#ThrowbackThursdays: PCs (and Internet) Went from Luxury to NECESSITY

It's #ThrowbackThursdays, and I thought about making another post. I remember the time in the 1990s when the PCs and the Internet were luxuries. Yes, several of them tend to drive the costs up, given the price of PCs and the Internet. They also had this inconvenience factor: using the Internet means I couldn't make a call, unlike today, with the use of the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). Today, I can type this entry and make a phone call at the same time. The PCs were also inconvenient because, as far as I can remember, there was a tendency for hang-ups and brownouts in the 1990s Philippines, which were annoying inconveniences. 

Technological development will always have its earlier stages. The product life cycle is often Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline. That would explain why Windows had to continuously evolve. The technology would've been so new, meaning that even the production process may have been harder. A PC would've been more expensive because of the principle of economies of scale. If PC assembly lines were much slower, getting a PC was going to be much harder than getting the video game console that everyone in the classroom owns! It may have been easier to get a Nintendo, Sega, or Sony system faster than getting a PC. That makes the PC the ultimate flex unless that snobby kid had both.

I thought about the PC being something I wanted. Honestly, the typewriter was a real nightmare for anyone who wanted to make longer documents. It may be why schools were stuck with typing lessons using the typewriter. The teacher may have wanted to use PCs, as typewriters aren't exactly efficient and effective. Typewriters may still be useful for filling out blank forms as well as filling out checks. However, a PC still proves the winner when it comes to processing documents. For me, I seriously hated the typewriter due to how it slowed down my work.

I remember some old programs like Lotus (before Microsoft Excel) and WordPerfect (before Microsoft Word). I remember some now-obsolete programs like Flying Colors and EA Kids. Those made a child in the 1990s look cool. However, these programs ended up going away over time. One may remember how MS-DOS eventually got phased out by Microsoft. 

What became a problem, even in the 1990s, were the stubborn boomers who just refused to make adjustments

A PC was a "luxury," and so was the Internet. For some boomers, the word Internet may have been associated with the time they had to quarrel with the child (or spouse) over phone usage. Dial-up Internet was extremely annoying. They might even think that DSL would just be "faster Internet," but they couldn't use the phone. They might think a new PC to replace the old one was just an additional cost, without thinking of basic economic factors like economies of scale. 

It's easy for them to talk about the good old days or how they were achieving more than their children when they were at their children's age. For example, it was easier to get married in the 1980s in your 20s than it is in later times. They might talk too much about stuff like, "When I was your age, we had frequent brownouts, we didn't have a PC, we just used a typewriter, and we got better grades!" Such a statement ignores these fundamental truths, of which I can name a few:

1. Such a mindset is the "friction equals virtue" fallacy. This is where one believes that if the task is more difficult or slow, 
2. Whether we want to admit it or not, frequent brownouts can become more and more of a nuisance in a fast-moving world. Writing one's essay for several hours while using as little paper as possible is better than writing one's essay for several hours and wasting an entire ream of paper.
3. The written work they did back in their day wasn't as in-depth. Also, a typewriter becomes more wasteful when one actually starts using analysis to do even a simple research paper. A typewriter severely limits the quality of the written work in both quality and efficiency.
4. School systems have to evolve, whether the stubborn boomer wants to admit it or not. After all, when boomers grew up (and they were born from 1946 up to 1964), there was often less information available. That meant their information was far more finite, centralized, and a curated commodity. In short, they had it easier academically. They could just write a short essay on the typewriter.

This becomes the classic battle when the boomers (but not all) keep going with the friction fallacy. They tend to think that if they had their milestones, like having a child in their 20s, their children must also do so. What they're ignoring is that the world changes over time. 

A shift in PCs (and Internet) from luxury to necessity, whether boomers want to accept it or not

Sure, the demand for PCs drove prices up. However, as PCs became more in-demand, the quest to improve performance (due to complaints like hang-ups) encouraged more innovation. As time went by, looking for methods to improve both production speed and accuracy kept happening. Windows evolved, and we had Microsoft Windows going forward. I remember having to type WIN on MS-DOS to get to Windows. Over time, the startup simply sent you to the welcome screen or the password screen (if you set up a password). The manufacturing of components and the supply chain benefited from the economies of scale. Production costs started to decrease (eventually) due ot the laws of supply and demand. The demand for PCs drove the prices up. At the same time, to meet demand, competitors naturally wanted to offer the best PCs in the shortest reasonable time possible.

I thought about how the Internet had become more of a necessity these days. That's why technology like DSL and fiber optics were created. The ability to be able to use your phone and the Internet at once became more and more practical. It made me think that it was a rare sight to see a boomer appreciate the new technology and how they work. The Internet has become more useful for businesses, even if it's a supplementary process. Sure, I still need to do library research, but the Internet in the library has made it easier to reserve a book than it was for people to fight over a book. It also became easier for libraries to purchase more books to avoid a shortage of books for students to read and borrow. 

In fact, this is also why certain types of PCs and Internet packages are made. The PC can be for gaming or non-gaming. People who only want PCs for their office work would get a non-gaming PC. One may also opt for a laptop because it's portable. The PC evolved over time, and I remember changing PCs. I remember having a PC from the 1990s to the early 2000s with Windows 95 (didn't pass through 98), to the use of a Windows XP PC from 2004 to 2014, a Windows 8 PC from 2014 to 2024, and now I'm using a Windows 11 PC.

It's true PCs can be misused and abused. However, PCs can also be used in forensics to edit and analyze data. Sure, a criminologist may have to analyze things with the human mind. A criminologist can use the PC to input their reports with word processing software. The Internet can be used by any criminologist to receive emails and the like to get information faster after a day of fieldwork. This allows criminologists to do work faster. This may also allow criminologists to sort things out faster and better, such as creating a database of offenders. This means making better paperwork.

Businesses today end up having to get PCs and the Internet to cope with the modern world. I even thought about going to some stores at Carbon. I ended up seeing some older businesses use a laptop or desktop. Some preferred laptops because they took up less space and had a printer as inventory lists got longer. Others may not be using PCs at the store, but they are using PCs to print the inventory lists at home. Some may not use a PC in the store, but they have allowed themselves to be listed on Google for easier reference. Either way, we couldn't ignore that PCs are now a necessity.