[noonespecial]

Sometimes I think I was lucky to be one of the last people ever to experience "love in the time of snailmail" and one of the first to experience love at the dawn of IM.

I know exactly what its like to write those "long, heartfelt missives" and check a mailbox like a crack addict and I also know the thousand tiny thrills one got from that new "ICQ" client's happy little "uh-oh!".

Which is better? More "real and heartfelt"? I've got only selection bias to offer. I lost "heartfelt missive" and married "uh-oh!". Modern technology rocks like an old man on his porch.

[sspiff]

I'm a little to young to have known love in a time of snail mail, but I agree with the point of your comment: some mystery and romance my have disappeared, but romance is still to be found in other places, even in the new technologies that obsoleted the old.

Generations before us also felt like they were missing out on life and love because they were born decades to late, this is nothing new. People will feel the same about life at the advent of the Internet in 20 years.

[socrates1998]

I too, enjoy the position in history I was raised in.

Old enough to remember memorizing phone numbers and having a list in my teenage wallet of all the girls (and friends) I knew.

Remembering how things were before cell phones and facebook is going to be something I will grow old with and enjoy reminiscing about with a few friends.

I do like old technology or watching movies that take a snapshot of a specific place in technology history.

Like the movie Anchorman, it takes place before the rise of cable TV (and the web) when network TV's prominence was at it's highest.

In the late 70's and early 80's, local newsmen were borderline rock stars, everyone knew their name and they were considered an important part of a community.

But, this was only true for a few years. After the introduction of TV's in every home (60's and early 70's), but before cable TV spread and diluted the power of the Network stations.