Your comment makes me smile :) I was 49 when it was released from Beta. Luckily i kept a journal for most of my twenties. I am making a concerted effort to get back in the habit now. It is great fun to see what my concerns and day to day events were 25 years ago.
Welcome to my age range :)
Yes, Gmail is one of those recent things. Google is one of those recent things.
Though that is not my reason for using neither.
I did that once and felt really creepy reading emails from my 16 year old self. Like I was intruding on a different child.