Embrace Technology, Don’t Fear It

Far too often I hear people push new technology aside and say “ehh I never understand that stuff” or “I’m just not a techy person.”  Ok, so maybe it’s not for everyone.  But it’s essential that we allow new technology unfold with little restrictions.  Sure, restrictions on weapons that kill millions of people at the flip of a switch may need some control, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

In this podcast I discuss how imperative it is that we let technology such as the internet and radio run freely.  Although I didn’t know the dates when I recorded this, radio was invented in the early 1900s while the first commercial broadcasts occurred in the United States in the 1920s.*

So the US has had radio broadcasts for 90 years.  And yet HD radio wasn’t introduced until 2002.  Was it created yet held “underground” (like Gorilla Glass) for years before being released?  Perhaps.

But the fact is, if the US government didn’t restrict who could broadcast on radio streams, everyone and their mom would have eventually started broadcasting their own mini stations and a very long time ago (probably the 1950s or 1960s) people would have been fed up with the excessive supply of radio and would demand something better to take it’s place (e.g. internet or HD radio).  Keep in mind this is assuming that the technology that did evolve is what would have evolved had this parallel universe come true.  There is no telling what may have been invented in the 1950s or 1960s when it became evident that the current system couldn’t sustain it all.  And yet, because the government restricted who could broadcast on certain stations, only the richest of the rich could afford to spend billions on radio stations.  And billions is what they made on it.  And yet your average American had to put up with outdated technology for decades before HD radio and then internet radio began springing up.

Now with internet radio, we have options like never before.  You can listen to what you want, when you want on countless numbers of devices.  You’re not limited to the radio in your car or what plays on a radio receiver in your house.  You can get internet radio in your car.  In your house.  On your cell phone.  Don’t like the song playing right now?  Change it.  Don’t like ads?  You can pay for satellite radio and remove them.  Internet radio has limited commercials.

These are options you don’t have with traditional radio.  And these are things that radio simply cannot compete with.  They’re based on the idea of broadcasting what they want (as long as it’s interesting enough that people will actually tune in) and having commercial breaks.  Only a matter of time before traditional radio falls to the wayside.

Not to mention what the internet and cell phones have done to newspapers and magazines.  Their time is limited too.  That is, as long as the government doesn’t bail them out…again…

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio?utm_source=wordtwit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wordtwit