This last weekend I spent in NY with my Mom on her 80th birthday. That means she was born back in 1928. Cars had been around since the 1670's, but then they were steam powered, the first gasolinie powered car (like the ones we drive today) was designed and built by Karl Benz in 1885, only about 40 years before my Mom was born. The telegraph, which changed the face of our cities was maybe 50 years old at that time, no fax yet, and computers were at least 20 years off (for 1 of the 3 mainframes IBM predicted they would be making).
For her birthday my youngest brother (another technology afficionado) gave her a Sony electronic picture frame. It was the hit of the party as my brother and nephew had loaded hundreds of pictures from former family reunions which not only rotated through the e-Frame, but could even be controlled by a remote. When my Mom was born, I am not sure even color photos were available, and Polaroids were at lest 35 years off. My mom has lived through a lot of technology evolution, and it seems to be going at an ever faster pace..