Sometimes it’s hard to remember what things were like before cellphones and SMS messaging, or computers or email, or the Internet, radio or television. People used to have more face-to-face conversations, read more books, write letters, play Scrabble and Monopoly – scenes that seem more like faded photographs from another era.

Technology changed everything. And when computers and modems came along, they put the world in people’s hands.

Yes, software was buggy. And computers and modems were clunky. They supported graphics resolutions that are now relics in a museum of ancient technology – somewhere. But they played those MS-DOS games that no current-generation computer acknowledges. And yes, the Internet connection sputtered on that dim terminal screen. But you actually got things done.

But I will never forget the day – only a few years ago – when a friend, in a distant part of a developing world, received his first computer and connected to the Internet.

His world changed that day. It stretched and warped in every direction, opening windows within windows to new vistas and possibilities that were beyond his horizon before.

And so technology continues to shift the ground beneath our collective feet, much like the earth moves and rattles its plates – techtonically-speaking.

And as it continues to change lives, for better or worse, TECHtonics will keep you informed.