The year 2000, although 25 years ago, was not that different technologically than today. I think 1998/1999 was a turning point in personal technology and technology culture (2007/2008 was another turning point).
Computers running Windows and MacOS* existed. The internet existed. Email and instant messaging was common. Mobile telephony existed, even some rudimentary mobile internet. Many of the companies that form the backbone of our techscape existed - Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, even Netflix (though not in its current form). The only significant one missing is Meta.
In 2000, on a personal level;
I had a “multi-band” GSM mobile phone. This meant it worked in most places around the world. That was impressive.
I had a handheld computer. Contacts, calendars, notes, email, to-do lists, ebooks, all in my pocket and on the move. Synchronised with the equivalent on my computer. That was impressive.
I had WiFi in my home. That was groundbreaking.
I had broadband. No tying up a phone line and no screeching modem.
I had a supercomputer in my home.
So, not much different than what I have today.
Except;
Multi-band GSM is normal now - every phone is multi-band and GSM these days. And that phone was 2G - not even 2.5G - hence no data. Telephony and SMS only.
My handheld computer, some called it a personal digital organiser, was millions of times less powerful than the iPhone in my pocket. It had a 320x320 greyscale (4 shades of grey) screen, and no wireless networking capability (cellular, WiFi or Bluetooth). I had to sync it with a computer in order to update content, send and receive email etc. Update: I forgot I also had a modem for it that I could plug into a phone line if I needed to sync while away from a computer.
My WiFi (802.11b - 10mbps) was a thousand times slower than my current WiFi (6E - 10gbps). My home broadband - DSL over copper wire (I think it was 1mbps) - slower still.
My “supercomputer” was a 450MHz PowerMac G4. A few millions of times less powerful than my current M2 Apple Silicon MacBook, I’m not even going to look up the benchmark scores.
* although, not the modern MacOS - that first came out in 2001.
