10 Things We Didn't Have Last Time The Bills Were In The Playoffs

The Buffalo Bills are going to the playoffs! I kept saying it over and over just to hear it and convince myself that it was true. My daughter asked why it was such a big deal. Do you know how long it's been?

It's been 17 years since they've had a shot at the big game. This year, they finally broke that trend. The drought is over!

But just how much time has passed? How much has changed?

A lot.

When you look back and see just how much we have these days that we hadn't even heard of back then, it makes it feel like it was decades ago.

In my own life, I've gotten married and had 2 kids. One of them is a teenager, the other is pretty close. I've driven 13 different vehicles, lived in 3 different apartments and bought 2 houses since then.

Let's just say, it's been awhile. And I've been there for every step of it. I don't think I've missed a game. But when I started thinking about all that's changed for me in that amount of time, I really started wondering what has changed for the world since then. So I did some research and found a list of 10 things that we hadn't even heard of before January 8, 2000, and I've got it here for you. It's hard to believe, but here are 10 things we didn't have the last time The Bills were in the playoffs.

Survivor - the show gave birth to what we know now as “reality TV” (May 31, 2000)
The iPod – began the portable music revolution (Oct 23, 2001)
American Idol debuts on Fox – became one of the biggest singing competitions (July 11, 2002)
Facebook /Twitter – connected people in a whole new way and made social media what it is today (sorry MySpace). (Feb 4, 2004) Twitter followed in 2007.
The iPhone – portable music, phone, and apps. There is an app for just about everything. (June 29, 2007)
Tom Brady. Coincidence? Probably not. (Drafted in the 2000 draft)
Wi-Fi – if you wanted to be connected to the internet, you almost literally had to be connected. (Yes, it was invented earlier but it didn’t catch on until 2001)
Xbox, Wii, Playstation 2, 3, or 4. – While Playstation was around, and Nintendo had been played for years, they’d never been played like they had when Xbox came around and you could play Xbox Live with people you didn’t know and you could bowl without going to the bowling alley with the Wii.
Garmin GPS/Google Maps – We used to have to get directions from a real map or a website called Mapquest where we would have to print them out before we left. Garmin became a thing on May 2, 2000 and Google Maps on February 8, 2005
TIVO/DVR – We used to have to watch shows when they were on. The other option was to tape them with our VCRs. That way we could skip the commercials!