A Reminder of the Passing Years

Later this summer, it will indeed be 30 years since I turned 18. How could I compare myself and my development at that time to the present day and to my own children—two of whom have recently been at that same stage during the 2020s? Memories don’t always provide the best point of comparison, because when you’re living in a moment, everything feels normal or self-evident. Something concrete is needed to remind us of those times!

At the breakfast table, I came across a useful tool. On the Helsingin Sanomat website, I found a time machine feature that led me to open the newspaper from my 18th birthday: August 30, 1995! What reflections of that era’s worldview did it offer? And how can those be compared to the issues we talk about today?

To start, maybe I’ll just entertain myself—and you—by sharing some excerpts from the headlines of that day. All quotes presented below come from Helsingin Sanomat, August 30, 1995. And just so you know, it’s not some sleek digital replica or e-paper—it’s a good old-fashioned, scruffy newspaper layout in file format!

Digitalisation Arrived in the Workplace

It’s easy to start with an amused smirk at the headline: “Parliament Will Join the Internet This Fall.” This was a time when Members of Parliament had email, but only about a third had used it regularly in the previous year. Legal cases could be found in the Minttu database, global articles through the Esmerk service, and many other fragmented services had to be known separately. They mostly produced file lists that were laborious to read.

Searching for the right information heavily relied on good personal contacts, tips, and materials. Libraries and other physical archives still played a crucial role as repositories of relevant information. And it was easy to feel satisfied if you found anything related to your topic. Think about it—did you ever leave the library feeling disappointed or wondering whether you’d found the best and most important material?

Just a few years later came websites and search engines. Today, on of the hottest trend is AI agents. One agent might collect information, another might analyze it, and a third might, for example, place an order based on the data it receives. These possibilities increase the pressure! Should I know how to do all this? What if others understand and I don’t? What will I miss out on in life if others are using knowledge, AI, and money-making opportunities!?

Back in the ’90s, there wasn’t this kind of pressure. You knew what you’d heard of, and you didn’t worry about what you didn’t know, because information didn’t spread so quickly. It was enough to compare your tech skills to those around you in your own village.
Is that really the case—or am I simply comparing different life stages, not just eras, with myself as the reference point, 30 years apart?

Back to the old days. At the top of the wish list were things like sending a fax without printing it on paper, mobile phones that could always reach you (even when MPs traveled to Brussels), and being able to call your representative directly. The X.400 email standard was still in use, and contact details were published even in newspapers in the form:
C=FI; A=MAILNET; P=eduskunta; S=LastName; G=FirstName.

That was soon replaced after 1995 by the SMTP email protocol and much simpler domain names (like miehenterveyseiseuraavaimiten.fi, of course).

“Starting in the fall, a Member of Parliament (MP) will be able to search for information from the Internet themselves. Before a committee trip to Australia, they can study the workings of the country’s parliament and find out about the hosts’ hobbies to have something to talk about at dinner. For gender equality discussions, they can prepare by reading the latest women’s studies online.”

There’s something delightfully idealistic about this—a celebration of independence and self-reliance. Technology empowers the leader! How great it must have felt to say: Even though I’m in a high position, I found all the information myself, without a secretary or archive request!

Is Technology Serving People?

Today, after 30 years of digitalisation, the situation is quite the opposite among the general working population. We can’t even talk about having a secretary anymore—but thankfully, the role hasn’t disappeared. It simply evolved. As demands increased, the secretary became an assistant. The assistant became a coordinator, and eventually, in some cases, developed into a consultant or expert.

Managers no longer strive for technical independence. They struggle with half-finished systems as self-taught users, hoping they could have someone on their team to help—someone who could search and structure information so they wouldn’t have to. They feel that navigating and clicking through systems adds no value, yet must be done to finally get to the real work: leading, coaching, and developing themselves and their employees through direct interaction.

Perhaps such an expert already exists on many teams, but even they have to spend most of their time maintaining data instead of analysing it.
Technology was supposed to become a humble servant and a tool—but has it become something we no longer make time for, because the real work still needs to get done?

Let’s hope AI does not become just another manifestation of this efficiency-draining phenomenon—but instead a new force that truly flips the script and makes applications into tools for everyday people. Finding the right information quickly is at least as important as storing it.

I’m hopeful because the kind of publicity value that software projects often pursue—more than real internal efficiency or resource liberation—might now be achievable as a by-product.

Perhaps in the future, we won’t have to conclude that the stylish and harmonised solution came at the cost of real efficiency for end users, because customisation was left out.

Maybe AI products can offer tailored solutions with little effort. Maybe the people at the grassroots level—who actually understand best what makes work efficient—can start defining system requirements on the fly, instead of features being decided in advance or tools being reduced to flashy transcription devices used to forward information to management or partners in the name of minor cost savings.

Even the best IT product is just that—a product—for its developer and vendor.
For everyone else, it must be a value-adding tool that supports the creation of the real product: the effective and high-quality output of the organisation.
This is often forgotten when systems are being specified and productive features for the end user are cut out.

Thoughts on the Evolution of Digitalisation

Back to the Old Days Again! I wanted to better understand what we’ve actually been expecting from digitalisation over the years. Has technology really stopped serving us at some point? Or have I just personally fallen behind and failed to see and benefit from it in my own daily life? ChatGPT divided the development of digitalisation into five stages:

1. The Era of Automation (1950s–1980s)

Goal: Replace repetitive human tasks with machines and programmable systems
Usage:

• Administrative data processing, payroll, inventory management
• First computers and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in industry
• Precursors to email and digital systems (e.g., X.400)

📌 People wanted to streamline routines → the idea of information systems was born

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🌐 2. The Era of Communication and Networking (late 1980s to early 2000s)

Goal: Speed up communication and connect across organizational and national borders
Usage:

• Internet, email, websites
• B2B and B2C online services, IRC, chat platforms
• Early e-commerce and CRM systems

📌 People wanted to connect and be visible → the global information network emerged

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📱 3. The Era of Digital Daily Life and Business (mid-2000s to 2010s)

Goal: Integrate digital technology into everyday life, work, and consumption
Usage:

• Smartphones, apps, cloud services
• Social media, digital marketing
• Online banking, mobile payments, platform economy

📌 People wanted convenience, mobility, and accessibility → a user-driven digital world was born

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🧠 4. The Era of Data-Driven Management and Automated Analysis (from the 2010s onward)

Goal: Derive value from data and make fact-based decisions
Usage:

• Big Data, AI, machine learning
• Personalized services, automated content recommendations
• IoT devices, smart homes, self-learning systems

📌 People wanted to understand and anticipate → a data-driven world emerged

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🧬 5. The Era of Human-Centric and Ethical Digitalisation (from the 2020s onward)

Goal: Use technology responsibly, equally, and safely
Usage:

• AI regulation, data ownership, digital identity
• Technology’s role in wellbeing, mental health, and democracy
• Green digitalisation, inclusive services, digital participation

📌 People want to control technology – not just use it → value-driven digitalisation is emerging

I could have traced the starting point of this development path all the way back to the industrialisation of the 1800s—before actual (electro)automation—but in any case: Did it happen that in the above-mentioned phases 2 and 3, we lost sight of the fact that digitalisation should serve people? Trends and the market value of applications took center stage and drained efficiency.

Hopefully, phase 4—the 2010s—marked a turning point, where ultimately AI or some next innovation (whose name we don’t even know yet) will lead us to digital efficiency breakthroughs as clear and impactful as the steam engine, the railway, or household appliances in the 19th and 20th centuries.

It’s likely that I’ve personally come up with this idea of technology stagnation based on my own experiences. Experts might only see a steadily accelerating trend and point to countless examples of the opportunities offered by supercomputers, and so on. Still, I pose the question: Have the benefits of digitalisation truly reached the broader population in full?

Is it possible that, in the bigger picture, we haven’t returned to a time when tools are genuinely handed to people—but rather, the biggest advantages have gone to the companies developing applications and those who buy the collected data for marketing purposes? Just to enable the next “tool” to be sold.

At the very least, this last fifth step, value-driven era of digitalisation, is still in its early stages.

The Rise of Remote Work Through Advancements in Telecommunications

“Telephone news! Phone companies unite under the same flag.” The Helsinki Telephone Association, like many others, joins the Finnet group.

I myself caught that wave a couple of years later when I spent a summer at Kymen Puhelin, repairing landline phones and visiting local Kotka businesses with private branch exchange (PBX) installers! On Finnet’s news page, it was stated that “Almost 150,000 Finns work either partially or fully from home using information technology.” This was actually surprising, considering that home connections at the time were modem-based over landlines, or ADSL rather than mobile broadband. But I guess the speed was enough, since people didn’t need to have dozens of applications open at once like they do now.

Back then, no one could’ve guessed that the real remote work boom would still be over 20 years away—and that the final breakthrough would be driven by a global pandemic.

In the same article, swimmer Jani Sievinen appeared as a front figure for Radiolinja, promoting the versatile features of GSM phones, and every other page was filled with electronics store ads showcasing Salora and Finlux CRT TVs, VCRs, and Pioneer mini stereo systems! Standard PC computers typically cost between 8,000 and 12,000 Finnish marks, which would later convert to about €1,500–€2,000 after the euro was introduced just over three years later.

From Databases to the World Wide Web

“Network Connections Benefit the Information Seeker” – This opinion piece highlights the enormous number of connection attempts to the University of Helsinki’s text-based Heli information system. Most of the access came from the university’s Faculty of Science, other faculties and educational institutions, the Academy of Finland, and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland—amounting to about 100,000 connections per week. Typical requests included email address inquiries, other contact information, or expressions of interest in expert services.

The article notes that the World Wide Web, with its ability to include images and moving pictures, had just surpassed Heli in popularity—even though the available hardware at the time couldn’t yet support video viewing. Today, for comparison, weekly visits to Google total around 26 billion, coming from homes and mobile devices virtually anywhere.

And now, on from IT to other fascinating phenomena!

The price of a bottle of Koskenkorva

“The price of a bottle of Koskenkorva to rise by one mark on Friday.”
“The clear classic will cost 83 marks in September.”
Reading the article, it feels like the public must be warned about everything to avoid the worst outcry — and that a bottle of Koskenkorva might be one of the few sacred things a Finn wouldn’t allow anyone to touch!

Changes in the Foreign Policy Situation

I pause to read the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ statements on France’s nuclear tests. France had been a nuclear power for 35 years at that point, but it conducted new tests in the Pacific less than a week after this newspaper issue was published in September 1995.

“Finland and France are both EU countries. So is France’s nuclear bomb at least partly also our nuclear bomb?”
“No. I wouldn’t say that as long as we don’t have a joint defense with France. Besides, we are committed to being a nuclear-weapon-free state, both in peace treaties and in the Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
“We have criticized nuclear testing for as long as it’s been done,” said Pasi Patokallio, director at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in an interview with Mikael Pietikäinen.

Today, France still seeks to strengthen its nuclear deterrent. For Finland, the situation is no longer as clear as it was 30 years ago. Finland now balances between international commitments, security policy realities, and the goal of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. As I understand it, Finland actively supports EU defense cooperation but remains a non-nuclear-weapon state under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), promoting non-proliferation and arms control.

At the same time, however, Finland participates in NATO’s nuclear deterrence but has not joined the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). I can’t find a clear line in this, let alone a firm stance. We’re living in a time where structures shake and we try to keep everyone satisfied.

“Relations between Finland and Latvia are developing dynamically.”
This headline from Unto Hämäläinen’s article reported on President Ahtisaari’s visit to Riga. Just four years earlier, Finland had cut diplomatic ties with Latvia for 51 years. Already then, Latvia’s EU membership was being advocated from a security perspective. Latvia was aiming for NATO membership—Finland was not. Visa negotiations were planned between the countries after the visit. Much later, in 2004, Latvia joined NATO and shortly after, the EU.

Recently, Latvia has played a key role in European security discussions, building the Baltic Defence Line due to the Russian threat, supporting NATO’s eastern front defense with measures like Germany’s armored brigade, and participating in international exercises and operations. Latvia, too, has come a long way in 30 years!

Sexism Hidden in Travel Ads

A travel agency ad promotes high-quality “back programs” on a cruise (in quotes), and sells male and female spots in 2-person cabins only. Another ad sells a shopping trip to Tallinn, featuring a “2 girls for the price of 1 on Tuesdays” offer. A third cruise ad teases with: “Reijo whips like a madman.” If not outright sexist, at least tasteless—and it’s up to the reader to interpret the ads however they like.

Already a year earlier, the market court banned some controversial ads, including the widely discussed Panu paint commercial. Even earlier, in 1991, a Tupla chocolate bar ad with an Indiana Jones theme caused a stir. The council found that a train car ad did not violate equality, as it treated both men and women equally.

Marketing Skills

“We invite you on a journey to the top of marketing,” says a sharp ad from the Marketing Institute targeting professionals. “If you work in marketing, sales, or advertising…”
Back then, marketing was mostly for professionals in the field. One couldn’t avoid advertising, nor was there a reason to protect oneself from it or understand it deeply. Hidden and deceptive tactics or data mining were basically nonexistent. Alongside those threats, tools like mobile platforms and social media were also missing.

Today, sudden riches and marketing savvy are pushed through social feeds for everyone, questioning the point of wasting your life working full 8-hour days.

Culture Lost

“Kotka’s Port of Art works were searched for with a map.” They were placed in harbors and all around the city! Even native Kotka residents complained that the artworks were nearly impossible to find. The printed map run of 10,000 copies ran out.

The cultural secretary commented: “On the bright side, the works have been spared from vandalism.” Yes, because no one can find them!

The least popular piece was someone reading the phone book aloud in the town square! Market vendors complained to the city council about the disturbance, but the piece was allowed to continue.

With a budget of about one million Finnish marks, the exhibition largely went unseen by residents — let alone tourists.

The Student Is the Institution

The comparison to my own youth actually started quite by accident, when I stopped to read the Sunday supplement (HS, Sun 25 May), which featured doctoral researcher Penni Pietilä’s study on the erosion of vocational education in Finland. The researcher had spent three semesters in a vocational school as a researcher—prior to that, as a teacher.

The themes in the research findings felt partly familiar due to my daughter’s own interrupted vocational studies:
No sense of belonging to a group—just individual completion of tasks at different stages, based on personal skills. Responsibility is shifted to the student, regardless of whether they are ready for it or not. No coherent study modules that a teenager could simply follow and be guided through by the system.

Maximum savings in educating future generations with a system based on minimal completion. The student is left wondering how on earth this was enough to pass the course, and their self-confidence wavers. Teachers are pressured to accept almost any performance that barely scrapes the bar. Get students off the register quickly and bring in new ones. Strengthening the “blue-collar” identity by removing general education subjects. Competence is supposed to come from on-the-job training, but to employers’ surprise, students arrive with no actual skills.

Maybe the only conclusion to draw is that competence really is meant to be the deciding factor. It’s increasingly rare for coworkers to share identical educational paths. Skills are gathered from everywhere and creatively combined. Initiative, healthy self-esteem, and ambition now determine success even more than before.

Summary of the Passage of Time

Structures and Principles

These days, structures either wobble or don’t exist at all—at least not since the rise of Trumpism. The list of respected principles keeps getting shorter, and increasingly, people just react to how others react. On the positive side, this has brought open-mindedness and courage, whereas in the past, people were afraid to change anything.

There’s been an explosion of opportunities, but also growing uncertainty. AI, marketing, new industries—what should I get involved in? What do I need to know? And what can I just ignore?

It used to be comforting to know that the guy next door had the same chunky Nokia phone as I did, with the same seagull ringtone and a logo downloaded via SMS from a tabloid. He had just graduated high school too. In school, we both used Netscape Navigator and made primitive websites.

Now, young people—and older ones too—have to wonder: Do I need to come up with something that’ll make me rich fast? Back then we didn’t even think of dreaming about an easy life. Instead of five job applications, we sent out thirty, and if one led to a job, we’d only much later think about whether it aligned with our dream career or an easy lifestyle.

30 Years of Technology, Phenomena, and Building the Future has been a long time for one person—and yet it’s flown by. It makes no sense to compare your own youth to what your kids are going through. What really matters is understanding what motivates and inspires young people today. What gives them a sense of safety, happiness, and self-esteem?

I’m sitting here in loose 90s track pants, perfect for spilling morning coffee on, because they’re comfortable. I never invented anything new, but I happily and dutifully went with the flow. I was content with the clarity of my choices and now work in a traditional factory job—sometimes grinding my teeth, other times full of enthusiasm and motivation. I have never expected sudden wealth. I follow and test new technologies to learn and understand the world—because it feels amazing to realize I got it, I figured it out.

Maybe what connects these two eras—then and now—is fear and uncertainty about the future, but also a shared curiosity about new possibilities. Geopolitics, the threat of wars and recession, and the pressure to build a meaningful future and find happiness. New opportunities that fascinate us and spark shared wonder.

Having it too easy isn’t good for anyone—you need some struggle to fully enjoy life’s everyday and weekend joys. With open-mindedness and a positive outlook.

Have a great week!