Ah, to live in simpler times, like when you had to organise to meet people at particular times and not rely on technology to say "where are ya like? I'm on the way!" As a millennial I have always been at the forefront, an early adapter if you will, of most commonly sought after technological consumer goods. There was a lot to be learned from my first interaction with the tech science.
Toys
Tomogottis got me ready for the harsh reality of parenting. They showed me that I would probably be incapable of looking after my own child without overfeeding it and loosing it. Although I have no children yet, this has been a positive learning activity, I fear for my unborn children getting lost from their mother bear, bellies full of chocolate.
Image source: www.bustle.com
Image source: wwwbustle,com
Mobile Phones
My first mobile phone, East Digifone Motorola. An absolute weapon of a yoke. No, seriously it had an aerial that could take a man's eye out from a least 7, maybe 8 ft away. It slowly became social norm to see teenagers with mobile phones. No longer exclusive to high falutin business folk, some strange phrases became commonplace pretty quickly.
Image source: adverts.ie
1) WB - Standing for "Write Back" at the end of a text message. How strange was that? I demand you respond to me this instant...lol
2) "Can I read your messages?" - back in the day when your phone only has the storage capacity to keep max 30 messages, your mate knew you would save the juicy ones from your crush and delete the ones from your Mam saying "Spuds and chicken for dins.Will collect you from bus. Have a nice day.Love mum xxx" . When there was no Facebook, reading your friends text messages was just another form of entertainment.
3) Other strange phrases included "Can I put my sim in your phone?", "I had no credit." and "Gis a go of yer mobile", code for you will never see your phone again.
Social Media
Towards the end of my teens, when my top score on snake became of less importance, the rise of the electronic super power that is social media, brought to life a platform called Bebo.
Here's some flashback features for you...
Image source: www.pressandjournal.co.uk
1) Loves : you had one daily love to give to any one of your friends, but only one.Often used as a bartering technique in order to obtain your own loves, "I'll give you mine if you give me yours..."
2) Top 16 : You had to rank your top 16 friends. This seems highly outrageous in today's society but back then, if Vanessa or Maria annoyed you they were demoted to slot 11 and 12 of your top 16.
3) Page views: the amount of times your page was viewed. Egos grew tri-fold between the years of 2005-2008 in Ireland.
Image source: goss.ie
How far we have come in just 20 years, where will we be in 20 years from now? Well I'll be 48, probably still on Google Blogger, but it will be 3D and interactive and I'll be all like, "oh jeez now, what do I press. Ah, here now where are me glasses!?", pretty much the same as now...
Thanks for reading,
