Tech review: What my everyday life looked like 25 years ago

David Lee

26/12/2025

Translation: machine translated

As an adult 25 years ago, I didn't own a mobile phone or a notebook. My memories of the year 2000 make me realise how much technological development has changed my life.

A quarter of the 21st century is already over. There were a few moments when I suddenly realised how far technology had come - for example, when I used my first SSD. I couldn't believe how quickly the computer suddenly started up! Or when I watched football in HD quality for the first time: Wow, you can recognise the individual players, even if their names aren't Carlos Valderrama! But most of the changes happened in small steps, so I hardly noticed them. It's only in retrospect that you realise how different everything was back then.

Computer deniers in the workplace

At the beginning of this century, I was a student working two days a week at a bank. My job was to enter paper invoices into the SAP system. Or to put it more simply: typing up figures. Of course, PCs had long been established at banks. But an older employee, who was about to retire, had successfully refused to do any work on the computer for her entire working life. There was nothing left for her to do except check and stamp the paper invoices. When she answered the phone, she mispronounced her own name. Not because she didn't know any better, but because she slipped into a different role on the phone, similar to how many people today behave completely differently on social media than «in real life». The computers were networked with each other, but there was no web or e-mail. Even among younger people, many still didn't have an email address.

My entry into the mobile age

While trying to find a more interesting job, I came across an advert. In 2000, this meant that I tore a phone number off a notice on a notice board at the university and called. From a public telephone, which wasn't in a booth, but in the corridor outside the university canteen. The noise echoed in the corridor and I could barely understand what my future boss was saying on the other end of the line. After having to ask countless times, I started to feel embarrassed and just pretended that I had understood everything.

Somehow, despite the communication breakdown, I made it to the interview and was able to start working in tech journalism a little later with small assignments under supervision. It's amazing what they let me do there: for example, I reviewed specialist books that I knew very little about. I acquired the necessary arrogance in a very short space of time and then took many years to shed it again.

I didn't have a mobile phone back then. That changed a little later, after I had been waiting for someone at the railway station for three hours. This person later told me that he had tried everything to reach me, but unfortunately it was impossible to page people over the station loudspeakers. Then I thought: Hm, maybe a mobile phone isn't just for stockbrokers and busybodies after all.

As a student, I didn't need to think long about which mobile to buy: I went to the nearest Melectronics shop (R.I.P.) and picked the cheapest one. The Motorola bone couldn't store more than 10 text messages. To be able to receive new messages at all, I had to keep deleting the old ones. But hey: I was now reachable! Sometimes anyway. I often left the mobile phone at home or forgot to look at it for two days.

The computer was the new phone

Accessibility was also an issue at home. Either the internet or the phone, I couldn't do both at the same time. As I liked chatting for hours, my line was often busy. Incidentally, my phone had a dial, which was retro for the time «» .

From today's perspective, computers were neither quiet nor economical. Nevertheless, it was completely normal - at least in my environment - to never shut them down. Simply because they took a long time to start up. On CRT screens, a screen saver always ran after a short time so that the image didn't burn in.

My box was a Macintosh in a tower case. It had an Iomega ZIP drive, which I thought I had to have, but then didn't need. It was probably the Power Macintosh 6500 - in any case, it was an uninspired piece from the uninspired Apple era during Steve Jobs' absence. I still remember ICQ very well. This was also available for the Mac, but it worked rather poorly there. The IP number was visible by default. There were people who thought it was fun to crash my computer with it. I didn't really care, crashes were part of everyday computer life anyway.

The Internet was associated with the hope of bringing people closer together. This wish seemed to be fulfilled at first. The clearest expression of this was chatting followed by a blind date. For me, it went like this: starting a conversation in a text chat with a complete stranger. Chatting through the night and then realising with surprise that it was already 6 a.m. and slowly getting light outside. Realise that this is rubbish and that you would only be disappointed if you met in person. But also realise that you have nothing to lose and meet up anyway. Be disappointed. Chatting again with an unknown person until 6am out of disappointment. And so on.

Nearly anyone had photos on their computer. And if they did, these photos were physically available in better quality. Even with documents, the important stuff was on paper. I wouldn't have minded at all if my computer had been hacked and my data stolen. I no longer have a single document from the year 2000, because the following year I bought a notebook and started from scratch. There was nothing worth transferring to the new machine.

What has amazingly survived to this day is the browser game with George W. Bush in free fall.

My first television

In order to keep vollends zu verblöden up to date with the state of stupidity, I bought myself a TV. Here, too, I simply grabbed the cheapest one from Melectronics - the United TV cost 199 francs minus 10 per cent discount because it was the exhibition model. Its screen was barely bigger than that of a modern tablet, but with much lower resolution. Of course, it was also already «curved», just the other way round. I was satisfied.

To do this, I borrowed my parents' old VHS recorder and watched «The Big Lebowski» three times in a row one afternoon. But I actually needed the VCR because I was comparing the language of news programmes on private and public stations for my studies. Because it was also about the connection to the image, I photographed flickering and shaking still images on TV with my analogue camera and made photocopies of these prints for the seminar paper. You couldn't recognise practically anything on them, they looked like shit. But the professor didn't take offence - it just couldn't be better. He also took it in his stride that the programme I was studying had already been removed from the programme by the time I handed in my article. The following year, the channel (TV3) disappeared completely from the scene.

On the eve of the music revolution

At the time, I was still recording music on cassette. I also bought a portable MiniDisc recorder. The computer was not yet suitable for music. It could play CDs, but not burn them. Creating MP3s would certainly have been possible - but why? I couldn't play them anywhere else. That's why downloading music wasn't a viable option - besides, with the slow and expensive internet connection, I could just about buy a CD. Just two or three years later, things looked completely different - in the year 2000, I was on the eve of a technological revolution. CD burners, file sharing, MP3 players and digital recording studios made the MiniDisc recorder redundant for me.

Fair foam fight

In the year 2000, there was neither YouTube nor social media, and the internet was a long way from replacing personal contact. Trade fairs and exhibitions were a big and important thing. Especially in the tech sector.

Orbit was the largest computer trade fair in Switzerland. In 2000, it was aimed at both business people and consumers. The dotcom bubble was at its peak, but had not yet burst. Although I later went to the much bigger IFA and the absurdly large CES, I found Orbit 2000 to be the craziest tech fair I had ever visited. I couldn't walk past any stand without being chatted up and involved in a business consultation. This was despite the fact that I didn't look like someone you should be having business conversations with. One stand included a complete ghost train, at the end of which I was presented with a freshly squeezed fruit cocktail. Why? I have no idea. My only job at the fair was to help empty the beer keg that my boss had tapped at the Adobe stand. All that came out was foam. A fitting image for the trade fair at the time.

David Lee

Senior Editor

David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.ch

My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.

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