I don’t really remember what life was really like in the year 2000 because I was mostly 6 at that time. I would like to know what was it like at the time since I have no memory of it. What memories do you have about the year 2000?
They hadn’t invented color yet.
I don’t know what all differences there really were, but offhand:
Islamic terrorism was about as esoteric a threat as Ugandan nationalism to Americans. We were pretty apathetic about it.
Electronics weren’t as good, which I guess is obvious. Broadband was affordable (largely the same price sadly, about $40-50 for 4Mbps) but cell phones didn’t really exist for most people. The internet hit the mainstream in the early/mid 90s, so it was already well known by 2000.
Gay marriage & MJ legalization were largely unrealistic so there has been social progress.
Aside from that, not much has changed in the US. Social progress, tech progress, new wars.
I will say this, I don’t think there was nearly the level of hopelessness and despair about the government as there is now. There may have been and I missed it. The plutocracy and oligarchy is a lot more naked now than in the past. Plus in 2000 the economy was still fairly good, jobs were plentiful and the debt was being paid off.
In a place like China where the economy is 3-4x bigger than it was in 2000 and hundreds of millions have entered the global middle class I’m sure the answer would be different about the level of changes.
Wow. Just… Wow. Am I really that old?
I hate to break it to you. The mullet was still worn by many men.
A hair style aberration that I hope never gets repeated.
It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Internet was a dream given form, a series of tubes to form a sort of neutral territory. It was a wild place, but it was our last, and best, hope for peace.
Al Gore was about to be elected President. A slam dunk.
Hands up, how many of you first thought along the lines of “aren’t you a bit too young to post here then … oh wait, you are 20 now”?
I’m gonna have to disagree with this one. I got my first cell phone in 1995 and had already been feeling ‘behind the times’ (and not just in comparison to the other docs where I was working; cell phones were suddenly everywhere by the mid-to-late 90’s).
ETA: Think about it - lots of passengers on the 9/11 flights had cell phones and that was only one year after what the OP was asking about
They hadn’t invented fire yet. That’s why I was over here, because it was warm.
Not too far from the truth, at least over here, where “Millennium Gray” was the color fashion.
Agreed. I didn’t get my first cellphone until 2010, but just about everyone I knew in 2000 had one.
I agree with this one. In fact, I think I was on my third cell phone by 2000. There really weren’t any smartphones yet, and few, if any, had a camera. But I had a primitive web browser, text only, and I could read email on it.
GOP was changing its line from “Global Warming is a theory - not a fact” to “There is no evidence that Global Warming is caused by human activity”.
The Neo-Cons (Cheney, most of W’s cabinet) were about to destroy the economy and start a war because Saddam Hussein had tried to kill W’s daddy when daddy attacked the first time.
Jihadism was well known - but W was concerned with Commies - Connie Rice’s expertise was the USSR. Ignoring the Jihaddists cost…
Most computers had 600x800 18’’ Cathode Ray Tube screens, or worse.
Gas was a $1.50 and you could fill up for around $20. Napster was in full swing and the digital music revolution was kickstarted. Some people had MP3 players or even minidisc players but for the most part it was still walkman CD players and the headphones were shit making jogging more of a rarity than it is now. Speaking of music, artists like Eminem and Marilyn Manson were under fire in the wake of the columbine shootings. Violence in the media was a hot button topic. The internet for the most part was very rudimentary - lots of frames (if the OP even knows what that means). Oh, and JNCO jeans.
Overall, not a whole lot different than today. The details were a little different, and quite a few of those are post 9/11 issues. Not so many american flags all over everything, and there hadn’t been a war in almost a decade by that point, so patriotic fervor wasn’t really a thing at that point.
Nor was there any special adulation for first-responders like cops or firemen. That all started post 9/11.
Air travel was much more relaxed and easier. You didn’t have to get there an hour ahead of time for a domestic flight- 15 minutes was more than enough time.
Otherwise, most changes have been technological, and only smartphones have really been a groundbreaking one IMO.
It was a pretty good time, or maybe it just seems that way in comparison to what the next decade or so would bring. The economy was good, crime was falling, we weren’t at war (speaking of the US here - not sure where the OP lives). As WesleyClark says, I don’t think there was quite the level of disaffection and discord that there soon would be.
Re. cellphones, I didn’t get my first one till 2005, though I think my parents had one that was shared by them and whatever of my siblings were living at home at the time. They certainly weren’t as ubiquitous as they are now, and as I recall the idea that, say, a high schooler would have their own was considered a bit crazy or pretentious.
Somebody thought it would be a good idea to release a live action How The Grinch Stole Christmas, so it can’t have been all wine & roses.
Don’t know if either of these were “groundbreaking” (though they are things that I and I think most people use every day) but in 2000 Wikipedia, YouTube, and iPods did not exist.
If someone went into a coma in 2000 and woke up today, the only major change would be the reality of global terrorism. Nobody could believe 9/11 would happen one year later.
If someone went into a coma in 1962 and woke up in 1976 (for the bicentennial, I guess), they would find it hard to believe they were on the same planet.
The internet wasn’t in your pocket yet.