I catch myself taking technology for granted sometimes. I first used a computer back in the mid-80s when I was just a kid and have been since. It's really amazing to look back and think of all the advances that have been made over the course of just two decades: the color monitor (EGA,CGA doesn't really count so I mean VGA to large flat screens), the mouse (from nonexistant to laser-guided scrolling quadruple button ones), the harddrive (from 0mb average to 40Gb average), the processor (from 10mhz to 2.5Ghz), the memory (64kb to 1Gb), the Internet (from pretty much nonexistant to dial-up to broadband), the OS (from DOS, to Win 3.1 to Win 95, Win 98, Win ME, Win 2000, Win XP), the printer (from dot-matrix, to inkjet and/or laser), the cd-rom (from nonexistant to slow, then fast, to rewritable to DVD to rewritable DVD).
The things I can do with technology today would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. I can watch TV on my 19" monitor while Instant Messaging people from around the world while downloading music, searching for movies, and burning a CD with over 150 songs. I can buy or sell just about anything on the Internet and can send "mail" to dozens of people for free without even trying. None of this was very realistic just 10 years. If you have just read this and understood what I'm talking about without skimming right to the bottom, you are truely keeping up with modern technology. Keep in mind that there are actually people out there that haven't. Some people still don't have email or an Internet connection. Some people still use dot-matrix printers. Be patient. I have no idea where I'm going with this so if you do just mentally finish this in your own special way.