Tangled Up In Wires

Tangled Up in Wires has been thinking a lot about the last ten years, but we haven’t stopped with just our compulsive entertaining listmaking. So, for our Weekly Best Of, we present a list of ten things that came about int he 2000s that would have totally blown our minds if we knew about them in 1999.

1.The iPod
In 1999, every time I went on a trip, I had to carefully pick what CDs would fit in my bag to take with me. There would be no other music for that trip, but whatever I could bring for my Discman. When the iPod came out, all of that changed. Sure, it wasn’t the first MP3 player, but it was the most user-friendly and cheapest and the first one to catch on. The idea that you could take your entire music collection with you everywhere would have been mind blowing enough in 1999, but the iPod Touch and iPhone really would have thrown us over the edge.

2. Netflix
Back in 1999, if there was a movie you were dying to see, you’d have to go out to your local movie store and then hope they not only had it but had available copies. Then came Netflix, which lets you rent and watch obscure German independent films without ever having to leave your house or paying late fees. And now, you don’t even have to put in that much effort, thanks to instant streaming through your computer or Xbox 360. If only they could invent NetPopcorn and NetDietCoke, we’d never have to leave the couch again!

3. Xbox 360/PS3 Online Gaming
If you wanted to play your friend in a game of Madden in 1999, you’d start up your PlayStation (you’d have to wait another year for a PS2), have your friend over, and play with cruddy graphics until your friend had to go home for dinner. Ten years later, all you need is an internet connection. By adding online gaming, consoles took away the one legitimate advantage PC gaming had over them and blended them with more accessible games.

4. Social Networking Sites
By 1999 the internet was far more than just a fad for geeks and had become a hugely dominant force. But still, if you wanted to connect with people, you had to either know where to find them or search for them in chat rooms and vague Yahoo! searches. The advent of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter has not only made it easier to connect people with each other, but with the world around them. As a result, people are more aware not just of what’s going on with each other, but what’s going on all over the world.

5. High Definition
If you want to know just how fantastic high definition television and movies are just watch something in HD and then switch to standard. The difference is literally mind blowing. What went from being a gimmicky thing that seemed only plausible for those rich enough to afford it, high def has become broadcast standard, making everything just a little more clear. It also completely changed the sports viewing experience in ways you never would have expected.

6. Smart Phones
Cellphones evolved over the years between 1999 and 2009 going from simple portable telephones to camera phones, and finally, to smart phones. In 1999, an small cube in your pocket that simultaneously functions as a phone, camera, and computer with the internet would have seemed absolutely implausible, like something George Jetson should have. Not only has the smart phone connected people more effectively, but it also is really an impressive feat of technological advancement.

7. Wi-Fi
It used to take 45 minutes to download a song, now it can take less time to download an entire movie. But what’s really mindblowing is that you can get that kind of high speed internet anywhere. Laptops used to bulky and frustratingly weaker than a desktop. The advent of wi-fi changed all of that. Like the smart phone giving you the internet in the palm of your hand, wi-fi gave it to you everywhere, airports, coffee shops, even parks. Communication sped up even more thanks to the invention, and hasn’t looked back.

8. Hybrid Cars
Back when saving the environment was for granola loving hippies, electric cars were the laughable way of the future. Cars would be electric when they flew. But now, hybrids are not only far more popular than their predecessors, but a lot more functional. Hybrids aren’t just small cars that are outrageously expensive anymore, but affordable and in every form you could want. Who knew saving the environment would be so popular and functional?

9. YouTube
Want to watch a montage of cats doing cute things in 1999? Too bad! You have no way to do it! But alas, YouTube has meant a lot more than that, and aside from changing the way we view entertainment media, it’s had a profound effective on the news media as well. It’s also acted as a personal visual history museum, allowing people to view historical events of both the past and present without ever turning on their TV.

10. A Black President
In 1999, the highest ranking black official was then-Former Secretary of Defense Colin Powell. My how times have changed. Regardless of your feelings on Barack Obama’s politics, his election as the first black president truly was a monumental event that definitely will have positive effects for years to come.

Have a good weekend everyone. See you on Monday!