If you remember the term “party line,” or if you knew anyone who grew up with a rotary phone, chances are you’ve been around to witness countless changes in technology. And this is evident in just about every sector of the technological world.

Moore’s Law states that computer processing power doubles every 18 months to 2 years on average, and that technology doesn’t advance linearly, but exponentially. For example, the number of transistors that fit into a microprocessor was around 10,000 in the early ’70s. But in 2017, this number reached over 10 billion.

There are even a few studies that indicate that Moore’s Law can’t even keep up with the current pace of technology in 2021, that his calculations are outdated. And this is more proof of how quickly we’re advancing.

But what about our entertainment, and how has it changed over the years? Here, we’ll explore a few big changes that have brought about our latest and most popular tech.

The Phonograph

In January of 1978, the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company was developed, and thus began the evolution of entertainment technology.

Edison’s invention was more of a novelty when it was first developed. And the device was considered more cumbersome than practical. But as it was later developed by Alexander Graham Bell, becoming known as the Gramophone, the device began to take the form of the conventional record player introduced in the 1940s that most know of today.

What Edison did was enable the world to record and playback sound. And this became the base model for other entertainment equipment that would come about within a few decades.

So if you have a vinyl collection sitting around, you can thank good old Edison for making your eclectic musical experience possible.

The Kinetograph

While many sources also attribute the first-ever video recording device to Thomas Edison, this is factually incorrect. In fact, the production of the first working video recording device was a collaboration of several 19th Century inventors, the most important of whom was William Kennedy Laurie Dickenson, employed by Thomas Edison.

Before you could live stream on Instagram or platforms like Facebook, the kinetograph was the most sophisticated device around in the 1880s.

The kinetograph used a rotating sprocket powered by an electrical motor that rotated a wheel containing a strip of film. And the device allowed for a frame to be exposed, which then would rotate to the next frame until the film had completed a revolution.

Despite the crude nature of the kinetograph, this formed the basis for the technology that would be enhanced over the years through intricate circuitry and more complex elements.

Wireless Technology

We’ve come a long way from the days of the phonograph and the kinetograph. But nobody would have the ability to download add-ons for Kodi or other streaming apps without the invention of wireless technology.

Believe it or not, wireless technology also got its start in the 19th Century. And this can be attributed to Guglielmo Marconi who invented the first wireless telegraph in 1896.

The wireless telegraph invented by Marconi was capable of transmitting a message over the open sea at a range of 6 kilometers. In fact, the very first message sent read simply, “Are you ready?” This was certainly a fine preamble to what was to come.

As wireless technology progressed, the first radio-telephone was created in 1946, and this was largely installed in private vehicles, and heavily utilized by the United States military. But we have to fast-forward to 1979 when the world’s first generation cellular network was created.

And from this point forward with the invention of the smartphone and home wireless routers, the face of the world and entertainment technology as we know it has been completely changed.

Our technology might be evolving at a pace that we can no longer calculate, but without all the advances in technology, much of what we know of life today would be impossible. As such, we owe much gratitude to the great minds of yesteryear for their contributions which have all propelled our society forward.