The 1990s and early 2000s were a turning point for the technology sector. Look closely and you can trace the tech gadgets we can’t live without from those early years when technology at the time paved the wave for the future.
For teens in the 1990s, devices like the Gameboy, Tamagotchi, and Walkman were must-haves that defined what it was like to be a teen in that era. Today, those specific technological devices are experiencing some kind of renaissance. Take the humble movie camera that uses 35mm film, which produces “cool” rear shots. Film photography has become so popular that it even has its own hashtag on Instagram, #FilmIsNotDead. Old-school camcorders have also made a comeback with YouTubers like Maddie Dragsbaek and Emma Chamberlain using them to document their lives despite the cameras being at least ten years old.
All of this just goes to show that your chronological age doesn’t always equate to your technological age. Try this quiz and see how your ages stack up against each other.
Do you want to discover some timeless pieces of technology? Here are some gadgets we think you might know something about if you were born in the 2010s. For those born in the ’90s, see how many of these gadgets you actually owned.
1. Tamagotchi
You may be familiar with the metaverse and all the virtual lands, events, and items you can buy, attend, and purchase. Before the metaverse, teenagers and young children in the ’90s had virtual pets, also known as Tamagotchis.
The Japanese technology company Bandai created these colorful egg-shaped devices. The goal of Tamagotchis was simple. Once your digital pet is born and fed, all you have to do is keep it alive by feeding it, cleaning its space and giving it lots of attention. While it may sound easy, Tamagotchis could die in a day, which meant many kids in the ’90s had to bring their virtual pets to school and risk getting caught with them. Many Tamagotchis also had key rings that allowed users to hang them on backpacks, elevating Tamagotchis to eye-catching accessory pieces.
In 2017, limited edition Tamagotchis were released to commemorate the product’s 20th anniversary. The 20th Anniversary Edition was smaller, and some found that the smaller screen limited the type of interactions you could have with your virtual pet. According to Bandai, more than 83 million Tamagotchi units have been sold as of March 2021.
2.Walkman and Discman
In the 1970s, the original Walkman was a portable cassette player created by Sony. Since then, Sony has expanded the Walkman line to include multiple mobile audio devices it has made. For compact discs, Sony dubbed them Discmans.
Before iTunes or Spotify, teens in the ’90s needed to carefully consider buying CDs from their favorite artists to load into their beloved Discman CD player. As with most 1990s tech gadgets, Walkmans and Discmans weren’t perfect and often had issues that caused songs to be skipped and buffering to occur. Following complaints, Sony introduced an electronic skip protection button that prevented this.
Fortunately, teenagers and children now do not have to worry about this when listening to music on their smartphones. While Sony has ceased production of its original line of Walkmans and Discmans, you may still be able to find some on Amazon or eBay.
3.Nintendo Gameboy
Do you love your Nintendo Switch, Sony Playstation or Xbox? You have Nintendo Game Boy to thank for the existence of these game consoles. The Game Boy was first introduced in 1989 in Japan and was sold as a stand-alone product or bundled with games as Super Mario and tetris. Despite its small size, the Game Boy was successful for its durability and long battery life.
In recent years, this simple, portable gaming device once again began to find itself in the hands of millennials and baby boomers. They are mainly a hit with those who used to own one in the past and love the simplicity of the 8-bit graphic. Production of the Game Boys ceased in 2003.
Avid gamers of the ’90s will remember the anxiety and stress of having to blow up the bottom of their Pokemon and Zelda game cartridges to get them working again.
4. Password Journal
Mattel’s Password Journal was one of the most sought after tech gadgets for tweens and the like in the ’90s. Unlike traditional magazines, Mattel’s baby pink edition has voice recognition capabilities that only open when its original owner speaks to him In a way, Password Journal was ahead of its time, considering that speech recognition technology was not as developed in the past. Several other companies, like VTech, have created their versions of the password journal after the success of Mattel.
These days, speech recognition technology can be found on literally any device. Smart home devices like Google’s Nest Home and Amazon’s Alexa rely on voice recognition to give users a more personalized experience.
5. Floppy disk
Before Google Drive and other cloud computing services existed, there was the humble floppy disk. Available in various colors, floppy disks were the last storage device of choice for teens in the 1990s. Teenagers often use floppy disks to turn in schoolwork, so they were often sold in packages. IBM invested in the first floppy disks before brands like 3M, Imation and Verbatim entered the scene.
Unfortunately, because they didn’t have much storage space, floppy disks were eventually replaced by external USB flash drives and other USB storage devices. The average floppy disk had about 800KB to 2.8MB of storage space, which is minuscule compared to what external storage devices can do now.
These days, almost everyone relies on some form of cloud storage device system to share and preserve important documents for work and personal purposes.
Looking at the list, it’s clear that tech gadgets from the past have served, in some way or form, as inspiration for some of our favorite gadgets today. Technology is constantly evolving, and that’s also why it’s one of the most exciting industries to work in or be a part of. It’s just one of the reasons why it’s completely understandable that keeping up with the trends that technology brings can be overwhelming.
If you’re feeling a little nostalgic and want to potentially buy any of the products pictured above, most online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy have versions of these retro gadgets.
Subscribe to our latest newsletter
To read our exclusive content, sign up now. $5/month, $50/year
Categories: Technology
Source: vtt.edu.vn