Now that ten years have passed since 2005, I've been thinking a lot about the historical significance of the entire 2003-2007 time period. In doing so, I've come to the perhaps controversial opinion that the mid 2000's was as changeful from a technological standpoint as the late 1960's were from a cultural standpoint. Now, I know at first blush that might sound absurd, but I think if you look at the way that technology impacted the life of the average person in 2003 vs. 2007 you'll begin to agree.

Of course, I base all of this on my own personal experiences. In January of 2003 I was in the middle of my sophomore year, and in my small town school, only a small handful of kids from well-off families even had a cell phone. For the most part, if students needed to call out during school hours, we still used the payphone. Though the iPod had been out for over a year it had still yet to take off, and I didn't know a single kid that had one yet. The CD was still the dominant musical medium, and I, like most of my friends, carried a portable CD player around in my bookbag to listen to between classes. Social networking was essentially non-existent. HDTV was little more than a myth to us, as we all still had the old fashioned CRT television sets, and many people actually still used VCR's. The biggest differences though, were driven by the internet. Web 1.0 still ruled in January '03, and only a small percentage of the U.S. population had broadband internet. In my small town, this meant that if you wanted to book a vacation, you called a travel agency; if you had to research a project for school, you went to the library; if you needed driving directions, you had to ask for them or hope you had a road map. Even though the PlayStation 2 and Xbox had internet capability, playing games online was far too much of a headache to even try. Streaming online video was a pipe dream, so you still had to go to Blockbuster and rent a movie if you wanted to see it. With dial-up, it could take as much as two hours to download one song off Limewire or Kazaa, so most kids still went to the music store and bought CD's.

Now, compare that to January 2007. By that point, even my grandparents had a cell phone. CD players were nearly totally dead, as portable music players like the iPod had become much more affordable, and the explosion of iTunes meant that downloading MP3's was much easier. People were buying HDTV's in droves, and sales were on the verge of overtaking traditional CRT sets. The format war between HD-DVD and Blu Ray was raging, while VHS sales had dried up dramatically. By the beginning of '07, Web 2.0 was in full swing.  Broadband use had nearly tripled since 2003. Social networking had really taken off thanks to MySpace, but other sites like Facebook and Twitter were beginning to pose a challenge. YouTube was so big, it had already been sold for over $1 billion to Google, and it was making stars out of people posting videos on the site like Soulja Boy and The Angry Video Game Nerd. Other video streaming sites were beginning to follow YouTube's lead, and the video rental industry was taking a hit. The skyrocketing popularity of Wikipedia had already begun to kill off physical encyclopedias for good, the rise of digital downloads begun to severely damage the sales of CD's, and the next generation consoles, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, helped to truly usher in the era of high-definition gaming and competitive online play.

Looking back ten years later, I wonder if other people also feel like the mid '00s were an extremely changeful time period technologically?

I totally agree that the mid-2010s were a period of dramatic technologic evolution, as so many significant new sites and services basically transformed the Internet from just a cool invention into pretty much the center of the universe.  The advent of iPhones and advanced social media in the late 2000s and early 2010s built upon these changes even further, but by 2007, I already felt like we had really entered the 21st century.

That being said, in most other areas, the cultural change between 2003 and 2007 was negligible at best.  Although 2004 brought the end of the late 90s/early 2000s era of television and the Internet, music from 2007 was predominantly in the same vein as what was popular since late 2003.  Pop stars like Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé had already enjoyed solo success in 2003, while newer stars such as Rihanna and Fergie mostly followed their example, albeit with a little more versatility.  Post-grunge bands like Daughtry, Nickelback, and Three Days Grace were mostly a direct continuation of the genre as it had been since the beginning of the new millennium.  The pop punk scene leaned a bit more towards emo than it had in the early 2000s, but even so, emo was already gigantic in 2002 with The Middle, a Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit that year.  Snap and other forms of urban mostly followed the example established in 2003-2004 with Lil' Jon and Kanye West.  Geopolitically, 2007 was still very much part of the War on Terror/Bush backlash period, although Gordon Brown became the new British Prime Minister midway through.  The housing bubble had already bust, but the effects were hardly felt yet.

By contrast, 2008 through early 2010 brought dramatic change to the dominant music genres and sociopolitical atmosphere of the day, in addition to its continuation of technological development.  The economy had hit rock-bottom by the beginning of 2009, and continued to suffer throughout the early 2010s.  Obama was now President of the United States, and gay marriage and the Tea Party were now much more significant topics than Bush's War on Terror.  The top 5 singles of 2008 in America were T-Pain and Flo Rida's Low, Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love, Alicia Keys' No One, Lil' Wayne and Static Major's Lollipop, and Timbaland feat. OneRepublic's Apologize.  In 2009, the top 5 consisted of two Lady Gaga songs, two electropop-era Black-Eyed Peas songs, and a Taylor Swift song, even though 2000s genres still had a fair presence on the charts that year.  By 2010, the top 100 songs were almost entirely songs of an electropop (Ke$ha, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga), pop-country (Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum), modern urban (B.o.B., Mike Posner, Jason Derulo, Drake), or alternative/indie flavor (Neon Trees, OneRepublic).  The only three songs that truly sound like they would fit in with the 2000s in general are Nelly's Just a Dream, Daughtry's Life After You, and Orianthi's According to You.

In retrospect, 2007 feels like the primitive precursor to what would eventually become the 2010s, but still predominantly caught in the 2000s zeitgeist.  Even with all of the technological changes it brought, I still think the year is much closer to 2004 than 2010.

I have to say we sure have been technologically advancing since then. Everything you mentioned that was popular in 2003 had declined by 2007. It's amazing how I was to witness this transition and still feels like yesterday.

Back in 2003, CD players were everywhere with some others having a MP3; I remember seeing payphones in many places; online gaming was only synonymous with PC; there were early social media sites such as AOL, Yahoo and MSN; most folks didn't have cell phones; T.Vs and computers were both CRTs etc.

In 2007, the world was technologically different from 2003 along with the pop culture. Online gaming was now on consoles; everyone had cellphones; WiFi was beginning to rise; the monitors were flat screened; Web 2.0 was already in effect and YouTube had existed.

Looking back, the transition was huge and it was awesome to witness it; however, it turned us into the opposite of what it intended to do. It was supposed to bring us closer, but instead it is breaking us apart.

Now that ten years have passed since 2005, I've been thinking a lot about the historical significance of the entire 2003-2007 time period. In doing so, I've come to the perhaps controversial opinion that the mid 2000's was as changeful from a technological standpoint as the late 1960's were from a cultural standpoint. Now, I know at first blush that might sound absurd, but I think if you look at the way that technology impacted the life of the average person in 2003 vs. 2007 you'll begin to agree.

Of course, I base all of this on my own personal experiences. In January of 2003 I was in the middle of my sophomore year, and in my small town school, only a small handful of kids from well-off families even had a cell phone. For the most part, if students needed to call out during school hours, we still used the payphone. Though the iPod had been out for over a year it had still yet to take off, and I didn't know a single kid that had one yet. The CD was still the dominant musical medium, and I, like most of my friends, carried a portable CD player around in my bookbag to listen to between classes. Social networking was essentially non-existent. HDTV was little more than a myth to us, as we all still had the old fashioned CRT television sets, and many people actually still used VCR's. The biggest differences though, were driven by the internet. Web 1.0 still ruled in January '03, and only a small percentage of the U.S. population had broadband internet. In my small town, this meant that if you wanted to book a vacation, you called a travel agency; if you had to research a project for school, you went to the library; if you needed driving directions, you had to ask for them or hope you had a road map. Even though the PlayStation 2 and Xbox had internet capability, playing games online was far too much of a headache to even try. Streaming online video was a pipe dream, so you still had to go to Blockbuster and rent a movie if you wanted to see it. With dial-up, it could take as much as two hours to download one song off Limewire or Kazaa, so most kids still went to the music store and bought CD's.

Now, compare that to January 2007. By that point, even my grandparents had a cell phone. CD players were nearly totally dead, as portable music players like the iPod had become much more affordable, and the explosion of iTunes meant that downloading MP3's was much easier. People were buying HDTV's in droves, and sales were on the verge of overtaking traditional CRT sets. The format war between HD-DVD and Blu Ray was raging, while VHS sales had dried up dramatically. By the beginning of '07, Web 2.0 was in full swing.  Broadband use had nearly tripled since 2003. Social networking had really taken off thanks to MySpace, but other sites like Facebook and Twitter were beginning to pose a challenge. YouTube was so big, it had already been sold for over $1 billion to Google, and it was making stars out of people posting videos on the site like Soulja Boy and The Angry Video Game Nerd. Other video streaming sites were beginning to follow YouTube's lead, and the video rental industry was taking a hit. The skyrocketing popularity of Wikipedia had already begun to kill off physical encyclopedias for good, the rise of digital downloads begun to severely damage the sales of CD's, and the next generation consoles, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, helped to truly usher in the era of high-definition gaming and competitive online play.

Looking back ten years later, I wonder if other people also feel like the mid '00s were an extremely changeful time period technologically?

2003-2007 was a golden age

So we're comparing the last year of the early 2000's (2003) to the first year of the late 2000's (2007) to give our analysis on how the mid 2000's (2004-2006) was a changing period in society? Well let's see what we have here. By 2004, dial-up had declined and broadband became the majority in people's houses. Myspace debuted in 2003, Facebook debuted in 2004, Youtube debuted in 2005, and Twitter debuted in 2006, which would end up causing social media to be a huge impact on our lives like it still is today. Online gaming on 7th generation consoles including Wi-Fi itself got real big and popular by 2007. Although the iPod was released in 2001, it really wouldn't get big in sales and popularity until about 2004 from what I've researched. There's more stuff I could bring up from the top of my head, but this is all I got so far.

Although 2004 brought the end of the late 90s/early 2000s era of television and the Internet, music from 2007 was predominantly in the same vein as what was popular since late 2003.  Pop stars like Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé had already enjoyed solo success in 2003, while newer stars such as Rihanna and Fergie mostly followed their example, albeit with a little more versatility.  Post-grunge bands like Daughtry, Nickelback, and Three Days Grace were mostly a direct continuation of the genre as it had been since the beginning of the new millennium.  The pop punk scene leaned a bit more towards emo than it had in the early 2000s, but even so, emo was already gigantic in 2002 with The Middle, a Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit that year.  Snap and other forms of urban mostly followed the example established in 2003-2004 with Lil' Jon and Kanye West.  Geopolitically, 2007 was still very much part of the War on Terror/Bush backlash period, although Gordon Brown became the new British Prime Minister midway through.  The housing bubble had already bust, but the effects were hardly felt yet.

By contrast, 2008 through early 2010 brought dramatic change to the dominant music genres and sociopolitical atmosphere of the day, in addition to its continuation of technological development.  The economy had hit rock-bottom by the beginning of 2009, and continued to suffer throughout the early 2010s.  Obama was now President of the United States, and gay marriage and the Tea Party were now much more significant topics than Bush's War on Terror.  The top 5 singles of 2008 in America were T-Pain and Flo Rida's Low, Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love, Alicia Keys' No One, Lil' Wayne and Static Major's Lollipop, and Timbaland feat. OneRepublic's Apologize.  In 2009, the top 5 consisted of two Lady Gaga songs, two electropop-era Black-Eyed Peas songs, and a Taylor Swift song, even though 2000s genres still had a fair presence on the charts that year.  By 2010, the top 100 songs were almost entirely songs of an electropop (Ke$ha, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga), pop-country (Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum), modern urban (B.o.B., Mike Posner, Jason Derulo, Drake), or alternative/indie flavor (Neon Trees, OneRepublic).  The only three songs that truly sound like they would fit in with the 2000s in general are Nelly's Just a Dream, Daughtry's Life After You, and Orianthi's According to You.

In retrospect, 2007 feels like the primitive precursor to what would eventually become the 2010s, but still predominantly caught in the 2000s zeitgeist.  Even with all of the technological changes it brought, I still think the year is much closer to 2004 than 2010.


Preach it girl preach it everything you said I go by as well ;) and everything I have in bold I agree with even much more it just sparks how society has changed over the years.

I think that the mid 2000s were the most colorful period of my childhood, even though I still had a VCR and DVD player, along with broadband Internet around 2004. I still found PBS Kids and Nick Jr to be good, especially when I was just young enough to still watch their crap, because who the hell actually watches their crap if you are over 7 years old? By the time 2007 came, those networks stopped airing all of my favorite stuff from them, which gave me a chance to watch more Cartoon Network and other older kids sheesh, despite watching the channel since 2005. But anyways, I loved them more in the mid 2000s.

I definitely agree there was quite a leap forward in technology during the mid '00s, but I don't think it was limited to just then.  Let's compare 1995 with 1999.  In 1995, a lot of people didn't even have computers and those who did weren't likely to be on the Internet.  Plus, you didn't really need Internet, you had Encarta.  By 1999 most people had a computer with a dial-up connection and a few even had broadband.  In 1995, the CD was gaining ground but the cassette was still relevant because most cars at the time still came with only cassette players.  By 1999, the cassette was dead and the CD was standard, and the MP3 was starting to come into prominence (though at the time, it was simply a means to create audio CDs via a CD burner).  In 1995, we were in the golden age of VHS.  LaserDisc tried to replace it but failed.  DVD was still a few years away.  In 1999, VHS was still relevant but on its way out and more and more people were getting DVD players.  In 1995, we were still in the 2D, 16-bit era of console gaming and the Sega Genesis and SNES were the two most popular consoles.  In 1999, the 3D era had arrived and we had the N64, PS1, and the Dreamcast.  PC gaming was mostly MS-DOS based in 1995 while had become fully 32-bit, 3D, and Windows-based by 1999.

So yes, I agree that there was a lot of change from 2003 to 2007, but there was also a lot of change from 1995 to 1999 or from 1999 to 2003.  This is why I look at 1993-2008 as a single significant era that brought us from the analog 20th century to the digital 21st century.  You can take any four year period during that transition and point to similar giant leaps in technology.

Of course, technology has continued to advance since 2008 and there were advancements before 1993, but it isn't as fast nor as drastic as it was during the era from 1993 to 2008.

I think game consoles have changed a lot over the past decade. From The PS2 to the PS3, Wii and The Xbox.

I totally agree that the mid-2010s were a period of dramatic technologic evolution, as so many significant new sites and services basically transformed the Internet from just a cool invention into pretty much the center of the universe.  The advent of iPhones and advanced social media in the late 2000s and early 2010s built upon these changes even further, but by 2007, I already felt like we had really entered the 21st century.

That being said, in most other areas, the cultural change between 2003 and 2007 was negligible at best.  Although 2004 brought the end of the late 90s/early 2000s era of television and the Internet, music from 2007 was predominantly in the same vein as what was popular since late 2003.  Pop stars like Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé had already enjoyed solo success in 2003, while newer stars such as Rihanna and Fergie mostly followed their example, albeit with a little more versatility.  Post-grunge bands like Daughtry, Nickelback, and Three Days Grace were mostly a direct continuation of the genre as it had been since the beginning of the new millennium.  The pop punk scene leaned a bit more towards emo than it had in the early 2000s, but even so, emo was already gigantic in 2002 with The Middle, a Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit that year.  Snap and other forms of urban mostly followed the example established in 2003-2004 with Lil' Jon and Kanye West.  Geopolitically, 2007 was still very much part of the War on Terror/Bush backlash period, although Gordon Brown became the new British Prime Minister midway through.  The housing bubble had already bust, but the effects were hardly felt yet.

By contrast, 2008 through early 2010 brought dramatic change to the dominant music genres and sociopolitical atmosphere of the day, in addition to its continuation of technological development.  The economy had hit rock-bottom by the beginning of 2009, and continued to suffer throughout the early 2010s.  Obama was now President of the United States, and gay marriage and the Tea Party were now much more significant topics than Bush's War on Terror.  The top 5 singles of 2008 in America were T-Pain and Flo Rida's Low, Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love, Alicia Keys' No One, Lil' Wayne and Static Major's Lollipop, and Timbaland feat. OneRepublic's Apologize.  In 2009, the top 5 consisted of two Lady Gaga songs, two electropop-era Black-Eyed Peas songs, and a Taylor Swift song, even though 2000s genres still had a fair presence on the charts that year.  By 2010, the top 100 songs were almost entirely songs of an electropop (Ke$ha, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga), pop-country (Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum), modern urban (B.o.B., Mike Posner, Jason Derulo, Drake), or alternative/indie flavor (Neon Trees, OneRepublic).  The only three songs that truly sound like they would fit in with the 2000s in general are Nelly's Just a Dream, Daughtry's Life After You, and Orianthi's According to You.

In retrospect, 2007 feels like the primitive precursor to what would eventually become the 2010s, but still predominantly caught in the 2000s zeitgeist.  Even with all of the technological changes it brought, I still think the year is much closer to 2004 than 2010.


Yeah, I agree that the mid '00s were not a very changeful time culturally, which is why I only mentioned the technological aspect. Culturally, the last five years or so have already been much more changeful than 2003-2007. If I had to mention something, I'd say the biggest change during the mid '00s was the slight ideological shift that began to occur in 2005 around the time of Hurricane Katrina, where the hyper-patriotic, conservative atmosphere of the Post-9/11 era began to die down, and American's by and large began to turn against the Bush Administration's policies, ultimately electing a Democratic Congress in 2006, which paved the way for Barack Obama to be elected in 2008.


I definitely agree there was quite a leap forward in technology during the mid '00s, but I don't think it was limited to just then.  Let's compare 1995 with 1999.  In 1995, a lot of people didn't even have computers and those who did weren't likely to be on the Internet.  Plus, you didn't really need Internet, you had Encarta.  By 1999 most people had a computer with a dial-up connection and a few even had broadband.  In 1995, the CD was gaining ground but the cassette was still relevant because most cars at the time still came with only cassette players.  By 1999, the cassette was dead and the CD was standard, and the MP3 was starting to come into prominence (though at the time, it was simply a means to create audio CDs via a CD burner).  In 1995, we were in the golden age of VHS.  LaserDisc tried to replace it but failed.  DVD was still a few years away.  In 1999, VHS was still relevant but on its way out and more and more people were getting DVD players.  In 1995, we were still in the 2D, 16-bit era of console gaming and the Sega Genesis and SNES were the two most popular consoles.  In 1999, the 3D era had arrived and we had the N64, PS1, and the Dreamcast.  PC gaming was mostly MS-DOS based in 1995 while had become fully 32-bit, 3D, and Windows-based by 1999.

So yes, I agree that there was a lot of change from 2003 to 2007, but there was also a lot of change from 1995 to 1999 or from 1999 to 2003.  This is why I look at 1993-2008 as a single significant era that brought us from the analog 20th century to the digital 21st century.  You can take any four year period during that transition and point to similar giant leaps in technology.

Of course, technology has continued to advance since 2008 and there were advancements before 1993, but it isn't as fast nor as drastic as it was during the era from 1993 to 2008.


Oh yeah, the '90s were definitely a very pivotal time technologically. I think my view on this is a bit tainted though because, like I said, I grew up in a pretty poor area where technological advancements happened very slowly. We didn't even get a computer in our house until the very end of 1999, and didn't get the internet until March of 2000, so perhaps the last few years of the '90s seem a lot older to me than they might to someone that was already surfing the net by 1998.

Now that ten years have passed since 2005, I've been thinking a lot about the historical significance of the entire 2003-2007 time period. In doing so, I've come to the perhaps controversial opinion that the mid 2000's was as changeful from a technological standpoint as the late 1960's were from a cultural standpoint. Now, I know at first blush that might sound absurd, but I think if you look at the way that technology impacted the life of the average person in 2003 vs. 2007 you'll begin to agree.
Ok.


Of course, I base all of this on my own personal experiences. In January of 2003 I was in the middle of my sophomore year, and in my small town school, only a small handful of kids from well-off families even had a cell phone. For the most part, if students needed to call out during school hours, we still used the payphone. Though the iPod had been out for over a year it had still yet to take off,
I was in full swing where I was.


The CD was still the dominant musical medium, and I, like most of my friends, carried a portable CD player around in my bookbag to listen to between classes. Social networking was essentially non-existent.
Except for AIM and MSM.


HDTV was little more than a myth to us,
HD CRTs in both TV and PC monitor form were all over the place, I had a 720p LCD(600p+ LCDs were around since 1995) from '01. Expensive sure, but so were HDTVs in the late 00s.


as we all still had the old fashioned CRT television sets, and many people actually still used VCR's.
And continued to use them for years to come as most DVD players were hybrids and VHS got new lease recording TV programs.


The biggest differences though, were driven by the internet. Web 1.0 still ruled in January '03, and only a small percentage of the U.S. population had broadband internet.
Dial-up was 34% of internet users by 2000 so most were using something else anyway such as satellite.


In my small town, this meant that if you wanted to book a vacation, you called a travel agency; if you had to research a project for school, you went to the library; if you needed driving directions, you had to ask for them or hope you had a road map.
Remember having to do that in 2007.


Even though the PlayStation 2 and Xbox had internet capability, playing games online was far too much of a headache to even try. Streaming online video was a pipe dream,
Shareyourworld video sharing site from 1997? Break.com from 1998?


so you still had to go to Blockbuster and rent a movie if you wanted to see it. With dial-up, it could take as much as two hours to download one song off Limewire or Kazaa, so most kids still went to the music store and bought CD's.
CD never really died but dial-up didn't stop Napster from exploding.


Now, compare that to January 2007....and the explosion of iTunes meant that downloading MP3's was much easier.
Illegally.


People were buying HDTV's in droves, and sales were on the verge of overtaking traditional CRT sets.
2007 HDTVs were fun ;D
http://www.governmentauctions.org/uploaded_images/tv-791169.jpg


The format war between HD-DVD and Blu Ray was raging, while VHS sales had dried up dramatically.
While the latter did happen, HD-DVD and Blueray were pretty niche. Neither sold as well in the 00s as DVD did in the 90s and the market was almost exclusively standard DVD's domain.


By the beginning of '07, Web 2.0 was in full swing.  Broadband use had nearly tripled since 2003. Social networking had really taken off thanks to MySpace, but other sites like Facebook and Twitter were beginning to pose a challenge.
Never heard of Twitter ???


YouTube was so big, it had already been sold for over $1 billion to Google, and it was making stars out of people posting videos on the site like Soulja Boy and The Angry Video Game Nerd. Other video streaming sites were beginning to follow YouTube's lead, and the video rental industry was taking a hit.
You couldn't really watch full episodes on Youtube much less movies and most across the internet were atrocious quality. Netflix DVD rentals was thriving around this time for that reason.


The skyrocketing popularity of Wikipedia had already begun to kill off physical encyclopedias for good,
As was skyrocketing high school project plagerism.


the rise of digital downloads begun to severely damage the sales of CD's, and the next generation consoles, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, helped to truly usher in the era of high-definition gaming and competitive online play.
PS3 and Xbox 360 were largely sub-HD, many 600p games, some 720p(which looks dated now) content, and almost no 1080p content because they could barely handle 720p in the first place.
MS dropped the 720p stipulation by 2009.
http://www.destructoid.com/xbox-360-games-no-longer-have-to-be-in-hd-147350.phtml
PC ushered true 1080p gaming in, though not in full force as today even then.


Looking back ten years later, I wonder if other people also feel like the mid '00s were an extremely changeful time period technologically?

Tbh, it'll probably look like the 90s. Just how I expect the 2020s to look similar to the '10s, only with 4K resolution as standard rather than a luxury.

Shareyourworld video sharing site from 1997? Break.com from 1998?


I don't think those websites were ever popular to start with.

I don't think those websites were ever popular to start with.

They were popular among those with Internet other than dial-up and a camcorder. I just used them as examples of online videos older than youtube, vimo and daily motion.

I was in full swing where I was.


I suppose that's possible, but iPod sales were positively anemic in the first two years of it's existence, so much so that some in the music press were actually calling it a failure in early '03. The turning point for sales didn't begin until the iTunes Store was launched that spring.

Except for AIM and MSM.

Stuff like AIM, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, etc. were indeed primitive versions of what is today called "social media", as were chat rooms. But, from my experience, they had nowhere near the impact on an average teenager's life in the early '00s that Facebook and Twitter do today. Kids at my school might go a few days without even logging on to AIM, not something you'd see with most high school kids today when it comes to Facebook.

HD CRTs in both TV and PC monitor form were all over the place, I had a 720p LCD(600p+ LCDs were around since 1995) from '01. Expensive sure, but so were HDTVs in the late 00s.

Very few people in small town America had HD sets in January 2003, whether in CRT form or not. For most people in areas like mine, they were still too expensive, and at any rate, most of the major American networks (the broadcast networks, ESPN, etc.) didn't really begin offering programming in high-definition until 2003 anyway. I still remember when my parents got me a flat-screen SDTV for Christmas that year, and I thought it was the best looking picture I'd ever seen at the time outside of the electronics section at Sears.

And continued to use them for years to come as most DVD players were hybrids and VHS got new lease recording TV programs.

Yeah, there were certainly many people (like my parents) that kept using VCR's after the mid '00s, but the steady rise of DVR/Tivo sales, as well, of course, as DVD, had begun to hurt the VHS format by 2007. Many major retailers like Wal-Mart ceased selling VCR's altogether during the mid '00s, and the last movie was released on the VHS format in 2006.

Dial-up was 34% of internet users by 2000 so most were using something else anyway such as satellite.

True, but in early 2003 only 16% of internet users had a true broadband connection, whereas, by early 2007, that number stood at nearly 50%. I've never used satellite internet myself, but based off the handful of people I knew that had it back in the mid '00s, it was pretty terrible.

Remember having to do that in 2007.

Yeah, I think I spoke a little too broadly on that one. Most kids at my college were using Wikipedia and other similar sites for research purposes by 2007, but Google Maps didn't really start replacing the old paper maps until smartphone sales began to peak in the late '00s/early '10s.

Shareyourworld video sharing site from 1997? Break.com from 1998?

Streaming video sites have been around for years, but they were essentially unusable without a broadband connection. I tried using sites like Break, eBaum's World, and Metacafe in the early '00s, but eventually just gave up once I discovered that it would take a half-hour to watch a simple three minute video. YouTube got lucky, because it probably would've wound up in the proverbial cyberspace graveyard like those earlier sites had it not happened to come along at the same time broadband was overtaking dial-up.

CD never really died but dial-up didn't stop Napster from exploding.

No doubt that Napster was very popular around the turn of the millennium, but online song downloads didn't really begin to impact the music industry in a serious way until the mid 2000's, with digital download's ultimately overtaking CD sales in 2007. We certainly thought that P2P services were awesome back in the day, but there was just no way that I was going to spend an hour trying to download a single MP3, when I wasn't even sure if it would even wind up being the song I wanted anyway.

While the latter did happen, HD-DVD and Blueray were pretty niche. Neither sold as well in the 00s as DVD did in the 90s and the market was almost exclusively standard DVD's domain.

Yeah, on the numbers I was wrong there. BluRay still hasn't overtaken DVD in terms of raw sales, and probably never will thanks to the increasing popularity of online streaming services.

You couldn't really watch full episodes on Youtube much less movies and most across the internet were atrocious quality. Netflix DVD rentals was thriving around this time for that reason.

The quality stunk, but there were a bunch of TV shows and movies available on YouTube back in the "Wild West" days before Google bought it out and began to crack down harder on copyright infingement claims. Back in 2006, YouTube essentially didn't remove anything. I remember that fall that every single english dubbed episode of Dragon Ball Z, along with the movies, were all up on YouTube before they started getting pulled down. But yeah, Netflix DVD rentals were still doing fine by 2007. I guess I was referring strictly to the brick-and-mortar rental stores like Movie Gallery and Blockbuster which were beginning to decline by that point.

As was skyrocketing high school project plagerism.

Can't deny that.

PS3 and Xbox 360 were largely sub-HD, many 600p games, some 720p(which looks dated now) content, and almost no 1080p content because they could barely handle 720p in the first place.
MS dropped the 720p stipulation by 2009.
http://www.destructoid.com/xbox-360-games-no-longer-have-to-be-in-hd-147350.phtml
PC ushered true 1080p gaming in, though not in full force as today even then.

Certainly, if you look at it today, the resolution of early Xbox 360 and PS3 games aren't that impressive, but the fact that they were the first HD-capable home consoles was a huge deal in 2005 and 2006. Besides, I believe the true importance of the 7th generation consoles lies with the revolutionary online features. I probably should've included PC gaming as well, but that has always been a very niche thing around here, and thus not something I really have much experience with.

Never heard of Twitter ???

Are you kidding?  :o ???

I suppose that's possible, but iPod sales were positively anemic in the first two years of it's existence, so much so that some in the music press were actually calling it a failure in early '03. The turning point for sales didn't begin until the iTunes Store was launched that spring.
Oh right. It's true that iPod sold rather slowly  in it's first few years but it did get alot of press. Plus, most people had other, cheaper options in terms of mp3's

Stuff like AIM, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, etc. were indeed primitive versions of what is today called "social media", as were chat rooms. But, from my experience, they had nowhere near the impact on an average teenager's life in the early '00s that Facebook and Twitter do today. Kids at my school might go a few days without even logging on to AIM, not something you'd see with most high school kids today when it comes to Facebook.
My older sister was on both with her friends quite frequently. Maybe not to the point where she stopped meeting face-to-face, but anytime her and her friends couldn't get the chance to hang out in person.

Very few people in small town America had HD sets in January 2003, whether in CRT form or not. For most people in areas like mine, they were still too expensive, and at any rate, most of the major American networks (the broadcast networks, ESPN, etc.) didn't really begin offering programming in high-definition until 2003 anyway. I still remember when my parents got me a flat-screen SDTV for Christmas that year, and I thought it was the best looking picture I'd ever seen at the time outside of the electronics section at Sears.
Might be this part. Where I was, many people had CRT flatscreens capable of atleast 720p. 1080i in the tech world is usually seen as 90s/early 00s.

Yeah, there were certainly many people (like my parents) that kept using VCR's after the mid '00s, but the steady rise of DVR/Tivo sales, as well, of course, as DVD, had begun to hurt the VHS format by 2007. Many major retailers like Wal-Mart ceased selling VCR's altogether during the mid '00s, and the last movie was released on the VHS format in 2006.
Many people had left over blank VHS's so DVR/Tivo were typically seen as domain for fairly wealthy people. There are quite a few youtube video recordings of TV in the mid to late 00s visibly recorded on VHS.

True, but in early 2003 only 16% of internet users had a true broadband connection, whereas, by early 2007, that number stood at nearly 50%. I've never used satellite internet myself, but based off the handful of people I knew that had it back in the mid '00s, it was pretty terrible.
The point was that dial-up users in the late 90s were technically  a minority. Dial-up might've been the biggest isp, but most were using something else.

Yeah, I think I spoke a little too broadly on that one. Most kids at my college were using Wikipedia and other similar sites for research purposes by 2007, but Google Maps didn't really start replacing the old paper maps until smartphone sales began to peak in the late '00s/early '10s.
Mapquest was a frequent supplier of directions for users, though most people printed out the maps. I think many people printed out google maps direction as well.

Streaming video sites have been around for years, but they were essentially unusable without a broadband connection. I tried using sites like Break, eBaum's World, and Metacafe in the early '00s, but eventually just gave up once I discovered that it would take a half-hour to watch a simple three minute video. YouTube got lucky, because it probably would've wound up in the proverbial cyberspace graveyard like those earlier sites had it not happened to come along at the same time broadband was overtaking dial-up.
Funnily enough, I had dial-up until 2008 that I used on my 2007 laptop and 2001 PC along with some admitted wi-fi "borrowing", and I don't recall loading youtube videos being as slow on dial-up as so many people report. Typically 30 seconds to a minute for me and ran them fairly stable. Still sub-par, but not unwatchable. I do however recall some people's (namely McD's at the time)  wifi being a bit closer on the dial-up side of frustration.

No doubt that Napster was very popular around the turn of the millennium, but online song downloads didn't really begin to impact the music industry in a serious way until the mid 2000's, with digital download's ultimately overtaking CD sales in 2007. We certainly thought that P2P services were awesome back in the day, but there was just no way that I was going to spend an hour trying to download a single MP3, when I wasn't even sure if it would even wind up being the song I wanted anyway.
Illegal downloads overtook CDs by a large margin, but not digital purchases. The last point can be applied to Limewire, a popular free music program in the mid to late 00s.


The quality stunk, but there were a bunch of TV shows and movies available on YouTube back in the "Wild West" days before Google bought it out and began to crack down harder on copyright infingement claims. Back in 2006, YouTube essentially didn't remove anything. I remember that fall that every single english dubbed episode of Dragon Ball Z, along with the movies, were all up on YouTube before they started getting pulled down.
Might have something to do with the google crackdowns because I first began using youtube in 2007 and found browsing for Goosebumps episodes a nightmare. The videos came in 10 minute parts making watching episodes impractical ans sometimes not all the episode would be uploaded. Even worse, all of the results for the episodes were by only one uploader.

But yeah, Netflix DVD rentals were still doing fine by 2007. I guess I was referring strictly to the brick-and-mortar rental stores like Movie Gallery and Blockbuster which were beginning to decline by that point.
Blockbuster and it's competitors were doing fine in the late 00s, or as the news statistics said, anyway. It's the 2010s that we saw them ubruptly fall off the waggon and go under.

Certainly, if you look at it today, the resolution of early Xbox 360 and PS3 games aren't that impressive, but the fact that they were the first HD-capable home consoles was a huge deal in 2005 and 2006. Besides, I believe the true importance of the 7th generation consoles lies with the revolutionary online features. I probably should've included PC gaming as well, but that has always been a very niche thing around here, and thus not something I really have much experience with.

Yes, they were the first consoles somewhat able to produce games with contemporary graphics at HD resolutions. Somewhat, since the article I posted makes a point that as the games became more modern, the less the 360 and by extension the PS3 could  run them at the minimum 720p. As for the online, the 360 and PS3 were much the same as previous generations just that they had upscalers and online built in instead of having them as after launch peripherals. They were built to be gaming PCs branded as consoles. 


Are you kidding?  :o ???


Edit:
"Never heard of Twitter ???"

- Me in 2009

They were popular among those with Internet other than dial-up and a camcorder. I just used them as examples of online videos older than youtube, vimo and daily motion.


But how would they record videos back in 1997-pre October 2001 (that was the month when Windows XP was released), with no way of converting their camcorder tapes into digital videos?

Funnily enough, I had dial-up until 2008 that I used on my 2007 laptop and 2001 PC along with some admitted wi-fi "borrowing", and I don't recall loading youtube videos being as slow on dial-up as so many people report. Typically 30 seconds to a minute for me and ran them fairly stable. Still sub-par, but not unwatchable. I do however recall some people's (namely McD's at the time)  wifi being a bit closer on the dial-up side of frustration.


Didn't know you still had dial-up that long. Broadbands were already the majority by 2004.

http://www.eatsleepwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/yahoo-2005.jpg
Yahoo 2005

http://politicsjunkie.com/app/uploads/2015/02/Screen-Shot-2015-02-01-at-2.52.20-PM.png
Yahoo 2015

But how would they record videos back in 1997-pre October 2001 (that was the month when Windows XP was released), with no way of converting their camcorder tapes into digital videos?

It was possible on older versions of windows (I have a couple of video recorded files converted pre-01 in my old hard drive ) and memory sticks were around since 1998.

Quick research brings up info that digital cameras were pretty big as far back as the early 90s.

It was possible on older versions of windows (I have a couple of video recorded files converted pre-01 in my old hard drive ) and memory sticks were around since 1998.

Quick research brings up info that digital cameras were pretty big as far back as the early 90s.


But wouldn't it be hard for everybody to visit their website, since a lot of people were using dial-up Internet back in the late 90s/early 2000s.

http://archive.wired.com/news/images/full/ipod6_f.jpg
The iPod
http://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/0b6a9ca8800d01576e4f35261559c6a6/0x600.jpg?fit=scale&background=000000
2015 technology

http://archive.wired.com/news/images/full/ipod6_f.jpg
The iPod
http://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/0b6a9ca8800d01576e4f35261559c6a6/0x600.jpg?fit=scale&background=000000
2015 technology


Holy sheesh, that's how much they changed from 10 years? Damn.

Holy sheesh, that's how much they changed from 10 years? Damn.


now just about everything is large and touch screen.

Didn't know you still had dial-up that long. Broadbands were already the majority by 2004.


Actually I'm pretty sure 2004 was the transitional year. Like half of Americans still had dial up while the other half had broadband. 2005 was the first year that broadband was more used than dial up

I feel the late 2000s were very changeful. I look at 2007 as very, very old and ancient compared to today. 2007 felt much more similar to 1999 than it does to 2015 in my opinion. The main reason is life was was just very different back then and the way we interacted with our technological devices was completely different than today. This is all thanks to technology. I would say the late 2000s were the most changeful part of the decade.

http://archive.wired.com/news/images/full/ipod6_f.jpg
The iPod
http://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/0b6a9ca8800d01576e4f35261559c6a6/0x600.jpg?fit=scale&background=000000
2015 technology


Actually, I'd say...

http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/eoihk.jpg
2007 technology

http://images.designntrend.com/data/images/full/26020/iphone-6.jpg?w=780
2015 technology

Yeah, I know touchscreen phones are infinitely more popular than they were the year Crank That came out, but apart from making a few minor aesthetic changes, plus faster performance, 2015 has barely come anywhere since 2007, which is now as close to 1999 as it is to today.  I totally disagree with the notion that 2007 is ancient and closer in feel to 1999, not just in date, because pretty much the entire foundation of current technology already existed by that year; it's just that the past 8 years have marginally improved upon the look, performance, and popularity of those innovations.  By 2007, YouTube and Facebook were already extremely popular, while in 1999, the Internet was still rather slow and not yet ubiquitous.

Very significant. Conventional oil production started peaking in 2005, and the financial crash took place in 2008. Multiple economies crashed and others experienced significant damage, with almost no recovery for the global economy. Commodity prices crashed several months ago, with stock markets becoming more volatile. Scientists have been reporting on over fifty feedback loops connected to global warming. Finally, more conflict has arisen in various regions, together with reports of greater surveillance and control.

Actually, I'd say...

http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/eoihk.jpg
2007 technology

http://images.designntrend.com/data/images/full/26020/iphone-6.jpg?w=780
2015 technology

Yeah, I know touchscreen phones are infinitely more popular than they were the year Crank That came out, but apart from making a few minor aesthetic changes, plus faster performance, 2015 has barely come anywhere since 2007, which is now as close to 1999 as it is to today.  I totally disagree with the notion that 2007 is ancient and closer in feel to 1999, not just in date, because pretty much the entire foundation of current technology already existed by that year; it's just that the past 8 years have marginally improved upon the look, performance, and popularity of those innovations.  By 2007, YouTube and Facebook were already extremely popular, while in 1999, the Internet was still rather slow and not yet ubiquitous.


We were at a time when everything was a small screen to now where devices have a large screen.

We were at a time when everything was a small screen to now where devices have a large screen.


Eight years just to get larger screens?  That's hardly any step forward and certainly would have been easily possible for Apple to make in 2007, had small portable devices not been the trendy technology of the 2000s in general.

Eight years just to get larger screens?


Lol no. Massive screens on "phones" have been around since the early 2010's, so more like four or five years.

We were at a time when everything was a small screen to now where devices have a large screen.

Well phones aren't the only technology that's around. We have tablets, smartwatches, VR. The main reason why I think 2007 is ancient is because we have virtual reality now which was nothing but a sci-fi dream in 2007.

Lol no. Massive screens on "phones" have been around since the early 2010's, so more like four or five years.


Tablets have existed since 2010, but iPhones have gradually gotten larger since their first incarnation.  Some people may prefer the iPhone's larger screen, but in my eyes, all it really does is limit the portability of the device.

Tablets have existed since 2010, but iPhones have gradually gotten larger since their first incarnation.  Some people may prefer the iPhone's larger screen, but in my eyes, all it really does is limit the portability of the device.


So, it's still portable. I actually like the larger screens for the iPhones. It makes it seem like that you're entertained by the screen the size of a mini-theater, even though it would make you look like that you're staring at a brick.

Well phones aren't the only technology that's around. We have tablets, smartwatches, VR. The main reason why I think 2007 is ancient is because we have virtual reality now which was nothing but a sci-fi dream in 2007.


I meant technology in general.

So, it's still portable. I actually like the larger screens for the iPhones. It makes it seem like that you're entertained by the screen the size of a mini-theater, even though it would make you look like that you're staring at a brick.


I guess part of myself is just frustrated because for the most part, the technology of this decade is ostensibly a step beyond the gadgets we had in the 2000s, when in reality it's predominantly just aesthetic modifications that disguise essentially the same types of things that were all invented by 2007.  Sure, the performance of the iPhone was drastically improved after a few years, but it has basically stalled ever since then, and instead Apple has just been fiddling with its size and graphical style in a feeble attempt to profess it as "new" for each coming generation.  Within a few years, you'll probably be able to customize your touchscreen device by the inch or something.  It seems that the untimely passing of Steve Jobs really did drastically impact Apple's penchant for innovation.


Well phones aren't the only technology that's around. We have tablets, smartwatches, VR. The main reason why I think 2007 is ancient is because we have virtual reality now which was nothing but a sci-fi dream in 2007.


Virtual reality?  What virtual reality?  Have I been behind the times?  I know companies experimented with the concept about two decades ago, like Nintendo with its ill-fated Virtual Boy, but I haven't heard anybody raving about a new and improved virtual reality device.

I guess part of myself is just frustrated because for the most part, the technology of this decade is ostensibly a step beyond the gadgets we had in the 2000s, when in reality it's predominantly just aesthetic modifications that disguise essentially the same types of things that were all invented by 2007.  Sure, the performance of the iPhone was drastically improved after a few years, but it has basically stalled ever since then, and instead Apple has just been fiddling with its size and graphical style in a feeble attempt to profess it as "new" for each coming generation.  Within a few years, you'll probably be able to customize your touchscreen device by the inch or something.  It seems that the untimely passing of Steve Jobs really did drastically impact Apple's penchant for innovation.

Virtual reality?  What virtual reality?  Have I been behind the times?  I know companies experimented with the concept about two decades ago, like Nintendo with its ill-fated Virtual Boy, but I haven't heard anybody raving about a new and improved virtual reality device.

You are behind the times apparently lol. I bought a VR headset one a month ago for $270 and play with it everyday. It's called the Samsung Galaxy Gear VR. VR has been out for consumers for nearly 2 years now. It's not gimmicky either. It truly feels like you're in another universe. I would have NEVER imagined myself in 2007 playing with virtual reality in 2015.

I meant technology in general.

Sorry I was replying to someone else but quoted you're post by mistake.

http://www.okokchina.com/Files/uppic3/Portable%20Radio%20Cassette%20Recorder%20with%20CD%20MC-9804356.jpg
Radio 2005

http://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/Chevrolet/northamerica/usa/nscwebsite/en/Home/Vehicles/Cars/2015_Sonic/Model_Overview/01_images/2015-chevrolet-sonic-car-mo-technology-566x421-05.jpg
Radio 2015

XM Radio existed in 2005, though.  I distinctly remember our family rented a car that tuned in to the XM stations during a trip to Washington DC we took that spring.  My dad bought a new car in June of 2005, and it too had XM functionality.

http://static2.tuvends.fr/storage/1237326503mnismpmnrf.jpg
A 2005 television
http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/televisions/Samsung/SUHD%20Curved%204K/samsung-suhd-tv-4k-2-970-80.jpg
2015 television

http://cdn.soundandvision.com/images/archivesart/807tosh52.jpg
2007 television

http://www1.univ-ag.fr/gerec-f/points_de_depart_recherche/google-2005.png
Google in 2005

http://cdn.ientry.com/sites/webpronews/article_pics/screen-shot-2015-01-22-at-2_1501224.26.58-pm.png
Google in 2015

Not very. I don't really think of them that much.

http://cdn.ientry.com/sites/webpronews/article_pics/screen-shot-2015-01-22-at-2_1501224.26.58-pm.png
Google in 2015


You can change the photo to this now lol. Technically not the site just the logo change.
http://www.techgadget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Googles-New-Logo-2015-www.techgadget360.com_.jpg

You can change the photo to this now lol. Technically not the site just the logo change.
http://www.techgadget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Googles-New-Logo-2015-www.techgadget360.com_.jpg

The Google logo looks more and more childish as the years go by.

The Google logo looks more and more childish as the years go on.


I feel the same way about new/redesigned football jerseys too when it comes to college football or NFL.

I feel the same way about new/redesigned football jerseys too when it comes to college football or NFL.
Yeah what happened to the Bucs and 49ers Jerseys? The 49ers messed their uniforms up in the 90's with the black underlining on the numbers of the jerseys and now they are going with a black home uniform with the names and numbers in red? The Bucs-they messed up the number fonts on their Jerseys and should return back to the pre-2014 number fonts. The helmet needs to be re-done to its pre-2014 form as well. The Buc emblem is too big on the helmet. The black on the shoulder collars should be done away with also.

On a side note the new Browns jersey is similar to the new 49ers Jersey but the trademark Browns Jersey always looked "drab" so there was nowhere to go but up!

Yeah what happened to the Bucs and 49ers Jerseys? The 49ers messed their uniforms up in the 90's with the black underlining on the numbers of the jerseys and now they are going with a black home uniform with the names and numbers in red? The Bucs-they messed up the number fonts on their Jerseys and should return back to the pre-2014 number fonts. The helmet needs to be re-done to its pre-2014 form as well. The Buc emblem is too big on the helmet. The black on the shoulder collars should be done away with also.

On a side note the new Browns jersey is similar to the new 49ers Jersey but the trademark Browns Jersey always looked "drab" so there was nowhere to go but up!


Jersey number fonts or designs come to my mind immediately when I think of football uniforms looking more "kiddy" or "childish". Here's example from my favorite college football team "Georgia Bulldogs".


2012 season and before
http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z431/michaelfoster/CFB%20Nike%20Concepts/UGAone.png



2013 season up to now
http://2f13yq12csmv2yraq925m73i.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/uga-red-football-unis.jpg http://2f13yq12csmv2yraq925m73i.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/uga-white-football-unis.jpg

The Google logo looks more and more childish as the years go by.


I think they use different fonts.

http://static2.tuvends.fr/storage/1237326503mnismpmnrf.jpg
A 2005 television
http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/televisions/Samsung/SUHD%20Curved%204K/samsung-suhd-tv-4k-2-970-80.jpg
2015 television



http://www1.univ-ag.fr/gerec-f/points_de_depart_recherche/google-2005.png
Google in 2005

http://cdn.ientry.com/sites/webpronews/article_pics/screen-shot-2015-01-22-at-2_1501224.26.58-pm.png
Google in 2015


You guys are making 2005 to look like it was 1995. Why not post a pic of a brick phone and call it "Cell phone in 2005", lol. There were plasma screens in 2005, there might have even been LCD's. That screen shot of Google looks like it was from Windows 95 or 98. In 2005, cell phones did start to have video playing capabilities, even though they were still flip-phones (I remember the Razr was popular then). One major difference between 2005 and 2015 is MySpace back then instead of Facebook now.

You guys are making 2005 to look like it was 1995. Why not post a pic of a brick phone and call it "Cell phone in 2005", lol. There were plasma screens in 2005, there might have even been LCD's. That screen shot of Google looks like it was from Windows 95 or 98. In 2005, cell phones did start to have video playing capabilities, even though they were still flip-phones (I remember the Razr was popular then). One major difference between 2005 and 2015 is MySpace back then instead of Facebook now.


This.

2005 wasn't that primitive compared to today.  They did have LCD TVs then, though the quality was pretty bad by today's standards and many people opted for CRTs still because LCDs were so expensive and the picture quality was lacking.  2005 was in the early part of the Web 2.0 era where social media became prominent that continues to this day.  Broadband Internet access had become widespread by that point.  I would say the two biggest differences between now and 2005 is the fashion and the prevalence of tablets/smartphones (which didn't exist in 2005).

You guys are making 2005 to look like it was 1995. Why not post a pic of a brick phone and call it "Cell phone in 2005", lol. There were plasma screens in 2005, there might have even been LCD's. That screen shot of Google looks like it was from Windows 95 or 98. In 2005, cell phones did start to have video playing capabilities, even though they were still flip-phones (I remember the Razr was popular then). One major difference between 2005 and 2015 is MySpace back then instead of Facebook now.

Were you born in 2005 or something? All that stuff above was the most common in the 00s. Yes, Google looked like that, until 2009/10 actually. Maybe the web browser used might be old, but the site looked like that for a long time.

Camera phones are not a sign of modernity, especially if they look like this
http://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/motorola/motorola_v3i_00.jpg
And record in potato quality ala iPhone 3gs in 09, the first iPhone to have recording capabilities I might add.

Yes there were LCDs in 2005, they've been on the market for 20 years now. Correct me if I'm wrong but the 2005 TV is an LCD, it has a flat screen.

Edit: btw, high end LCD TVs back then looked like this:
http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2005/03/29/26/intro.jpg

This.

2005 wasn't that primitive compared to today.  They did have LCD TVs then, though the quality was pretty bad by today's standards and many people opted for CRTs still because LCDs were so expensive and the picture quality was lacking.  2005 was in the early part of the Web 2.0 era where social media became prominent that continues to this day.  Broadband Internet access had become widespread by that point.  I would say the two biggest differences between now and 2005 is the fashion and the prevalence of tablets/smartphones (which didn't exist in 2005).

It was very primitive compared to today. I don't know how someone could say 2005 has similarities to 2015. They're completely different. Now if you were talking about 2010 I would understand.

I just think people exaggerate how groundbreaking things like tablet devices and sleeker designs are, when really there was far more technological advancement between 1995 and 2005.  I can understand the advent of touch-screen technology, social media, and Skype being a huge deal to people, but again, these things already existed in 2007, so I consider more recent advancements underwhelming at most.  Back in '95, people were just starting to learn about the Internet, cell phones still looked mostly the same as they did in the 80s, DVD's were not sold, and a world ruled by "social media" was but a pipe dream.

I just think people exaggerate how groundbreaking things like tablet devices and sleeker designs are, when really there was far more technological advancement between 1995 and 2005.  I can understand the advent of touch-screen technology, social media, and Skype being a huge deal to people, but again, these things already existed in 2007, so I consider more recent advancements underwhelming at most.  Back in '95, people were just starting to learn about the Internet, cell phones still looked mostly the same as they did in the 80s, DVD's were not sold, and a world ruled by "social media" was but a pipe dream.

There was quite the ecosystem on the internet in 1995 with video and communication just hitting the scene. While there were cell phones back then that were technically "smartphones", PDAs and Pocket PCs were what people used for work and entertainment. DVDs came out in 1995 and were actually more successful in the 90s than Bluray was in the 00s.

I do agree that advancements have been less this decade than compared to the previous, but we are in a different age that would srem futuristic to someone in 2005.

Were you born in 2005 or something? All that stuff above was the most common in the 00s. Yes, Google looked like that, until 2009/10 actually. Maybe the web browser used might be old, but the site looked like that for a long time.

Camera phones are not a sign of modernity, especially if they look like this
http://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/motorola/motorola_v3i_00.jpg
And record in potato quality ala iPhone 3gs in 09, the first iPhone to have recording capabilities I might add.

Yes there were LCDs in 2005, they've been on the market for 20 years now. Correct me if I'm wrong but the 2005 TV is an LCD, it has a flat screen.

Edit: btw, high end LCD TVs back then looked like this:
http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2005/03/29/26/intro.jpg


I remember having those phones.