Question for the olds on here regarding 2020 technology

Never dreamed of smartphones. Probably just stuff like I saw in The Jetsons.

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Probably just stuff like I saw in The Jetsons.

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Yup. Lost in Space. Star Trek.

I really thought transportation would have markedly advanced.
Air travel has essentially not improved in decades. Even regressed in some regards due to the extended amounts of time it takes to go through the ticketing/ boarding process.

Also driving not much improved time wise.

I had envisioned a system of highways that cars could get onto and the car would lock onto a sensor line and all the cars would move at a rapid pace from town to town

I'm not that old, 48, but there were certainly some milestones that we conquered that we thought were awesome at the time. The cordless phone, a TV with a remote control, etc. Things that kids today would look sideways at you if you told them. I'm sure they don't even know what a payphone is.

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where have expectations NOT been met?

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Personal jet packs. I thought we'd all have them by now.

I never thought I'd see the day when we had actual holograms a la the R2-D2 projection in A New Hope.

Born in 82.

I expected hoverboards to be a thing.

The most unexpected technology is the internet itself. No one could have predicted the massive impact it has had on society.

I do recall thinking about the CIA and wondering if they had listening devices built into every day items for massive domestic surveillance. Fast forward 28 years and voila: smart phones.

For me it boils down to big tech and small tech.

I expected that we would have landed people on Mars by 2020 and that buildings would be bigger and more advanced. Transportation would be cheaper and cleaner, faster. City infrastructure would work better and make more sense. In other words, I expected big, showy technology to have a greater impact.

What I didn’t expect was that small technology would be as powerful as it is. The internet, smart phones, GPS, computing power. It’s insane compared to what we were expecting. Hell, just having the potential to be in contact with someone 24/7 is still mind blowing to my past self. We used to have to wait until someone was home to call them.

The only personal-level tech that I’m a little disappointed in is still no cure for cancer.

Im 37.. not super old. But ive seen alot change over my lifetime. My career is in tech... but other than work. I despise most of the way the world has gone in tech. Social media mainly..horrible. But it has made alot of jobs alot easier, i remember getting internet when it came out, slow as christmas but it was amazing to me. I have came from rotary dial phones, to bag phones, to flip phones, to smart phones. 3 channels on tv, to unlimited channels on tv. From going to movie stores on friday nights and rent, to red box and streaming options. Most things are definitely easier now with new tech, but at the same time i miss the more simple times if that makes sense.

born in 82 is not old