Five things that didn’t exist ten years ago, that we couldn’t live without now

It’s hard to imagine that less than ten years ago we didn’t have iPhones, the only funny videos we watched were on You’ve Been Framed and a tweet was just something the birds did. It’s safe to say technology has come a very long way in the last ten years and who knows what will occur in the next decade! Below are five things that didn’t exist ten years ago, that we certainly couldn’t live without now.

The iPhone

According to The Telegraph, the first ever iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs at the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco in January 2007. Based on the iPod, it was effectively an entire computer that happened to make phone calls. Steve Jobs called the iPhone “a revolutionary and magical product” and claimed that is was “literally five years” ahead of any other mobile phone. He was right, and today it’s hard to imagine what life would be like without them. 

Twitter

Born in 2006, Twitter now has an astounding 288 million monthly active users with 500 million tweets being sent per day. Like any new social platform, many were sceptical at the start, but now it is one of the most popular ways to communicate news and information around the world, both by members of the public and huge brands. Without its existence, we wouldn’t be able to stalk our favourite celebrities and a hashtag would still be a meaningless tab on the keyboard.

Tablets

Although tablets existed a while before, the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tabs have only been available since 2010! Now you can’t bear to be without it, right? It goes with you to the office, on the train, while you’re on holiday, everywhere! Yes, you also have an iPhone that possesses a lot of similar features but you just need that iPad too.

YouTube

Now the second largest search engine in the world, YouTube was only launched ten years ago in 2005. It’s hard to believe that YouTube hasn’t always been around. With hundreds of pranks, cat videos and beauty “vlogs,” most people won’t go a day without coming across some type of video shared via social media. Statistics from YouTube now reveal there are more than one billion users and every day, people watch hundreds of millions of hours of videos.

Google Maps

Ten years of Google Maps and now we rely on it for every journey we take, with many of us favouring it over a pricey sat nav. After going live in 2005, “Street View” also came into play, which still remains hugely popular with those searching for clearer directions. Many hotels and venues are even using the maps tool as virtual show-rounds inside the actual buildings!

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Photo: Yutaka Tsutano