Remember when we all thought the year 2000 was so far away it would never come? Even better, remember when we all thought we would be living on the moon and driving spaceships by the year 2010?
I am a child of the 80s. I remember very clearly the day my school got its first Apple 2c computer. I was in 5th grade. It weighed a ton, had a teeny tiny green screen and the computing power of a digital watch (well, almost). It seemed like magic when the teacher turned it on and I played my first first games of Oregon Trail and Lemonade Stand.
By the time I got to college word processing was the next big thing. Being able to edit your work on a screen and not having to re-type the entire page? That’s a dream come true! We played games too- I spent more time than I care to admit playing War Lords and Scorched Earth when I was supposed to have been studying. By this time we had a color monitor AND a mouse!
In the mid 90’s I got online for the first time. What an exciting day that was! Email from anyone anywhere in the world was so exciting.
Now, I am sitting in my recliner typing this on my laptop while I watch the Olympics on cable TV. My wireless Internet connection allows me to access Facebook from anywhere in the house.
We have certainly come along way. But, in some ways things haven’t changed that much since the 50’s. We all still live in wood or brick houses. We all still drive cars on roads- no flying involved. We all still work for a living. We are certainly not living an episode of Star Trek or the Jetsons.
I don’t know if we will have moon colonies in my lifetime. But I sure thought I would and I’m a wee bit disappointed that I still don’t have a flying car! What did you think you would have in your life by the year 2010 that doesn’t exist yet? I’d love to hear about it!