Technology of the 90’s vs Today

Recently, I went for a well deserved holiday back home. Being very bored, I started looking through my old stuff that I had when I was a teenager and I stumbled upon something that made me remember so many things and inspired me to write this post: a floppy disk. Made me wonder “did we actually use this? Was it so long ago? Am I that old?” and from there memories started coming. Was simpler technology better? Let’s compare some technologies from the 90s and early 2000 with the ones we have now:

1. Phones

I remember we had a phone with a spinning wheel. Ohhh the amount of prank calls! (and the bills and punishments from my parents that followed). Everything was fine until a thing called caller id came into my life. Stupid invention! Of course I had my share of embarrassing moments like when a girl was calling you and your mother was picking up or even worse, when you had to call a girl and an angry father was answering the phone. You were saying hello, he was asking “what do you want from my daughter punk?”. I don’t know if all the fathers are like that or I was just unlucky. Just in case I’ll have a daughter, I already prepared my speech: “I don’t know who and where you are, but I have a very particular set of skills and if you lay your hand on her I will look for you and I will find you”. Seems legit.
After that, my dad bought our first mobile phone, a Motorola. And what a phone it was. When I took it from my father to brag about it, I had to wear 2 belts because it was so heavy that it was pulling my pants down. Finally, later on, I had my first personal mobile phone, a Nokia 3310. I still think it was the best phone I ever had. The battery life was around 1 week. It wasn’t doing much but hey what do you want from a phone? To give you food?
Now, we all have smartphones. They’re handy but…it’s like something is missing. They’re so fragile and what annoys us the most is the battery life. You have a phone worth hundreds of euros! The companies are making a lot of profit. Aren’t they capable to develop a battery that lasts longer than Titanic? (no offense to the people who enjoyed the movie, but it was a damn long one). Also, you have to wrap pillows around them just to make sure you won’t brake the display. Back then you could have used your phone even in self defense: “Let’s rob that guy because he’s alone! Dude wait, he’s got a Nokia and he’s not afraid to use it”. Another difference between them is that if you drop your Iphone in the toilet, you need to spend another 500 euros on another one. If you dropped your Nokia in the toilet, you had to buy another toilet, which, at least it’s cheaper.

2. PC’s, TV’s


I had my first computer when I was 14. It was HUGE. It had one of those monitors with a tube in the back. I had that monitor until 5 years ago when I had to move and it was too big to fit in the car, which was anyway packed with other things, so I had to leave it. Imagine how hard it would be now to go with one of those at McDonalds for the free Wi Fi: “Sir do you have free Wi Fi here? And do you also have 2 free tables so I can use my computer?”. And let’s not forget the floppy disk! It had all the memory in the world…for a CV. Kids today won’t know the struggle. Same thing with the TV’s. When you had to move, it was horrific if you had to carry the tv.
At least here, technology evolved in a good way. Loads of things to choose from like plasma tv’s, LCD’s with HD, easy to carry laptops and more.

3. Video games

The first video games that I played were on a Sega Genesis. My parents were working during the day and I was skipping school just to play. Most of the times I was waiting for a neighbor to come over. My dad wasn’t allowing me to play video games because he was saying that I’ll brake the TV (which I did eventually), so around 3 o’clock when I knew that my father is coming home we were turning everything off and we were studying like some good kids. Speaking of breaking the TV, I remember a night when I had a friend over for a Pro Evolution Soccer marathon on Playstation. Around 4am my TV stopped working because we burnt a fuse. I still don’t think my dad was right about that. Nowadays, videogames are getting more evolved with each year. The graphics are incredible. Some of them make you feel that you’re watching a movie. Unfortunately, to be able to play these games, you need to change your PC almost every year because of the high requirements. Maybe too high.

4. Radio cassette recorders

Back then you were cool if you had one. Waiting for a girl to walk in front of your window and hit maximum volume. Found out later that it wasn’t a good pick up method. Technology has evolved, guys are still idiots because they still think this method impresses women. What’s wrong with us?
You were waiting a whole day to hear your favorite song and to record it. Everything was going well until the dj was ruining your moment by talking. Now it’s simple: hear a song that you like, press download.

So are we that old? No. Technology is just evolving way to fast. Although scientifically speaking, evolution is good, somehow people are getting dumber and lazier with every generation. Could be because technology is overrunning us in this race and it’s getting more advanced than we can handle?
And was simpler technology better? No, because with the current technology you can learn about anything. There are no boundaries in knowledge. You can do absolutely everything just by using a handheld device.
If you know how to use it right, it can be your best friend, but you need to evolve with it.