RE: Ringtones Used To Cost Money, Mini Disc Players were Awesome, & I Miss Video Shops 👩🏻‍💻👩🏻‍💻

Gosh, thinking about the possibility of Hive in 1996? Crazy. But then, I did read a lot of sci fi, so perhaps the idea wouldn't have felt foreign so much as way in the future. I remember Jamie saying 'you know in a few years we'll be renting videos online' and I thought a few years was a very long way away, except it wasn't, and I didn't expect video shops to be utterly wiped off the face of the known universe!

Listening to music did wrap us teens into our emotional cocoons that's for sure. I was lucky to have parents who I was close to, but of course, as you're figuring out who you are, as a separate person to your parents, you want to shut them out - voila, headphones! And now we have wireless ones where we tune out the world entire, because it's noisy and full of assholes you don't want to talk to.

OMFG batteries - were they cheaper back then? How did we afford them? I always remember asking my folks for more batteries, else spending the money I earnt working in a cafe on them! When did those rechargeable batteries come out? Because we also needed DD for ghetto blasters! That's one bit of tech I like - rechargeable batteries! Although, fucking lithium usb rechargeables and solar power means 24/7 music at campsites, instead of when the batteries ran out...

Perhaps there will still be a large contingent of us unplugged - even the kids seem to relish the vintage silence.