No matter how hard we try, all parents at some point inevitably use the "back in my day..." lead-in for a story to their kids about how life was different "way back when." So naturally we thought this was the perfect way to start our 20 year reflection on study skills. Back in my day [20 years ago]...   20 years ago, there was definitely not "an app for that." So studying meant grabbing some 3x5 notecards and making flashcards. If you were really committed, you highlighted and underlined key phrases or dates of importance. It required an extensive set of supplies to do it justice.   If you needed to research a topic for a paper or project, you couldn't just pull up Google on your smart phone. You had to get a book like an encyclopedia, dictionary, or thesaurus from the shelf. No really, an actual book. You had to find your topic from an alphabetically-ordered list of topics, and if you came up short you had to grab MORE books on related topics until you found all of the information you needed.   Studying 20 years ago also meant a different set of distractions - instead of social media and texting with friends, your parents forced you to get off of the phone (yes, the house phone - connected to the wall no less!) with your friend to hit the books - gasp!   Yes, studying has come a long way in 20 years. And we expect advances in technology to continue to change the face of studying and education in general as we move forward. But the next time your kids gripe about having to hit the books, remind them that at one time, a long time ago, there were real books to hit and maybe even bust out an old encyclopedia to prove it - and make them laugh. Hard.