Thoughts on my TED Talk

My topic for the Paradigm Shift essay was how the smartphone, led by Apple’s original iPhone in 2007, has become the true personal computer of our era. It has transformed the role technology plays in our lives and the way consumers think of technology, bringing us into constant contact with all the resources of the Internet, regardless of where we are.

For my TED talk, I’d be interested in explaining and documenting that shift, arguing that so-called “personal computers” (PCs) are no longer viewed as personal at all. The computer has changed from a revered but not personal (as in not for the typical consumer) piece of technology in the 1940s to more of a commonplace towards the start of the new millenium, while today it is beginning to become de-emphasized an less personal again. Ten years ago, the PC was how people accessed the Internet, but now the smartphone can assume many of the same capabilities and fit in your pocket. The role of the PC is changing in our society today, subjugated by the ever-popular smartphone and tablet, and further in the future, what will become of the PC as we know it today?

A (Very) Rough Draft of my Paradigm Shift Paper

When did the computer truly become personal?

The first electronic general-purpose computer, ENIAC, was developed mainly for the US Army to assist with research calculations on ballistics. The ENIAC was a 30-ton behemoth with an 1800 square-foot footprint. An article in the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1946 announcing the war department’s unveiling of the ENIAC conveys a public attitude of awe and amazement–a machine that could perform 5,000 additions per second. Today’s computers (and smartphones) measure in the billions per second. But the point is that the ENIAC, like most early computing machines, was viewed by the public as a device used for important, top-secret calculations and scientific research. Today that attitude has shifted to super computers, while the ordinary computer, smartphone, or tablet (a “super computer” compared to the ENIAC) has taken its place in our pockets and backpacks.

What developments in technology caused this shift from the computer’s revered status to its relegation to a device for tweeting what you ate for dinner?

Has the PC’s role as the “personal computer” come to an end with the widespread adoption of “post-PC” devices such as smartphones and tablets?

What is the real personal computer of today? I would argue that it is the smartphone.

How did smartphones become mainstream? (adoption rates, etc.)

What was the public attitude surrounding the release of the first iPhone in 2007 compared to the release of the ENIAC in 1946?

How did computers transition from a novelty–something only used by experts–to something many people find essential to their everyday routines today?

My argument is that the release of the 1st generation iPhone sparked a movement to the post-PC era. It was one of the first widely-adopted smartphones to exist and one of the first to incorporate multi-touch technology. But it almost didn’t go as planned; after over two years of research and development, the iPhone still wasn’t working on the day it was scheduled to be demoed for the world. It was a make-or-break moment–if the iPhone made an unfavorable impression on the public, what would have happened?

Potential Topic for Paradigm Shift Paper

For my Paradigm Shift paper, I would like to focus on technology and its role in society. I know that might sound like a cliched and over-used topic nowadays, but I want to try to present it in a different manner. Rather than simply deriding the negative aspects or praising the positive, I want to focus on how and why society’s perception of technology has changed. How did we evolve from mid-20th century–the days of the ENIAC computer, which took up 1800 square feet and weighed a whopping 27 tons–to a society in which it is viewed as uncommon not to carry around a computer (in the form of a smartphone) at all times. And that very smartphone has a processing power orders of magnitude larger than that of the ENIAC. When did the computer really become personal? Some would put it in the 1980s or 1990s, around the the introduction of the personal computer, but I would counter that the computer only recently became personal. Apple’s iPod (2001), the rise of smartphone culture, and later the iPad prove much more “personal” than the antiquated desktop sitting on your computer desk, and I want to analyze what events lead us to where we currently are.

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