The leaves outside my window have turned from summer’s green to the myriad hues of autumn. All too soon, the bare branches of winter will fill my view, and I’ll be pining for springtime buds and new life to return.Whether it’s the seasons, advances in science and industry, or our children shooting up to adulthood before our eyes, change is inevitable.
How quickly things change really hit home this year as I revised and updated a few of my earliest novels for republication. It hasn’t even been a decade since the books first released, but wait—were my characters really using flip phones back then? The vehicle one of my heroes was driving isn’t even manufactured anymore. And—horrors!—I’d shown characters stopping at a once-popular video store to browse the aisles for a movie to rent!
Here are some fun facts I found on the web:
- December 1997—Toyota Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid auto, debuts
- April 14, 1998—Netflix launches DVD rental website
- September 4, 1998—Google is founded
- December 1998—PayPal is founded
- 2004—first Keurig model for home use
- February 4, 2004—Facebook debuts
- March 21, 2006—Twitter is launched
- January 9, 2007—Apple announces the first iPhone
- November 19, 2007—Amazon releases the first Kindle
- April 3, 2010—Apple introduces the iPad
- June 2010—Uber launches in San Francisco
- August 26, 2010—Blockbuster announces plans to file for bankruptcy
- October 6, 2010—Instagram debuts
- Summer 2016—Amazon experiments with drone delivery
How many from this list have made a direct impact on your lifestyle? What other significant changes have you observed in the past 10 or 20 years?
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Also look for the updated editions of Myra’s earlier romances:
The Horsemen of Cross Roads Farm (3-book collection)
Twitter: @MyraJohnson and @TheGrammarQueen
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It is shocking how quickly things change, especially in this technology era. I still remember rotary phones! Thanks for sharing the fun facts. It is truly amazing to look back on them.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, rotary phones!!! And having to actually get up and cross the room to change the TV channel. And in our small town we had only TWO channels to pick from!!!
DeleteHi Myra! Things do change so quickly. I had to laugh at flip phones. It always amazes me how I didn't have a cell phone in the late eighties when I was at college. Life would have been so much easier with a phone, although I do sometimes miss the innocence of those times. Life was simpler. How wonderful that you updated your books. I'm thinking of doing that for a bunch of mine. Blessings!
ReplyDeleteAmazingly, I just saw a segment on GMA this morning about reverting to flip phones for younger children. They can easily stay in touch with their parents but without the temptations of smart phone apps. Makes sense to me!
DeleteIn just my lifetime, our world has really changed a lot faster than before.
ReplyDeleteIncredible, isn't it, Margaret! The internet alone has changed the way we do EVERYTHING!
DeleteI used to think in astonishment of my grandmother's life. She was born the year before the Wright Brothers' first flight and lived to see the moon landing and the space station. And now things are changing even more quickly. I don't know how many times I've been thankful for sites like imdb (so I can figure out who that familiar looking actor is and not fret all the way through the movie to the credits) and maps online which make it so simple to determine how long it'll take my characters to go from spot A to spot B. I still prefer to wander the shelves in a bookstore, but when I'm looking for a specific title, it's so great to be able to go online and find a copy, especially when it's an out-of-print book. I'm sure what comes next will amaze all of us!
ReplyDeleteYes to imdb and online maps! I remember how thrilled I was when I graduated from writing on an IBM Selectric typewriter and entered the computer generation. No more carbon copies, no more white-out corrections. I could edit endlessly right there on the screen (is that a blessing or not???)!
DeleteThanks for the walk down the product memory lane. Some of those dates really surprised me. I grew up on a farm and I remember when we had the crank phones and went to rotary. And back then we still used postal mail. What fun thinking about all that. Thanks for sharing Myra.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Marie! I never had a crank phone, but I do remember as a kid having a party line. And sometimes I think the only things keeping the post office running are mail-order deliveries and junk mail!
DeleteMyra, I was surprised about the recent "birth" dates of some of the things you mentioned that seem (to me) to have been around forever! When I wrote my 2007 debut novel, my critique partner told me my heroine needed a cell phone. I didn't have a cell phone at that time so questioned why I should include one in my story. I did follow her suggestion and soon got a phone of my own. "These Times They Are A-Changin'" as Bob Dylan wrote many years ago...changing much too quickly, it seems to me!
ReplyDeleteTrying to remember when we got our first cell phone. I know it had to be sometime in the early 2000s. And they were HUGE back then! We only used ours when necessary because each call was expensive, plus we were charged for both incoming AND outgoing calls.
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