Technology in the last 15 years
If you’re talking about computers—It’s gotten smaller, faster, and in most ways, more convenient.
A computer in 1996 was a box roughly 15cm high, and perhaps half a meter square that sat on your desk under a large heavy monitor. It absolutely dominated your desk. Laptops existed but they were typically underpowered with small displays and too heavy to be portable. Your laptop display was probably dim, monochrome and hard to see unless it was pointed right at you. Your laptop probably had a slot or set of two slots stacked that you could plug a modem, network card, or combo modem/network card into.
If your hardware was up to date, you were probably running Windows 95. Apple computers were something of an also-ran at the time, and most people were completely unaware of Linux.
Your screen, probably didn’t display much. Typically, about 640 pixels across by 480 down. Better screens and resolutions were available of course. They got expensive fast. Video cards that were dedicated to games and 3d graphics just becoming available.
The computer probably had a dial up modem which was slow, and made your phone line otherwise unusable, unless you had a second line installed for the computer. Web sites were mostly text with a few pictures. Much of the time you watched the pictures load slowly a bit at a time. Video, when it was available at all, was typically a tiny window and short in duration. Cable modems were slowly becoming available, but home networks weren’t common, and took quite a bit of manual configuration. Wireless networks were prohibitively expensive for a few more years.
Voice chat apps were available, so you may have had a microphone attached. Cameras were available, but usually monochrome. Most of them plugged into an added video capture card, some plugged into the parallel printer port in your computer. Speaking of printers, it was probably a huge boxy thing, you basically had a choice of an inkjet or a monochrome laser. USB was a new thing and wouldn’t be typically available or useful for a few years.
CDRom drives were usually included in newer computers. A game might have three or four or more of them that were swapped out from time to time as you played.
Contrast that with a modern smart phone. You can verbally ask it a question and get an answer. Take a picture or even a video and send it to a friend, or post it somewhere where thousands of people can see it within a few seconds. Your phone knows where you are, it knows who you know and all the ways you know of to get in touch with them. Games, books, internet browsing, and audio/video entertainment is always right at hand. Many people don’t even use computers any more for their internet access.
Twenty years ago, the concept of the abilities of even a low end smart phone were beyond all but the best and well tricked out computers, and you STILL had issues of portability and convenience. Even a low end smart phone was the stuff of science fiction twenty years ago.
