It’s amazing how much things can change in five years.<\/p>\n
Today I was out shopping and picked up a new 4GB jump drive for about $14. This got me thinking back to when I bought my first jump drive back in 2005, which was almost five years ago. Back then I was taking a class called “Style and Design in Public Relations Messages.” The course naturally involved a lot of computer assignments, so we were required to have jump drives to store our work. I bought one with 512MB of storage for $150. Today I don’t think they even make ones that small, and for the amount I spent on my old one you could get 32GB or more of storage. Amazing.<\/p>\n
Looking back, I have realized just how far technology has come since 2005. Here are just a few examples:<\/p>\n
Then: All of my music was organized in Winamp<\/a>, and when I wanted to go on a trip I burned several mix CDs.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now: My music is organized in iTunes<\/a> and all I have to take with me on trips is my iPod.<\/p>\n Then: I had a little silver flip phone that I adored because it had text messaging, a camera, a cool color screen, and polyphonic ringtones.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now: My phone has a touch screen, GPS, video camera, internet browser, mobile email, mp3 ringtones and photo editing capabilities, among countless other features.<\/p>\n Then: Facebook<\/a> had just opened up to high school students and was still very basic.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now: Facebook is open to everyone, has millions more users and myriad features that it did not have in 2005, such as notes, gifts, news feed, status messages, chat and applications.<\/p>\n Then: Most people had never heard of YouTube.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Now: YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the web and has more than a billion views per day.<\/p>\n