The Advancement in Digital Technology from the 80’s to Present

Back in the 80’s to have a television or a radio was pride and respect. The AFCON 2022 taking place now in Cameroon by then could have been a talk of the day where you will see many gathered in a certain front view and everyone is listening to commentary from the match. To see one with such device wasn’t easy and you could walk a whole community without seeing up to 3 persons with a radio. Technology have evolved over the decades. It’s possible now that all households have televisions and children having phones just anyhow. The power of writing a letter on papers to far distances have drop. Most of the post offices have close just because of increase technology. Life has become too easy that sometimes you seat in your house then buy online and receive it without going out. You now text a friend and receive the reply instantly, we now watch live coverage with the best images without facing difficulties. This is the advancement but let’s take a look back in the 80’s how it wasn’t possible to access of these means.

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Letters were the highest medium of information exchange. It was coming from our parents asking us to write to our other family members in the towns of Yaoundé and Douala. They could not write nor read so it was thanks to our help that we could read and interpret for them. This was the best era especially when your parents drop a message to your uncles in town about your school fees and then the reply comes back, it was prepared before it will be open and read to the house.

We use to go for a night dance by then known as “Discoté” and after playing for a while some other people will demand a certain nice music which means the dance will stop for the DJ to rewind the cassette. This was awesome as he will sometimes use his hands or a pen to reverse it then try it he is near the sound and if not he continues the process until the sound was identified then the dance continue.

Talking of having a Television and a phone was a dream to many. We first saw the first television which was black and white in those days. One could trek for kilometers away from their house to just witness what a television is like. We use sometimes visit some homes without seeing it but will work the whole day there just only to be accepted the chance to see it. Worst of it was when there were football matches, hahahahaha one will go there in the morning clean the compound, fetch firewood and do other house chores just to have place to seat during the match. Most of us back then as kids were not allowed to seat on chairs so we usually seat on the floor and felt so comfortable and sometimes light will go or there will be a technical fault and we will just seat there enjoying.