How Technology Changed Our Lives in the 1990s
Technology plays a massive role in our society today. Whether it’s communicating with friends via text or video chat or socializing on Facebook, most of these technologies came out of the 1990s.
The era of fax machines came to an end as email became the preferred means for business communication. And digital cameras displaced film photography.
The World Wide Web
As the ’90s came to a close, it was clear that technology had taken over our lives in a big way. We depended on it for work, school, and play—but we also feared that a looming computer glitch called Y2K could cause world chaos.
Handheld digital organizers, like the Palm Pilot, were wildly popular and helped us to keep track of our schedules, contacts, and tasks. But the biggest innovation of the decade was the World Wide Web, created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990.
It enables information to be exchanged across the Internet, linking thousands of computers into a massive collection of interactive multimedia resources. And, most importantly, it gave rise to the web browser, which allows even the least tech-savvy of users to click and browse different websites.
The Internet
A worldwide system of interconnected computer networks, the Internet enables billions of people to access information, communicate, and shop. It also enables governments and businesses to share resources.
The 1990s saw the first truly user-friendly Internet browser, Mosaic, and the development of RISC microprocessors that allowed complex functions to be performed in small devices. This led to mobile phones, which grew from the brick-sized cellular handsets of the 1980s into devices that could do so much more than make phone calls.
Although personal computers had been around for a decade, the 1990s were the decade in which they truly took off. They became affordable and more people started to use them for work, education, and socialising. For many, logging on to the Internet was an exciting new pastime. They would dial into the virtual world using a modem connected to their home phone line.
Personal Computers
The personal computer revolution began in 1977 with the introduction of preassembled, mass-produced computers that were much less expensive than mainframes. These machines, referred to by Byte Magazine as the “1977 Trinity” (the Apple II, the TRS-80 Model I and the Commodore Business Machines Personal Electronic Transactor) used eight-bit microprocessors that processed information in groups of 8 bits or binary digits at a time, and had limited memory capacity. They were purchased by individuals, small and medium sized businesses, and schools.
By 1983, personal computers were available with the same features as workstations — the high-performance, multitasking machines that office workers used. They had color graphics capability, large-capacity local disk storage, and could network with other personal computers.
Personal computers were also becoming more mobile. Handheld digital organizers like the Palm Pilot, which allowed people to carry around all their important data in a small package, became popular. Over the decade, bulky brick-sized cellular phones morphed into slim handheld devices that fit in pockets and radically changed how people communicated with one another.
Mobile Phones
The 1990s saw an explosion in mobile phone technology. They went from large brick-sized devices used only for voice calls to sleek, pocket-sized gadgets that allow you to take pictures and videos, browse the internet, and communicate with friends via text, tweet or email.
The first phones with integral cameras were a hit with teenagers, who also embraced portable MP3 players and handheld digital organizers such as the Palm Pilot. The first cell phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, the Nokia 9000 Communicator series, was released in 1996.
SMS messaging also started in the 1990s, which allowed people to send messages to each other over their mobile phones without having to pay for expensive data plans or call each other’s landlines. Today, of course, we rely on our smartphones for all our communication needs. Even if they’re clunky, they make our lives easier than ever before. (Though maybe not for our TikTok-obsessed tweens.) And let’s not forget the hit ’90s toy that made everyone feel tech-savvy: the TalkBoy.