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Home Computer with Internet
Although personal computers became available much earlier, we got our first home computer not long after the internet was created in 1989. I was around 9 then and it was mostly just my dad & I that used it at first. I loved hearing the dial-up phone line kick on and noisily connect to the world-wide-web, then AOL would promptly declare “You’ve got mail!” They were sometimes fun pen pal type emails, but mostly just spam emails, what we called chain mail: “Send this to 10 people or else…” -
Pager
Although officially invented in 1921 by the 50s & 60s they were still mostly used in the private sector by police departments. They eventually became widely used by the public in the 80s & 90s. With the growth of cell phone use they were pretty much obsolete by the 2000s. I remember friends each had a unique code, and we had somewhat of a numeric language among us. 80085 was a funny message that most silly boys would send to annoy you. -
Nokia Cell Phone
The first Nokia model 1011 came out in 1992. I got my first cell phone when I got my first job in 1998 at 15 years old. My first paycheck went to a clothes and my second went to buy a Nokia 5110. It was a fashion accessory by changing out the face plate with different colors. You weren’t able to hit a key once for a certain letter, so I prided myself in being such fast texter. I remember it cost $0.10 per text and so it was infuriating when friends would text back with a simple “k”. -
MP3 Player
I got my first MP3 player for my 16th birthday in 1999. This little handheld device stored and played your music. Originally launched in 1997 in Singapore, they were then rebranded and distributed in North America in 1998. I remember staying up for HOURS on LimeWire searching for songs and burning them onto CDs to give away or downloading and organizing them on this little MP3 player. We all took so much pride in carefully crafting the perfect playlists to fit a particular moods. -
PlayStation
The first PlayStation gaming console was released in September of 1995. However, I was living in Tucson with my fiancé at 20 in 2003 when I bought my first ever gaming console. We had owned a Nintendo 64 as a child and loved playing Mario Kart & Golden Eye together as a family, but getting that PS was something else. For this was the dawn of Halo. We used to have big competitions with close friends with multiple TVs hooked up in order to all play together. I loved being able to keep up as a gir!