Becoming Who You Want To Be

Do you remember renting VCR’s and a couple of Movies from the video store? It didn’t take long before VCR’s were a permanent fixture in every house in America. Do you remember the Friday nights at the movie rental place? Then, instead of renting the movies, everyone just started to buy the movies so that they could watch them over and over.

Once everyone started to buy the movies instead of renting them, it started to look like mini movie rental places in every home. By the time that you thought that your collection of movies was getting complete, along came the newest and greatest in home movies, the DVD. VHS tapes became a thing of the past. Everyone was now buying DVD’s and DVD players. Trying to find a new VCR is a near impossible achievement today. Now, DVD’s are no longer on the cutting edge. The newest thing in home movies is this thing called a Blu-ray disks. They may very well begin replacing all of the DVD’s on the shelf.

The question is will desktop computers become obsolete? Will there a come a day when are laptops and phones will be all that we need? Our society likes to have access to all of their files, no matter where they are at. The desktop computer is just that, a desktop computer. It does not travel with us and so the files on that computer are not accessible when we leave our desk.

This question about desktop computers becoming obsolete is an interesting one because more and more our society is becoming obsessed with staying connected to the internet 24/7 365. There are constantly new ways being developed to accommodate that obsession. This does not necessarily guarantee that the desktop will become a thing of the ancient past, but let me pose this question: Do you remember 3×5 floppy disks? Do you have any now that you cannot access because no computer you have access to has a floppy disk reader in it?

So let’s play devil’s advocate here and ask the question, what are the reasons that desktop computers will stick around? Why can we not do everything and more with the laptop that we do with a desktop? One thing that could be taken as a hint that desktops are going to stick around is the continuing manufacturing and improving of desktop computers. If manufactures saw a trend significant enough against desktops, then they would not continue to improve them and manufacture them.

Another, less scientific reason, why desktop computers may not be leaving anytime soon is the instinctive desire we have to have a “home base”. We are creatures of habit and do not always let go of thinks easily. Even if we are going to use a desktop for just a couple of minutes a day, we tend to stick to what we know. Also, there are enough people that just despise using a laptop for the bulk of their work and prefer to only use a laptop when it is necessary.

All of that said, we are still a society that is evolving into a 24/7 connected society. We like knowing what is happening as it happens rather than hearing about it on the evening news (and our friends happenings are not on the news). We like the freedom to work from wherever we please, be it at home, the park, or in the office. Employers also like connection and are finding that if they use laptops they can stay better connected to their employees, even when they are at home or on vacation because they will be more likely to be connected to the 24/7 information super highway.

Certainly desktop computers will always be a part of the main hubs of networks, but as a single user interface only, only time will tell if they stick around or if they eventually fade off into the sunset, like the VCR’s of old.