Beeps, boops, buzzes, and pings have become a normality in today’s society, and some find it a distraction. Others see it as an improvement. The immersion of the day’s current gadgets seems to be a common aspect within the progression of technology.

The first thing classified as technology was actually produced 2.5 million years ago: stone tools. The earliest was found at Gona in the Awash Valley in Ethiopia (Africa). Stone tools began to sweep the surrounding area, becoming a norm in their culture. Having tools meant having new things, and so began the history of distractions or improvements.

Although a jump, in time and in technology, one of the bigger things was electricity. A gradual occurrence from William Gilbert to the shocking revelations of Edison and Tesla. Electricity has provided us with so much that it’s hard to think about. We have lightbulbs, phonographs, radios, televisions, computers, telephones, electric cars that claim to be more energy efficient and cleaner than standard cars, solar power, wind turbines. From then on, technology prospered, and so did the people. Products became more available to us, mass production hit the market, and the economy skyrocketed. People were done with slow way of talking, but that’s not the only thing that sped up: so did our lives.

Now, we have cell phones and drones, things that we can switch on and leave to attend to itself. We even have cars that will correct our driving and park for us. The change has influenced our lives to an incredible degree, and now we are surrounded by technology. Everywhere a person can look, it’s there. A stop light, metro-rail, subway, alarm clocks. All of these things would not be possible without the first change in inventions, the first introduction.

Technology has progressed to such an extent that people are becoming worried about the possibilities mentioned in classic science-fiction novels. There is talk of nanobots that can control minds. Now, that claim may not be 100% true, but it’s certainly moving in that direction. The possibility is becoming high for any of these previously thought to be outlandish ideas. Whether it’s a distraction or an improvement, technology is progressing and it’s going quickly.