I consider myself part of the last great generation. When we were young, there was no internet, iPads, or even DVD players. Movies were getting better with CGI and other technologies that were up and coming, but they weren’t consumer-level yet. I think it was 1998 when we first had a computer. I wasn’t even 10 at the time, and I was one of the lucky ones whose parents decided to get a personal computer. I can’t remember the names of the software, but I remember learning with colourful characters and playing with early versions of Microsoft Office, with the operating system being the most up-to-date… Windows 98!
Now it might be hard to believe for younger readers, but there wasn’t internet like we have it today. And when I’d had enough with the limited functionality, I then did something unthinkable… I went outside! Digging holes in the garden, thinking my parents would appreciate a pond, or nearly strangling myself trying to make my own abseiling set up on my swing. I learned many life skills in my young years into my teens from being in the woods, along the canal, making dens, and I was left alone to make mistakes; something parents today can’t do. The world just seems more dangerous. Sadly. But the benefit was that technology seemed to grow with me, giving me the best of both worlds!
My teenage years were the initial boom of the internet; logging on through AOL to hear that “You’ve got mail” jingle, and that was it, chat rooms, games, fan pages… None of it really moderated. There were definitely wrong ones taking advantage. Authorities were always far behind the curve when it comes to new technology and preventing crime. But again, because I was exposed to the outside world and taught to be careful of strangers, I never entered any advances… I just got on with Pokémon trading card games and printing Dragon Ball Z photos… wasting all of the ink in my parents’ brand-new printer! Sorry, Mum and Dad!
As I aged, the technology got more advanced; I remember my parents’ first mobile phone, then their next with an attachment for the camera! And the same as everyone else at the time, I obviously had the Nokia 3210! Chasing blocks in Snake was amazing at the time!! I was an extremely lucky child; my parents found a way to make sure I got to experience all of these things!
Christmas 2001 was a massive escalation in my gaming journey; I’d had a PlayStation, Sega Mega Drive, and the Dreamcast. But opening a brand-new original Xbox with Halo in the bundle changed everything. I remember my parents’ living room with the TV next to the sliding doors looking into the garden on Christmas Day, and I didn’t even have to beg then; my parents let me use my new Xbox on the big TV! Obviously, back then, it was a huge, backed CRT TV with the three wires for A/V; it might have even been a SCART cable. But my eyes must have widened, and I was gone; the Covenant didn’t know what hit them! Again, I was so lucky to have such amazing parents; I think god everyday for being so lucky!
Now, although the PS2 was released in 2000, I still remember the day a few years later when I first got mine! Like I said… amazing parents I had PS2 and Xbox! I was in secondary school and frequently would escape from school at dinner time to go for lunch or go home; the school didn’t want me to, but my parents were happy to allow me to have this freedom. This particular day, I went home to find my father also on lunch, with a brand-new PS2 just for me! Now I’m not sure what most parents would do, but mine were cooler than most (obviously), and I’m sure it was a Friday, so they let me stay home rather than go back to school just to set up and play my new PS2!
These consoles weren’t for major multiplayer games like they are today. It was one-player games mostly or split screen, which meant you had to actually interact in person with people or play alone! We all shared memory cards with the most completed versions of games like GTA or career modes on FIFA. It was a more interpersonal experience with others, as opposed to a solo personalised experience to be displayed to others that it is now. As online gaming was still basic, this meant that my summers and after-schools were still filled with hanging with friends or playing football (the real version, don’t dare call it soccer). Another key difference in generations since, like those in the 80s and 70s, etc., we still had other interactions away from the screen or controls of technology.
Now this is where tech started to take over slightly; with the birth of MSN (which is basically WhatsApp and Teams in one), it became a social must to add all your friends, create abstract names decorated with different symbols to make patterns, and with MSN+, you could make them dance or change colour! The sound of someone logging on or sending a nudge still rings in my head from time to time, giving me some dopamine by thinking of a simple time! The writing was on the wall at this point: the internet was going to be more addictive to me than any drug! My generation still wasn’t completely enslaved by this. There were still many nights at the park, most definitely not underage drinking, but no causing trouble, I promise!
I was then introduced to the world of MMORPGs, with the first being RuneScape (which I still play today). This was probably one of the best memories I have of gaming. Over the summer holidays one year, a friend and I would have a computer and a laptop set up in my room, a case of coke cans and snacks, and we would play RuneScape all night until the early hours. But still, with only 3 hours’ sleep, we would still get up to go and play football in the day, to come home and start the grind again to get a high enough level to catch and cook lobsters to regenerate health in boss battles to get full Rune armour! I tried other games like World of Warcraft and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic; but even with the graphics and IP, it never quite hit the same as RuneScape. The nostalgia still keeps me paying my monthly subscription to this day.
Now when it comes to hardware I love all the things I’ve ever had and one of those most memorable devices was the first-generation iPod Nano. It was just before I started doing my GCSEs I was and still am into all genres of music and I was used to cheap MP3 players, so this was a major upgrade! I mean 1000 tracks in my pocket… wow! And even though by today’s standards the included headphones are trash, they were a symbol of coolness back then!
It was probably the same year that my teenage angst was in full swing and I was probably a bit of a prick… or a lot of one to everyone! I didn’t even give any ideas to my parents for my birthday, then the day came and I opened a PSP! I’m pretty sure I cried, I was so happy, I remember playing GTA 3, Ghost Recon and FIFA. It was a geek’s dream gadget at the time and I was not deserving of it at all!
There is so much that I could go on about but the point of this blog is that my generation had periods where today’s tech didn’t exist, especially in the form it is now where it’s all designed to keep you engaged! We then got to see the wonders of new technologies that had never been seen before! Some of the magic created by tech companies now doesn’t get appreciated by the younger generations!
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