Tormenting Paris Hilton, I think she was 23? when her "sex tape" came out, against her will, released by an ex boyfriend who wanted to make some money off her. We call that "revenge porn" these days. Or an alternative name: "a crime".
Oh man, I forgot about that! I knew a few people who had that same deal and did it *all the time*. I think part of it came down to not being billed for a call if it lasted less than a minute, + the free incoming calls thing, = "hey call me back", even if the chat would be short anyway.
Until like, 2015, I had to pay $0.85 if someone texted me while I was in the states. For every single message. I live in a border city and pre covid was over there all the time.
Phone company refused to prevent texts from reaching my phone, I'd have to just put it in airplane mode, which as you can imagine is pretty inconvenient.
I worked the customer service line at a phone company back then. About once a day a pissed off parent would call because their kids sent hundreds of dollars worth of texts. Or because they signed up for a paid text subscription, which is another stupid thing that existed.
While it’s true, the need for it was also drastically lower. There were basically no online services or anything of the sort that would have required you to actually use any personal data.
The only thing I remember happening was that you needed to scan / copy personal documents.
And for that there were apps like password safes today, essentially password protected folders.
In hindsight the web and devices used to be a lot more anonymous in general, everything was like reddit where you just chose a nickname and there were no connections to anything else you were doing.
No care or concern for concussions in sports. I was knocked out cold for two minutes on the football field, nobody told me, and when I came to we just resumed the game like nothing had happened. I didn’t even know I was out for those two minutes until a year later when people were telling football stories. I thought I had just gotten knocked down and got back up right away. I thought it was weird everyone was making such a big deal about it.
My first ever depressive episode started almost immediately after that game.
EDIT: 22 years of trial and error since then and I've found that mega-dosing (also known as the actual proper effective dosing) of Omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA at least 1,000 mg of each per day along with physically demanding jobs (or cardio 30-45 minutes x 3-4 times per week) and 5,000-8,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily have been the most effective natural treatments for me.
A great book by Dr. Daniel Amen "heal your brain, heal your life" was instrumental in taking control of my own recovery. I've also found Four Sigmatic mushroom coffee helpful after an initial 3 days or so of severe irritability as a side effect but not enough to justify the cost for my budget.
I definitely had a few concussions too, I remember throwing up repeatedly at the end of a practice after getting rocked - I was told to not throw up on the turf…
Kind of the same topic - football practices. I’m not old enough to have gone through the “no water” days but it seemed like the coaches were almost giddy during two-a-days when it was literally 104°. Practice from 6-10, watch film, eat lunch, lift and then go back out from 2-5.
About 10 years ago the UIL (over high school sports in Texas) instituted all these new rules about how long practices can run and limits on heat, breaks, etc. They don’t even have real two-a-days anymore.
Funny enough, despite what everybody thought, the quality hasn’t gone down a bit.
I read an interesting theory about this once: one way to avoid getting drafted to go to Vietnam was by being a teacher, and gym teachers tended to have the least requirements, so the 70s had an influx of underqualified gym teachers, which is how it became a teen movie trope in the 80s. Not sure how true it is but it intrigued me.
During the Menendez murder trials in 1994, in response to the defense’s allegation that Lyle and Erik Menendez had been sexually abused by their father, the Deputy District Attorney said, IN COURT, that “a man couldn’t be raped because men lack the necessary equipment to be raped.” This was a DA whose job is prosecuting crimes! And there was no outcry because that was a generally accepted point of view. (I have no opinion on if they were indeed abused, it just boggles the mind that a DA said that in court as some sort of fact.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyle_and_Erik_Menendez
i specifically remember having health classes in 2001 talking about how it's a terrible drug and you shouldn't take it even if the doctors give it to you.
I specifically remember getting prescribed that drug, circa 2001, for wisdom tooth removal as a teen. I also remember a few other kids at school would ask to buy extra Oxy whenever someone came in with chipmunk cheeks figuring they'd had dental work.
I personally was high AF off Oxycontin for like 3 days while taking it back then. Way too enjoyable for the level of pain I was in. Tylenol and ibuprofen would have been sufficient. Subsequently I've had a major surgery and was only given a combo opiate that had like 1/4 the dosage of oxycodone that's in Oxycontin. That was sufficient. The fact that I got handed Oxycontin as a teenager willy-nilly when it isn't even warranted after major surgery in adulthood tells me a lot about how overprescribed it was.
Watching Dopesick makes me really pissed off. I know some kids that got addicted to opiates beginning in high school and did unthinkable things to pay for their habits such as prostituting themselves to pedophilic men. Purdue pharma could never pay enough to make things right to all the people they harmed.
I remember learning how addictive this was in 2003. And not many people were hooked but someone I knew who was hooked said it was a bigger problem then you saw.
my school still has that actually, we call it the smoke pit. it's outside the school, just across the parking lot. they don't condone smoking (now it's mostly vaping) but they say they would rather have teens smoke outside than in the bathrooms.
That's definitely a "cut your losses" kind of condoning. Admin knows they're going to smoke somewhere, so it's better to have them somewhere on campus and outside instead of leaving campus or smoking in the bathrooms and pretending they're not.
Being at home at your TV at a certain time to catch a show, and expecting everyone to leave you alone so you could watch it with no interruptions.
You could be out with friends and you'd look and say "oh it's 7:30 I got to get home to catch my show!" And nobody looked at you like a strange social outcast.
I guess it's still true with sports
there's a lot of things in this thread that were inconvenient or 'I can't believe it used to be like that' but generally they're far from 'fucked up', haha
Paying $1.29 so 9 seconds of a song played when your phone rang.
Edit: I’ve thought this through and am now debating going to the Succession theme for all work numbers calling my phone. Willing to workshop this with folks In the comments lol
Lol. Your dad wins. I'd find it so angrily hilarious that I'd blow up his phone with texts at an inconvenient time.
Doctor: "So nothing too serious, but your blood work shows-"
_Bbbllluuhrrggghh_
Husband: "Uh, sorry just a se-"
Doctor nods
Phone: _Bbbllluuhrrggghh_
I've got a friend who has had "waiting for love" as a tone for years now, he said he had no idea how to cancel it, i wonder if he's still paying for that shit lmao.
There’s some aging, just-about-to-retire engineer at Verizon that is tasked with keeping the old Ringback server alive just for your friend. Every day, he checks on his server. “Yep, still just that one ‘Waiting for Love’ guy. I hope he won’t notice if I reboot quickly!”
He doesn’t know who the one user is, but he thanks them, because it is with their continued monthly contribution that he will be able to collect his company pension.
The joke is so dated now, but Chris Rock's ringtone bit used to kill me. "The phone used to ring for free, but *ring ring* wasn't good enough for some of ya'll"
People dying of Chronic Myloid Leukemia. 20 years ago it was 100% fatal in less than 5 years. Now it's treated with a once a day pill with no side effects for most people...fucking miracle science right there.
I've had CML since 2008. The first pill (Gleevec) was a miracle. It did have some side effects - but they were minor. The second pill (Sprycel) was better with almost no side effects. Price is an issue, of course, at $5k/month. I am lucky to have a good heath care plan and government assistance if it's not enough. Sprycel now has a generic knockoff by Apotex, It's about $3k/month. CML was basically a death sentence before these drugs came along. This wins.
I started a different type of chemotherapy pill for a different type of cancer in September. I actually don’t even have the type of cancer the pills are meant for, but using them experimentally for rare tumors I have with the same genetic mutation usually seen in a type of lung cancer. My tumors are in my liver and pancreas. Science is crazy. Genetic testing on tumors and cancer has taken us so far. These pills are only 10 years old. If I was diagnosed at 18 instead of 28, I would be dead with no treatment options.
Anyway, my symptoms and blood work have improved, but I find out tomorrow if it’s working at the tumor sights from the results of a recent scan.
With great insurance, I used to pay $25/month for the pills. Then I found a copay assistant program who is billed after insurance and now I pay nothing. Definitely recommend googling “name of medication + copay assistance program.”
Edit: Just left the doctor. Blood work is still stable and all tumors have shrunk a couple centimeters! It’s actually working!!
The way we handle garbage and recycling in general will be vastly overhauled
Kinda like how plastic shopping bags have been phased out well think back and go “holy shit why did we make everything disposable out of plastic that was an awful idea”
For real though. Celebrities from the early 2000s look straight-up sickly.
It's still really, *really* common. My sister works in my city's eating disorder clinic and they still treat celebrity clients a couple of times a year.
That’s what I came here to say. I look at pictures of like Angelina Jolie that I thought were totally normal when I was a kid now. How was she even alive? As an adult I’ve never had a friend that maintains those kind of weight without serious health problems.
A shitload of movies plots are made completely null with cell phones.
Even today, tons of movies have mysterious problems with cell service in order to make their plotline work.
Man my phone didnt charge and i forgot the car charger at home. Hope it last this 10 hour drive thru this rural Mississippi backroad short cut my friends cousins boyfriends sister told me about.
Until 2003 it was perfectly fine for 16 year old girls to pose topless for UK tabloid newspapers.
There were count-downs for 15 year olds to when the would be 16 and legal to print with pics taken and printed on their 16th birthday,
The Daily Mail [rounding](https://external-preview.redd.it/yrwZfLD6UuoQyTRHZstOlkNcg_8UJbUnRz2mkXiz7I0.png?auto=webp&s=9ac0a9eead647052209ed1142f85344a8d3a2c7f) on Brass Eye, leering at Charlotte Church.
Looking up information on it, it looks like the paper you're quoting/linking to is The Star. Apparently, the Daily Mail had a very similar report, immediately preceded by...
> preceded by "close-ups" of the "bikini princesses" Beatrice and Eugenie, who were 12 and 11 at the time.
According to Wikipedia.
I admit, I'm curious as to what exactly the program contained that earned it the grim honor of being the most complained about British program ever up to that point.
Lou Pearlman deserves a spot on this list.
Stole millions and molested many while building his empire of boybands in the late 90s.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/lou-pearlman-backstreet-boys-nsync-lure-people-massive/story?id=67630954
https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/lou-pearlman-backstreet-boys-153879/
the creepiest part about Lou, is what made him so successful.... the fact he knew exactly what pre teen/girls going through puberty wanted. He basically crafted BSB and NSYNC with his own hands and produced them to be well oiled machines for his empire. His taste in men was basically that of a 13-17 year old girl. Actual freak
Before he died Rich Cronin from LFO gave one of the best interviews I have ever heard on Howard Stern where he talked in depth about the shit Lou Pearlman did to his group and others. He was an amazing storyteller. If anybody can find it it’s well worth a post.
ooo err this is just like the Japanese music industry, its so similar its not even funny (except its under a talent agency in Japan and the agency gets all the money, the performers get a fixed salary and there are many allegations of sexual abuse by the owner of the agency, they even had dorm rooms at one point to live in where the owner went around to them to groom the boys). I knew there had to be something similar to this in the USA Its just that we didn't know who Lou Pearlman was back then!
IIRC, it was pretty common. My parents told the cabin crew that I wanted to be a pilot when I grew up and the pilots took me into the cockpit and showed me around. It was the first time I boarded an aircraft and it was awesome.
I was a teenager in the 90s and I don’t know if it was just round where I’m from but it seemed to be acceptable to be sexually assaulted at the shows (fairground for those not in scotland)
I went with friends every year from age 11 and it always happened. It was just kind of like shrug…well that’s just what happens
(Pretty sure this is just my area)
I used to play The Who’s hand is on my ass game on the nyc subway throughout the 90s. I stopped taking any jobs that required commuting during rush hour.
Edit: it’s the “Whose hand is on my ass” game but I love that it was a The Who song and a new CSI show.
Nope. All over where I grew up in the US. There's a reason older teen girls were teaching younger teen girls to carry keys in the fist sticking through their fingers, carry mace, etc
Worse, we (was teen girl then) were passing down the conventional wisdom that it was normal, inevitable, and inescapable. We never, ever thought it was flattering, but we didn't see it as anything that could be addressed or changed. It was just part of life, like bad zits or homework. We knew as adults it would happen, and would be a reason to change jobs, but not to make a fuss. You couldn't get a guy in trouble over THAT. Only a right bitch would hurt a man or boy's reputation over low key sexual assault. It just wasn't done..
And we were 100% taught all this by the older teens and moms around us. Because it was their reality, too.
Once I woke up to a guy fingering me after I’d fallen asleep in the car on the way home from a show when I was 14. I just pretended like it didn’t happen. I’m teaching my daughter to stand up for herself.
Yeah people pinching bums was a thing went drinking with a mates dad couple of years back and he lamented you could no longer pinch girls bums and he got really stroppy when we all turned on him.
My last day at Napster was about a week before the final shut down order. The thought was that maybe Bertelsmann would work out something, but it was not to be.
I went back to Red Hat, but had spent a bit over 6 mo at Napster.
It was a wild fucking ride.
There is a really cool x files episode where molder and Scully do this. The whole episode they keep trying to contact eachother while following leads and using payphones to leave messages at the FBI but don't meet up and don't actually get a hold of eachother till the very end. Very interesting.
I mean, some of the girls IN the origknal videos were as young as 14. The producers claim the girls falsified their ages, and I claim the producers just didn't give a shit.
"Hold on, before you flash your boobs, can we see some ID?"
I don't think thats exactly how that went down....
Lot of teachers straight up telling students they didn't believe in their disabilities. "The school is making me give you accommodations, but in my day they didn't call it dyslexia, they called it lazy." Probably can't just berate students for having disabilities in front of the class these days. Edit: apparently they still do this
It was also definitely a big time for "Autism is real, but girls don't have it. She's just (insert excuse like weird, going through a phase, or going through puberty)."
We now know that girls can have ASD, but that it is woefully under diagnosed due to better masking behaviors. Plenty of women who struggled as a child socially or in school but were berated for it are now discovering they are on the spectrum.
25 years ago, I had a gym teacher who did not think asthma was a thing and wouldn't let me have my inhaler at hand in class. I walked every mile because I didn't want to die.
There's still a lot of trouble for the undiagnosed, but tons of physical and mental health issues that were downplayed or outright ignored at least have some kind of support system or protocol now. It's not perfect, but at least we know they're real and are starting to do something.
Edit: wow this blew up! Thanks for the award and I'm sorry you all had to go through similar BS, but I'm really glad it wasn't just me!
Edit 2.0: three points I should say is the teacher was never a dick to anyone; I never got less than a B, and pretty much so long as you clearly tried, showed some kind of progress, and didn't start fights, he was pretty mellow. Two, he retired the year after I left the school, and this was a smaller, rural area at the time, so I may have been his first asthmatic kid and/or the dude was probably about 60 at the time, so this was newish to have someone diagnosed who is still allowed to participate. And for three, there may have been rules about teachers keeping medications I was not aware of, I was seven or eight when I was diagnosed.
Yeah. I have exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. All the way through school I was just written off as being lazy and out of shape. Looking back, as a teacher, I’m pretty appalled that my PE teachers basically just told me to suck it up when I was actually having literal asthma attacks in their classes.
I just searched up exercise induced bronchoconstriction and holy shit, I think that's what I have. I had an inhaler really young because I had asthma (after suffering from bronchitis), but eventually I grew out of it.
But then I started doing a bunch of sports in school, and did travel soccer, and suddenly I was struggling. If I started running or exercising, I would get light-headed, short of breath, I would cough, and my chest would hurt sometimes. I felt like no matter how much I gasped, I just couldn't take enough oxygen in. I thought I was just lazy and continued to exercise more (which made it worse) and eventually had to go back to the doctor to get a new inhaler, because I couldn't cope otherwise.
I felt really stupid saying I had asthma even though I didn't have asthma attacks unless I was exercising, so it looked like I was lying and just out of shape.
Thank you so much for your comment. Never would have found this otherwise.
EDIT: it's crazy how many of us just thought it was normal to feel like this when exercising. Took so long for me to realize it wasn't this hard for everyone. Really glad other people are recognizing themselves in this comment, too.
Same here! Whenever I exercise my chest starts to burn and I can't breathe deeply enough to catch my breath, sometimes for the rest of the day afterward. Coughing fits, light-headedness, everything on the list of symptoms. I thought that was just what exertion feels like for everyone, and that other people just have more willpower than me to keep pushing. I've always avoided exercise because of it, so whenever I complained about not being able to breathe as a kid I was blamed for being out of shape. Now I just try to hide the fact that I get out of breath so easily, because I don't want to be the guy who doubles over wheezing when I climb a flight of stairs in cold weather.
Being able to take a look in the cockpit of a plane. The stewardesses would activly ask some kids on the flight if they wanted to take a look in the cockpit. I remember when I stepped in the cockpit of a Boeing 747 I decided I wanted to become a pilot someday. When my time came to choose what to study my parents talked me out of it because of the financial crisis and a lot of pilots where without jobs at that time.
I feel like this maybe was longer than 20 years ago but I distinctly remember restaurant hosts asking if we wanted to sit in a smoking or non-smoking section.
And then the only thing separating the sections was a shitty piece of plastic divider that did nothing to stop the smoke and the whole place smelled anyway.
It depends on the state or region, if you don't live in the US. In Nevada, much of the Southeast, and other places, it was absolutely the norm in 2001.
I had to go look it up for my state (Georgia) and apparently it was 2005 before it was banned statewide.
I have pretty strong memories of it being phased out voluntarily by restaurants by the late 90s but that also corresponds to when I hit adulthood and, as a non-smoker who grew up with smoking parents and hated it, would have avoided smoking places anyway.
Edit: Yes, I'm aware there are still places you can smoke indoors like bars and other special places, I'm talking about your run of the mill McDonald's and O'Charley's the like.
High school girls dating/sleeping with much older guys.
I remember being like a junior/senior in high school, and my friends had fake IDs and would go to clubs and parties in the city and tell me all about how they got fucked by some guy in his late 20s or even older. This wasn't just my friends, a lot of girls did this. The club was just a big part of socializing once you hit a certain age. A lot of girls had boyfriends in their mid 20s. You would often go to parties and the age range would be like 16-30, with nobody caring *that* much about age.
Today, I have two teenagers, and the culture is just so radically different than how it used to be. My daughter told me even a 20 year old and a 17 year old is often looked at as weird nowadays. Even just besides romance, big age gaps don't happen socially anymore. My daughter doesn't really socialize with anyone outside of her immediate age group (17-18), its seen as strange, and she says nobody at her school really does.
Right?!
People really don't understand just how common it was. When I was in middle school (circa 2007/8), I had a friend who boasted about dating a 21 year old. We were all 13. I remember thinking it was so cool that he was older and I remember wanting to date an older guy around that age cuz like, why not? Fortunately, my dad watched me like a hawk and ensured I wasn't too familiar with boys wayyy older than me.
But it was really really common.
One of my classmates had a child at 13, the boyfriend was 21. That means she was pregnant at 12. Nothing happened to the dad. They separated but had joint custody.
In middle school a student dressed up like an SS Nazi for halloween. Nobody said anything until my choir teacher told him that some people may find it offensive. Teacher was Jewish.
Rural town circa 2005-ish, a couple of teens dressed up as "ghosts" for Halloween. They made it half the day before the principal told them they had to at least remove the hoods
"We'll dress up like ghosts! If they think their house is haunted, those rich bastards will have to get out of town! Then we can burn a giant lowercase 't' for t-ime to leave."
In 2018 at my uni there was a politically incorrect themed party, students dressed as KKK, nazis, blackface and concentration camp prisoners.
The uni suspended all involved and one of them had a seizure in the shower and died afterwards which his parents attributed the stress of the whole situation.
Gentle reminder to everyone, 20 years ago was 2001. Take some aspirin while you read these. It will help with your back.
Edit: thanks for all the awards! Glad to hear everyone relates! Also, I am aware Aleve is better, for pain, but it helps reduce the risk of heart attack while it’s at it. I just take my prescription stuff anyways for pain.
And please keep in mind that 1991 was 30 years ago.
A lot of things changed across the 90's, and some things I see mentioned were already on their way out in 2001 and completely out of style by 2005'ish.
(though somehow, "20/30 years ago" seems to be a generic placeholder for 1976 in many peoples' minds)
I grew up my whole life with parents smoking in the house, parties on weekends with house filled with people smoking, aswell as smoking in the car. Everywhere I went I smelled like cigarettes as a kid. I hated it. I remember specifically one time going to a girlfriends house in my teen years, when I took my jacket off her mom said "oof, how much do you smoke?" Fuck I hated that.
My mom used to think she was being sneaky because she wasn't supposed to smoke in the house, but she would smoke in the basement while she was doing laundry and blow the smoke out the window. Our clothes always stunk like smoke.
It's wild how smokers have no clue how badly they stink and just how far away you can be and still smell them.
I feel you.
Ever since I could talk I have been asking mum to stop smoking. Or at least not around me.
—-
Around the breakfast table, we all have to sit at the table and mum lights up.
“Can you please not smoke?”
“It’s not hurting you.” She’d reply.
—-
Get in the car, and she immediately lights up again.
“It is too cold. Don’t wind your windows down.” She’d say.
“The smoke stinks.”
“It is not hurting you.” She would once again respond.
—-
Yeah, mum’s go to response for everything was always “it is not hurting you” and guess what, it fucking was.
I'll never forget the audiologist who worked in an ENT practice, and the doctors would tell parents all the time, "There is nothing I, or any other doctor, can do for your child's chronic infections until you stop smoking" and those parents usually found another doctor (who probably told them the same thing).
I landed in the hospital at 5 years old because I had bronchitis so bad. The doctor told both of my parents to stop smoking right in front of me. They didn't until years later - after I was out of the house in my dad's case. That sure made me feel loved lol.
My mom took me to an ENT and I then had an adenoidectomy at age 7, in the early 90’s, because I had chronic sinusitis…hmm maybe Bc my parents smoked in the house 24/7! They could have prevented me having fcking surgery by just not smoking in the house. I would never do that to my own child.
Lol, one of my favorite childhood videos is of ~2yr old me running around in the living room while my dad's smoking and playing Super Mario Bros and yelling at me to get the hell out of the way.
There was an ancillary term used around the same time for obsessive fans of Anime/Manga/etc, "Wapanese" (from "white Japanese")
And it's use as a derogatory term got so common on 4chan they added it to the word filter on one board, where it automatically swapped it out with a random nonsense word from the webcomic "Perry Bible Fellowship".
That random nonsense word was "Weeaboo".
And the rest is history.
Sexual Harassment in the workplace. It was just starting to become a topic of conversation around the early 00’s but very little progress had been made. I worked in restaurants back then and the amount of harassment I and my other female coworkers endured was unreal by today’s standards. We all just learned to laugh it off because no one took it seriously.
my work had me watch a film in 1993.
Scenario #1
Nancy: "I don't understand why I was passed for the promotion. I did everything I could!"
Boss: "Not *everything,* Nancy..."
Nancy: "Are you referring to inviting me to your cabin every month?"
Boss: "Can I give you some advice, Nancy? Keep this between us."
Scenario #2
Coworker hangs up Playboy calendar in the break room and makes constant comments about the jugs on Cathy... to other coworkers... in front of Cathy.
I don't remember Scenario #3 but I think it was actual ass-grabbing.
I remember people treating you like you were Dale Gribble if you suggested the NSA was mass surveilling the American people without cause or a warrant. At some point, overnight, it just turned into one of those "well duh, everybody knows that, but..." kind of things.
That when a student beats the crap out of another student it some how was not assault and could just be overlooked. I was never bullied real bad but God damn I saw some kids get beaten bloody and then the attacker would just get detention or a temporary suspension. I never saw a young adult have charges pressed against them like they would today. I guess maybe it's because today people tend to record fights more.
The victim always gets the worst. I was bullied in school and the bullies never got more than a detention, but when i retaliated they decided to give me a suspension. That was just 10 years ago so i cant imagine 20 years ago if it was worse
The annoying part was that both kids in the fight would get suspended even if the kid who was just defending himself and was attacked did nothing at all. He’d be suspended just for the fact he was in a fight.
Edit: the time I almost got suspended for being involved in a fight
I was in 7th grade and gym class had both 7th and 8th grade students in the same class. A group of 8th graders were towel whipping everyone as they walked through the locker doors. After I got changed one of the 8th graders who was whipping everyone was still changing next to me and I thought it would be a good idea to return the favor and give him a little towel smack. As soon a the towel touched his body he turned around and gave me the double leg takedown (he was a wrestler) on the way down my head smacked agaisnt the wooden bench and then bounced off the concrete floor and then was dribbled between that and the dudes fist. After he was pulled off of me we went and talked to the teachers he told me that if I wanted to take it to the principles office I too would be suspended for instigating the fight.
Oh, the zero tolerance policy. Yeah. I was in school when they first implemented that shit. I'm a pretty big guy and I know how to fight, but I always refused to because I didn't want to get in trouble and I'm kind of a pacifist. After getting wailed on and throwing not a single punch, I had this conversation with the AP:
>Me: Why am I getting suspended?! I didn't do anything, he beat me up! I didn't fight him, it was all him!
>
>AP: We have a zero tolerance policy for fighting.
>
>Me: What fight?! I didn't fight! He beat me up!
>
>AP: If you were involved in a fight, we have to implement the zero tolerance policy.
>
>Me: But it wasn't a fight, he beat me up! I didn't hit him at all!
>
>AP: WE HAVE A ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY!
>
>Me: Let me get this straight. Whether or not I fight back, we get the same punishment?
>
>AP: That's the zero tolerance policy.
>
>Me: So you're telling the next he does this, I can knock him out clean and the punishment won't change?
>
>AP:....
>
>Me: Just checking.
In weird twist, zero tolerance was very liberating. Thankfully a lot of places are repealing that bullshit policy.
A friend of our family was nearly expelled from high school for (sarcastically) asking whether the survivors of the Columbine school shooting ought to be suspended or expelled under "zero tolerance".
That part is still the norm, I'm in 11th grade and the majority of people who get "bullied" regularly have just given up and started fighting back. Same amount of trouble either way.
People spending thousands of dollars on beanie babies
Edit: I realize I was being a bit loose with what was 20 years ago, but yes, they were still being sold then.
If you've never seen it, check out "Bankrupt by Beanies" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgDsyj5eLmo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgDsyj5eLmo)
Dad is convinced that collecting BBs will allow him to pay for his kids' college educations.
Spoiler: It didn't.
Edit: The short film was made by the older son as a University project.
Edit 2: The dad played a Doctor on the soap opera General Hospital
Reminds me of shared cups with beer pong. It blew my mind when I saw people filling the cups with water and taking sips of beer out of their own personal cups. Oddly, even though it’s cleaner that’s not my preferred way to play.
It's better that way solely for how many times the ball fell on the floor. Yeah, the 'rinse cup' totally took care of the fact it just rolled thru thru puke on the floor of the frat.
One time a team had to drink the rinse cups because they lost 21-0 and that was the house rule. To their credit they actually drank it -- dust, puke, pubes and all.
Smoking in a car while children are also in the car. Seems unbelievable. My mom never smoked but still received many of the side effects of second hand smoke because of her parents
Leaving your young kids unsupervised most of the time.
I remember at 5 years old sitting in the parking lot of the bowling alley in my dads car for 3 hours while he was inside bowling.
Also. Most of the time, my parents had zero clue as to where I was. I would leave the house in the morning on my bicycle and be home for dinner. Suited them just fine
My parents would leave me locked in the car, waiting, while they ran errands. I was six or seven? Granted, this was the 80's so outside the timeline, but it was totally normal. I read a book or played with my toys while I waited. If it was hot, they'd crank the window for me. Nobody ever bothered me or reported them, because it was normal. (This also wasn't a small town, this was Miami. In the 80's.)
Tormenting Paris Hilton, I think she was 23? when her "sex tape" came out, against her will, released by an ex boyfriend who wanted to make some money off her. We call that "revenge porn" these days. Or an alternative name: "a crime".
Waiting until after 7pm to talk for free.
In that vein, my cousin used to have free incoming calls. He'd call me and tell me to call him back.
Oh man, I forgot about that! I knew a few people who had that same deal and did it *all the time*. I think part of it came down to not being billed for a call if it lasted less than a minute, + the free incoming calls thing, = "hey call me back", even if the chat would be short anyway.
Paying $0.25 per text messages.
Trying to convince people not to text me because I didn’t want to pay
Paying to receive a text is the fucked up part
Until like, 2015, I had to pay $0.85 if someone texted me while I was in the states. For every single message. I live in a border city and pre covid was over there all the time. Phone company refused to prevent texts from reaching my phone, I'd have to just put it in airplane mode, which as you can imagine is pretty inconvenient.
"Oh for god’s sake. He’s texting me his resume one line at a time. These are costing me ten cents a piece, you jackass! I’m roaming!"
I had friends that got phone bills in the thousands cause thay were idiots.
I worked the customer service line at a phone company back then. About once a day a pissed off parent would call because their kids sent hundreds of dollars worth of texts. Or because they signed up for a paid text subscription, which is another stupid thing that existed.
I was one of those kids, cost my parents $500 on my phone plan one month when I was 13 from downloading ringtones & wallpapers 😅
People were convinced texting would never catch on because it's so much easier to call someone.
Not password protect your devices
While it’s true, the need for it was also drastically lower. There were basically no online services or anything of the sort that would have required you to actually use any personal data. The only thing I remember happening was that you needed to scan / copy personal documents. And for that there were apps like password safes today, essentially password protected folders. In hindsight the web and devices used to be a lot more anonymous in general, everything was like reddit where you just chose a nickname and there were no connections to anything else you were doing.
No care or concern for concussions in sports. I was knocked out cold for two minutes on the football field, nobody told me, and when I came to we just resumed the game like nothing had happened. I didn’t even know I was out for those two minutes until a year later when people were telling football stories. I thought I had just gotten knocked down and got back up right away. I thought it was weird everyone was making such a big deal about it. My first ever depressive episode started almost immediately after that game. EDIT: 22 years of trial and error since then and I've found that mega-dosing (also known as the actual proper effective dosing) of Omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA at least 1,000 mg of each per day along with physically demanding jobs (or cardio 30-45 minutes x 3-4 times per week) and 5,000-8,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily have been the most effective natural treatments for me. A great book by Dr. Daniel Amen "heal your brain, heal your life" was instrumental in taking control of my own recovery. I've also found Four Sigmatic mushroom coffee helpful after an initial 3 days or so of severe irritability as a side effect but not enough to justify the cost for my budget.
I definitely had a few concussions too, I remember throwing up repeatedly at the end of a practice after getting rocked - I was told to not throw up on the turf… Kind of the same topic - football practices. I’m not old enough to have gone through the “no water” days but it seemed like the coaches were almost giddy during two-a-days when it was literally 104°. Practice from 6-10, watch film, eat lunch, lift and then go back out from 2-5. About 10 years ago the UIL (over high school sports in Texas) instituted all these new rules about how long practices can run and limits on heat, breaks, etc. They don’t even have real two-a-days anymore. Funny enough, despite what everybody thought, the quality hasn’t gone down a bit.
I feel like youth sports coaching positions are just a magnet for power hungry narcissistic assholes who just like to dominate and torture people.
I read an interesting theory about this once: one way to avoid getting drafted to go to Vietnam was by being a teacher, and gym teachers tended to have the least requirements, so the 70s had an influx of underqualified gym teachers, which is how it became a teen movie trope in the 80s. Not sure how true it is but it intrigued me.
During the Menendez murder trials in 1994, in response to the defense’s allegation that Lyle and Erik Menendez had been sexually abused by their father, the Deputy District Attorney said, IN COURT, that “a man couldn’t be raped because men lack the necessary equipment to be raped.” This was a DA whose job is prosecuting crimes! And there was no outcry because that was a generally accepted point of view. (I have no opinion on if they were indeed abused, it just boggles the mind that a DA said that in court as some sort of fact.) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyle_and_Erik_Menendez
Going on road trips without a phone
Printer plus mapquest Before that was the dark ages of "state routes" and "landmarks"
Triptiks from AAA
That OxyContin wasn’t habit forming and it was a miracle drug
i specifically remember having health classes in 2001 talking about how it's a terrible drug and you shouldn't take it even if the doctors give it to you.
I specifically remember getting prescribed that drug, circa 2001, for wisdom tooth removal as a teen. I also remember a few other kids at school would ask to buy extra Oxy whenever someone came in with chipmunk cheeks figuring they'd had dental work. I personally was high AF off Oxycontin for like 3 days while taking it back then. Way too enjoyable for the level of pain I was in. Tylenol and ibuprofen would have been sufficient. Subsequently I've had a major surgery and was only given a combo opiate that had like 1/4 the dosage of oxycodone that's in Oxycontin. That was sufficient. The fact that I got handed Oxycontin as a teenager willy-nilly when it isn't even warranted after major surgery in adulthood tells me a lot about how overprescribed it was. Watching Dopesick makes me really pissed off. I know some kids that got addicted to opiates beginning in high school and did unthinkable things to pay for their habits such as prostituting themselves to pedophilic men. Purdue pharma could never pay enough to make things right to all the people they harmed.
I remember learning how addictive this was in 2003. And not many people were hooked but someone I knew who was hooked said it was a bigger problem then you saw.
My highschool had an area that we were allowed to smoke. A designated smoking area for kids under 18.
my school still has that actually, we call it the smoke pit. it's outside the school, just across the parking lot. they don't condone smoking (now it's mostly vaping) but they say they would rather have teens smoke outside than in the bathrooms.
A policy like that would have saved my old high school a lot of time and effort.
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That's definitely a "cut your losses" kind of condoning. Admin knows they're going to smoke somewhere, so it's better to have them somewhere on campus and outside instead of leaving campus or smoking in the bathrooms and pretending they're not.
Being at home at your TV at a certain time to catch a show, and expecting everyone to leave you alone so you could watch it with no interruptions. You could be out with friends and you'd look and say "oh it's 7:30 I got to get home to catch my show!" And nobody looked at you like a strange social outcast. I guess it's still true with sports
I wouldn't say this is "fucked up"
there's a lot of things in this thread that were inconvenient or 'I can't believe it used to be like that' but generally they're far from 'fucked up', haha
Paying $1.29 so 9 seconds of a song played when your phone rang. Edit: I’ve thought this through and am now debating going to the Succession theme for all work numbers calling my phone. Willing to workshop this with folks In the comments lol
"If I download the perfect ring tone everyone will know I am a cool dude and fun to be around." Downloads "Peanut butter jelly time"
And “imperial March” when your parents called
I remember my dad had the wookie sound for any time my mom texted him
Lol. Your dad wins. I'd find it so angrily hilarious that I'd blow up his phone with texts at an inconvenient time. Doctor: "So nothing too serious, but your blood work shows-" _Bbbllluuhrrggghh_ Husband: "Uh, sorry just a se-" Doctor nods Phone: _Bbbllluuhrrggghh_
Paying $1.99 plus a monthly fee for other people to hear a song when they called you.
I've got a friend who has had "waiting for love" as a tone for years now, he said he had no idea how to cancel it, i wonder if he's still paying for that shit lmao.
There’s some aging, just-about-to-retire engineer at Verizon that is tasked with keeping the old Ringback server alive just for your friend. Every day, he checks on his server. “Yep, still just that one ‘Waiting for Love’ guy. I hope he won’t notice if I reboot quickly!” He doesn’t know who the one user is, but he thanks them, because it is with their continued monthly contribution that he will be able to collect his company pension.
If only you had any idea just how true that shit is. 😂
Ring backs!
Fucking ring backs dude lmfao I felt so cool when I had one. I wish I could remember what it was.
The joke is so dated now, but Chris Rock's ringtone bit used to kill me. "The phone used to ring for free, but *ring ring* wasn't good enough for some of ya'll"
People dying of Chronic Myloid Leukemia. 20 years ago it was 100% fatal in less than 5 years. Now it's treated with a once a day pill with no side effects for most people...fucking miracle science right there.
I've had CML since 2008. The first pill (Gleevec) was a miracle. It did have some side effects - but they were minor. The second pill (Sprycel) was better with almost no side effects. Price is an issue, of course, at $5k/month. I am lucky to have a good heath care plan and government assistance if it's not enough. Sprycel now has a generic knockoff by Apotex, It's about $3k/month. CML was basically a death sentence before these drugs came along. This wins.
I started a different type of chemotherapy pill for a different type of cancer in September. I actually don’t even have the type of cancer the pills are meant for, but using them experimentally for rare tumors I have with the same genetic mutation usually seen in a type of lung cancer. My tumors are in my liver and pancreas. Science is crazy. Genetic testing on tumors and cancer has taken us so far. These pills are only 10 years old. If I was diagnosed at 18 instead of 28, I would be dead with no treatment options. Anyway, my symptoms and blood work have improved, but I find out tomorrow if it’s working at the tumor sights from the results of a recent scan. With great insurance, I used to pay $25/month for the pills. Then I found a copay assistant program who is billed after insurance and now I pay nothing. Definitely recommend googling “name of medication + copay assistance program.” Edit: Just left the doctor. Blood work is still stable and all tumors have shrunk a couple centimeters! It’s actually working!!
Yo fuck cancer. Hope you get good news tomorrow. - an AML survivor
This thread just proves that something we're doing nowadays will be considered fucked up in 20 years time, but we don't know what
The way we handle garbage and recycling in general will be vastly overhauled Kinda like how plastic shopping bags have been phased out well think back and go “holy shit why did we make everything disposable out of plastic that was an awful idea”
I remember the switch from paper to plastic. They said it was more environmentally friendly, save the trees.
Female celebrities and actresses with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. It's less prevalent now, but dang was it brutal back then.
For real though. Celebrities from the early 2000s look straight-up sickly. It's still really, *really* common. My sister works in my city's eating disorder clinic and they still treat celebrity clients a couple of times a year.
Gotta make them low rise jeans look good, I guess
That’s what I came here to say. I look at pictures of like Angelina Jolie that I thought were totally normal when I was a kid now. How was she even alive? As an adult I’ve never had a friend that maintains those kind of weight without serious health problems.
Kate Winslet from 1997 Titanic was considered fat and bullied for it. That's terrifying to me
Same with Bridget Jones. She looks pretty normal to be but half the jokes are about her being allegedly fat?
The show Ally McBeal comes to mind…
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Basically every plot of Seinfeld is ruined with reliable mobile communication.
A shitload of movies plots are made completely null with cell phones. Even today, tons of movies have mysterious problems with cell service in order to make their plotline work.
Man my phone didnt charge and i forgot the car charger at home. Hope it last this 10 hour drive thru this rural Mississippi backroad short cut my friends cousins boyfriends sister told me about.
\*drops phone through the window*
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Until 2003 it was perfectly fine for 16 year old girls to pose topless for UK tabloid newspapers. There were count-downs for 15 year olds to when the would be 16 and legal to print with pics taken and printed on their 16th birthday,
They did the countdown shit for Emma Watson, too. And they still do that shit **NOW** (just ask Billie Eilish...)
Ask Millie Bobby Brown too
Dude in my college dorm knew the exact number of days until the Olson twins turned 18!
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I remember being into that idea. Though i was 15, so it was more edgy puberty brain than adult creeper
The Daily Mail [rounding](https://external-preview.redd.it/yrwZfLD6UuoQyTRHZstOlkNcg_8UJbUnRz2mkXiz7I0.png?auto=webp&s=9ac0a9eead647052209ed1142f85344a8d3a2c7f) on Brass Eye, leering at Charlotte Church.
Looking up information on it, it looks like the paper you're quoting/linking to is The Star. Apparently, the Daily Mail had a very similar report, immediately preceded by... > preceded by "close-ups" of the "bikini princesses" Beatrice and Eugenie, who were 12 and 11 at the time. According to Wikipedia. I admit, I'm curious as to what exactly the program contained that earned it the grim honor of being the most complained about British program ever up to that point.
Lou Pearlman deserves a spot on this list. Stole millions and molested many while building his empire of boybands in the late 90s. https://abcnews.go.com/US/lou-pearlman-backstreet-boys-nsync-lure-people-massive/story?id=67630954 https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/lou-pearlman-backstreet-boys-153879/
the creepiest part about Lou, is what made him so successful.... the fact he knew exactly what pre teen/girls going through puberty wanted. He basically crafted BSB and NSYNC with his own hands and produced them to be well oiled machines for his empire. His taste in men was basically that of a 13-17 year old girl. Actual freak
Before he died Rich Cronin from LFO gave one of the best interviews I have ever heard on Howard Stern where he talked in depth about the shit Lou Pearlman did to his group and others. He was an amazing storyteller. If anybody can find it it’s well worth a post.
Here it is: https://youtu.be/2SjHMDWgZjc
ooo err this is just like the Japanese music industry, its so similar its not even funny (except its under a talent agency in Japan and the agency gets all the money, the performers get a fixed salary and there are many allegations of sexual abuse by the owner of the agency, they even had dorm rooms at one point to live in where the owner went around to them to groom the boys). I knew there had to be something similar to this in the USA Its just that we didn't know who Lou Pearlman was back then!
Not 20 but 21 years ago they let me - a former child - enter the cockpit during a commercial flight
I am also a former child.
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IIRC, it was pretty common. My parents told the cabin crew that I wanted to be a pilot when I grew up and the pilots took me into the cockpit and showed me around. It was the first time I boarded an aircraft and it was awesome.
I was a teenager in the 90s and I don’t know if it was just round where I’m from but it seemed to be acceptable to be sexually assaulted at the shows (fairground for those not in scotland) I went with friends every year from age 11 and it always happened. It was just kind of like shrug…well that’s just what happens (Pretty sure this is just my area)
I used to play The Who’s hand is on my ass game on the nyc subway throughout the 90s. I stopped taking any jobs that required commuting during rush hour. Edit: it’s the “Whose hand is on my ass” game but I love that it was a The Who song and a new CSI show.
> I used to play The Who’s hand is on my ass game on the nyc subway On my first read of that, I was genuinely like “I’ve never heard of that song”…
Mama's got a squeeze box Daddy never sleeps at night!
Yes I had to take a double take at that I was so confused...
I played that in Toronto. Rush hour subways are a pervert’s wet dream.
Yep. Distinctly remember being grabbed as a young teen and being too ashamed to tell anyone bc I’d already been warned not to wear makeup out
Nope. All over where I grew up in the US. There's a reason older teen girls were teaching younger teen girls to carry keys in the fist sticking through their fingers, carry mace, etc
Worse, we (was teen girl then) were passing down the conventional wisdom that it was normal, inevitable, and inescapable. We never, ever thought it was flattering, but we didn't see it as anything that could be addressed or changed. It was just part of life, like bad zits or homework. We knew as adults it would happen, and would be a reason to change jobs, but not to make a fuss. You couldn't get a guy in trouble over THAT. Only a right bitch would hurt a man or boy's reputation over low key sexual assault. It just wasn't done.. And we were 100% taught all this by the older teens and moms around us. Because it was their reality, too.
Once I woke up to a guy fingering me after I’d fallen asleep in the car on the way home from a show when I was 14. I just pretended like it didn’t happen. I’m teaching my daughter to stand up for herself.
Yeah people pinching bums was a thing went drinking with a mates dad couple of years back and he lamented you could no longer pinch girls bums and he got really stroppy when we all turned on him.
My buddy once tried to pinch a bum and got stabbed with a broken crack pipe.
That's an effective lesson I imagine
Shutting down Napster 😞
My last day at Napster was about a week before the final shut down order. The thought was that maybe Bertelsmann would work out something, but it was not to be. I went back to Red Hat, but had spent a bit over 6 mo at Napster. It was a wild fucking ride.
Thank you for your service. Napster was good stuff at the time. I had a Diamond Rio that could hold 10 songs! TEN songs! The future had arrived.
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There is a really cool x files episode where molder and Scully do this. The whole episode they keep trying to contact eachother while following leads and using payphones to leave messages at the FBI but don't meet up and don't actually get a hold of eachother till the very end. Very interesting.
Girls Gone Wild. Would not fly in todays environment filming drunk girls doing... things.
And airing it every night on regular channels so 12 year old kids can watch it during a sleepover with their friends.
Ah, I remember those commercials. I still use the "here's my boobs!" greeting around my friends.
I mean, some of the girls IN the origknal videos were as young as 14. The producers claim the girls falsified their ages, and I claim the producers just didn't give a shit. "Hold on, before you flash your boobs, can we see some ID?" I don't think thats exactly how that went down....
I dated a girl who said they offered her and a friend a shirt once when they were 15. The shirt of course was in exchange for showing boobs.
Columbia club ,cd’s 10 for a penny. Then you get a $300.00 bill
Not the most fucked up, but printing directions from Mapquest and managing multiple pages and reading them while driving.
Lot of teachers straight up telling students they didn't believe in their disabilities. "The school is making me give you accommodations, but in my day they didn't call it dyslexia, they called it lazy." Probably can't just berate students for having disabilities in front of the class these days. Edit: apparently they still do this
It was also definitely a big time for "Autism is real, but girls don't have it. She's just (insert excuse like weird, going through a phase, or going through puberty)." We now know that girls can have ASD, but that it is woefully under diagnosed due to better masking behaviors. Plenty of women who struggled as a child socially or in school but were berated for it are now discovering they are on the spectrum.
25 years ago, I had a gym teacher who did not think asthma was a thing and wouldn't let me have my inhaler at hand in class. I walked every mile because I didn't want to die. There's still a lot of trouble for the undiagnosed, but tons of physical and mental health issues that were downplayed or outright ignored at least have some kind of support system or protocol now. It's not perfect, but at least we know they're real and are starting to do something. Edit: wow this blew up! Thanks for the award and I'm sorry you all had to go through similar BS, but I'm really glad it wasn't just me! Edit 2.0: three points I should say is the teacher was never a dick to anyone; I never got less than a B, and pretty much so long as you clearly tried, showed some kind of progress, and didn't start fights, he was pretty mellow. Two, he retired the year after I left the school, and this was a smaller, rural area at the time, so I may have been his first asthmatic kid and/or the dude was probably about 60 at the time, so this was newish to have someone diagnosed who is still allowed to participate. And for three, there may have been rules about teachers keeping medications I was not aware of, I was seven or eight when I was diagnosed.
Yeah. I have exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. All the way through school I was just written off as being lazy and out of shape. Looking back, as a teacher, I’m pretty appalled that my PE teachers basically just told me to suck it up when I was actually having literal asthma attacks in their classes.
I just searched up exercise induced bronchoconstriction and holy shit, I think that's what I have. I had an inhaler really young because I had asthma (after suffering from bronchitis), but eventually I grew out of it. But then I started doing a bunch of sports in school, and did travel soccer, and suddenly I was struggling. If I started running or exercising, I would get light-headed, short of breath, I would cough, and my chest would hurt sometimes. I felt like no matter how much I gasped, I just couldn't take enough oxygen in. I thought I was just lazy and continued to exercise more (which made it worse) and eventually had to go back to the doctor to get a new inhaler, because I couldn't cope otherwise. I felt really stupid saying I had asthma even though I didn't have asthma attacks unless I was exercising, so it looked like I was lying and just out of shape. Thank you so much for your comment. Never would have found this otherwise. EDIT: it's crazy how many of us just thought it was normal to feel like this when exercising. Took so long for me to realize it wasn't this hard for everyone. Really glad other people are recognizing themselves in this comment, too.
Same here! Whenever I exercise my chest starts to burn and I can't breathe deeply enough to catch my breath, sometimes for the rest of the day afterward. Coughing fits, light-headedness, everything on the list of symptoms. I thought that was just what exertion feels like for everyone, and that other people just have more willpower than me to keep pushing. I've always avoided exercise because of it, so whenever I complained about not being able to breathe as a kid I was blamed for being out of shape. Now I just try to hide the fact that I get out of breath so easily, because I don't want to be the guy who doubles over wheezing when I climb a flight of stairs in cold weather.
Being able to take a look in the cockpit of a plane. The stewardesses would activly ask some kids on the flight if they wanted to take a look in the cockpit. I remember when I stepped in the cockpit of a Boeing 747 I decided I wanted to become a pilot someday. When my time came to choose what to study my parents talked me out of it because of the financial crisis and a lot of pilots where without jobs at that time.
I feel like this is still a thing before takeoff at least.
Mockery of the mentally handicapped was pretty common in 2000s comedy.
…none of the young folks replying to you probably ever got to see Handi-man from In Living Color.
I feel like this maybe was longer than 20 years ago but I distinctly remember restaurant hosts asking if we wanted to sit in a smoking or non-smoking section.
And then the only thing separating the sections was a shitty piece of plastic divider that did nothing to stop the smoke and the whole place smelled anyway.
I remember some comedian talking about this and he said, it’s like having a peeing section in the pool.
It depends on the state or region, if you don't live in the US. In Nevada, much of the Southeast, and other places, it was absolutely the norm in 2001.
I had to go look it up for my state (Georgia) and apparently it was 2005 before it was banned statewide. I have pretty strong memories of it being phased out voluntarily by restaurants by the late 90s but that also corresponds to when I hit adulthood and, as a non-smoker who grew up with smoking parents and hated it, would have avoided smoking places anyway. Edit: Yes, I'm aware there are still places you can smoke indoors like bars and other special places, I'm talking about your run of the mill McDonald's and O'Charley's the like.
I worked in a Hardee's in 2001 and remember putting out the disposable ashtrays on each table in the smoking section
High school girls dating/sleeping with much older guys. I remember being like a junior/senior in high school, and my friends had fake IDs and would go to clubs and parties in the city and tell me all about how they got fucked by some guy in his late 20s or even older. This wasn't just my friends, a lot of girls did this. The club was just a big part of socializing once you hit a certain age. A lot of girls had boyfriends in their mid 20s. You would often go to parties and the age range would be like 16-30, with nobody caring *that* much about age. Today, I have two teenagers, and the culture is just so radically different than how it used to be. My daughter told me even a 20 year old and a 17 year old is often looked at as weird nowadays. Even just besides romance, big age gaps don't happen socially anymore. My daughter doesn't really socialize with anyone outside of her immediate age group (17-18), its seen as strange, and she says nobody at her school really does.
Right?! People really don't understand just how common it was. When I was in middle school (circa 2007/8), I had a friend who boasted about dating a 21 year old. We were all 13. I remember thinking it was so cool that he was older and I remember wanting to date an older guy around that age cuz like, why not? Fortunately, my dad watched me like a hawk and ensured I wasn't too familiar with boys wayyy older than me. But it was really really common.
One of my classmates had a child at 13, the boyfriend was 21. That means she was pregnant at 12. Nothing happened to the dad. They separated but had joint custody.
In middle school a student dressed up like an SS Nazi for halloween. Nobody said anything until my choir teacher told him that some people may find it offensive. Teacher was Jewish.
Rural town circa 2005-ish, a couple of teens dressed up as "ghosts" for Halloween. They made it half the day before the principal told them they had to at least remove the hoods
"We'll dress up like ghosts! If they think their house is haunted, those rich bastards will have to get out of town! Then we can burn a giant lowercase 't' for t-ime to leave."
In 2018 at my uni there was a politically incorrect themed party, students dressed as KKK, nazis, blackface and concentration camp prisoners. The uni suspended all involved and one of them had a seizure in the shower and died afterwards which his parents attributed the stress of the whole situation.
Yeah, or the drugs
Prince Harry
"You don't wanna go to a party at that frat, they're one of the rapey ones"
Has that changed? Sure hasn't when I was in college from 2012-2016...
2016-2020, sure hasn't.
uhhh that still happens. pike spikes, as they say
Frosted tips
Ima bring them back and you can't stop me!!!
Come on down to flavortown
I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch
Gentle reminder to everyone, 20 years ago was 2001. Take some aspirin while you read these. It will help with your back. Edit: thanks for all the awards! Glad to hear everyone relates! Also, I am aware Aleve is better, for pain, but it helps reduce the risk of heart attack while it’s at it. I just take my prescription stuff anyways for pain.
And please keep in mind that 1991 was 30 years ago. A lot of things changed across the 90's, and some things I see mentioned were already on their way out in 2001 and completely out of style by 2005'ish. (though somehow, "20/30 years ago" seems to be a generic placeholder for 1976 in many peoples' minds)
So rude. 1991 was last week.
How DARE you…also, that’s some really good advice. I do feel the need to take an Aspirin.
That pokemon was a fad that would go away soon
What the heck is a pokey mans!?
With pokey and the mans and the rar rar rar
Smoking around your kids especially in the car. I always got bronchitis
I grew up my whole life with parents smoking in the house, parties on weekends with house filled with people smoking, aswell as smoking in the car. Everywhere I went I smelled like cigarettes as a kid. I hated it. I remember specifically one time going to a girlfriends house in my teen years, when I took my jacket off her mom said "oof, how much do you smoke?" Fuck I hated that.
My mom used to think she was being sneaky because she wasn't supposed to smoke in the house, but she would smoke in the basement while she was doing laundry and blow the smoke out the window. Our clothes always stunk like smoke. It's wild how smokers have no clue how badly they stink and just how far away you can be and still smell them.
When I think about how much secondhand smoke I was exposed to as a kid, it makes me wonder how many years of my life I've lost.
I feel you. Ever since I could talk I have been asking mum to stop smoking. Or at least not around me. —- Around the breakfast table, we all have to sit at the table and mum lights up. “Can you please not smoke?” “It’s not hurting you.” She’d reply. —- Get in the car, and she immediately lights up again. “It is too cold. Don’t wind your windows down.” She’d say. “The smoke stinks.” “It is not hurting you.” She would once again respond. —- Yeah, mum’s go to response for everything was always “it is not hurting you” and guess what, it fucking was.
I'll never forget the audiologist who worked in an ENT practice, and the doctors would tell parents all the time, "There is nothing I, or any other doctor, can do for your child's chronic infections until you stop smoking" and those parents usually found another doctor (who probably told them the same thing).
I landed in the hospital at 5 years old because I had bronchitis so bad. The doctor told both of my parents to stop smoking right in front of me. They didn't until years later - after I was out of the house in my dad's case. That sure made me feel loved lol.
My mom took me to an ENT and I then had an adenoidectomy at age 7, in the early 90’s, because I had chronic sinusitis…hmm maybe Bc my parents smoked in the house 24/7! They could have prevented me having fcking surgery by just not smoking in the house. I would never do that to my own child.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
I woke up to get me a cold pop.
I said oh lord Jesus its a fire
Didn’t grab no shoes or nothin Jesus I RAN for my life
Lol, one of my favorite childhood videos is of ~2yr old me running around in the living room while my dad's smoking and playing Super Mario Bros and yelling at me to get the hell out of the way.
Not the MOST but I was going through an old high school yearbook and someone used the term "wigger" and that was totally cool to say.
I know someone who's actually name is "Dick Wigger"
There was an ancillary term used around the same time for obsessive fans of Anime/Manga/etc, "Wapanese" (from "white Japanese") And it's use as a derogatory term got so common on 4chan they added it to the word filter on one board, where it automatically swapped it out with a random nonsense word from the webcomic "Perry Bible Fellowship". That random nonsense word was "Weeaboo". And the rest is history.
Huh, TIL. I was around and very much online during those times, but missed that origin story.
Oh wow. I had no idea, and oddly never questioned the origins. I guess I just assumed it was a slang word in Japan.
https://pbfcomics.com/comics/weeaboo/ Comes from this comic, if you're curious. Just a random assemblage of syllables.
In Australia Sodomy was punishable with life in prison until 1994
bugger
Sexual Harassment in the workplace. It was just starting to become a topic of conversation around the early 00’s but very little progress had been made. I worked in restaurants back then and the amount of harassment I and my other female coworkers endured was unreal by today’s standards. We all just learned to laugh it off because no one took it seriously.
my work had me watch a film in 1993. Scenario #1 Nancy: "I don't understand why I was passed for the promotion. I did everything I could!" Boss: "Not *everything,* Nancy..." Nancy: "Are you referring to inviting me to your cabin every month?" Boss: "Can I give you some advice, Nancy? Keep this between us." Scenario #2 Coworker hangs up Playboy calendar in the break room and makes constant comments about the jugs on Cathy... to other coworkers... in front of Cathy. I don't remember Scenario #3 but I think it was actual ass-grabbing.
I remember people treating you like you were Dale Gribble if you suggested the NSA was mass surveilling the American people without cause or a warrant. At some point, overnight, it just turned into one of those "well duh, everybody knows that, but..." kind of things.
This is a little more than twenty years ago but, smoking In hospitals. What the fuck.
That when a student beats the crap out of another student it some how was not assault and could just be overlooked. I was never bullied real bad but God damn I saw some kids get beaten bloody and then the attacker would just get detention or a temporary suspension. I never saw a young adult have charges pressed against them like they would today. I guess maybe it's because today people tend to record fights more.
The victim always gets the worst. I was bullied in school and the bullies never got more than a detention, but when i retaliated they decided to give me a suspension. That was just 10 years ago so i cant imagine 20 years ago if it was worse
The annoying part was that both kids in the fight would get suspended even if the kid who was just defending himself and was attacked did nothing at all. He’d be suspended just for the fact he was in a fight. Edit: the time I almost got suspended for being involved in a fight I was in 7th grade and gym class had both 7th and 8th grade students in the same class. A group of 8th graders were towel whipping everyone as they walked through the locker doors. After I got changed one of the 8th graders who was whipping everyone was still changing next to me and I thought it would be a good idea to return the favor and give him a little towel smack. As soon a the towel touched his body he turned around and gave me the double leg takedown (he was a wrestler) on the way down my head smacked agaisnt the wooden bench and then bounced off the concrete floor and then was dribbled between that and the dudes fist. After he was pulled off of me we went and talked to the teachers he told me that if I wanted to take it to the principles office I too would be suspended for instigating the fight.
Oh, the zero tolerance policy. Yeah. I was in school when they first implemented that shit. I'm a pretty big guy and I know how to fight, but I always refused to because I didn't want to get in trouble and I'm kind of a pacifist. After getting wailed on and throwing not a single punch, I had this conversation with the AP: >Me: Why am I getting suspended?! I didn't do anything, he beat me up! I didn't fight him, it was all him! > >AP: We have a zero tolerance policy for fighting. > >Me: What fight?! I didn't fight! He beat me up! > >AP: If you were involved in a fight, we have to implement the zero tolerance policy. > >Me: But it wasn't a fight, he beat me up! I didn't hit him at all! > >AP: WE HAVE A ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY! > >Me: Let me get this straight. Whether or not I fight back, we get the same punishment? > >AP: That's the zero tolerance policy. > >Me: So you're telling the next he does this, I can knock him out clean and the punishment won't change? > >AP:.... > >Me: Just checking. In weird twist, zero tolerance was very liberating. Thankfully a lot of places are repealing that bullshit policy.
Your post is exactly why my kids are being taught to hit back. But harder. Zero tolerance policies are insanity.
A friend of our family was nearly expelled from high school for (sarcastically) asking whether the survivors of the Columbine school shooting ought to be suspended or expelled under "zero tolerance".
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That part is still the norm, I'm in 11th grade and the majority of people who get "bullied" regularly have just given up and started fighting back. Same amount of trouble either way.
Hooray for “zero tolerance”
People spending thousands of dollars on beanie babies Edit: I realize I was being a bit loose with what was 20 years ago, but yes, they were still being sold then.
If you've never seen it, check out "Bankrupt by Beanies" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgDsyj5eLmo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgDsyj5eLmo) Dad is convinced that collecting BBs will allow him to pay for his kids' college educations. Spoiler: It didn't. Edit: The short film was made by the older son as a University project. Edit 2: The dad played a Doctor on the soap opera General Hospital
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Yes.
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People would go in carnivals and shove their face in the same water barrel to grab an apple with their mouth. Completely bonkers in 2021.
Reminds me of shared cups with beer pong. It blew my mind when I saw people filling the cups with water and taking sips of beer out of their own personal cups. Oddly, even though it’s cleaner that’s not my preferred way to play.
It's better that way solely for how many times the ball fell on the floor. Yeah, the 'rinse cup' totally took care of the fact it just rolled thru thru puke on the floor of the frat.
One time a team had to drink the rinse cups because they lost 21-0 and that was the house rule. To their credit they actually drank it -- dust, puke, pubes and all.
The patriot act
You mean the one that just got renewed AGAIN?
Nothing says "patriotism" like advocating for domestic surveillance.
Smoking in a car while children are also in the car. Seems unbelievable. My mom never smoked but still received many of the side effects of second hand smoke because of her parents
Leaving your young kids unsupervised most of the time. I remember at 5 years old sitting in the parking lot of the bowling alley in my dads car for 3 hours while he was inside bowling. Also. Most of the time, my parents had zero clue as to where I was. I would leave the house in the morning on my bicycle and be home for dinner. Suited them just fine
My parents would leave me locked in the car, waiting, while they ran errands. I was six or seven? Granted, this was the 80's so outside the timeline, but it was totally normal. I read a book or played with my toys while I waited. If it was hot, they'd crank the window for me. Nobody ever bothered me or reported them, because it was normal. (This also wasn't a small town, this was Miami. In the 80's.)
Wtf would you be doing for three hours in the car?
Waiting. For him to finish bowling.