Bowl cuts, backward caps and some pretty good predictions

It's 1995. John Howard's just become Federal Leader of the Opposition, Shaggy's 'Boombastic' is likely playing on a radio near you and some American kids are making predictions about 'The Internet' and the future.

While most of us now probably use the internet too much, apparently we didn't take to it so quickly at first.These school kids are actually carrying out a public service announcement to rouse American citizen's interest.

It's pretty amazing what they did predict and, equally, what they didn't. No mention of online news or social media but they foresaw online shopping and phone calls!

These kids weren't the only guys making predictions about the internet, some were making far less flattering ones. This blog highlights a Newsweek article circa 1995 titled "The Internet? Bah!". The article and commentary are definitely worth a read, providing insight into how far the Internet has superceded expectations.

At the time (1995), according to the Pew Research Centre only 32% of those using the Internet would "miss it a lot" if it became unavailable. Now, 55% of Americans use the Internet every day, without it, mosts' daily communications would be compromised and millions of online businesses would cease to exist. I think it's fair to say we'd more than "miss it a lot".