Who doesn't remember that famous greeting? After waiting for the annoying dial-up sound to quit, the sweet "You've Got Mail!" greeting made it all worthwhile. You loved to hear that sound as you simultaneously looked to see if there was an envelope in the mailbox. The iconic phrase was so universally understood that a movie, starring the dynamic rom-com team of Hanks-Ryan was a hit in the late 90s. What is more interesting is how much things have changed since those days. Lets look at a few differences and see how we think that would go over in your family today. First, only having access to your email, news, weather, etc. (Instant Messages and Chat Rooms would have been the equivalent of Facebook and Twitter) by connecting to the internet via the phone line, waiting for the connection (at the same time basically agreeing to not accept any phone calls or let a phone call kick you offline.) You were basically making a decision to "be online" and do nothing else. While today, we can check email, messages, social media, news and weather and go on about our business. Second thing that is hard to imagine today is only having access to all of that information on that cream colored beast of a machine setting in the middle of the family room. In the late 90s maybe you got to use the old computer in your room or a home office. Either way, you were basically stuck to the desk or wood grain computer kiosk instead of being able to watch TV, play games or communicate with your family. Today, we think because everyone is "on their phones" we assume we are not communicating. But hey, at least you have the opportunity to have everyone in the same room, watching TV or talking. But one of the craziest memories from this era is still having "computer skills" or "keyboarding" classes in school. While I think we do need to revisit grammar and spelling in the age of social media, I can't imagine having to learn how to use a computer or how to properly type. Instant Messaging for four hours straight pretty much got you acquainted with Qwerty! Want to have a fun nostalgic conversation, try explaining all of this to your young kids. My eight year old must think I am joking when I tell him about the days of "dial-up."