I entered college in 1999, more than 10 years ago. Back then, I had promised to keep in touch with my friends who were going to other colleges. It seemed easy, mobile phones were starting to get more trendy and cheaper. Prepaid mobile services were just starting to get popular.

But it wasn’t really that easy. Subscribers from one network couldn’t send messages to subscribers to other networks. Calls were expensive. Internet connection was mostly dial-up, slow, clogged up the landline phones, and was expensive. While I had a mobile phone and a relatively fast internet connection at my cousin’s house where I stayed, not a lot of my friends were in the same mobile network or didn’t have email addresses.

I did manage to keep in touch with friends in the same network. All the time. Until mobile networks decided to charge for SMS. As for friends abroad, I sent them ecards. That was trendy back then. Haha!

And yes, I did send my friend in Baguio some snail mail every now and then. LOL!

Back then, I made an email group and a website for my batchmates. It was so we could keep tabs on everybody. It was also where I made up my own advice column, my own opinion column, and updates on news, sports, technology, and everything I found interesting. That site still exists on the worldwide web until now. It was somewhat like a blog. Only back then I didn’t know the word blog existed. And there was no CMS, only hard coding in HTML. And it was hard to keep archives.

Now, only 11 years later, I can send SMS to any network, even to mobile networks abroad. I can send a message via email or social networking sites. I can even call anybody, anytime for low rates. And yes, I can update my blog almost anytime I want. Hassle-free.

It has only been 11 years but a lot of things have changed since then. Now my friends from all over the world, can know where and what I ate for lunch. Or whether I got home early. They can now look at my photos and read about my experiences anytime they want. And I can give my opinion on the latest issues, share my triumphs and heartbreaks, write about my food adventures, and upload my videos anytime I want all thanks to broadband internet service. (I hope they improve my service’s speed though.)

Now I wonder if all of these will be passe and outdated 10 years from now. I hope so. Better mobile services, faster internet connections, and other services we never imagined to happen could happen. Hopefully.