Imagine if this had happened in 2000?

[Echobelly]

I guess as a way of being thankful for some things, can you imagine if Covid had hit 20 years earlier?

• No wifi
• No video calls
• No way of doing most office jobs
• No way of setting kids school work

Everyone would have to be glued to telly or radio all day for updates

On the upside perhaps there'd be less panic buying as people wouldn't be sharing pictures everyone, and there would be much less misinformation as it couldn't be spread around by just about any idiot with a phone.

I had that thought too. There would be no WFH which would make even more businesses impossible to run.

It's a scary thought re where we would be today without the technology.

We didn't have WiFi in 2000???

But that was like.... two years ago 😆😆😆😭😭

I was a teenager in 2000 I would definitely have preferred that to being at home with 2 kids! I would have read loads and listened to radio 1 all day!
It would have been catastrophic then as no online shopping or food delivery system, no one could work very well from home...it doesn't bear thinking about.

Yes, without the internet and the growth of online deliveries would have made it impossible to “lockdown” like we are now. It would have been far worse!

I was overseas between 1996 and 1998 and the country I was in had pretty good Internet (okay, no WiFi or Smartphones and it was a country renowned for innovations in technology).

Coming back to the UK was quite a shock. It was definitely possible to do quite a lot of work at home even then though - Internet first became widely available around 1995 but it was more advanced in some parts of the military and academia before that.

I'm just hoping the Internet doesn't go down; I'm one of those who's been working from home for a long time now, and I've noticed a definite slowdown the last couple of days, and not just Netflix, before anyone says that, but my standard email as well. I do use Gmail sometimes and Google Drive but that's always been like wading through treacle....

*We didn't have WiFi in 2000???

But that was like.... two years ago*

I feel like this too. But no, kids born in 2000 are 20 now. They'll be graduating from uni next year. Madness.

I was WFH in 2000. We had dial up email, so yes we used to email stuff. And telephones were used to speak to people.

Also had a fax machine - remember those?

No Twitter, FB or MN to distract me either.

We managed just fine!

In 2000 I'd just moved to the US, I didn't have a work permit, I was living in a city where I knew no one, and I really struggled with isolation.

I did have internet but nothing like the ways of communicating today. No social media.

I remember emailing friends in the desperate hope they'd reply, but they had busy lives to get on with.

It was very lonely.

Remember that clanging noise that dialup made?

Was SARS actually very different? Wondering if it was less contagious or if it just didn't spread because there was less travel.

And just think of all the people alive now who wouldn't recognise the dial up tone...

If it had happened in 2000 we probably would have just gotten on with business as usual. No one would have been posting about what was happening in other counties so no one would have noticed probably. There would also be no hysteria on Twitter about closing schools or panic buying toilet rolls.

If it had happened in 2000 we probably would have just gotten on with business as usual. No one would have been posting about what was happening in other counties so no one would have noticed probably. There would also be no hysteria on Twitter about closing schools or panic buying toilet rolls.

We had the 24 hour rolling news by then, though. And people would have been complaining on Teletext.

I think there were quite a few chat rooms etc then, too.

When I was a teenager in the very early 00’s, we moved to another country during the summer holidays. And all of our belongings that were shipped were delayed.

So there’s 13yo me, no friends, no school, no books, no tv, no belongings, in a new country, with a climate I wasn’t used to and just about died of heat stroke if I went outside.

I literally cried myself to sleep for months. Because there was nothing else to do. And I still have really bad feelings about it 20 years later!

Give me lockdown with technology any day!

The novel coronavirus causes SARS too, it's just a different coronavirus to the previous one. MERS was also similar. I'm not sure why they haven't spread as much as this one though, an expert would have to explain that. I suspect there are multiple reasons.

In 2000, I would not have been able to do my job at home at all. In fact, I remember visiting my mum's office (she was an accountant then) to browse the internet and look up news about my favourite bands 😂

Remember how in 1999 we were all scared of the Millennium Bug... fuck me, who knew the real bug would arrive in 2020!

Anyone enemies the fuel crisis in the early 2000’s. We had to work from home for a couple of weeks, maybe 3. Yep a bit tougher with dial up and phones but manageable

Enemies = remember

At least in 2000 the NHS might have been in a better shape to treat us.

Aside from the lack of internet and social media had this happened 20 years ago chances are my life would have taken a vastly different turn.

I was at the opposite end of the country, in the run up to finishing my degree (health related) chances are I would have been employed locally instead of attending an interview that then resulted in my move to where I live now. I met DH up here and have settled. Life could have been very different.

Distinctly remember using a dial up modem to surf the net around 1993. Windows was in use, Word, search engines Google and Altavista were popular. Different times, and yes a lot slower and mainly desktop pc’s, laptops were for the rich.

I WFH from 1995. I had some sort of 'broadband' (copper, obv) quite early, and a demon internet account. The guy doing an awesome job upscaling our corporate VPN set mine up back then - would have been difficult for more than a few.

Distinctly remember using a dial up modem to surf the net around 1993. Windows was in use, Word, search engines Google and Altavista were popular.

Google was founded in 1998. There wasn't much on the web before then though the internet had been in existence for much longer.

Remember that clanging noise that dialup made?

Hahaha i remember as a young teen my Mum telling me to log off MSN & go to bed. I would go through the motions, then sneak back down, press the connect button, then run upstairs to flush the toilet to hide the dial up noise 😂

But yeah, 2000 feels like it was only 2 years ago until i think about it properly!!

SARS too, it's just a different coronavirus to the previous one. MERS was also similar. I'm not sure why they haven't spread as much as this one though
Probably because the deaths rate in both (10% and 35% approx) is way higher, you’re dead before you’ve passed it on to too many others.

It would have been better

The fact it’s being watched 24/7 is making it look worse.

We didn't have so much air traffic and fewer people were travelling, so it might have been contained more easily.

I'm just hoping the Internet doesn't go down; I'm one of those who's been working from home for a long time now, and I've noticed a definite slowdown the last couple of days, and not just Netflix, before anyone says that, but my standard email as well. I do use Gmail sometimes and Google Drive but that's always been like wading through treacle....

Companies like the one my husband works for (a independent private company) are working hard to ensure this doesn't happen. He is working hard so other companies don't go under. Proud of him, as I am all people who are working hard through this to do their bit