Constant innovations and advancements in technology help us gradually become more and more disconnected from the physical world. We can research, write, and publish a paper without once touching a book. We can communicate with friends, colleagues, associates, and family members without once stepping into a boardroom or knocking on a front door.
And our virtual reality is fast becoming even more pronounced: with the growth in cloud servers and vm ware hosting, people can now do anything and everything within the next level of virtual abstraction – in the “cloud.” But every once in a while, technology conversely helps us reconnect with our more physical roots. A wealth of new history applications for smartphones serves as a case in point.
Historical tourism has been a popular vacation pastime for years, especially in Europe. Ever since Renaissance explorers looked to unearth Classical ruins and British travelers first visited the pyramids at Giza, people have held a fascination with the past’s influence upon a particular place. Now, with more history apps arriving on the market seemingly every day, it is now possible to see history even where it is not readily-apparent.
The most popular such history apps provide maps and walking tours of a specific city or neighborhood. They point out a describe historical points of interest, provide pictures and diagrams that convey how the area once looked, and they offer a running commentary – not unlike a tour guide – that allows one to gain a wealth of knowledge merely from turning on their phone and walking down the street.
Most of these tours, furthermore, come with a particular theme: you can download a tour of Victorian London, the Boston Freedom Trail, and Prohibition-era Chicago. Once mainly developed by individuals, these history apps are now more likely produced by municipal tourism departments, meaning that they are usually free, authoritative, and comprehensive.
Another popular type of history app utilizes a similar approach to take users on guided tours through historical buildings and museums. The Smithsonian, Library of Congress, and British Museum all have such apps, with the latter two being especially comprehensive. You’ll never visit a museum without your smartphone again.
History apps are impressive for their ability to take information out of the virtual world and apply it to physical locations and If you’re a tourist or a history buff, you might want to consider downloading a couple.
Article by Vishal
Vishal Gaikar is a professional blogger from Pune, India. If you like this post, you can follow him on Twitter.
