Summary
The Future of Us poses the question, 'If you knew what your future held would you try to change it?' The year is 1996, Pre-Facebook, Pre-Ipod, Pre-Netflix, and (according to the book) the Internet was used by less than half of all American high school students. Teenager Emma just received her own computer and an AOL start-up disk (remember those? I think at one point they were made into Christmas ornaments and art projects). Through this AOL disk Emma is able to log-in to her future Facebook account, and receive glimpses into her life and the lives of her friends, including Josh, her next-door neighbor, who is in love w/her.
Thoughts
- Please note that I was/am a teenager and attending high school in 1996 as Emma and Josh were in the book.
- For the record, the first time I used the Internet was in 1996, as part of a project for my chemistry class. It was a pretty big deal then, we had to get permission slips signed by our parents and everything.
- The book poses the question, 'would you try to change your future if you knew what was going to happen?' I think there are def. a few things I would do differently if I had the chance. I think though (and from reading other Sci-fi books) that you can do things that might try to change the future, but in the end some things are fated to happen.
- I didn't think the characters were v. well-developed. Emma runs track and Josh skates, but there really isn't much more to their characters. The book mainly focuses on their relationship with each other and their friends.
- I felt that Emma tended a little toward the melodramatic.
- I think the authors did a good job of re-creating the world of 1996 in particular by mentioning dial-up Internet, VHS tapes, bands popular during the era such as Green Day and Dave Matthews Band, walkmans, and cassette tapes.
- I was surprised that cassette tapes were mentioned so often. I definitely bought and owned a number of CDs in '95/'96 and cassette tapes were starting to be relegated to the dusty back corners of music stores.
- I think Emma took rather drastic action when she found info about her future she didn't like, such as tracking down and calling her supposed future husband, letting future info affect where might go to college, and trying to possibly prevent a friend's teen pregnancy.
- I didn't really care for the ending very much, it wasn't v. definitive, and I tend to like endings that wrap up all the loose ends in a nice, neat package.
- Not exactly sure what message the book is sending. Seems to be to focus on the here and now, and not dwell too much on the past or future, which is a good message at any age, I guess.
- Oprah's Book Club started
- Travelocity.com, and Ebay both launched.
- Tupac Shakur was murdered
- Independence Day was the number one movie at the box office, but The English Patient won the Best Picture Oscar
- The New York Yankees won the World Series
- People were doing a dance called the Macarena, which was also the longest running number-one single of 1996. Learn the dance here!
- E.R. was the number one TV show.
- The number one non-fiction book was Angela's Ashes, a man's memoir about growing up poor in New York and Ireland. Find out about it and buy it here!
- After killing 23 people, The Unabomber was turned in by his own brother.
- Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorced.
- DVDs were introduced in Japan
- People were mad for the toy Tickle Me Elmo at Xmas time. A clerk was injured during a Wal-Mart sale, and black market prices soared to as much as $3,000. See what the fuss was about here! Annoying right?
- Dolly the sheep was the first mammal to be cloned. She died in 2003.
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