Twenty Years

How long is twenty years? That may sound like a dumb question, but do you consider twenty years a long time, a short time, or neither? By far, that depends on your age. I was fifteen back in 1987. Back then there were two chart-topping hit songs that were overplayed on the radio: “Mony Mony” by Billy Idol, and “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tiffany. They were remakes of two hit songs from Tommy James and The Shondells, released back in 1967 (twenty years earlier). The originals are older than I am, so I did not hesitate to classify them as “oldies.” When I was fifteen, twenty years was a really long time from my perspective.

Now here we are today. Some of us have heard a high schooler or a college kid label 90’s music as “oldies.” (After all, that decade ended over twenty years ago.) What were your thoughts on the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Did that horrible day seem like a “long” time ago to you, or rather a “short” time?

Twenty years seems like such a short time to me right now, and if you’re my age or older, I’m sure you can relate. However, if you reflect on some the following, as I have, then you might think otherwise. Where was the world twenty years ago? What was different?

·        There was no YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. The most popular digital social media outlets were chat rooms.

·       Movie rental stores were fast replacing VHS tapes with DVD’s. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and Movie Gallery were still up and running well.

·        If you had a PC, it had a bulky 2-foot tower with probably no more than 40-to-60GB to the hard drive.

·       Only wealthy households had DSL (Direct Subscriber Line) which was considered “high-speed” internet by most users. It started at about 112KB/second.

·          Text messaging was still in its infancy, and it was difficult and time-consuming to send a message, because you had to use the number pad. There were no smartphones with touchscreen technology.

·       Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, Russel Brand, and Barack Obama were not household names by any means. That list can be a mile long.

 All of that readjusts the way I look at a period of twenty years.

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