Which artifact from our time has had a great cultural impact on us?

Question

I'm writing a paper and need to choose an item from our time that has had a great impact on our society. For example, viagra or the ipod (yes, I've already thought of these! What ELSE can you come up with?). And if we were to place it in a time capsule, what would future generations interpret about us by examining the artifact? (Please don't answer if you're not serious)

Answer 1

Depends on your age.

I would either say

television-i guess you'd put in a bunch of season DVD sets?

internet-although difficult to 'put' into a time capsule

Television is the daily way of giving us culture and media.  News is shaped by who reports it and where

The internet allows ANYONE to communicate in many ways.  Think of all the people who became famous just from a simple video... numa numa, star wars kid, jib jab, etc..

It allows news to come out of areas - I think I remember reports coming  through the internet from China during Tinamen (spelling) square trageday, Russia during some situations and elsewhere.  It also allows you to set up your own BLOG - which could gain a wide following.  You can vote on anything instantly, give your thoughts, ALL SORTS of things.

I'd personally say the internet - it is more recent then television - heck the television can be watched on the internet! It is also a two-way medium. Television only allows you to watch.  The internet lets you reply.

What woudl they say?  if you put the internet somehow into a time capsule (perhaps you just somehow put an electronic recording of all sorts of sites, forums and emails) then they might laugh at the way we used the medium.  As the future comes, we see more and more ways of accessing it.  You have to wonder what the future will bring.  Better and more fluid programming, increased capabilities of bandwidth, better search engines all could make our system seem antiquated (sp).    But they might also find it interesting to look at the culture that the different sites display.  The thought processes, the snapshot of how we thought  at the time.

Answer 2

the computer! you need it to have internet. well in most cases.

they might wonder why it is so big. lol. um.. maybe that we were beginning to start using personal PCs?? they could also deduce that we were trying to organize our lives electronically.

cellphones - VERY vital to have. they now have cameras and music built in. but where's the phone??? lol

they would interpret it as some kind of communication device. maybe think we were obsessed with keeping in touch.  and same as above, we were trying to digitalize our lives in all possible ways.

digital cameras - these would be primitive by the future's standards... so they would think "Wow! what HUGE cameras!" and like above.. we were digitalizing our lives. lol... (echo!!)

perhaps a CD or DVD of digital artifacts would be much more efficient

Answer 3

cell phones

Answer 4

a huge McDonald's sign and a dollar sign.

Answer 5

Breast implants...can you imagine digging up a field of silicone blobs? If we were to place an implant in a time castle, future generations might believe that are females could not develop b*****s on their own.

Answer 6

Televisions.  We can see what's happening in our world right this minute.  I think that's amazing.  And televisions keep improving.

Answer 7

My suggestion is leave the electronics out of it.   You can not assume that  any future civilization would be using any power source that we would recognize.  My suggestion would be a text book from political science or any modern study.  It would stand the best chance of making it through time.  also consider putting a scrap of paper with the common languages on it.  Think Rosetta stone.  That was the most important thing we discovered in Egypt because it unlocked everything else.

Answer 8

Try the ubiquitous Coca-Cola bottle. It is probably the single most recognizable object ever created by the hand of Man. Seen everywhere. Shape recognized throughout the world. Sign of civilization and prosperity. AND....it has it's own historical and advertising division from whom You can obtain useful data. If You put one into outer space the Martians would no doubt understand the complexity of the bottle's design, esthetically and mathematically, and be able to evaluate the intelligence to a Race that could work with raw materials such as silicon. Besides which, They could bring It back for the refund, thus experiencing Human commerce and economics.