The 1960's: The Decade Of Technology

Advancements in technology are always in the pursuit of making life easier for people. In today’s world this is done by automating many processes like how many companies are striving to create self-driving cars. Maybe these innovations will propel the United States into a new stage of technology and this decade of technology will be very influential in the future. Only time will tell where we currently stand on how influential these inventions will be, but we can look back into the past and pick out the most influential decades for American innovation. Each decade had a unique area of innovation. The 1900s were focused on inventions to simplify production and machinery while the 1920s created things to make everyday life better. Then the 1960s

The creation of the first rue synthetic plastic was huge for the production industry as well as the economy. Plastic allows for companies to produce goods at a cheaper price because plastic was cheaper than metals. The plastic allowed for things to be produced in greater numbers because they process became less expensive. Again the use of this technology wasn’t immediately used widely in the country until World War 1. That’s because a lot of metal was used to support the war so they were looking for a material to replace it and plastic was an inexpensive solution to the problem. The Model T was massive innovation in technology as it was the first affordable automobile that could be purchased by members of the middle class. The ability to own a car was something that radically changed life for the middle class. For example in the primary source Middletown written by Robert and Helen Lynd talk about how the modern middle class family would do anything to keep their car and how life for a middle class family was centered around the car. The Model T also was a part of one of the biggest production innovations ever. The creation of the Model T led to the creation of the assembly line in order to mass produce a good efficiently and for a cheap price. The assembly brought production costs down for the producer allowing them to sell at a reduced rate. The assembly line wasn’t

The big innovations of the time were the advancements in food distribution, and the takeover of the automobile. Food distribution was a huge advancement during this time with frozen foods, canned foods being widely available in stores, and the ability to purchase precooked breads and pre-sliced meat. These new advancements made house life easier as less time needed to be dedicated to preparing food for the family. Canned and frozen foods also gave people the ability to eat food and vegetables that were out of season for an affordable amount of money. This not only gave people a lot more options on food but also added new markets that never existed before. Canned foods became an optimal food for times of economic distress as it is an inexpensive option for those who do not have necessary funds but need food that has a long shelf life and reasonable nutritional values. Frozen foods not only helped the distribution industry by making it a lot easier to ship food from place to place but also made storage for both stores and the consumer. Again in the primary source Middletown written by Robert and Helen Lynd they write about how these innovations in technology saved women of this time a lot of time by not needing to prepare food for thong periods of