How was life different 15 years ago?

[jamontoastaddict]

2007. I don't mean personally but generally.

Got me thinking in another thread about something that happened (relatives accident) 15 years ago and it seem so recent yet seems so long ago too. 15 years before that was 1992 so I imagine 2007 seems a different lifetime 1992.

Anyway what has changed. I remember topping up my non-smart phone (Samsung clam) by text and that seemed so much better than a top up card.

2007 seemed less stressful- the economy wasn't so bad , house prices were high and buying and selling was profitable. There was no cis, no non binary, and kids were just boys or girls. The shops were still open- there was ELC, Mothercare, Woolworths, Debenhams, Adams, BHS, Dorothy Perkins, Topshop, Oasis, Warehouse etc.

1992 was much better though!

Mobile phones were just phones. You could take about 8 grainy photos on mine but that’s all.

Facebook was only just becoming popular. MySpace was waning in popularity and Bebo and Faceparty had had their day (they’d been popular a couple of years before). There were lots of random Internet forums and chat rooms and people still used MSN messenger (I think. they definitely did in 2005).

Big Brother ruled tv over the summer.

Woolworths, BHS, The Pier (sold the best home stuff).

Digital cameras were popular because you couldn’t take photos with your phone.

Bootcut jeans were still everywhere but skinny jeans had been creeping in for a year or two.

I only knew a couple of people who had a flatscreen tv.

I remember buying most of my Christmas presents online that year so don’t think that was very different.

I remember lots of Gok Wan stuff on tv.

In 2007, I had a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone. I still took a camera out on nights out. I moved to France for a year in 2008 and the only way to keep in touch with friends and family was Skype on my laptop in my
flat as my phone did not connect to the internet and calls and texts abroad were still expensive.

I got my first iPhone on my return home in 2009 and I think that’s when normal life really change.

Also, in 2007 nearly all my clothes were from Jane Norman or bay trading and my
shoes were from Dolcis!

Gosh I'd completely forgotten about checking what your friend's networks were before you signed up to a new phone contract because of the cost of ringing a different network!

We had dial up internet in our rented cottage for a few weeks until we eventually got a router.

No smartphones no Netflix no smart tv, no Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat or WhatsApp

People were less uptight.
People had more fun.
Risk assessments didn't yet rule the world.
Teachers could drink wine on a school trip away
Pubs were more fun and you could get a draft cider that wasn't smokypigssasshole or something
You could go to gigs to see actual bands in real venues
It was better back then. It's all a bit shit now.

The last Harry Potter was published.

Love these threads!!

Boyfriend at the time got me an O2 sim so we could be on the same network and I still have that number now…

Didn't get Facebook until 2008 so was still posting on MySpace

Used to get the train into town and (possibly outing) go to our fave emo shop and put coins into the jukebox machine to play our favourite tunes

Many more I can’t remember but it was an epic year! 2008 and 2009 were shite though

I met DH online and it was all very hush hush 🤫 we spoke on yahoo snd msn every night.

This is a timely thread for me as DH and I have just celebrated our 15 year service anniversaries with our employer (one of the high street banks) we’ve been reminiscing about how different things were when we started.

I used to process CHAPs payments, I had to fill in the payment form by hand (which was on carbon paper) and had to have it countersigned by two operations managers before faxing it off to the payments team. Then once a month, we’d have to box up all these forms and the Iron Mountain van would come and take them off to storage. It’s all done at the touch of a button these days.

I was 21 in 2007. Used to finish work on a Friday night, pop into Jane Norman on my way home for something to wear that night and go out drinking blue WKDs with my mates all night, good times!

I remember Gordon Brown taking over, having the Glasgow Airport terrorist attack a few days later the GB chickening out of holding a snap election. (Which they would have won so no coalition in 2010, no fixed term parliament act, no 14 years of Tory rule!)

I remember the northern rock run on the bank and my mum saying this would be another Great Depression. Sadly we're still not back at GDP per capita we were in 2006!

I had one of those 'bad' mortgages but it got me a great flat in a great area, I never defaulted and now it's worth so much more, someone 15 years younger in the same job wouldn't have a hope in hells chance of ever buying.

I remember quantitive easing and strongly disagreeing with the bank bailouts, how we'd never get that money back...

I was watching David Tennant as Dr Who and listening to the Sugababes.

I had a Nokia phone and played snake all the time, topped it up with a tenner that would usually last me at least a fortnight.

Internet was only really used at college, it was still dial up in our house on our desktop.

I used to work and shop at River Island that felt like the height of fashion...not the crap it is these days.

£20 would last me a night out including drinks/shared taxi and takeaway!

Used to take an actual digital camera out on a night out.

Used MySpace and thought Facebook seemed like a new fad that would pass...!

Oh god I had about 3 Razr Phones - one in black, one in pink and one in lilac. Then I had a Samsung slidey phone in pink.

I was in my 2nd year at uni, house sharing with 4 of my pals. RnB music was great back then, we’d go to this brilliant RnB night every Thurs and dance the night away. Tuesday night was indie night at this dirty dive club - also brilliant. The ‘work hard, play hard’ slogan of uni was still very much in effect, I don’t think it’s like that now. the work hard bit is, but students I see nowadays seem different somehow, more serious? Mature? I’m not sure, I could be talking bollocks.

Facebook was just getting popular.
Pretty sure camera phones didn’t exist, so nights out were not spent posing for pics or videos/ Snapchat’s, worrying how you looked or who would see the picture. A lot of memories are just that, memories with no photographic evidence.

It doesn’t feel that long ago in some ways. If I come by the odd picture (taken with a clunky digital camera) it’s always interesting to see the fashion etc, we all look a lot younger, but it feels quite fresh. On the other hand, certain things/memories feel like such along time ago.

Well I’d be texting on my LG Chocolate, over straightening my side fringe with my GHDs (which I still have!!) and watching my chunky telly.

Facebook was amazing back then, loads of funny groups to join. And you could poke people. I worked part time in an office with other people my age (22) and we had a blast.

No apps so taxis for nights out would still involve an actual phone call. We did have broadband in our student house though. I had an ancient Renault Clio which I adored.

I had new born twins in 2007!

I had very slow Internet in my flat. I used my landline to call my friends on their landlines, couldn't tell you my own or anyone else's landlines now.

People would send in paper cvs for jobs (email mainly but we were still getting posted applications), there was a "jobs paper" we would advertise in.

Digital cameras for nights out, remember it was a bit of a faff getting then off camera, on to laptop then uploading to Facebook (on my slow internet!), but that was how we shared photos, now we share them privately on WhatsApp.

15 years ago? That's 1985 right? 😢

Hmmm...well I def had a mobile phone in 2007, it might have been a little nokia or I may even have progressed to a razr flip phone by then! I was also out on the last at least 5 nights a week.

Leon Jackson won the x factor...yes, I had to look that up, hadn't a clue! To carry on a theme, Brian Belo won BB and Shilpa Shetty won CBB.

I was also blissfully unaware that the property crash and recession was on the horizon the following year, that I'd lose my job, and actually it would be the best thing to happen to me!

Nope, I wouldn't go back thanks! Although back to 1995 or 2000...oh yes, I'd redo those (differently!).

Climate stuff didn't seem so catastrophically hopeless.

I was a conveyancing secretary! Can remember 100% mortgages!

I can't remember what phone I had..I did have a blackberry in 2010.

Had an MP3 player to listen to on the bus to work!

I turned 20 and lived at home-was living my best life paid weekly and spending thurs/fri/sat out!

Went to Prague and took a physical camera as cameras weren't great on phones.

Used to update Facebook on the computer.

I bought my first flat in 2007 with an interest rate of 6.5%. Even with a 25 year term I was paying more for a one bedroom flat then than for what I pay now for a three bedroom house on a much shorter term. I bought right at the height of the market and picked up my keys the day there was the run on Northern Rock bank which was the start of the housing market crash that led to the financial crisis the following year.

I was in my second year of uni, still using physical books in the library for most of my work. I had straightened highlighted hair and my wardrobe consisted of skinny jeans (which made me feel super modern and fashion-forward), oversized tops, long dangly necklaces and ballet flats. Our student house had no internet, the newfangled smoking ban was a source of much contention, and anyone who took a laptop to a lecture was seen as a bit weird. Facebook was for those at ‘posh’ unis only.

Little did we know we were about to graduate into a recession - that came a a hell of a shock the following year!

I didn't own a mobile. We still had a Surestart, austerity hadn't destroyed the poor. I didn't take up smoking again after being pregnant because of the smoking ban but everyone noticed that pubs started to smell of farts! Dogs didn't wear clothes and labradoddlepoodles weren't a thing.

In November 2007 I moved to Grand Cayman and the cost of the flight from LHR was under £500 return with BA.

It's been £900+ return ever since. I arrived here with a flip phone, and had to get a plug in broadband box. Skype was still fairly new and I had movies my brother downloaded as well as SATC and Greys Anatomy to thumb drives. I also had my trusty 64gb iPod with thousands of songs and playlists.

I remember now DH getting a work blackberry and was astounded I could go on Facebook on the golf course.

It’s weird, my eldest was born in ‘07 and it really doesn’t feel like much has changed. Certainly nothing like the difference between 1992 and 2007. I wonder if it depends on how old you are?

I just remember the smoking ban and Facebook.