The year is 1984.  You are 16 or 17 years old.  You grew up in the 70s.  Ronald Regan is president (and is shot by a would-be assassin obsessed with Jodie Foster).  An American Werewolf in London, Chariots of Fire, and Raiders of the Lost Arc are the most popular movies of the year.  Although computers have been invented, they are not widespread or efficient--you write all your school assignments by hand or on the typewriter.  Although AIDS is spreading throughout the US, no one knows exactly what it is yet (all doctors know is that there is an unusual amount of pneumonia cases).  Lech Walesa is voted Time Magazine's man of the year (he is a union leader who fights Communists in Poland).  MTV debuts in August with "Video Killed the Radio Star."  The most popular television show of the year is Dallas.  When you buy music, you are most likely to buy records.  You and your friends enjoy playing Pitfall, Frogger, and PacMan on your Atari.  Your main means of communication between you and your friends is the telephone.

    Now flash forward twenty years.  It is the year 2004.  You have been rudely taken from the world you know and plunked down today.  Describe what the new world is like

    What became of your friends?
    What remained the same about the world?
    What is completely different?
    What excites you?
    What scares you?

    Compare and contrast the world you knew in 1984 and the world you now encounter in 2004.