It’s Friday, and I’m feeling a little nostalgic. Let’s take a fun walk down memory lane back when our gadgets were clunky, slow and somehow magical.
Remember when flipping your phone shut made you feel like a movie star? Or hearing the sound of a modem? Good times. Take a look at this list and see if there are any you miss.
AOL Instant Messenger
AIM was where friendships, gossip and teenage drama lived. Setting the perfect away message was an art form. “Out grabbing pizza. BRB.” Bonus points if you threw in a moody song lyric.
T9 texting
Before touch screens, texting meant using a numeric keypad where each button represented three or four letters. You had to tap multiple times to get the right one. Sending a simple “Hi” could feel like typing a novel. Mastering T9 predictive text was a real skill, and if you could do it without looking, you were a wizard.
Car phones
Not Bluetooth, not speakerphones, actual phones bolted into your car. If you had one, you were big-time. Even if the service cut out every time you left the city limits.
Floppy disks
Saving a school or work project onto a floppy felt like high-tech magic. Too bad you could only fit about one blurry photo on it. 1.44 MB sounded like a lot back then.
Digital cameras
Before smartphones ruled the world, you carried a chunky digital camera everywhere. You snapped 40 photos, crossed your fingers and hoped one wasn’t blurry when you uploaded them hours later.
BlackBerrys
If you had a BlackBerry, you meant business. That tiny keyboard gave you the power to email, text and survive boring meetings long before iPhones took over. You were never in a jam. Fun fact: I never owned one.
The original iPod
A thousand songs in your pocket sounded like pure science fiction. That click wheel was addictive, and you felt unstoppable with your whole music library at your fingertips.
It’s crazy how fast tech moves. What once felt like the future now feels prehistoric. Makes you wonder what we’ll be laughing about 10 years from now. I bet carrying a phone will seem ridiculous.
🥳 For fun: If you could bring back one old-school gadget just for the memories, what would it be? Hit reply or let me know when you rate this newsletter at the end. I read every note.
