Times Have Certainly Changed..

I have been teaching now for ten years. Many of my freshman students this year were born in 1999 or 2000. I was a senior in high school myself when they were born. (If I had made some unwise decisions that year, these could literally be my children.) They are so young. Or wait, perhaps I am so old. Ugh. But regardless, I forget how much times have changed since I was in high school. My students are definitely living in a very different high school world than I lived in.

The other day in class I mentioned dial-up internet to them and no one had a clue exactly what that even meant. I had to go on to explain to them what it was and how it worked. They looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language and couldn't even imagine what I was talking about. They don't realize how good they have it now with wi-fi and smartphones and iPods and everything else that goes along with it.

Sometimes when people talk about oh, say 2002, I literally think it was like a year or two ago, but in reality it was like 13 years ago. Like, that's a long time and I don't even realize it. But so much as changed in that time. Technology has really advanced and that has made life easier in some ways. Because of my discussion in class the other day, it made me reminisce about those old times. We didn't know any better then, so what we had was all new to us and seemed pretty awesome at the time. Now, that stuff is like stone-age-ish, but it was pretty damn amazing back then. It was kind of fun to look back and think of all the cool stuff we had as teens and how they are all but gone now.


1) Dial-up Internet. Remember having to take the phone jack out of the phone and connecting it to the computer? Then logging onto AOL (which btw was downloaded on your computer with a CD). You heard the famous dial-up noise, followed by the "You've got mail" and then the real fun began. Chat rooms. IM's. Email. Yeah, that's about it. But it was sure more than enough back then. But then remember how if someone called while you were online and it disconnected you and how annoying that was? Ugh. The struggle.

Side Note: I still have my same AOL email and screenname. I never changed it. Never cancelled it. It is a part of me. I still really love that name. I never grew out of it! But I sure was happy when we got real internet in the house and then wi-fi. It was like magic.

2) My car phone. I can't believe cell-phones really didn't exist at any point of my life. There were like two kinds and they were huge, they were expensive and no one my age had one. Our parents were just starting to get them themselves. My dad had the Zack Morris- brick phone and I thought he was so freaking cool. It took up his entire glove box, but it was a phone...that worked outside the house. Like how was that even possible? (It was on analog whatever that meant.) He would get beeped on his pager, then take out his phone, turn it on (it was only turned on to make the call, then turned back off), and then call his client. It was so damn cool. And certainly not something any of us teenagers had. However, I did have a car phone. Yup, it was a phone in my car. It could only be used when the car was on and it was awesome. "Oh hey guys...yeah, I'm calling from my car. No biggie." I felt so cool with that bad-boy. It made me feel safer having it while driving and my parents felt the same way.

I got my very first cell phone (a Nokia naturally) on my first day of college. (I still remember my Champaign cell phone number also!) There were free nights and weekends which was a steal. And even then texts didn't exist. I remember the first text message I received too. It was the spring of senior year of college and my phone made a beep I had never heard before and then there were words on the screen. I didn't know this was possible. I had no idea how to reply or what to do next because this was all new to me.


3) Mix tapes/CD's and the Walkman/Discman. Before long drives or airplane rides, I would sit next to my boombox and listen to B96's "9 at 9" to record my favorite songs. It would be a good day if the DJ's didn't talk while the song was starting or ending, but I'd keep it anyway. I'd then write out the playlist in pretty markers so the cover of the cassette box and give it a clever name. I'd listen to that mix over and over. And then when I was sick of it, would just make another one. Easy peasy.

And let's not forget listening to this stuff on the go or when working out. You threw on those cheap headphones (like the ones still given on airplanes) and walked around listening to music. Portably. Pretty cool. 

Yup, still run with this.

Now everything is on my iPod and my iPhone. I can listen to music and make playlists anywhere. It's so easy now. Well kind of. I still have to download the songs and get them on there, but once there, the fun doesn't stop. I still listen to some songs over and over and over again, but at least its just the press of one button.

Full disclosure: I still use my Discman Case Logic case for my races. It is so perfect around the waist and doesn't bounce when I run. It also holds a lot of crap. I have used it for every marathon I've done. 

Who didn't have this phone?!?!

4) Landline phones without caller ID. Not even a cordless phone, a legit landline phone. I don't own either one of them in my current apartment and haven't in years. I live and die by my cell phone. I actually do have a phone number to my apartment because its part of my cable and internet package, but I never bought a phone to connect to it.

Do you remember having to call your friends or your boyfriend/girlfriend and having to possibly have to speak with their parents first to ask for them? So awkward as a teenager. And what about not knowing who was going to be on the other end when your phone rang? Strange to think of that now, but it was our reality. And oh wait, what about having to actually memorize phone numbers and not have them just stored in your phone? This is by far is one of the worst things to come about from cell phones in my opinion. I still remember phone numbers of my childhood friends and some family members, but other than that, I am lucky if I know someone's area code off hand now. Not okay.

5) VHS tapes. Gone are the days of VHS tapes recording our favorite movies or shows. And then when all done, having to rewind that sucker. ("Be kind...Rewind.") Today, we have DVR (and OnDemand). Few people watch shows live these days with commercials if they can help it because of the DVR. Even if I watch a show real-time as to not get spoilers later or the next day, I will wait record it for a while and then turn it on and start it so I can watch it without having to watch commercials and see it with little interruption. I remember when I use to record a show but then when that was happening, I couldn't do anything else. Now, it's still a little annoying that if I am DVRing two shows at once, I can't watch anything live, but I'll live. I love my DVR and have many, many shows set on series record. I can watch so much more TV (and more efficiently) than I could years ago and for that I'm grateful!

I still have some VHS movies that I refuse to get rid of out of principal and sentiment. I don't even own a tape player anymore, but I still can't toss them. There is just something special about them that won't allow me to get rid of them just yet. 

Anyway, times have clearly changed. We have come pretty far with technology making our lives significantly easier for many things. Sure, much of it has decreased many people's social skills and abilities to function normally with others, but I guess that's the price we pay. (And also a whole other issue at large.) It will be interesting to see where everything goes from here. Perhaps we will see something old become new again, but who really knows? I can't even imagine what they will think of next. Working with teenagers everyday, I am on the pulse of what's on trend and popular and this helps keep me in the loop a bit. I just need to keep up with it all and educate them on how far we've come.