Back in the day, we had nine planets!
As a millennial, I’ve had the blessing to witness a variety of technological changes(evolution?). Communication and Media have flourished during my time as child due to which I, like most millennials, tend to have an increased acquaintance with them. From carrying music cassettes(with both sides) to “carrying? Duh!”, renting a DVD player on special occasions to daily binge-watching on the go, waiting for our turn to get into a crowded restaurant on festive eve, to applying festive coupons on UberEats, the diversity in experiences for the same aim have been vast(and the struggles it contained, real!)
Talking about struggle, exchanging games for the then Personal Computer was a herculean task all in all(our first independent hands on tech :P).I mean, you had to sneak through your father’s set of empty CD’s, ‘burn’ a game on it, and in order to not waste data(a whole 700 MB of it) put in courtesy files, flash games and songs of taste.(Yes, this was our idea of ‘sharing’ with ‘friends’).After proper reconnaissance, the deal would take place(and a new ally made!) in the recess. It got better as we grew up though, slowly after re-writable disks became the premium gadget. By the time USBs arrived, we were sharing a lot more than just games(:P).
The internet on the other hand was too scarce, internet at home was available to only limited number of people. However, some boring project work made for an excuse, and the legends were true. The internet opened itself up and O’ the worlds that it revealed(at Om Sai baba net café). 3G phones made sure you could pause and play these worlds at your will(not to mention, also mute them when needed :P ). Not only did we enjoy passing chits(public, childhood), we also held the privilege of chatting between benches(private, puberty?). And, to be able to do that even on a not-so-flagship phone, was why it only got ‘cooler’! Perhaps partly the reason for most of them, millennials, to be easily acquainted with the social media is because of the fact that they were there from the beginning of it.
Getting certain things done today might have become easier, but there was a joy in going through for them. I mean I made my best friend out of the first deal I made(Spiderman for Maxpayne).If I was in the mood to exaggerate(and feel old), I’d say that each step towards technology have killed the need for at least one basic social interaction(which is sort of sad, coz you wouldn’t need coupons if the dukan wala was your friend!!). Having chopped off the small talk(again, exaggeration), we can only be hopeful that it hasn’t created a void which it never meant to; and can only pray that social platforms fill it.
P.S : The title has nothing to do with this; Read it somewhere and thought it’d be cool! :P
