Essay/Term paper: 1900 vs 2000

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Political Science

Word Count: 640

1900 Versus 2000

I think that we take for granted the things that we have today. Just look at all

of the innovations in technology and quality of living over the last 100 years. Back in

the year 1900, things went crazy. All sorts of new inventions were coming out all of

the time, and people were becoming rich beyond their wildest dreams. In my opinion,

the past 100 years have left us in a completely different world.

Back in the early 1900"s people were amazed to see a person driving down the

road in something called an "automobile." This was astonishing. People were getting

around without a horse to pull them. All the person had to do is press the gas pedal to

make the car move. Another amazing invention was the motion picture. People who

had never seen anything better than a photograph of something were now seeing a

fully animated movie. Of course, a movie is nothing more than a series of pictures,

but to them, it brought them right into whatever they were watching, as if they were

actually there.

One thing that made the huge world a whole lot smaller was the invention of

the telephone. Before it, people had to wait for weeks for the mail to transfer letters

back and fourth between them and their friends or relatives, but now they could just

pick up the phone and dial the number of the person that they wanted to talk to. The

telephone has become a major part of each of our lives.

All of these great inventions did take their toll on society though. People who

once felt very important now felt small and undereducated. They had no idea how all

of these complicated things worked and that scared them. many of them wished that

none of these things had ever been invented.

Today, technology is advancing at an incredible rate. You can"t even buy a

computer that isn"t already obsolete. People can now communicate with a video

phone, or fly to another country in a matter of hours. You can run a multi million

dollar business from your computer at home. People can go on the Internet and find

out information on everything from the weather to a recipe for chicken soup.

Unlike 1900, if you don"t get a good education in today"s world, you will not

be successful. Even people who go to college aren"t guaranteed to make a lot of

money. Today, a car can cost tens of thousands of dollars, where as back in 1900 you

could get one for under a thousand. Back then people were worried about the

destruction of the forests, and today, we worry about what countries might destroy us

with nuclear weapons.

It seems to me that people at the early part of the last century were a lot

happier than people of today. They were surrounded by all of the excitement of the

rapidly changing world. People were always going to parties and having fun. Today,

I hear a lot of talk about how bad people are. There is always something on the news

about how a little elementary student has just killed his classmate, or some teenagers

have massacred their school like in the columbine incident. I hear people say that my

generation will be the downfall of this country. Just look at the name generation-x.

To me that means that people see my generation as something that is just there with

no purpose. I"ll admit that there are a lot of slackers today, but there were just as

many in the past.

On the other hand, the economy of today is booming. People are making more

money than they can spend. There is definitely something to be said for that. I think

that the next ten to twenty years could be vary amazing in the things that they have to

offer.