It was pretty interesting to see which technological inventions were listed on both lists - "21 Things That Became Obsolete in This Decade" and "Gadgets that Changed Everything". The Palm Pilot, or PDA, was the only one on both lists. Granted, the "Obsolete" list included many things that are not considered "gadgets" - such as envelopes and phone books - but still, the PDA was a short-lived but important phenomena.
It seems to me that these technological inventions, these "gadgets", change quickly, but the underlying purpose stays the same. For instance, maps. I have no sense of direction, and, as my mother says, "Couldn't find her way to her own bathroom." (This has literally happened, depending on the hotel.) Anyway, my mother informed me early on that since I got turned around finding the bathroom, I'd better learn to cope by learning to read a map. Then she proceeded to teach me to read one. (I have a really great mom. :)
For the first few years of my driving experience, I had maps of all kinds of places, neatly tucked away in the driver's door or the glove box, so that I could refer to them as needed. It was not unusual for me to refer to a map three or four times just to get to the local grocery store. It was that bad.
After I got married, my husband became my human GPS, and since he likes to drive anyway, a lot of the pressure was taken off of me. Yay husband! :) Once he got on the iPhone bandwagon, there was no stopping us; I learned to navigate off of the tiny little screen, and he learned to listen to my directions. :)
Fast forward to India. There are no reliable road maps, and no GPS service. Even google earth isn't that reliable. Your driver is your map. Get a good driver, one who is experienced, has two eyes that both see correctly, fast reflexes, and most importantly will ask for directions, and you made it to where you wanted to go about 85% of the time. The drivers had their own network of texting and phoning each other for directions to the weird, out-of-the-way places that expatriates wanted to go (like the man with the freezer of meat), and so you needed a driver that was tied into that network.
Get a bad driver - one substitute driver in particular comes to mind - and you got a four-hour ride, literally going in circles around the 1/2 mile area, two car sick kids, one cranky baby, and a mama close to heat stroke and homicide. That was the only time that I have EVER called anyone to come and get me, and thank goodness, my regular driver was only minutes away. HE found the place in 10 minutes.
So. Relying on the human network and luck. But, once again, the responsibility was not on me. Whew.
When we moved back to the U.S., my husband introduced me to the GPS. This is now as important to me as the tires on the car. No tires = no go; no GPS = no go. The GPS is my friend. It is my helper. It is the only way I can find my way to the grocery store. If it's not in the GPS, I panic.
It's just a map, albeit one that talks. It's faster than using a paper map - because I don't have to stop and look at the paper all the time - but it is just a map.
So, I think that it's a bit inaccurate to say that these gadgets "changed everything". They changed the way we view data, but the underlying goal is still the same, and there are still plenty of places where you can't get a signal or the GPS doesn't have any coordinates to work off of.
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