Is technology ruining society? According to research, smartphones cause us to have lower-quality conversations, Google is destroying our ability to retain information, and social networks are damaging our relationships. If that’s not enough proof that modern-day technology might not be quite as life-improving as the Industrial Revolution, check out how today’s tech (particularly smartphones, the Internet, and social networks) would have changed important historical events and figures. You might think Columbus would have been better off if he’d found the quickest trade route to India, but you’d be wrong!
Columbus would have actually landed in India
Fastest route to India? Google Maps has you covered.
Mona Lisa would have a hot Instagram account
#LaGioconda #DaVinci #LeonardoIsMyHomie #Enigma #Smile #WhereAmILooking
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses would have been a Change.org petition
Why bother going outside to nail a document to a church door when you can do it all from your smartphone?
Shakespeare would have been a Twitter phenomenon
Imagine if Shakespeare’s lengthy plays and sonnets could be distilled into thousands of 140-character tweets.
Newton would have opened a smartphone repair shop
Probably would have kept the secret of universal gravity to himself, too. “We have no idea why your phone drops and the screen breaks when you let go of it…”
Paul Revere would have just sent a text
Paul Revere’s ride would have been less epic (or rather, non-existent), but way more efficient.
Betsy Ross would have been a small-time Etsy seller
But she would have been buried under a mountain of other Etsy sellers selling knock-off flags.
The moon landing would have been documented with a selfie
Buzz Aldrin Oh wait, it was. Actually, Buzz Aldrin took the first space selfie three years before the moon landing, in 1966.