This column is to take a look at how some of the more popular technologies have and are changing the

way we interact with the world. The telephone, for example, has allowed families to remain in touch while moving further and farther away from each other, social media has allowed for more contact between more people globally, and we now have the ability to easily document, save, and share almost every step of our lives digitally with friends, family, and strangers. It may be surprising to some that YouTube has only been around since 200 or that the i!hone has only been around since 200". These technologies have become so much a part of our lives it is hard to imagine ourselves without them. I think a good way to define technology is the solutions that we find to the inconveniences in the world. Trying to crack a coconut by hand is very inconvenient and painful, but grab a stick or a rock and use it is as a hammer# now we have technology and an engineer. $o it doesn%t have to be complex or even efficient to be a technology. Technology comes from the &reek word tekhnologia, tekhno#'method or system( and logia# 'science.( $o in its simplest sense technology is the science of methods. )rom the earlier example of the coconut, technology is not limited to *ust the computer or industrial age. +very human that ever has existed has existed with technology and every human that has ever existed with technology has been shaped by that technology. $o here we are in 20,- with faster and more access to technology and information than any other time in history. .ow does it shape our daily lives/ 0o we really consider what we give up for what we gain with each new technology/ 1re we really accepting the best technologies to better our world/ 1fter all we, the everyday public, are the ones that give traction to any new technologies that are introduced. +ach week will be a look at these different technologies and how they affect our world and lives.