You've Got Mail (1998)

Whether or not you're a fan of romantic comedies, there's no denying the on-screen connection between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (heh, see what I did there?). This film is about a local bookstore owner named Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan), who begins a feud with Foxbooks (think Indigo or Barnes & Noble) over a location that opened up across the street from her shop. The owner of Foxbooks is revealed to be Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), who coincidentally strikes an online relationship with Kathleen Kelly through anonymous emailing. After some time, Joe Fox discovers his online girlfriend is the very same woman who's historic book shop is being driven out by his very own corporation. Although they both hate each other in the real world, Joe Fox is very much in love with Kathleen Kelly online, which ultimately creates a sticky situation considering Foxbooks is about to put his love interest out of business.

You've Got Mail takes place during the late nineties when dial-up was a fundamental aspect of connecting to the internet (if you're too young to remember the horrifying sounds of dial-up, click here at your own peril). There wasn't a lot of platforms for online dating at the time, so people were mostly restricted to meeting each other through anonymous chat groups, or even worse, in person (crazy, right?). However, in todays age of infinite dating websites and lightening quick Internet speeds, it's become incredibly easy to strike up romantic conversations with virtually anyone. So easy, we can find potential partners through dating applications downloaded directly onto our smart phones. If only Tinder had existed in You've Got Mail, Kathleen and Joe would have probably swiped left on each other and avoided any romantic dilemmas from occurring to begin with. Furthermore, in You've Got Mail, Kathleen Kelly takes her crusade against the greedy corporation to the news, hoping to expose Foxbooks and gain support for her cause from sympathetic viewers around New York City. Although I definitely think this was a good idea, it was also very limited. If this was a real-life situation happening today, a more effective approach might be spreading awareness through outlets like Facebook or Twitter; two leading social media platforms that can share information with millions of users around the world in literally seconds.

This movie put perspective into how fast the our world is truly evolving. Anonymous chatting has been replaced by social networking, and buying books can now be done over a website or downloaded directly onto a Kindle. However, with hipster subcultures on the rise within many cities around North America, there still might be hope for local bookshops to survive.