Single Purpose Technology

Single purpose technology is any piece of tech that was created to fulfill one need. A common example of this is a camera. With a camera you can take photos, and with some, videos as well. But you can't browse the web or write a novel or play a game on a camera. It has one use, a single purpose. It used to be that almost every piece of technology was single purpose. You had a camera, a phone, a personal computer, and a plethora of paper goods such as an address book and calendar. But now, we are constantly figuring out ways to combine as many things into one as is technologically possible. One device acts as a camera, phone, PC, calendar, address book, television, radio, music, flashlight, etc, etc. This has a ton of benefits. One, it's easier to keep track of one thing than it is to keep track of 50. I don't need to know that I have a flashlight under the bathroom sink because I know there's a decent flashlight in my bed or on my person at all times. It's also, in theory, better for the environment. You don't need mountains of shiny plastic and shinier metals to make all of these products, you just need the little bit that was required to make the one thing.