One Computer, Two Computer, Three Computer, Four...Household?

So, remember the days when it was a big deal if a family owned a television and had two cars in their two-car garage? That was a real sign of affluence and was to be envied by those who did not have it; a sign you had acquired that sought after group moniker of "Middle Class America".

The Wikipedias of the world label this phenomenon by achievement factors of tertiary education and discretionary income (1/3 available for non-necessity spending). I agree with all that but I think it's more interesting to remember how the "ownership of stuff" has progressively impressed the next-door Joneses over the years, and more importantly what stuff.

I would say that was the standard from probably the '60's through the '70's. Of course at one point it had to be a color television, just a plain black & white television would no longer do but the two cars, or a car & a truck, remained a status goal. The 60's is also when we began to transition from phonograph albums to the 8-track tape. This then became the standard although in retrospect, it didn't last very long before it was replaced. The '70's then introduced the cassette tape version of audio.

So, I'm trying to remember how the whole "middle class" thought process evolved. I'm thinking in the '80's the expectation was that you had more than one color television, owned two cars (preferably foreign - I think Toyota was coming into its own - unless you lived in the Midwest), owned a house and a nice stereo with the introduction of a compact disc deck. (The stereo was probably only important to me but this is my story so tough.) Clearly the middle class America threshold is now becoming even more about volume and perhaps a little more exotic (foreign) in it's nature.

On top of everything listed above, I also think the '80's marked the growing popularity of video games (Pong was first released for retail purchase in 1975) as well as microwave ovens, video cameras and the rental of VHS tapes and machines from video stores to watch movies in the comfort of your own home while eating microwaved popcorn. I think this was the early stages of cell phones too, the big heavy ones you carried in cases. Even food processors were pretty common by now.

Then came the '90's where the evolutionary process accelerated considerably. Computers - the introduction of The Web and "You've Got Mail" became mandatory because everyone who was anyone was on e-mail. I think this was also the decade that introduced digital cameras, cell phones more closely resembled what we have come to know today, home surround sound systems, big screen tv's, even the electric toothbrush was much more common. One of the most exciting inventions from my perspective was the retail VHS video tape deck. And let us not forget the little MP3 players, the harbingers of massive amounts of data on units so small those of us in our advanced years couldn't even see the writing on the buttons to know how to work them.

Then we come to our most recent decade, the '00's, the decade of the "i's". Google became a verb and anything digital took on new and exciting dimensions and performance characteristics. The constant question being asked was, "Have you seen or do you have the newest ...?" Retail products were being upgraded or invented faster than you could purchase the last version. The iPod comes to mind. I do have to say the compact disc and some version of a microwave oven have remained two constants since the '70's anyway. Except that now movies are on DVD, which are similar in appearance to CD's truth be told. Laptops became the hot item, along with digital everything, plasma and/or LCD and/or DLP and/or LED big screen televisions, even handheld televisions.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and 24 hour streaming video news are just some examples of the constant information age we now live in. There is never an excuse for anyone to say they aren't aware of what is happening anywhere in the world at any time of day or night.

Already 2010 (the '10's) has introduced the iPad which I'm sure is just the beginning.

All this has led to the subject of this post. We are currently a home of four televisions and three computers. If you count the laptop I just bought my dad, you could say four computers. We both have touch screen cell phones and digital cameras. I have an electronic reader and he has a portable GPS. We also have the obligatory car and truck and he has a motorcycle.

Would we have even dreamed of all this being under our roof 10 years ago. It really makes you wonder what we still have to look forward to? How will middle class be defined 10 years from now?