INNOVATIONS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY - Essay Example

INNOVATIONS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Since the last 50 years in our time, the three significant innovations that have the most impact in our social patterns and the way we live today are the GPS or the Global Positioning System invention, the Internet, and the Mobile or Cellular phones. The GPS is a satellite navigational system that was invented and is being maintained by the United States military. Although it was originally designed for military operations purposes, its functions and benefits are now being hugely enjoyed by civilians across the world.

Today, anyone can use the GPS as long as he or she has a GPS receiver. The navigational system that is stationed in space transmits signals and information to a GPS receiver on earth, thereby allowing anyone to know certain exact locations of anybody or anything at incredible speed. It is a breakthrough, indeed! To make it plain and simple the benefits of the GPS and how it has impact our world today, it will help to note that telecommunications companies use the GPS in transmitting signals for telecommunications purposes, especially communications using mobile or cellular phones.

When you are driving your car and get lost in the middle of nowhere, a GPS tracking device could easily help you find the right the direction and even give you a graphic layout of your vicinity paths. Even before you start driving your car, most automobile companies have already added a GPS feature in their cars for security reasons. In case it will be stolen, it will be easy to track its location through a GPS tracking system, thereby ultimately apprehending the criminals. That’s how incredible this innovation of the twentieth century could be!

Both in social and legal aspects of our life today, the GPS is extremely useful and has simply found its place in our society that we just cannot live without it. The Internet is another innovation in our recent time that had greatly revolutionized the traditionality of almost all aspects of our social life. Who would have thought that online shopping could be possible? Who would have ever thought that researching from the traditional use of cumbersome books could now be made so easy at our fingertips by browsing through the internet?

And who would have ever imagined that keeping in touch with loved ones could be made so dramatically innovative with the creation of social networking sites in the internet like the facebook and the twitter? No one back then until just today that we are already relishing the sweet flavors of the internet’s myriad of benefits. Finally, during the last half of the twentieth century another innovation that has a significant impact in our social patterns today is the mobile or cellular phones. In my community, almost everybody has a mobile phone.

It has changed the way we live by improving our communication with loved ones. When you are far from home, you no longer have to wait for a week or two before you receive your letter or telegram. It has transformed communication means so drastically. With the use of cellular phones, distance is no longer an issue between lovers separated by seas miles away. And I myself cannot imagine being lost in the middle of a jungle, or having met an accident in the city streets without a cellular phone on my pocket.

Of course, in every pros there are always cons. The excessive use of mobile phones has degraded our intimacy and delimited our face-to-face conversations with family members and friends. Even among the youth, cellular phones have already become a fashion statement rather than a necessity. By being ahead in getting the latest model of a certain phone in the market, they feel their prestige is being enhanced as they impress others, which definitely is a wrong value to foster. The GPS or the Global Positioning System, the Internet, and the Mobile or Cellular phone are just three of the recent innovations that had the most impact in my community and even yours.

There are still many others. They have simply changed the world and its social patterns so enormously. For the years to come, many innovations are still waiting to be realized because there is always room for improvements. It is a good thing to improve and innovate, but innovations should always be for the better. Works Cited Dana, Peter H. “Global Positioning System Overview.” The Geographer’s Craft Project. Department of Geography, University of Colorado. Sept. 1994 revised May 2000. Web.

23 May 2011. Admin. “10 Benefits of Cellphones.” Tech Acid, Latest Technology Blog. n.d. Web. 23 May 2011. “Global Positioning Sysytem.” Wikipedia. Google.com. Web. 23 May 2011. “History of the Internet.” Wikipedia. Google.com. Web. 23 May 2011