Research has begun and I'm already breaking out into a cold sweat.

7/10/2012

This challenge probably has me the most scared out of all the suggestions so far. But I'm a gadget addict. This journey has got to be good for me.

Aim: Regress one year for every day of the challenge, using only technology commercially available in that year.

This means no more Google after day 14, people! Can you still find an encyclopaedia in a library these days? I'll need to camp out in the library to find the instant gratification of knowledge to which I have become accustomed. This challenge will either take place in December or April over my holidays, with the aim of preserving my employment status.

The research so far:

Day, and what I'll have to remove from my life on that day:
1 - 2012
2 - 2011
3 - 2010
4 - 2009
5 - 2008
6 - 2007
7 - 2006
iphone, google maps (hence digital maps generally)
8 - 2005
macbook
9 - 2004
facebook
10 - 2003
11 - 2002
garmin
12 - 2001
13 - 2000
14 - 1999
15 - 1998
ADSL & Google (ouch!), self-service checkout
16 - 1997
internet banking
17 - 1996
18 - 1995
19 - 1994
sms/texting
20 - 1993
bluetooth, graphical web browser
21 - 1992
mobile phone
22 - 1991
mp3 (hence digital music generally)
23 - 1990
digital camera (commercially available)
24 - 1989
25 - 1988
26 - 1987
27 - 1986
28 - 1985
29 - 1984
30 - 1983

2 Comments

Claire

7/10/2012 05:01:44 am

What about iPlayer / Tivo or sky+ / whatever you might use to watch telly when you're catching up. You could re-acquaint yourself with the VCR!

Also, CDs and DVDs. You might need to go back to cassettes! How awesome! You could use a walkman!

When did wifi become commercially available? I remember my first wireless network was about 2002 I think, but I was probably a slow adopter.

I realise there are a lot of exclamation marks in my comment. I'm really sorry, but I am dead excited about this challenge. I think it's really interesting.

Kristen

7/10/2012 05:28:18 am

It is interesting, isn't it? Feel free to join me on the challenge if you wish! I could use some comeraderie and walkin' the streets with a ghetto-blaster like it's 1987 just won't be as fun on my own.

The wifi thing is proving more difficult to research than the others. By which I mean the date it was first used in households isn't in the wikipedia article.

I'm asking for old tech donations from people as most of my old stuff is in Australia. I've been offered plenty of old cassette tapes and I'd love a walkman with a radio if anyone has one. I've got a VCR but not sure I fancy watching old tapes. It might just have to be a fortnight of no tv, now that it's all digital. When did live streaming start, I wonder?

Research has begun and I'm already breaking out into a cold sweat.

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