In 1986 the average cost for a brand new home was $89,430.00, you could top off your gas tank for 89 cents per gallon and for a mere $300.00 you could purchase a Casio portable COLOR television. What other super cool things happened in 1986? Internet mail access protocol was defined for e-mail transfer, Intel released the 386 microprocessor and IBM unveiled the first laptop computer (that would be the sexy beast pictured below.)
You’re probably wondering, “Why is she reminding me of all of this antiquated and saddening news?” (Yes, I’m also sad that gas isn’t that cheap anymore.)
Today is my 25th birthday, so when the time came to come up with an idea for a blog post, I thought it’d be perfect to celebrate the strides that have been made with social media, technology and communications. Also I wanted to use this space to let everyone know that I love ice cream cake, sunflowers and gummy bears. *wink*
So from the 1st paragraph you can see how much things have changed, look at the sleek desktops offices now have, Apple’s reinvention of the laptop/notebook, and of course the iPad. Look at your cell phone, it’s smaller, prettier, customized… and it’s in COLOR! (Compared to the cell phones featured in the video below) Interesting enough is the fact that phone calls aren’t the only thing we do on our cell. We now use them to text, tweet, up-date our status, check-in, get us around Times Square without getting pathetically lost. All while allowing us to kill time on the train and play Angry Birds,holiday edition.
Can you imagine, going back in time and walking up to one of the most tech savvy person you could find and asking them to define “social media”? What would they say? Could you imagine trying to explain why Facebook is so popular? Why there are 155,000,000 tweets a day? Why people love hashtags? It’s hard to believe that people lived their everyday lives without the constant influx of messages, beeps, ring tones and vibrations from their back-pocket but alas, it is true.
Did you know that Mark Zuckerberg is only 2 years older than me? The creators of Google, and Twitter are not even 40 and yet these companies run the way we live our lives, the way we communicate and even the way we apply for jobs. Gone are the days that you mail, (as in, use postage) your resume, now with a few clicks, your resume can be emailed to your dream job opening in no time. The best part is, now things are getting creative, companies expect resumes to pop and stand out, they don’t want bells and whistles, but they want to know you want the job and that you are right for it. Who would have thought that a resume made to mimic the profile page of a popular social networking site would help me land countless interviews and land not one, but two jobs? (Trust me I was surprised too!)
Look at how LinkedIn has revolutionized the way we apply for jobs and connect with other companies. It has also made searching and applying for a job slightly less daunting, along with allowing one to connect with like-minded people in similar industries. My favorite thing about LinkedIn is that when I would apply for a job, it would attach my LinkedIn profile, (that I always kept updated) which had recommendations from previous jobs and saved any information from previous cover letters that I had attached. The fact that I can go online today and search for tips on how to improve my resume, what the culture is like at any given company and even do some listening to see what other people think about working at that company is amazing.
I think a thank you is in order…
Thank you ghastly laptops and monstrous cell phones of the 80’s, for growing up. Twenty-five years have gone by and your ancient ways have paved a new ground for all of the sleek technology that we so religiously use and love. There are some days that we’d like to turn you off and shut out the noise of the digital world you make so easily accessible, but that’s what vacations are for. You have helped me to become a more informed, tech-savvy person. You’ve given me an outlet to share my creative joys with the world (photography, cooking and writing). You have even helped me to narrow down my ideal career. You have given me the ability to video-chat with my grandmother in Puerto Rico as if she were sitting right next to me.
You have single-handedly changed the way I live my life. The way I learn. The way I share…
So today, dearest technology, we can both celebrate. It’s been a good 25 years and I can’t wait to see what else you have up your sleeve!
