Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Next Decade! Much love, The Last Decade.
“In the years since the new millennium, the world has seen such progress.” So begins a noted Super Bowl commercial from 2000 that milked the Christopher Reeve sympathy/inspiration angle to show how well an investment firm can predict the future.
We’re almost clear of the noughties. Just one more week, and we get to leave this decade behind for good. But before we do, it’s worth taking stock of the absolute worst gadgets these last 10 years have given us.
We knew that not even Clark Kent in his blue and red underpants could save them, but it still impresses me how fast newspapers’ circulation has declined in this decade. Sad, unless you’re a tree.
Go tell it on the mountain: The Y2K banking computer glitch will bring about screwy traffic lights, a worldwide blackout and (maybe) the return of Christ. Oh those silly profiteering televangelists!
Photo sticker booths, which still exist in some shopping centres, spawned a generation of Japanese young people who were referred to using the Japanese word for the machines: Purikura.
Armed with stacks of blank CDs and the original outlaw Napster, I spent my college years giving and receiving mixes. As a member of the post-mixtape pre-playlist generation, I’d like to say a word in defence of the mix CD.
The Modo, a wireless handheld introduced in 2000, couldn’t give directions. It refused to make calls and had no interest in displaying fresh emails. It was too busy being cool. Alas, I never got to touch it.
Is the 2000 version of yourself worried about missing incoming calls while online? Just connect your modem to your phone then call Sprint and go online and write a cheque to pay the bill and… you’ll have internet call-waiting!
