You’ve Got Mail [PHIL-OSOPHY]

Embrace change, they say, because old ways won't open new doors.

This whole about-turn thing started last week when we were told the company wanted us to switch over to another personal information manager from Microsoft. I silently wanted to right-click my anxiety button, because when it comes to technology, I don't mind vegetating. In fact, my thoughts started going back to the 1990s and America Online, or AOL.

The service had those three icons with the little guy running during minutes of that awful dial-up noise, and then the "connecting" character and finally, the satisfying sound of "connected" with a small crowd celebrating and the guy's voice saying, "You've Got Mail." It's nostalgic, isn't it?

Well, I still have and use my AOL account. Is that worth an office Razzie Award at the Christmas party?

How many of you can remember your first AOL screen name? I still have mine. You see what I mean about vegetation? Well, at least I didn't get a celebrity voice version of AOL notifications, back when it was all the rage to have David Letterman or Madonna as the voice of your internet service.

The internet came to you in a CD-ROM, and as it said in the commercial, "If you have a phone line, you can go online." The commercial also boasted connection speeds of 56k! Wow, 56k, that was all well and good until someone picked up the telephone in the other room to try and make a call, booting you offline in the process. And I won't even begin to describe the fear and anticipation of whether or not I'd have a computer after New Year's Eve of Y2K.

So, as I made the necessary changes last week, some of these nostalgic thoughts reminded me to do something now that my future self will thank me for. It will take me a while to get used to the new set up, but I'm still not getting rid of my AOL account.

Phil Paleologos is the host of The Phil Paleologos Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Contact him at phil@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @PhilPaleologos. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.