Today, we’ve become a
tech-obsessed culture and many of us can’t imagine how we could live life
without our beloved iPhones and iPads, Facebook, and YouTube. We tend to forget
that the 90s were an incredibly revolutionary decade for technology with a long
list of inventions that inspired the more advanced technology we have today.
It’s actually quite amazing to see how far we have come with highly developed technology
in just a little over a century. Let’s take a look back at what we might
consider to be technological dinosaurs today, yet the start of a new era of
technology.
Pagers- A simple
personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager
can only receive a message consisting of a few digits; typically a phone number
that the user is then expected to call. It was more an adult gadget; although,
I remember my brother begged my parents for one (no idea why) and finally got
one. He thought he was the coolest in kid in town, but the only pages he got
were from our mother.
Cell phones- during this
decade, we began trading in our Beepers for mobile phones. When we look back
now, the cell phones of the early 90s are actually quite humorous. They were
big, chunky, and awkward and looked more like a cordless landline phone. In the
beginning, mobile phones were used by only a few percent of the population of
even the wealthiest nations!
As the 90s progressed, cell phones
began shrinking in size, and then Motorola introduced the first ever
clamshell/flip mobile phone. In the late 90s, I remember the Nextel
walkie-talkie type of phones were popular. That “chirp” sound was so obnoxious,
but luckily these types of phones got old real fast.
CD players-
what did we do before iPods? We had bulky CD players- that’s what. No one was
more appreciative of the iPod than the music-lovers who had CD players. I had a
blue one covered in the Spice Girls and Nsync stickers. Since there were no iTunes
or digital music libraries yet, I would lug around a hefty book of CDs. 
Digital Cameras- for much of the 90s, my mother was all about the disposable cameras.
She always had those crappy things in hand on every family vacation or at any
special event. As the decade proceeded, digital cameras became more available
and affordable. We finally bought my mother her first digital camera, which
completely transformed her world. The rest of my family and I were just happy
we no longer had to hear that loud horrible wind-up noise or be blinded by that
obnoxiously bright flash. 
World Wide Web- I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine surviving without the Internet today. The 90s introduced us to the World Wide Web, and it actually changed the world forever. The web became user-friendlier with its browsers, which allowed even the least tech-savvy people to connect online.
With the web came email and Instant
Messaging. America Online (AOL) was one of the more popular ones, especially
among 90s kids, like myself. I will never forget the frustrating experience of
just connecting to the Internet. It’s funny how these days we get pissed when
it takes a minute to load a webpage. As technology has advanced, our patience
has only dwindled. We tend to forget how in the 90s, it took 5 minutes or more
to connect online. I remember sitting and watching the little AOL yellow man
figure running in place, while the painfully long process of connecting online
was taking place. Oh, and who can forget that god-awful dial-up sound, after a
while it became nails on a chalkboard- just thinking about makes me cringe. Yet
some how this agonizing process seemed to be worth it as soon as I heard those
glorious words: “Welcome, you’ve got mail.” Oh yes, there was no greeting more
rewarding than that one. I would easily spend hours online, and once I learned
about Google and other web browsers, I thought there was just so much to
explore. There was no reason to leave my computer ever again… So long as no one
called our landline phone, immediately disconnecting me from online.
