It was like everyone had cataract surgery. This all took place in the early 2000s.
The next stop - of course - were flatscreens. Everybody got a flatscreen - believe me - and some wanted them to do tricks. I was only too happy to oblige.
At the same time big, thin, and crystal-clear TVs hit our lives, so did the concepts of Home Theater and Surround Sound. Indeed, they went together perfectly. Nearly every family room I worked on during this period got some combo of a big TV and good or better sound.
Even those in pool houses; this one (in posh Atherton) had 7 speakers in the ceiling, including two subwoofers. I did this project in 2007.
For the record, the TV in the video above was also in a pool house (in equally posh Belvedere).
OMFG, and WiFi! I go back to the beginning in the early 2000s, and if you know, you know. I don’t know many of these I put in - before I moved on to more grown-up gear.
The downside? The combo of HDTV, surround sound, and WiFi with what follows was pretty much the end of family conversation at home for many.
I’m kidding, but not really?
iPhone | GPS | Mobile Broadband Internet | Bluetooth
Like the home, this is all kind of intertwined, right? Yes.
And was fun and benevolent, too, right?
No.
We know the big Kahuna. I remember it like it was yesterday. Anyone who knew anything about anything knew Steve Jobs’ iPhone would be an absolute game-changer.
It was.
OMFG this was it. The iPhone, and the Android phones that soon followed - more than any technology apart from the Internet itself - transformed the lives of more people in more places than any technology before or since. Indeed, the impact of these magical and micro supercomputers is difficult to overstate.
But the bad stuff is right there, too. See the texting app? The notification bubbles? The camera (for selfies and worse)? These had all existed, but just not together in this way. And the concept of an app itself was soon to be used for less helpful things than maps.
But we’ll get to that soon.
Because in 2008, the next generation of the iPhone came out, and its mapping app resulted in the first widespread public use of the Global Positioning System - GPS.
Goodbye paper maps and generally looking like a dork on vacation in Europe, hello one of the few justifications for using your phone in public.
The less helpful app? Facebook happened to make its own debut on the iPhone in July of 2008.
Facebook’s explosion in popularity is married to another development at this time, mobile broadband Internet. Now, you didn’t have to be at home or the office to have a quality connection to the Web. It was a breakthrough in an era of many.
And the last barrier to an all-digital, all-the-time world had been removed.
But let’s end this section on a positive. Because I will never forget the feeling of first being untethered by wires when listening to music on headphones.
Shocker, but I was an early adopter of both Bluetooth headphones and speakers. Indeed, if you look closely, you’ll see I’m wearing my first pair, Sennheiser’s wonderful MM-400s, also pictured. This was 2010.
Amazon | Google | Facebook
I almost entitled this section eCommerce | Search | Social Media. But why kid ourselves? While it’s now Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta, these 3 companies, founded respectively in 1994, 1998, and 2004, and by whatever names, came to dominate our lives. Whether we realized it or not. Or wanted it or not.
And our happiness/angst with this completely new world mostly benefited the 4 men above, and a very small group associated with them. The wealth accumulated was and is breathtaking; whereas being a millionaire used to be a big deal, this is when being a billionaire became a thing and not uncommon.
But it didn’t turn out so great for everyone.
Amazon has helped destroy Main Street in many places, and Google has largely wrecked newspapers and much else. Many say that’s the price of the future, and I would largely agree.
But it is what the mendacious misanthrope Mark Zuckerberg foisted upon us and continues to - with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp - that has most poisoned us.
And I haven’t even mentioned Twitter/X.
But what that became highlights the dangers that began in this era.
Next: The Jetsons and The Jonesers
FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES
André Aurich, apparently seeking safety and luxury beyond what his swank Tiburon enclave already offers, absconded with his wife Rikki to an undisclosed location in Mexico. He liked Wednesday’s Reflections post and even told a great joke.
Your cousin/matriarch is a very smart woman.
Our way of avoiding the sh*t-show - we flew to Mexico on Saturday for a few days of R&R. Easy to forget about our new president while sipping a margarita poolside.
Also, your KLUF album today reminded me of a sign I saw.
If there is a highway to Hell, but only a stairway to Heaven, what does that say about the expected numbers at each location?
Great joke.
And damn straight about Lally, although I am biased: She liked me even when she was a teenager. At least judging by her gaze in 1964.
Sure, I included that because I can.
But it also illustrates the difference between The Baby Boom (Lally, on the far left) and Jones (yours truly, in my father’s arms) Generations. Like 15 or so years.
Thank you for reading this newsletter.
KLUF
It must be this. Killer, too, if scary, although I suppose that’s about right for the era - this was released in 2010.
And OMFG the movie itself is Diamond Certified.