You’ve Got Mail Turns 25 – A Time Capsule of Disappearing Tech
You’ve Got Mail has been one of my favorites since I saw it in the movie theaters in 1998. The movie turns 25 this year, and as I rewatched it again for the umpteenth time, I noted some of the new technology, which was now defunct.
The scene where Joe Fox’s child aunt sneezes in the Shop Around the Corner and Kathleen Kelly offers her a handkerchief and remarks that even then the new generation was unfamiliar with customs that had once been commonplace.
Things that didn’t stand the test of time:
- AOL – America Online
- First of all, even having an AOL email address will date a person, like who even still uses those? But this movie was in the heyday of dial-up internet. It is possibly the most Gen X thing about this movie.
- Big Box Bookstores
- Once upon a time, there were many big box bookstores. The biggest bookstore was once in NYC on Fifth Ave. Probably the inspiration for Fox Books. Although B&N may be making a comeback…
- Online Chat Rooms
- social media platforms and live streaming killed chat rooms. If someone wants to chat with another person, all they have to do now is slip into their DMs. Dischord just isn’t the same.
- Cash only lines
- When was the last time you went to a grocery store with a line designated as only taking cash? Nowadays cash is the exception, most lines being credit only, especially self-checkout lanes.
- Stuck in an elevator with nothing to do but talk to your neighbors
- The conversations would now be someone face-timing their friend to bitch about their predicament at full volume
- Landlines
- The true dinosaur of the communication age. Those who know the struggle of talking on a phone that was corded attached to the wall and limited range to how far that cord would reach. You were living in the future if your cord was longer than 5ft and could stretch into another room with a door that closed for privacy.
