Consider the Battery

The battery- most used and reliable power source- looks very similar to what we would consider technology. Metallic, shiny, and loaded with patents, the battery is the epitome of technology.

Look closer at a battery (you can take it out of your phone because who doesn’t have one these days). Does it have a matte or metallic finish? Is there a positive and negative end or are they on the same end? Is it warm or cold? Small and thin or big and thick? Maybe it’s circular in shape to minimize space taken up or maybe rectangular to give as much power as possible. Countless decisions- economical and environmental as well as those applying to electrical engineering- have gone into making this battery. These decisions affect how well your device will be powered. We rarely give thanks to the battery for all the things it has powered. We don’t thank the battery for getting us from Seattle to Spokane, finding us directions to the nearest restaurant, or lighting our way in a dark forest.

The battery doesn’t look that sophisticated, just a piece of metal with a bump or two on either end, but it has made the population more reliant on technology. Batteries are made of metal, steel or nickel in most cases, which makes them good conductors of electricity- the fundamental function of the battery. Batteries have become a fundamental technology deeply relied on in our culture. Adopted because of a particular need and to solve power problems, batteries were invented and proposed into the culture. You could use plug-ins in just the same way as a battery, but in this way the technology is still portable for the busy, always-on-the-go professions in the technological era we find ourselves in today. It took countless inventions, some with patents and others without to find the right battery for every task, technology, and problem being faced and there are still many more inventions to come.

Writing about the battery in this way has made it a tad easier to develop and get the reader thinking about how reliant we are on the battery and how easily ingrained it is in our modern lifestyles. It is a nice way to introduce the technology in a way that makes the reader intrigued to find out why and how it so quickly it has become ingrained in our society. It has also given me a source of style and tone I can have with my reader to make sure they stay intrigued throughout the entirety of my paper. It gives a new outlook on how writing and style can be put together to create a new type of narrative nonfiction that connects the reader to the real world and imagination all at once.