Context The early 1980s saw a continuation of the seemingly ubiquitous Cold War. By now, the idealistic lives of the sixties and early seventies had met reality, and politically, there was a shift towards the right of the spectrum. Reagan in the US and Thatcher in the UK embodied this shift. The buildup of electronic technologies resulted in a major pick-up of personal computing across consumer markets in the eighties. By the end of the decade, the Cold War ended with the collapse of the USSR and saw the beginning of the spread of democracy to former communist states, opening up new markets and new potential for innovation.
The Computer Personal computers gained momentum in the 1980s. Commodore's VIC-20, released in 1980, was the first personal computer unit to sell over 1 million units. Seagate's first hard-disk released in the same year, with a storage capacity of 5 megabytes, had 5 times the storage of the floppy disk. MS-DOS was launched with IBM's PC and was eventually replaced with Windows. The 1982 Commordore 64 was far more popular than the VIC-20, selling over 22 million units, and was named "the greatest selling single computer of all time" by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2006. Throughout the rest of the decade, new computers, notably the Macintosh, were released and revolutionizing the integration of computers into the lives of consumers. By the end of the decade, the concept of the World-Wide-Web was born, and would be released in 1990.
Timeline Throughout the decade - The Walkman yields great success as mode for portable music VCRs hit the consumer market early in the decade 1980 - The compact disk is released commercially, rendering vinyl disks obsolete 1981 - Laser eye surgery to remove cataracts 1982 - "The Computer" is Time's Man of the Year 1983 - First mobile phone, DynaTAC 8000x 1983 - Camcorders replace the 8mm movie cameras and provide film you can watch with sound on your new VCR 1983 - Cabbage Patch Kid dolls released 1983 - GPS systems 1984 - The Macintosh was released 1985 - Microsoft released the first version of Windows, would eventually become one of the most popular operating systems. 1986 - Disposable cameras 1987 - High Definition TV 1988 - Doppler radar. 1989 - World Wide Web
Evaluation The technologies unveiled in the 1980s marked only the beginning of the digital age which was to engulf the world. With the end of the Cold War, former rivalries turned to friendships, and in turn, spread new technologies. The digitization of the everyday person's life set the stage for the most interconnected world in all of human history. While not necessarily technologies, the rise of cable networks, whether news or music, helped create similarities between lives in different regions, by continuing a homogeneous culture. Eventually, the internet would enable full-on globalization.