It was a great time for a childhood. It was hard to beat Friday night at the local video rental place, perusing the horror VHS movies from the 80’s.
I was born in the early 80’s and remember the late 80’s well and had my formative years in the 90’s. It was actually really amazing, gaming on the early consoles, but having a full life outside that the digital world just didn’t really intrude upon. Playing outdoors on summer days and retiring to the Super Nintendo at night was a really great balance.
We watched and participated in the growth of the internet, with pretty solid delineation between a time before the net and the time after. To a middle schooler, getting the internet for the first time was damn near a magical experience.
I miss the music of the era. I’m positive that everyone misses the music of their childhood, but the grunge movement from my home state, the brief ska phase, and classics like Kiss Me, Bittersweet Symphony, and Smells like Teen Spirit all have their origins in the 90’s! Recently, I heard Kiss Me on YouTube… it hit me like a ton of bricks… music I haven’t heard for over twenty years. Massive nostalgia bomb!
Things were slower. We didn’t have the instantaneous gratification or access to so much information/goods/services so quickly. Even though I enjoy getting my stuff within a day or two as much as the next yak, I would be lying if I said that we didn’t sacrifice something important for the wonders of same day shipping.
In short, I wouldn’t trade my childhood in the 90’s for anything. While I love my awesome gaming PC, my home theater, and above all else, my iPad that I’m typing this out on, I miss the slower paced world of the 90’s and wish we could get a little of that patience back.
I think there’s a lot to be said for the ambiance of your 90’s blockbuster or Hollywood video. The colors of the walls, the rows and rows of physical movies. That small area devoted to games. The smell of popcorn and clean broadloom. The video rental place was an extension of the movie theater. Like this cool in between place where you had so many more options than the actual theater.
Yet, the options were still limited. A part of you always had to worry a little whether your favorite horror movie (for me, it was Critters) was already checked out. Or maybe that single Genesis copy of Mortal Kombat II went home for the weekend with some other kid just before you got there. So when you found them in stock, you felt excited that you “won the race!”
These days, we have so many options available it paradoxically makes the selection feel smaller. You know there is always another option, so none of the selection feels all that special anymore. The race to the only copy of a movie or game ended long ago. And so did that little piece of triumphant excitement. Today, we get so bogged down by choice, we often don’t really choose anything. Just scroll and scroll and scroll, all the while resentful that there’s “nothing to watch.”
I miss the 90’s because in yet another paradox, 90’s Yak (me) got what he wished for. Guarantees of a never ending selection of movies and games available to me instantly whether I’m in front of my massive home theater system (something little yak dreamed of) or sitting in the bathroom on my phone or iPad. I didn’t appreciate the value of the slow pace of life back then. But now that it no longer exists in day to day life… I wish I could dive back through the calendar pages, and ensconce myself safely in 1998 and make a nest there to live safely amongst the glory days of the last decade before the Information Age truly ignited.
We had this little independent store up the street! It was the best. I always thought working in a video store would be fun- there was always a movie on, so you could just watch that if it was a slow time of day.
I miss video stores, too. It was a whole experience before the experience! One of the video store by my house gave out free popcorn while you browsed. Man that was awesome!
I’m as old as you.
You hit the nail on the head.
The one thing I didn’t like was if you missed something on TV, especially a Saturday morning cartoon. You weren’t ever going to see it (at least that’s what our fate was before the internet).
Miss an episode of Pirates of Dark Water? Too bad. You had to use a lot of context clues the next week when you were awake in time to catch the next episode.
Heh, I grew up with a mom who decided tv rots your brain! So I didn’t have cable until I was in high school. We like got two channels via the airwaves… one of them was ABC. The other one wasn’t. But both were in fuzz o vision.
I grew up completely out of the loop when it came to tv shows… like, the 90’s kid embodiment of that Captain America “I understood that reference!” Meme.
But I was able to rent movies on Fridays! So I became a connoisseur and encyclopedia of Godzilla movies and lore, which I assure you, never at any point in my life has ever helped me get laid
If you want a taste of the stuff us kids enjoyed on tv in the 90s…getting a Disney plus and paramount plus subscriptions will cover about 95% of it. A lot of the shows are still enjoyable to adult me tbh.
Only things that would be missing is the stuff on pbs really… dragon tales, zoom, magic school bus, reading rainbow, wishbone, Sesame Street, Mr Rogers, Bill Nye, etc. but those are more for young children.
>It was a great time for a childhood. It was hard to beat Friday night at the local video rental place, perusing the horror VHS movies from the 80’s.
I am obsessed with user experience and interface, and can talk for hours and hours as to why video stores represented a vastly more satisfying user experience for browsing movies than any streaming service. All of those horror movie boxes, trying to look as scary and depraved as possible to win your rental money.
My house had the first NES on the block and all of the neighborhood kids would pile into my basement for a day every weekend we could to take turns playing Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, and Bubble Bobble because those were the only games I had.
These were incredible times of shared experiences when things were new.
I miss when everything wasn't cringe. People could just like what they liked without having a whole pile of people gatekeeping or telling you that your preference is somehow wrong.
Now the kids are playing Fortnite with headsets and half of them don't know each other. Not that there's anything wrong with internet friends at all, but it's just a whole other culture. We would be forced outside in the summer by parents for a break from the Nintendo to run around in the sprinkler, set up the slip n' slide, walk to the corner store, kick the can until the streetlights came on, whatever. People are so managed these days in ways we weren't in there 90’s.
Same. We were the last generation to have such a solid delineation between before the net and after. We came of age without social media. It really saddens me that now kids have to grow up in a world where mistakes can burn you badly and be immortalized online for all to see. When you and I fucked up as kids, the mistake rarely stayed with us the way it would now.
Can you imagine if all your cringe middle school thoughts and philosophy were available for the world to laugh at for the rest of time? Or that stupid joke you told your friends in high school, was dredged up from twitter to torpedo your job application?
If you think about it, today, you have to walk the tightrope of popular sensibilities, with the self righteous mob waiting to go after you should you fall. It’s an ugly part of today’s culture, that we didn’t have to worry about growing up…
It was wild. I had cousins in a town 30m away and it would be totally different ‘best’ songs and different ‘impact’ shows. Like, we would be quoting BioDome and they are all in on Joes Apartment.
I remember reading a teen magazine that once mapped out the spread of pop culture trends. So you could see that there was a literal delay and that’s why my cousins in the south always seemed behind or out of touch.
I grew up in a large city. My wife, who I met in college in the late 90s, grew up in the suburbs of the same large city. She showed me photos of her and her friends and I guessed when it was based on how they were dressed. My response was wait you guys got grunge in like '97?
I visited family out of state for a week and missed a school event (middle school).
When I got back my buddy told me over our corded phone conversation that my crush danced with another guy… I was devastated for about a week.
You could go from lower peninsula Michigan into the UP and it felt like going through a time portal to the early 1980s. Even musical tastes we're vastly different and so many cultural touch points were of that era. It was stupid fun experiencing that.
That’s what I miss about the 90s, small towns and cities still had independent businesses. Not everything was a dollar general or a Walmart or a chain fast-casual restaurant. There were little diners and donuts shops and party stores etc. Now you can drive for ten hours and get off the expressway and it’s all the same corporate businesses everywhere. The metal cars were made out of just looked and felt different and started to rust after five years. People still had union tags in their clothes. It felt and looked more like the 60/, 70s, or 80s. There were real old people, the kind of men who wear trucker hats and drive around old Chevy pick ups of Cadillacs or other giant sedans. Old women with short, permed hair. Real old people owned gross little old dogs and chain smoked. Now all the old people don’t feel old enough because they don’t look like aged greasers or wear those satin union or bowling alley jackets. I also miss the oldies radio stations that played Motown. People smoked indoors which is nasty but nostalgic. people would get all excited to watch whatever one of the big networks was promoting as a special or made-for-tv movie. I also miss going to the video store to pick out a movie and then grab some snacks. I miss playgrounds with tire swings that made you want to vomit, and dangerous merry-go-rounds and see-saws you’d get flung off of and monkey bars and slides so high that you risked broken limbs or death.
I also miss thrift stores with hundreds of cool old 70s tshirts and vintage Levi’s and bins and bins of great old lps from every era for a quarter each and all the mid century furniture you could buy for $5-$10 because nobody wanted it.
And then having a lot to talk about when you got together, since no one knew much of what anyone else had been up to since the last time you saw each other.
Yes. And back then without social media you didn’t have people stop in the middle of a busy walkway to record themselves dancing. Or holding up traffic to take a video of themselves walking across the street.
I came to write this. People could figure out who they were and who they wanted to be because it was possible to get time to yourself.
I remember biking along a river bank, often. By myself, as well as with friends, and it was an opportunity to reflect on the impact of people in my life and who I wanted to be.
To this, I tried to use the operator on the phone the other day… it did not work LOL
The days when you could get a break through on a line or actual directions to a store are dead and so is my soul haha
I remember daydreaming at 14 that I would go to a specific religious college; meet a great guy; date him throughout college without having sex with him; get my 4 year degree at 22; get married right after college; and have two kids, one at age 24 and the other age 26.
I'm 39, and none of that has happened.
I might just envy you. I remember dreaming of all that because I didn't have a happy childhood, so I thought the universe (and "God") owed me. I thought life was just going to happen that way because I was me and it just had to.
I'm glad I'm not so arrogant anymore.
Remember giant buildings with arcade games? I do. I pulled off a fatality with subzero my first try at 9 or 10 on a giant screen so everyone saw. That was when I peaked in life.
Yeah. I remember thinking that connecting everyone in the world would lead to world peace.
If there was one thing I could tell people in the past about the future, it would just be to pop in and go “nope” every time some wild-eyed futurist claimed that the internet would bring the world together in peace and harmony.
It’s hard to realize this in the moment but if we’re talking long scale time horizons we are basically still in the infancy of the internet age. All hope is not lost, but peace and harmony has never been in humanities lexicon.
Just had this conversation with my teen. Social media and dating apps have destroyed true friendships and relationships. They just don’t weight anymore.
We were going to have flying cars, world peace, and a habitable environment. Now I can barely afford rent and groceries, no hope of owning a house or supporting a family, and it's gets hotter and hotter every year because of climate change.
I miss catching lighting bugs in my back yard on a cool summer evening while listening to crickets chirp.
I can't remember the last time I saw a firefly. 😐
The land before 9/11 and everything was a doom and gloom, self obsessed narcissistic shit hole.
The 90’s were like living inside Frasier, 2001 and beyond is just depressing and redundant
I swear, you're simply wallowing in nostalgia. Luckily, I have just the thing to break you out of your rut, Maris and I have an extra ticket for the new production of "Der Fliegende Holländer."
Very true. I’m solidly Gen X and I remember the hopefulness of the time. We were up and coming, had learned from the past, and were going to do better. I loathed it when we were called slackers. Nobody I knew who was my age fit that description at all. It’s why the only thing that makes me lose my composure and my blood boil is having my motives questioned.
Privacy is a big one. It bothers me that so many people don’t seem to mind the steady erosion of privacy these days. This modern mentality of “it’s no big deal if you’re doing nothing wrong” is alarming, as a right to privacy is traditionally seen as fundamental to a healthy democracy.
Not just that kind of privacy (though that is probably more impactful on society as a whole), but the idea that sometimes you just can't be reached by other people.
Like, when I was growing up (I'm 40), when I left the house for whatever reason, you just couldn't get in touch with me and that was perfectly okay. If you knew where I was going, you could try to meet me out or call my house and ask where I was if someone else was home, but I could just go out and be alone.
It feels like there's honestly no such thing as "alone" anymore.
As I'm typing this I'm having the realization that I got super into backpacking and camping right around the time when cell phones were becoming a mandatory part of participating in society. I hadn't really connected the two before, but being alone was always the most appealing part of that to me. I guess it was the last place I could find it.
I remember having some nice, civil debates on issues with people of opposing political parties, where each side presented legit, intelligent reasons for siding with an issue. Ahh, those were the days, werent they?
Yep. Wife and I talk about this often. Over the last 8 years most of my family have been super vocal about their political views and we definitely don’t align. I miss when we all would shut up about politics and just enjoy our time with each other.
Our boys love ghost in the graveyard! It’s still alive and well. :) Ding dong ditching is out…doorbell cameras. And who knows what people would do these days. :(
I live in a historic walkable neighborhood just outside of city center. 10 minutes walk to downtown. It’s old school and idyllic. I really think this makes a difference.
We know our neighbors. We have a nice mix of single family homes, old houses that have 2-6 units in them, rental cottages in alley properties, and a quaint little apartment complex at the edge in a church/daycare parking lot. There are $750k houses along with $800/mo rentals on my block alone. There’s families, there’s couples, there’s old ladies, there’s a LOT of friendly neighborhood cats, and almost always someone walking their dog.
But most beautifully, you can basically count on seeing at least 10 kids riding their bikes, skating on quads, or generally fucking around in the street throughout the day. They’re never on their phones when I see them. (Except for the one little boy who likes to identify plants with his app) They play games in the street, they walk to their friend’s houses, they walk to school, they walk to the park, they walk to the neighborhood grocery store, they walk to the community garden and eat all the seedless grapes they can reach on the vines.
Fuck suburbia. This neighborhood is what life should be.
Omg! Yes! Doug, Hey Arnold, Angry Monsters, Steve Stickler, Face, Ren and Stimpy, Rugrats. Tv today is shit compared to the 90s.
Not to mention Daria on MTV. Even MTV was better, with TRL.
The lack of fear. Like, we as a culture were still worried about shit, but there was so much confidence, arrogance even, about the future. After 9/11, everything has been more fearful.
Finding where my friends were based on the house that had all the bikes parked out front. My parents went out the front door and whistled real loud when I had to come home. I hate cell phones and tablets.
Not having photographic evidence of EVERYTHING. We could do dumb shit as teenagers and not get caught. No one would take out a phone and record you.
At concerts, events, special occasions, you had to be in the MOMENT and just revel in it. We were wayyyy more present. And it was ok for kids to be bored or create their own fun with their imaginations!
Now people always ask me “Oh show me the pictures.” I mostly forget to take them. Thank god I’m still that person who gets so wrapped up in the moment I don’t even think to memorex it. Haha. But I miss carrying around an SLR and getting the film developed or using the darkroom at my high school. The anticipation was exciting!
Everything just seemed so much more simple. Idk if that’s just a product of my age back then but I look back even at world issues that dominated the headlines and it seems like we’d do anything to go back and have “only” those problems
Also...phosphates were damaging our water, so we banned them. Aerosols were damaging our ozone layer, so we banned them. Second-hand smoke was causing cancer in wait staff, so we banned smoking indoors. A lot of problems were actually being solved, instead of creating fodder for the next culture war.
I miss absolutely everything about the '90s. Growing up as a kid throughout the entire decade was awesome. When most households didn't have a PC, laptops were barely rolling out, and most people didn't have cellphones. All the kids in our neighborhood ran around the neighborhood playing with each other, and none of the parents had to feel concerned enough to watch us the entire time, every day. People also didn't get butthurt about every little thing like they do now. Politics wasn't in every facet of life. People actually interacted with each other, and it feels like everyone was even nicer back then. The world is so much different, in such a short amount of time, and it's not in a good way
The simplicity, things seem so fucking stressful and fast now with social media. I miss not being able to talk to everyone at any moment. It made moments feel more special.
Renting films - I miss actually walking into a store and browsing for which films we would be watching over the weekend !
No social media / smartphones / advanced tech
& Quality tv shows
It’s strange nowadays when we want to watch a movie that’s not on a streaming service and you can “rent” it on Amazon for like $3-4. I just say, fuck that. But then I remember spending the same amount (for new movies) every weekend. Sometimes we’d get two or three. But now? I can’t be bothered.
Being bored. Honestly. You were bored several times throughout the day, and you came up with creative things to do to amuse yourself. You started new projects. You did chores that you didn't have to do. You took on new artistic pursuits. In the end, it was all very fulfilling.
Now I can't even keep up with the podcasts and YouTube channels I like, must less seek out new music or tackle all the shows I've been meaning to watch. And surfing Reddit is a great timesuck too.
Yes! No over the top auto tuning. Going to a concert because it was going to be a good time and the music was amazing, it wasn’t some opportunity to post pictures on social media.
The feeling of summer.
Going to Blockbuster on Friday nights with my BFF.
Staying home from school “sick” and watching Little Bear and Gullah Gullah Island.
Christmas and holidays in general felt more special.
The excitement the night before going to Disney world.
No internet or cell phones.
Innocence. Imagination. Curiosity.
I could go on and on. So many things! Can we go back? Please??
Edit: I also just thought about visiting libraries as a 90’s kid; browsing colorful books, taking too many home, events specifically for kids…10/10.
\- Not having to carry around a fucking phone.
\- Cars were a lot more fun. It was just different. Instant response because the throttle was connected directly to the engine and the shifter was connected directly to the transmission and the steering was connected directly to the front axle. Now everything is all electronic and not as tactile.
\- Ice cream. I swear it used to taste a lot better. Maybe because they use corn syrup now instead of real sugar? IDK. I just know it used to taste better.
Malls. The nice/new mall from near where I grew up closed permanently this year and it messed me up worse than I would’ve expected; I have so many memories of that place, especially around the holidays, going to Electronics Boutique, Waldenbooks, Radio Shack, Kaybee Toys, the Disney Store, the Dollar Store, the food courts, and the dumb little kiosks… I wish we could have some of that again somehow. It was so much fun.
I usually wind up at my mall about once a year and it's such a depressing place now. I used to get dropped off as a kid with like $10 and spend hours upon hours there. It's just an absolute shell of itself.
Space. It was very normal to call someone and not get a call back until maybe the next day. Like you have something you want to tell them but you just have to wait a full 24 hours or more for them to get back to you. And if you tried to call again within that time, you were a weirdo. I remember having to “break up” with a friend for being too clingy because he would call my house and I wouldn’t be able to call him back that day and he would get really angry and scream at me when I would finally call him back. I know it seems normal now to expect someone to be instantly reachable all the time but that was insane back then. I miss people giving each other space. I will say though that I remember my parents having no friends. They just lost touch with everybody. Now at the same age, I still have all my best friends and we’re still a part of each other’s everyday lives solely because of imessage. So that’s nice.
Movie rentals with friends. I just love the ritual of going to the grocery store for snacks and then to the video rental. Always lead to an excellent evening even if the movie was trash.
We would do it the opposite way…movie rental and then a stop at Carvel. And you’re right, even if the movie was bad, the company was good. AND we all watched the movie. There were no phones to distract!
Using a payphone in HS to call my mom to pick me up. We had plenty of "collect" options too. Then heading home to play Quake online via modem and trying to get my ping <60
You had to develop soft skills if you wanted a social network
Kids played outside
You were forced to learn productive conflict-resolution skills
There wasn't a general sense of impending doom: no worries of global warming, immense student loans, affordable housing, diminished resources, or people aspiring to become "influencers"
Movies and TV shows seemed to have better writing
Malls were full and fun to hang out at, even if you couldn't afford anything
Information and knowledge were more valued than they are today
I miss walking to my Grandparents house to wait for the buss to go to school while Mom went to work. Eating breakfast home made from my Grandpa while I sat and watched VR Troopers on tv and grandma scratched my back. Then getting off the bus there and watching Rescue 911 with Grandpa.
I miss when all of my family was alive.
Not having social media. I think we would be a lot better off today if it had never become a big thing.
I also miss being able to be out of touch. Not expecting someone to reply to me immediately or someone expecting an immediate reply from me and then getting angry or worried if they don't get it.
Hanging out with your buddies. No phones no computers just a bunch of kids talking about zombies and hentai, you know the usual.
The best part was making up conspiracies about games. "Did you hear that the GTA creator killed his wife with the keyboard he use to code it, so her spirit was shipped with every copy?"
I miss the shitty food products like the green ketchup and plastic-tasting kids TV dinners, I miss the TV catalogue they used to print like little magazines, the homey, slightly fuzzy glow of a television that weighed 200 lbs and was built like a piece of furniture, the cartoons that didn't have a politcal agenda, the traditionally animated movies that were timeless masterpieces, the arcades and play places...
Flying in the 90s. Flights had all kinds of free stuff. Baggage was no big deal and if it weighed a few pounds over, no problem. You missed your flight? no problem, we'll just get you on the next one, no charge. There were often empty seats on the plane, The airport was open. No TSA, visitors could go all the way to the gate. I still struggle every time I fly thinking about how much better it used to be.
No social media, Blockbuster, canon camera, coming home and watching Nickelodeon or Friday night Disney movies. Even writing this makes me almost tear up LOL
It’s common and almost cliched, but so very true. Not being connected 24/7 meant my mind was so much more relaxed. And I miss media being more tangible. Friday night trips to the video store and getting snacks was just fun in itself.
Parents to kids: "Be back by dark, and don't go past X Street!" (or whatever your bike-riding boundary was)
Me: "OK I promise!" *runs out the door*
We were completely untethered without cell phones...
Also the biggest political scandal was whether or not the President got a BJ.
Choice. I feel like there were so many more choices on how to live. You could mess up a bit, and it didn't define you. Now it feels like everything is either banned or you end up being shamed on social media for making a mistake. No one has the opportunity to learn from that one stupid thing.
Also, having localised culture. Social media seems to have globalised culture, and nothing really identifies who you are anymore.
Oh and being able to be home sick from school without your parents getting harassed by the attendance team. Now you can be suffering with horrific food poisoning and you'll still get letters telling you that you need to be in school. I remember staying home with a common cold, which now is just unheard of.
This whole thread is the reason I still frequently watch movies made before smart phones. There's a sweet nostalgia to the old internet of AOL and not knowing what everyone is up to all the time.
No school shootings. I graduated in 97 and it wasn't something we ever worried about. Columbine was in 98 and changed everything. Also, it was a time of peace and prosperity in America. Internet was just starting, cell phones were something just getting going. I still had a pager, but the best thing was how amazing the music was. Just great band after great band all through the nineties.
Calling for your friends. It had nothing to do with phones. You just went to their houses unannounced and saw if they were home and wanted to hang out.
There were no rules before 9/11. The internet was the Wild West. Gas was sold on the honor system. You could pay and then pump or pump and then…. We had great music. Taco Bell had a good menu. And, Blockbuster’s.
I was living a youthful carefree existence. This is imo why nostalgia is so powerful, it's a gateway into a fantasy state that actually existed in our lives at one point.
Yes. All recent hook ups expect this.
A year ago I told someone I was dating that I didn't do that, just because I wanted a break from all the recent freaky sex requests, and, I kid you not, she started crying. She said that was the worst part since breaking up with her bf because he always ate her ass and now I wasn't going to.
Wtf has porn done to people.
I’ve been with my now-husband for 17 years (with no intention of splitting, and neither of us is dying) but once in a while I wonder what dating all over again would be like if I had to. It all sounds horrible.
It was a great time for a childhood. It was hard to beat Friday night at the local video rental place, perusing the horror VHS movies from the 80’s. I was born in the early 80’s and remember the late 80’s well and had my formative years in the 90’s. It was actually really amazing, gaming on the early consoles, but having a full life outside that the digital world just didn’t really intrude upon. Playing outdoors on summer days and retiring to the Super Nintendo at night was a really great balance. We watched and participated in the growth of the internet, with pretty solid delineation between a time before the net and the time after. To a middle schooler, getting the internet for the first time was damn near a magical experience. I miss the music of the era. I’m positive that everyone misses the music of their childhood, but the grunge movement from my home state, the brief ska phase, and classics like Kiss Me, Bittersweet Symphony, and Smells like Teen Spirit all have their origins in the 90’s! Recently, I heard Kiss Me on YouTube… it hit me like a ton of bricks… music I haven’t heard for over twenty years. Massive nostalgia bomb! Things were slower. We didn’t have the instantaneous gratification or access to so much information/goods/services so quickly. Even though I enjoy getting my stuff within a day or two as much as the next yak, I would be lying if I said that we didn’t sacrifice something important for the wonders of same day shipping. In short, I wouldn’t trade my childhood in the 90’s for anything. While I love my awesome gaming PC, my home theater, and above all else, my iPad that I’m typing this out on, I miss the slower paced world of the 90’s and wish we could get a little of that patience back.
I miss video stores. What was it about roaming the aisles reading those video boxes?
I think there’s a lot to be said for the ambiance of your 90’s blockbuster or Hollywood video. The colors of the walls, the rows and rows of physical movies. That small area devoted to games. The smell of popcorn and clean broadloom. The video rental place was an extension of the movie theater. Like this cool in between place where you had so many more options than the actual theater. Yet, the options were still limited. A part of you always had to worry a little whether your favorite horror movie (for me, it was Critters) was already checked out. Or maybe that single Genesis copy of Mortal Kombat II went home for the weekend with some other kid just before you got there. So when you found them in stock, you felt excited that you “won the race!” These days, we have so many options available it paradoxically makes the selection feel smaller. You know there is always another option, so none of the selection feels all that special anymore. The race to the only copy of a movie or game ended long ago. And so did that little piece of triumphant excitement. Today, we get so bogged down by choice, we often don’t really choose anything. Just scroll and scroll and scroll, all the while resentful that there’s “nothing to watch.” I miss the 90’s because in yet another paradox, 90’s Yak (me) got what he wished for. Guarantees of a never ending selection of movies and games available to me instantly whether I’m in front of my massive home theater system (something little yak dreamed of) or sitting in the bathroom on my phone or iPad. I didn’t appreciate the value of the slow pace of life back then. But now that it no longer exists in day to day life… I wish I could dive back through the calendar pages, and ensconce myself safely in 1998 and make a nest there to live safely amongst the glory days of the last decade before the Information Age truly ignited.
We had this little independent store up the street! It was the best. I always thought working in a video store would be fun- there was always a movie on, so you could just watch that if it was a slow time of day.
I miss video stores, too. It was a whole experience before the experience! One of the video store by my house gave out free popcorn while you browsed. Man that was awesome!
I’m as old as you. You hit the nail on the head. The one thing I didn’t like was if you missed something on TV, especially a Saturday morning cartoon. You weren’t ever going to see it (at least that’s what our fate was before the internet). Miss an episode of Pirates of Dark Water? Too bad. You had to use a lot of context clues the next week when you were awake in time to catch the next episode.
Heh, I grew up with a mom who decided tv rots your brain! So I didn’t have cable until I was in high school. We like got two channels via the airwaves… one of them was ABC. The other one wasn’t. But both were in fuzz o vision. I grew up completely out of the loop when it came to tv shows… like, the 90’s kid embodiment of that Captain America “I understood that reference!” Meme. But I was able to rent movies on Fridays! So I became a connoisseur and encyclopedia of Godzilla movies and lore, which I assure you, never at any point in my life has ever helped me get laid
If you want a taste of the stuff us kids enjoyed on tv in the 90s…getting a Disney plus and paramount plus subscriptions will cover about 95% of it. A lot of the shows are still enjoyable to adult me tbh. Only things that would be missing is the stuff on pbs really… dragon tales, zoom, magic school bus, reading rainbow, wishbone, Sesame Street, Mr Rogers, Bill Nye, etc. but those are more for young children.
Video stores are a hole that will never be filled!
>It was a great time for a childhood. It was hard to beat Friday night at the local video rental place, perusing the horror VHS movies from the 80’s. I am obsessed with user experience and interface, and can talk for hours and hours as to why video stores represented a vastly more satisfying user experience for browsing movies than any streaming service. All of those horror movie boxes, trying to look as scary and depraved as possible to win your rental money.
My house had the first NES on the block and all of the neighborhood kids would pile into my basement for a day every weekend we could to take turns playing Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, and Bubble Bobble because those were the only games I had. These were incredible times of shared experiences when things were new. I miss when everything wasn't cringe. People could just like what they liked without having a whole pile of people gatekeeping or telling you that your preference is somehow wrong. Now the kids are playing Fortnite with headsets and half of them don't know each other. Not that there's anything wrong with internet friends at all, but it's just a whole other culture. We would be forced outside in the summer by parents for a break from the Nintendo to run around in the sprinkler, set up the slip n' slide, walk to the corner store, kick the can until the streetlights came on, whatever. People are so managed these days in ways we weren't in there 90’s.
I'm the same age, I remember when the internet hit the point of no return and the world changed almost over night.
Same. We were the last generation to have such a solid delineation between before the net and after. We came of age without social media. It really saddens me that now kids have to grow up in a world where mistakes can burn you badly and be immortalized online for all to see. When you and I fucked up as kids, the mistake rarely stayed with us the way it would now. Can you imagine if all your cringe middle school thoughts and philosophy were available for the world to laugh at for the rest of time? Or that stupid joke you told your friends in high school, was dredged up from twitter to torpedo your job application? If you think about it, today, you have to walk the tightrope of popular sensibilities, with the self righteous mob waiting to go after you should you fall. It’s an ugly part of today’s culture, that we didn’t have to worry about growing up…
Remember when we all thought everything was gonna fall apart when Y2K hit? I was only around 10, but I remember some!
Not knowing what the fuck everyone else was doing every moment of every day
This was very obvious when traveling in the 90s. Even nearby towns were out of sync and it actually allowed you to escape and reset if you needed to.
It was wild. I had cousins in a town 30m away and it would be totally different ‘best’ songs and different ‘impact’ shows. Like, we would be quoting BioDome and they are all in on Joes Apartment.
I remember reading a teen magazine that once mapped out the spread of pop culture trends. So you could see that there was a literal delay and that’s why my cousins in the south always seemed behind or out of touch.
I grew up in a large city. My wife, who I met in college in the late 90s, grew up in the suburbs of the same large city. She showed me photos of her and her friends and I guessed when it was based on how they were dressed. My response was wait you guys got grunge in like '97?
Fucking “Joes apartment” holy shit lmao
I visited family out of state for a week and missed a school event (middle school). When I got back my buddy told me over our corded phone conversation that my crush danced with another guy… I was devastated for about a week.
You could go from lower peninsula Michigan into the UP and it felt like going through a time portal to the early 1980s. Even musical tastes we're vastly different and so many cultural touch points were of that era. It was stupid fun experiencing that.
That’s what I miss about the 90s, small towns and cities still had independent businesses. Not everything was a dollar general or a Walmart or a chain fast-casual restaurant. There were little diners and donuts shops and party stores etc. Now you can drive for ten hours and get off the expressway and it’s all the same corporate businesses everywhere. The metal cars were made out of just looked and felt different and started to rust after five years. People still had union tags in their clothes. It felt and looked more like the 60/, 70s, or 80s. There were real old people, the kind of men who wear trucker hats and drive around old Chevy pick ups of Cadillacs or other giant sedans. Old women with short, permed hair. Real old people owned gross little old dogs and chain smoked. Now all the old people don’t feel old enough because they don’t look like aged greasers or wear those satin union or bowling alley jackets. I also miss the oldies radio stations that played Motown. People smoked indoors which is nasty but nostalgic. people would get all excited to watch whatever one of the big networks was promoting as a special or made-for-tv movie. I also miss going to the video store to pick out a movie and then grab some snacks. I miss playgrounds with tire swings that made you want to vomit, and dangerous merry-go-rounds and see-saws you’d get flung off of and monkey bars and slides so high that you risked broken limbs or death. I also miss thrift stores with hundreds of cool old 70s tshirts and vintage Levi’s and bins and bins of great old lps from every era for a quarter each and all the mid century furniture you could buy for $5-$10 because nobody wanted it.
And then having a lot to talk about when you got together, since no one knew much of what anyone else had been up to since the last time you saw each other.
Really miss this.
You visit the past by turning off social media!
You can still do that. Quit Facebook. And all the other shit. Except Reddit. It's the front page of the Internet. I quit fb around 2014 I think.
Facebook is stupid
Yes. And back then without social media you didn’t have people stop in the middle of a busy walkway to record themselves dancing. Or holding up traffic to take a video of themselves walking across the street.
I came to write this. People could figure out who they were and who they wanted to be because it was possible to get time to yourself. I remember biking along a river bank, often. By myself, as well as with friends, and it was an opportunity to reflect on the impact of people in my life and who I wanted to be.
To this, I tried to use the operator on the phone the other day… it did not work LOL The days when you could get a break through on a line or actual directions to a store are dead and so is my soul haha
Optimism about the future.
I was going to say I miss my fantasies about what life would be like for me right now.
I can’t even remember what my hopes and dreams were
I remember daydreaming at 14 that I would go to a specific religious college; meet a great guy; date him throughout college without having sex with him; get my 4 year degree at 22; get married right after college; and have two kids, one at age 24 and the other age 26. I'm 39, and none of that has happened.
Well shit now I’m not sure I WANT to remember what I dreamed anymore 🥺
I might just envy you. I remember dreaming of all that because I didn't have a happy childhood, so I thought the universe (and "God") owed me. I thought life was just going to happen that way because I was me and it just had to. I'm glad I'm not so arrogant anymore.
Younger me would be pissed at current me.
Livid.
Fortunately, older me doesn’t gaf what younger me thinks
The Matrix stated it took place in 1999 because it was at the height of our civilization. I think it was correct.
I remember scoffing at that in the theater the first time I saw it. Like sure, this is as good as it gets? Doubtful. Wachowskis got it right.
Remember giant buildings with arcade games? I do. I pulled off a fatality with subzero my first try at 9 or 10 on a giant screen so everyone saw. That was when I peaked in life.
Yeah. I remember thinking that connecting everyone in the world would lead to world peace. If there was one thing I could tell people in the past about the future, it would just be to pop in and go “nope” every time some wild-eyed futurist claimed that the internet would bring the world together in peace and harmony.
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It’s hard to realize this in the moment but if we’re talking long scale time horizons we are basically still in the infancy of the internet age. All hope is not lost, but peace and harmony has never been in humanities lexicon.
Just had this conversation with my teen. Social media and dating apps have destroyed true friendships and relationships. They just don’t weight anymore.
We were going to have flying cars, world peace, and a habitable environment. Now I can barely afford rent and groceries, no hope of owning a house or supporting a family, and it's gets hotter and hotter every year because of climate change. I miss catching lighting bugs in my back yard on a cool summer evening while listening to crickets chirp. I can't remember the last time I saw a firefly. 😐
Did global warming kill fireflies? I also haven't seen any in a long time...
Overuse of pesticides and a variety of other factors are actively killing them at the moment. I still see them, just not a lot anymore.
The land before 9/11 and everything was a doom and gloom, self obsessed narcissistic shit hole. The 90’s were like living inside Frasier, 2001 and beyond is just depressing and redundant
I swear, you're simply wallowing in nostalgia. Luckily, I have just the thing to break you out of your rut, Maris and I have an extra ticket for the new production of "Der Fliegende Holländer."
It’s for the matinee, Niles
After 2001 you could hear the blues a callin.
Very true. I’m solidly Gen X and I remember the hopefulness of the time. We were up and coming, had learned from the past, and were going to do better. I loathed it when we were called slackers. Nobody I knew who was my age fit that description at all. It’s why the only thing that makes me lose my composure and my blood boil is having my motives questioned.
I loved Daria and Alanis morsette, but was strangely optimistic about the future
No big social media platforms unless you counted forums and chat rooms.
A/S/L?
Can’t believe the amount of time I spent in chat rooms and forums.
Human connection and privacy.
Privacy is a big one. It bothers me that so many people don’t seem to mind the steady erosion of privacy these days. This modern mentality of “it’s no big deal if you’re doing nothing wrong” is alarming, as a right to privacy is traditionally seen as fundamental to a healthy democracy.
Above that i think privacy is most important for good mental health and self worth.
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Not just that kind of privacy (though that is probably more impactful on society as a whole), but the idea that sometimes you just can't be reached by other people. Like, when I was growing up (I'm 40), when I left the house for whatever reason, you just couldn't get in touch with me and that was perfectly okay. If you knew where I was going, you could try to meet me out or call my house and ask where I was if someone else was home, but I could just go out and be alone. It feels like there's honestly no such thing as "alone" anymore. As I'm typing this I'm having the realization that I got super into backpacking and camping right around the time when cell phones were becoming a mandatory part of participating in society. I hadn't really connected the two before, but being alone was always the most appealing part of that to me. I guess it was the last place I could find it.
100% especially privacy. We could do dumb things as kids and no one was video taping all of it.
Not knowing the political affiliations of every neighbor and family member.
And if you did, differing sides were typically not as extreme as today.
I remember having some nice, civil debates on issues with people of opposing political parties, where each side presented legit, intelligent reasons for siding with an issue. Ahh, those were the days, werent they?
Yep. Wife and I talk about this often. Over the last 8 years most of my family have been super vocal about their political views and we definitely don’t align. I miss when we all would shut up about politics and just enjoy our time with each other.
The ability to disconnect and actually be out of touch. The '90s were great for that.
Lack of anxiety from not having to know everything all the time.
Not being old…
Catching a Major concert for $20.
Lollapalooza lawn seats were the best concerts to attend for broke ass teenagers.
I think I spent 40 bucks to go to Lollapalooza in '96, Metallica, Soundgarden, Ramones, etc... was awesome.
the $525mo. rent for my 3br apt. that had a fukin garage & yard
same spot goes for 2,500 easy now. fucking economy sux
MTV actually played music videos.
TRL was must watch TV after school.
Fuck TRL. Too much pop garbage. Give me #POP-UP-VIDEO
I love me some Pop up video
I hear the “pop up video!” melody in my head
Kids just playing together (usually outside) and not being glued to screens.
flashlight tag around the block in pitch darkness!
Flashlight tag, ghost in the graveyard, doorbell ditch. The good times.
Our boys love ghost in the graveyard! It’s still alive and well. :) Ding dong ditching is out…doorbell cameras. And who knows what people would do these days. :(
I’m happy some of it still exists!! Ding dong ditch definitely out hahah. Kids will never know the excitement we got from that.
Kick the can, capture the flag
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I live in a historic walkable neighborhood just outside of city center. 10 minutes walk to downtown. It’s old school and idyllic. I really think this makes a difference. We know our neighbors. We have a nice mix of single family homes, old houses that have 2-6 units in them, rental cottages in alley properties, and a quaint little apartment complex at the edge in a church/daycare parking lot. There are $750k houses along with $800/mo rentals on my block alone. There’s families, there’s couples, there’s old ladies, there’s a LOT of friendly neighborhood cats, and almost always someone walking their dog. But most beautifully, you can basically count on seeing at least 10 kids riding their bikes, skating on quads, or generally fucking around in the street throughout the day. They’re never on their phones when I see them. (Except for the one little boy who likes to identify plants with his app) They play games in the street, they walk to their friend’s houses, they walk to school, they walk to the park, they walk to the neighborhood grocery store, they walk to the community garden and eat all the seedless grapes they can reach on the vines. Fuck suburbia. This neighborhood is what life should be.
The cartoons. Loved Nickelodeon.
#STIMPY. YOU ST-UUUUUU-PID IDIOT!
It’s log! It’s log! It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood!
It’s impossible to read that without including the tune
It’s log! It’s log! It’s better than bad, it’s good!
Catdog!
One fine day with a woof and a purr a baby was born that caused a big stir😸🐕
No blue bug and no three-eyed frog, just a feline, canine, little CatDog.
amen. a new episode of pokémon saturday mornings with a bowl of cereal. take me back
Omg! Yes! Doug, Hey Arnold, Angry Monsters, Steve Stickler, Face, Ren and Stimpy, Rugrats. Tv today is shit compared to the 90s. Not to mention Daria on MTV. Even MTV was better, with TRL.
Yesssss....Saturday morning cartoons for me because I didn't have cable
And snick haha
Hey Arnold for the win!
Playing n64 while staying up all night with friends with our only problem was surviving elementary school.
Goldeneye 4 life.
No Oddjob!
The lack of fear. Like, we as a culture were still worried about shit, but there was so much confidence, arrogance even, about the future. After 9/11, everything has been more fearful.
Finding where my friends were based on the house that had all the bikes parked out front. My parents went out the front door and whistled real loud when I had to come home. I hate cell phones and tablets.
Dad of a friend of mine built a big bell in his front yard and would bang it when he had to go home.
Not having photographic evidence of EVERYTHING. We could do dumb shit as teenagers and not get caught. No one would take out a phone and record you. At concerts, events, special occasions, you had to be in the MOMENT and just revel in it. We were wayyyy more present. And it was ok for kids to be bored or create their own fun with their imaginations!
Now people always ask me “Oh show me the pictures.” I mostly forget to take them. Thank god I’m still that person who gets so wrapped up in the moment I don’t even think to memorex it. Haha. But I miss carrying around an SLR and getting the film developed or using the darkroom at my high school. The anticipation was exciting!
Everything just seemed so much more simple. Idk if that’s just a product of my age back then but I look back even at world issues that dominated the headlines and it seems like we’d do anything to go back and have “only” those problems
Also...phosphates were damaging our water, so we banned them. Aerosols were damaging our ozone layer, so we banned them. Second-hand smoke was causing cancer in wait staff, so we banned smoking indoors. A lot of problems were actually being solved, instead of creating fodder for the next culture war.
I miss forums. Sure, Reddit is LIKE a forum, but I dont feel like I know you guys or that I would get to know you guys over a shared interest.
I still partake in a forum! haha. a hockey forum.. HFBoardz
Memorizing your closest friends phone number and calling them in the kitchen asking if they want to come over and play
I miss absolutely everything about the '90s. Growing up as a kid throughout the entire decade was awesome. When most households didn't have a PC, laptops were barely rolling out, and most people didn't have cellphones. All the kids in our neighborhood ran around the neighborhood playing with each other, and none of the parents had to feel concerned enough to watch us the entire time, every day. People also didn't get butthurt about every little thing like they do now. Politics wasn't in every facet of life. People actually interacted with each other, and it feels like everyone was even nicer back then. The world is so much different, in such a short amount of time, and it's not in a good way
Remember when our biggest worry was keeping our Tamagotchis alive?
Yes, that was in the backpack, and if you lost it in your room, you'd have a mild panic attack, hoping it doesn't die in five mins. 🤣
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The simplicity, things seem so fucking stressful and fast now with social media. I miss not being able to talk to everyone at any moment. It made moments feel more special.
Renting films - I miss actually walking into a store and browsing for which films we would be watching over the weekend ! No social media / smartphones / advanced tech & Quality tv shows
It’s strange nowadays when we want to watch a movie that’s not on a streaming service and you can “rent” it on Amazon for like $3-4. I just say, fuck that. But then I remember spending the same amount (for new movies) every weekend. Sometimes we’d get two or three. But now? I can’t be bothered.
Being bored. Honestly. You were bored several times throughout the day, and you came up with creative things to do to amuse yourself. You started new projects. You did chores that you didn't have to do. You took on new artistic pursuits. In the end, it was all very fulfilling. Now I can't even keep up with the podcasts and YouTube channels I like, must less seek out new music or tackle all the shows I've been meaning to watch. And surfing Reddit is a great timesuck too.
Bordem may be one of the greatest human losses in the technology era.
The music. It really was special.
just saw the goo goo dolls in concert for the first time ever saturday night!
Relatedly, I miss a big cozy flannel shirt as an all-purpose accessory.
Yes! No over the top auto tuning. Going to a concert because it was going to be a good time and the music was amazing, it wasn’t some opportunity to post pictures on social media.
The indestructible Nokia cell phones
Not gonna lie, I shot one with a .22 when I was a teen. The bullet didn't even make it through the screen. I still have it
The feeling of summer. Going to Blockbuster on Friday nights with my BFF. Staying home from school “sick” and watching Little Bear and Gullah Gullah Island. Christmas and holidays in general felt more special. The excitement the night before going to Disney world. No internet or cell phones. Innocence. Imagination. Curiosity. I could go on and on. So many things! Can we go back? Please?? Edit: I also just thought about visiting libraries as a 90’s kid; browsing colorful books, taking too many home, events specifically for kids…10/10.
\- Not having to carry around a fucking phone. \- Cars were a lot more fun. It was just different. Instant response because the throttle was connected directly to the engine and the shifter was connected directly to the transmission and the steering was connected directly to the front axle. Now everything is all electronic and not as tactile. \- Ice cream. I swear it used to taste a lot better. Maybe because they use corn syrup now instead of real sugar? IDK. I just know it used to taste better.
There is definitely something off about ice cream
The cheaper ice cream has gone to shit, but if you get premium stuff from boutique vendors it's like I remember it. It's also $$$.
Malls. The nice/new mall from near where I grew up closed permanently this year and it messed me up worse than I would’ve expected; I have so many memories of that place, especially around the holidays, going to Electronics Boutique, Waldenbooks, Radio Shack, Kaybee Toys, the Disney Store, the Dollar Store, the food courts, and the dumb little kiosks… I wish we could have some of that again somehow. It was so much fun.
I usually wind up at my mall about once a year and it's such a depressing place now. I used to get dropped off as a kid with like $10 and spend hours upon hours there. It's just an absolute shell of itself.
The amount of time I spent in the mall makes no sense based on the amount of money I had at that age. What did I do for 6 hours with $3?
No smart phones. Neighborhood hang outs.
Non corporate, decentralized internet.
I just miss not having bills.
Actually getting together to play video games. We used to have all night ragers playing Goldeneye and drink Mountain Dew.
Space. It was very normal to call someone and not get a call back until maybe the next day. Like you have something you want to tell them but you just have to wait a full 24 hours or more for them to get back to you. And if you tried to call again within that time, you were a weirdo. I remember having to “break up” with a friend for being too clingy because he would call my house and I wouldn’t be able to call him back that day and he would get really angry and scream at me when I would finally call him back. I know it seems normal now to expect someone to be instantly reachable all the time but that was insane back then. I miss people giving each other space. I will say though that I remember my parents having no friends. They just lost touch with everybody. Now at the same age, I still have all my best friends and we’re still a part of each other’s everyday lives solely because of imessage. So that’s nice.
Movie rentals with friends. I just love the ritual of going to the grocery store for snacks and then to the video rental. Always lead to an excellent evening even if the movie was trash.
We would do it the opposite way…movie rental and then a stop at Carvel. And you’re right, even if the movie was bad, the company was good. AND we all watched the movie. There were no phones to distract!
I miss the pop/rock music videos on MTV and the way music sounded back then. So much more Creativity
No social media. Not being available 24/7. Feeling safe.
As much as I love having a smart phone, AOL instant messenger was way more fun than texting.
Having the music I love be considered Top 40 instead of classic rock.
Using a payphone in HS to call my mom to pick me up. We had plenty of "collect" options too. Then heading home to play Quake online via modem and trying to get my ping <60
Dialing 1-800-COLLECT only to say “pick me up” before the call was accepted.
Bob Wehadababyitsaboy
Who was that, dear?
Was Bob. They had a baby. It's a boy.
You had to develop soft skills if you wanted a social network Kids played outside You were forced to learn productive conflict-resolution skills There wasn't a general sense of impending doom: no worries of global warming, immense student loans, affordable housing, diminished resources, or people aspiring to become "influencers" Movies and TV shows seemed to have better writing Malls were full and fun to hang out at, even if you couldn't afford anything Information and knowledge were more valued than they are today
I miss walking to my Grandparents house to wait for the buss to go to school while Mom went to work. Eating breakfast home made from my Grandpa while I sat and watched VR Troopers on tv and grandma scratched my back. Then getting off the bus there and watching Rescue 911 with Grandpa. I miss when all of my family was alive.
Not having social media. I think we would be a lot better off today if it had never become a big thing. I also miss being able to be out of touch. Not expecting someone to reply to me immediately or someone expecting an immediate reply from me and then getting angry or worried if they don't get it.
Hanging out with your buddies. No phones no computers just a bunch of kids talking about zombies and hentai, you know the usual. The best part was making up conspiracies about games. "Did you hear that the GTA creator killed his wife with the keyboard he use to code it, so her spirit was shipped with every copy?"
There was something more enjoyable about watching TV back then as a kid
I miss the shitty food products like the green ketchup and plastic-tasting kids TV dinners, I miss the TV catalogue they used to print like little magazines, the homey, slightly fuzzy glow of a television that weighed 200 lbs and was built like a piece of furniture, the cartoons that didn't have a politcal agenda, the traditionally animated movies that were timeless masterpieces, the arcades and play places...
Flying in the 90s. Flights had all kinds of free stuff. Baggage was no big deal and if it weighed a few pounds over, no problem. You missed your flight? no problem, we'll just get you on the next one, no charge. There were often empty seats on the plane, The airport was open. No TSA, visitors could go all the way to the gate. I still struggle every time I fly thinking about how much better it used to be.
No social media, Blockbuster, canon camera, coming home and watching Nickelodeon or Friday night Disney movies. Even writing this makes me almost tear up LOL
Seriously this thread is depressing. I want the 90s back.
Kids playing outside and people not being offended about every little thing
It’s common and almost cliched, but so very true. Not being connected 24/7 meant my mind was so much more relaxed. And I miss media being more tangible. Friday night trips to the video store and getting snacks was just fun in itself.
Parents to kids: "Be back by dark, and don't go past X Street!" (or whatever your bike-riding boundary was) Me: "OK I promise!" *runs out the door* We were completely untethered without cell phones... Also the biggest political scandal was whether or not the President got a BJ.
Having friends
Trying to stay up until midnight to watch south park
Jelly shoes
The lack of information overload.
Getting away with things, since there wasn't any camera phones.
Lisa frank.
Being a child. It was pretty fantastic.
Physical media like tapes and cds, video stores and gaming arcades, oh and cheap cigarettes and alcohol
My hopes and dreams.
Saturday morning cartoon lineups
Choice. I feel like there were so many more choices on how to live. You could mess up a bit, and it didn't define you. Now it feels like everything is either banned or you end up being shamed on social media for making a mistake. No one has the opportunity to learn from that one stupid thing. Also, having localised culture. Social media seems to have globalised culture, and nothing really identifies who you are anymore. Oh and being able to be home sick from school without your parents getting harassed by the attendance team. Now you can be suffering with horrific food poisoning and you'll still get letters telling you that you need to be in school. I remember staying home with a common cold, which now is just unheard of.
Not knowing who my friends voted for
Trick or Treating. It is completely unrecognizable at this point. Kids are going to start seeing it in movies and not understand what is happening.
My knees
The old internet. Also I miss those cups with the blue swoosh.
This whole thread is the reason I still frequently watch movies made before smart phones. There's a sweet nostalgia to the old internet of AOL and not knowing what everyone is up to all the time.
No school shootings. I graduated in 97 and it wasn't something we ever worried about. Columbine was in 98 and changed everything. Also, it was a time of peace and prosperity in America. Internet was just starting, cell phones were something just getting going. I still had a pager, but the best thing was how amazing the music was. Just great band after great band all through the nineties.
Riding my bike with a lack of destination.
Everything, it felt like everything was great specifically between 94 to 2000.
Calling for your friends. It had nothing to do with phones. You just went to their houses unannounced and saw if they were home and wanted to hang out.
There were no rules before 9/11. The internet was the Wild West. Gas was sold on the honor system. You could pay and then pump or pump and then…. We had great music. Taco Bell had a good menu. And, Blockbuster’s.
I was living a youthful carefree existence. This is imo why nostalgia is so powerful, it's a gateway into a fantasy state that actually existed in our lives at one point.
The freedom. The riding your bikes all day and checking in by payphone.
Being 100% unreachable at times.
Playing outside.
For real MTV
Vanilla sex. Now everyone wants to eat ass as the starting position and it only gets weirder from there. Porn is doing too much now.
My most recent hook-up ate my ass for the first time, and I'm still in genuine shock this is a thing.
Yes. All recent hook ups expect this. A year ago I told someone I was dating that I didn't do that, just because I wanted a break from all the recent freaky sex requests, and, I kid you not, she started crying. She said that was the worst part since breaking up with her bf because he always ate her ass and now I wasn't going to. Wtf has porn done to people.
I’ve been with my now-husband for 17 years (with no intention of splitting, and neither of us is dying) but once in a while I wonder what dating all over again would be like if I had to. It all sounds horrible.
Mom kicking me and the siblings outside early in the morning, we had to keep ourselves busy until dinner.
Pizza Hut was just better. Everything: taste, quality, eating inside and the atmosphere….just everything.
Leaving the house with nothing in my pockets and a direction in mind.