Video games that didn’t require internet connection and a subscription to play. You just bought it, you put it in the computer, and it was yours! Forever!
I miss the idea that the year 2000 will usher in a never ending crescendo of technological wonders. I mean, it did. But they don’t feel as wonderous as I thought they would.
From before 1996 or so? I miss the pre-internet academic world. That might sound odd, since the internet has given us all so muchā¦ but it has taken away just as much, if not more.
There was joy and satisfaction in, say, doing research by spending hours reading microfiche or old books, taking notes longhand, then synthesizing your own ideas. I miss that.
Having to go out and get stuff. Going to the library to get info. Pulling out a monster phone book. Going to the video store. Even the trip to the little room in the back of the video store was somewhat exciting! Just simple things in your daily routine that required you to go out and move around. And definitely no social media! I liked the fact that you had to get to know a person before you got invited over to their house and eventually showed you their photo albums. Now, you can know everything you want about a person by just searching Facebook and Google. I miss the anonymity you had. You could walk around most places and not wonder who was looking at you. Sure many businesses had cameras but they weren’t as ubiquitous as they are today. Definitely miss life before social media and cell phones took over.
Playing super and n64, my friends had to come over to play together. My friends used to come over at 9 am sharp every summer morning from 1999 to 2004, we would play outside for 2 to 3 hours as well. My single mother was at work too, she trusted us to be alone. My older sister was traveling at that time.
Air travel before the TSA. Nobody made you take your shoes off or dump out your water bottle (or any other liquids you might be carrying on). You could carry a pocketknife on a plane without it being confiscated, as long as the blade was no longer than the width of your palm. People without tickets could go through the security checkpoint to see people off at the gate, or meet them as they got off the plane.
The optimism. The Cold War was over. The economy seemed strong. The world was inevitably going to move in the direction of liberal democracies where disputed were handled peacefully. It was the end of history.
The near absence of social media, influencers and ad-bombing. The freedom to be a kid roaming free till the street lights come on. Growing up with a plethora of hobbies and interests that weren’t centred around having access to internet. Not being reachable 24/7. The near constant feeling of impending doom.
It honestly was better when you just left for the day and went to do things, real things and activities. You could call someone on a pay phone if you really needed to check in on something but you were free and untethered by phone and internet stem. Itās truly indescribable and Iād trade all my wonderful apps for that magical feeling of being truly independent just soaking in the sun
I was born in the 1980s and the thing I miss the most is the optimism about pretty much everything. The economy? solved. Israel/Palestine? solved. Russia? solved. Technology? Awesome and making our lives better. Yes I l know it wasn’t really true but that is what it felt like.
Some of it was that I was young but the nineties optimism truly ended on September 11 2001.
Second, no internet, no cell phones. We played outside, went home when the street lights came on, had essentially no supervision. Shit was so tight. Now obviously I’m looking back through rose coloured glasses because I also had no adult responsibilities whatsoever. I do remember though things being better economically for most, it never has been the same since ’08
People finished games BEFORE releasing them, and I still like playing them forty years later.
9/11 hadn’t happened yet and people were WAAAAAAAY less racist.
Conspiracy theory was fringe.
‘Twas the before-time, before the housing crash, opioid crisis, and COVID.
No 24-7 news cycle.
No social media. The closest most of us got to the internet was AOL, unless you were a super fucking nerd and hung out on BBSs like BAUD TOWN.
No smartphones.
Everyone on the block knew each other. We had social skills so dating was easy for most people. SOMEBODY would inevitably like you if you were good at something, even if you were shy or awkward. We weren’t so fucking mean to each other. We didn’t bully each other online.
Amazing era for rock, hip hop, r&b, electronic music, indie film, concerts (WITH NO PHONES). Sorry about the bad ska though.
I honestly had a blast as a latchkey kid.
Religious fanatics and spurious “experts” hadn’t ruined parenting or the public school system yet.
Being truly ‘out’. When we left, we were gone. No cell phones. You just had to wait for people to get back. I really miss the ability to ‘dissappear’. Cells are convenient and a life saver in many cases, but no one born after 2000 will ever know the freedom we had before everyone carried mobile phones. Not that we knew it then.
Things being made with better quality. If you spent more it was better. Now you can spend a lot and still just get crappy quality. If you havenāt seen the difference between something stitched well, and with better materialā¦ youād get it
Not having idiots ask stupid questions online. When the internet had a pretty high barrier to entry that meant that if you weren’t reasonably intelligent, you couldn’t use it. Mostly I miss not hurting all the time and having my hair and all my teeth.
Shit itās never quiet anymore. Phones are always stealing your attention, TVs, headphones in ears, cars all playing your playlists or podcastsā¦. That āboringā stillness, or āquietā, of the pre-smartphone era. Being able to form your own thoughts and feelings, not being molded or āinformedā by millions of strangers. Idk how to explain it, but it was a satisfying solitude that disappeared one day after smart phones became ubiquitous
Worrying about the Y2K bug. The feeling that if you left home you were actually unreachable because you didn’t have your phone with you everywhere you went. The feeling that if someone tried to call you and they got a busy signal it was plausible you were on the phone with someone else and not ghosting them. Feeling like not every mega internet company knew everything about you even things you didn’t know about yourself. Most of all feeling like the best was yet to come.
It was more simple, in a way. More time for eachother. Like random convos with people on a train ride. Nowadays everyone only got attention for their phones or wearing headphones. Noone really talks to anyone anymore. I hate it..
It was post Cold War and end of Berlin Wall. USSR and USA were reducing nuclear missile stocks and it seemed like everyone was in the same page about tue impending threat of global warming. It was a time of hope – that the challenges ahead of us were difficult, but not insurmountable. We could do it. We would make it.
But then the US abandoned their Afghanistan allies after they had served their purpose, and left the nation in ruins, culminating in Sep 11 and the beginning of the end.
People of all ages and demographics were generally more social and talkative. No social media meant people had to develop real social skills. Not everyone was friendly, but most were.
90’s malls. Arcades, food courts, bookstores, game stores, toy stores. $20 you could hang out all day.
Newspapers. Actual news and information, good reporting.
Cars, we figured out most of the safety issues, good gas mileage, and not everything looked the same. Trucks didn’t suck.
Before 1997 all singers performed with their own skills. Now most artists are āenhancedā with software like Autotune that pitch corrects for out of tune and off-key vocals. Those fake robot voices, also Autotune.
Studios can now get lower talent people with the look and appearance they want, and fix the vocals later. They can correct the vocals in the studio, and when performing live. Somebody with grade B or C talent can get a great career, even with sub-par talent.
Calling people. Gas below a dollar a gallon. Experiencing the internet for the first time. No cell phones. Being able to take a vacation with zero chance someone from work could possibly reach you. Drugs without fentanyl in them.
Seriously, itās hard to explain how much better things were in some ways, and how much better certain things are now.
Dial up. And the American girl website had some fun games. That, neopets(Ik itās still around, Iām too busy now), and Cartoon Network had some fun games on their websites. I miss those games.
I miss being able to party and have fun without worrying about a fentanyl overdose.
So many of my friends are dead because of that drug and it didnāt use to be a common thing at all. Overdoses were rare compared to what happens today.
Small cars without computers, fish-bowly cars, cars that you could easily see out of and work on, abundance of manual transmission cars, cars with ZERO exras. Also punctuality. The advent of cell phones ruined that imo. You had to show up when and where you said you would. Also nostalgic things like payphones, just because. And no self checkout. Grocery stores with a simple, logical layout and they didn’t move stuff around all the time. Can’t say I miss writing checks at the supermarket though, or using checks and cash in general. Ease of checking in at the airport. TSA stresses me out. They pick up on that, and I think it causes them to be distrustful. Although I know they are there for a good reason and respect them for doing such a stressful job where most people are grumpy and rude.
Being able to completely BS my way through a subject I knew nothing about because no one could fact check in the moment. Also, no one else knew anything about the subject either.
The type of common sense that comes from SOCIALIZING outside of the computer in the air and doing stuff that adds to life experience and all life is at the end of the end is a collection of your experiences this time
The lack of smartphones, great music and music sub-culture. great films, seeing young people outside, having lots of friends, the lack of widespread mental health issues, everything relatively much cheaper, a reasonable expectation of living better than previous generations…
And the big one: being young, with my life ahead of me.
No social media or binge watching. You had to ābe thereā and actually experience shit in real time. Being present. Going to a concert and just getting into the music. Meeting with friends to watch whatever it was on tv to experience it together. It sounds dumb but lining up for a big movie premier. I remember lining up for the Phantom Menace to the last Harry Potter movie to The Dark Knight and everyone just waiting and hanging out and the collective experience. The news just being the news. It was news and mostly facts instead of people telling you what you should feel and what they āthinkā is happening and āhowā you needed to react. Itās all opinion now.
There used to be a reality and now thereās 10 different ones depending on what you feel like believing.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE streaming music services for allowing me to listen to whatever I want whenever I want, but I miss collecting CDs in a big binder, nerding out over the inserts, reading the lyrics, and showing off my collection. It was like a cool way to show off that was both socially acceptable and unique to you as a person.
growing up autistic and lgbt+ and dealing with people (and myself) not understanding either sucked. i thought i was alone in being that way, was alone in general, and that there was something deeply wrong with me.
i guess i miss being able to play outside, go on the swings, or swim around in a ballpit. just being able to have fun, especially in a “childish” way without people thinking you’re some sorta cringy deviant for it.
Im chronically online because I choose to be. Seeing a lot of answers say āinternetā and āI wasnt reachableā is kind of wild to me. You are allowed to put down, silence, or turn off your device. Just because its there doesnt mean you need to use it. Is the internet really so addicting? (Im autistic. Early 30s. Was terminally online at age 10 when we first got a home computer. This is how I connect to other humans – life was silent and lonely before it, so Im greatful. But I can and do put it down when I want to be alone. It seems the opposite for most??? The ārealā world being a physical one, but the internet being an addiction that keeps them from it? I just find it so weird how many people are saying things like they are physically unable to just ignore a notif or silence their phone)
I miss the world before social media. You didn’t want or need to know everything that was going on with your friends and family, and your life wasn’t plastered for everyone to see and judge
The OG Hawaiian Punch and Capri Sun; the way they used to taste. This stuff my kids have to drink now is not like what we had āback in the dayāā¦.
I remember Christmas and toys being just lumps of plastic and wood. A xylophone maybe or drums. The odd doll or teddy. Then suddenly toys had electronics. Every year new things were possible. It was very strange to go from very basic technology such as pre VCR and then have a home computer.
Tvās with sonic clickers to change channel. VCRs with a cabled remote. Then Atari games systems. Calculators. Cordless phones. Nowadays the tech seems more stable but is just the same thing being improved upon. Back then everything was new and mind blowing.
The whole dating culture. It was a simpler time just meeting people through friends, at events and gatherings and just taking it from there. Getting friendly at first, and building on it.
Now it’s all apps with CVS receipt bios containing a life story of trauma from previous relationships, choosing which red flags to accept or ignore, and games upon games with who should text first, what to text and an encyclopedia of meanings upon meanings which all have subtext that can mean at least ten different things
Offline time. Simple communication without technology.
Meet your neighboorhood/school friend by going to their house and ring the bell. Or they’re anyway in the street playing. Hang around until it’s dark, then go home.
When adult: Meet your friend in front of the cinema, then you’ll go for some drinks.
Owning stuff (games, comics, physical stuff). Having to disconnect from the Internet to go outside (unless I wanted an outdoor lan party, which ruled). Going to concerts without seeing phones everywhere.
The lack of cell phones. It felt much nicer to stay in contact with people in person rather than sending an occasional text and not getting together face to face.
Iām a child of the 80s. I miss talking with people about TV shows that aired weekly, especially shows that ran for 20+ episodes a season like ER and DS9.
I miss not having to talk about politics like it defines you.
I miss having nothing to do
I miss a world without social media. Where you could look up to someone and say āI want to be like Mikeā before you had the ability to find out Mike was an egomaniac and a compulsive gambler. You saw someone doing something great you could just want to share that greatness. Social media has ruined our society more thoroughly than war ever has.
No cellphones. Great invention but honestly it’s like having constant surveillance and intrusion. It’s a necessity now unfortunately. There is also cellphone addiction which many many people suffer from myself included.
Only time I can stay off my phone is if I am sleeping. It’s 3am and I am on my phone.
Being offline. I know I could still be now as a choice, but realistically you need your phone nearby at all times, which means you are online. It’s so unhealthy.
I miss seeing people just sitting around and talking. Now if there’s more than 2 minutes if downtime you see people staring at a screen almost instinctively.
Comments
Gas prices.
Not having bills to pay.
No handheld computers
Pop Music
Everything.
Limited access to news, social media and the answer to anything at your fingertips.
Video games that didn’t require internet connection and a subscription to play. You just bought it, you put it in the computer, and it was yours! Forever!
Hope for the future.
cheap gas. no cellphones. no social media. life feeling slower. republicans that had manners despite being evil.
No mysterious subscription charges on my bank accounts
It not being called the nineteen hundreds
There was some weird gas war and gas was $0.30/l for a brief time. That was wild.
I miss the idea that the year 2000 will usher in a never ending crescendo of technological wonders. I mean, it did. But they don’t feel as wonderous as I thought they would.
From before 1996 or so? I miss the pre-internet academic world. That might sound odd, since the internet has given us all so muchā¦ but it has taken away just as much, if not more.
There was joy and satisfaction in, say, doing research by spending hours reading microfiche or old books, taking notes longhand, then synthesizing your own ideas. I miss that.
Being able to disconnect from everything when you were home. When you were home you were home with only whoever you lived with
wtf donāt call it that
When candy and snacks were made with better-tasting ingredients.
Having to go out and get stuff. Going to the library to get info. Pulling out a monster phone book. Going to the video store. Even the trip to the little room in the back of the video store was somewhat exciting! Just simple things in your daily routine that required you to go out and move around. And definitely no social media! I liked the fact that you had to get to know a person before you got invited over to their house and eventually showed you their photo albums. Now, you can know everything you want about a person by just searching Facebook and Google. I miss the anonymity you had. You could walk around most places and not wonder who was looking at you. Sure many businesses had cameras but they weren’t as ubiquitous as they are today. Definitely miss life before social media and cell phones took over.
Quite frankly itās amazing any of us survived Y2K
Playing super and n64, my friends had to come over to play together. My friends used to come over at 9 am sharp every summer morning from 1999 to 2004, we would play outside for 2 to 3 hours as well. My single mother was at work too, she trusted us to be alone. My older sister was traveling at that time.
Good TV, Movies, and music. Less of the mental illness being a personality.
Air travel before the TSA. Nobody made you take your shoes off or dump out your water bottle (or any other liquids you might be carrying on). You could carry a pocketknife on a plane without it being confiscated, as long as the blade was no longer than the width of your palm. People without tickets could go through the security checkpoint to see people off at the gate, or meet them as they got off the plane.
The optimism. The Cold War was over. The economy seemed strong. The world was inevitably going to move in the direction of liberal democracies where disputed were handled peacefully. It was the end of history.
Cartridge in my kneesĀ
No internet. I miss that.
Gen X was a distinct group from Baby Boomers. I donāt know when we started getting lumped in with them, but I wish it would stop.
You didnāt feel like Big Brother was watching all the time. Actually getting together with friends in person.
Ford Model T. Those times were crraaaaazzzzyyyy
The near absence of social media, influencers and ad-bombing. The freedom to be a kid roaming free till the street lights come on. Growing up with a plethora of hobbies and interests that weren’t centred around having access to internet. Not being reachable 24/7. The near constant feeling of impending doom.
I suppose ignorance was indeed bliss…
the lack of social media. a booming economy and then……multiple economic collapses starting in 2001 and returning every 8-13 years
Exciting phone calls on a landline. We talked to people. For long times.
It honestly was better when you just left for the day and went to do things, real things and activities. You could call someone on a pay phone if you really needed to check in on something but you were free and untethered by phone and internet stem. Itās truly indescribable and Iād trade all my wonderful apps for that magical feeling of being truly independent just soaking in the sun
Good Cartoon Network shows and not just TTG 24/7
I was born in the 1980s and the thing I miss the most is the optimism about pretty much everything. The economy? solved. Israel/Palestine? solved. Russia? solved. Technology? Awesome and making our lives better. Yes I l know it wasn’t really true but that is what it felt like.
Some of it was that I was young but the nineties optimism truly ended on September 11 2001.
Ok first let’s cool it on the “1900’s”.
Second, no internet, no cell phones. We played outside, went home when the street lights came on, had essentially no supervision. Shit was so tight. Now obviously I’m looking back through rose coloured glasses because I also had no adult responsibilities whatsoever. I do remember though things being better economically for most, it never has been the same since ’08
People finished games BEFORE releasing them, and I still like playing them forty years later.
9/11 hadn’t happened yet and people were WAAAAAAAY less racist.
Conspiracy theory was fringe.
‘Twas the before-time, before the housing crash, opioid crisis, and COVID.
No 24-7 news cycle.
No social media. The closest most of us got to the internet was AOL, unless you were a super fucking nerd and hung out on BBSs like BAUD TOWN.
No smartphones.
Everyone on the block knew each other. We had social skills so dating was easy for most people. SOMEBODY would inevitably like you if you were good at something, even if you were shy or awkward. We weren’t so fucking mean to each other. We didn’t bully each other online.
Amazing era for rock, hip hop, r&b, electronic music, indie film, concerts (WITH NO PHONES). Sorry about the bad ska though.
I honestly had a blast as a latchkey kid.
Religious fanatics and spurious “experts” hadn’t ruined parenting or the public school system yet.
No active shooter drills.
I didn’t have to know who Elon Musk was.
Prime Tim Burton.
Being truly ‘out’. When we left, we were gone. No cell phones. You just had to wait for people to get back. I really miss the ability to ‘dissappear’. Cells are convenient and a life saver in many cases, but no one born after 2000 will ever know the freedom we had before everyone carried mobile phones. Not that we knew it then.
Shut up. I’m not old.
The internet.
Things being made with better quality. If you spent more it was better. Now you can spend a lot and still just get crappy quality. If you havenāt seen the difference between something stitched well, and with better materialā¦ youād get it
Not having idiots ask stupid questions online. When the internet had a pretty high barrier to entry that meant that if you weren’t reasonably intelligent, you couldn’t use it. Mostly I miss not hurting all the time and having my hair and all my teeth.
I miss when people didn’t fucking call it that.
Less traffic .
Played out answer but itās really this:
Ā The quiet. Ambient sound.
Shit itās never quiet anymore. Phones are always stealing your attention, TVs, headphones in ears, cars all playing your playlists or podcastsā¦. That āboringā stillness, or āquietā, of the pre-smartphone era. Being able to form your own thoughts and feelings, not being molded or āinformedā by millions of strangers. Idk how to explain it, but it was a satisfying solitude that disappeared one day after smart phones became ubiquitous
Worrying about the Y2K bug. The feeling that if you left home you were actually unreachable because you didn’t have your phone with you everywhere you went. The feeling that if someone tried to call you and they got a busy signal it was plausible you were on the phone with someone else and not ghosting them. Feeling like not every mega internet company knew everything about you even things you didn’t know about yourself. Most of all feeling like the best was yet to come.
Being able to exist without a constant internet connection. š
Picking up my girlfriend and going to the movies and being cut-off from everything else while doing it.
Arcades and roller rinks.
The dollar menu (or the equivalent)
Being able to play outside and just being able to be a kid without worries.
It was more simple, in a way. More time for eachother. Like random convos with people on a train ride. Nowadays everyone only got attention for their phones or wearing headphones. Noone really talks to anyone anymore. I hate it..
Not the nineteen hundreds…I wasn’t feeling *that* old until just now….
Commander Keen
It was post Cold War and end of Berlin Wall. USSR and USA were reducing nuclear missile stocks and it seemed like everyone was in the same page about tue impending threat of global warming. It was a time of hope – that the challenges ahead of us were difficult, but not insurmountable. We could do it. We would make it.
But then the US abandoned their Afghanistan allies after they had served their purpose, and left the nation in ruins, culminating in Sep 11 and the beginning of the end.
People of all ages and demographics were generally more social and talkative. No social media meant people had to develop real social skills. Not everyone was friendly, but most were.
I miss the feeling of hope and possibility.
90’s malls. Arcades, food courts, bookstores, game stores, toy stores. $20 you could hang out all day.
Newspapers. Actual news and information, good reporting.
Cars, we figured out most of the safety issues, good gas mileage, and not everything looked the same. Trucks didn’t suck.
Living without phones
Being young
Everything
Typewriters. Long pauses. Contemplative silence. Getting lost in a book.
I miss it not being called “the nineteen hundreds”!!!!!
Nobody called it that. We called it “The 20th Century”.
Democracy
Freedom and anonymity
Life just felt a lot simpler.
There not being a bunch of extreme ideological weirdos demanding that all of the country be bent to their whim.
Before 1997 all singers performed with their own skills. Now most artists are āenhancedā with software like Autotune that pitch corrects for out of tune and off-key vocals. Those fake robot voices, also Autotune.
Studios can now get lower talent people with the look and appearance they want, and fix the vocals later. They can correct the vocals in the studio, and when performing live. Somebody with grade B or C talent can get a great career, even with sub-par talent.
Pre social media and pre smart phone. Also I could buy a comic, chocolate bar and soft drink for a pound.
First of all, fuck you for calling it ‘the nineteen hundreds’.
You could act like a jackass because there was no video.
Being unavailable.
Every single person has a smartphone and they all use it everyday, all day. You’re expected to answer a call, email, or text wherever you are.
In the 90’s, there was just a home phone, and sending letters. If you left the house you were unreachable.
I miss that level of freedom from the expectations of others.
Calling people. Gas below a dollar a gallon. Experiencing the internet for the first time. No cell phones. Being able to take a vacation with zero chance someone from work could possibly reach you. Drugs without fentanyl in them.
Seriously, itās hard to explain how much better things were in some ways, and how much better certain things are now.
I miss EVERYTHING about the 90ās. Literally life was just better. I wanna go backā¦ the world is literally a GD dumpster fire now and it sucks.
Dial up. And the American girl website had some fun games. That, neopets(Ik itās still around, Iām too busy now), and Cartoon Network had some fun games on their websites. I miss those games.
OP just got on this app and chose violence
I was born in 1996 and you make me feel old
females knwoing how to cook, and not just mcdonalds, charge they phone, twerk, be bisexual, eat hot chip , and lie.
I miss being able to party and have fun without worrying about a fentanyl overdose.
So many of my friends are dead because of that drug and it didnāt use to be a common thing at all. Overdoses were rare compared to what happens today.
These rizz kids donāt even know where to put 1ās and 0ās talking about the 1900s lol
Fascism was dead. I miss that.
Small cars without computers, fish-bowly cars, cars that you could easily see out of and work on, abundance of manual transmission cars, cars with ZERO exras. Also punctuality. The advent of cell phones ruined that imo. You had to show up when and where you said you would. Also nostalgic things like payphones, just because. And no self checkout. Grocery stores with a simple, logical layout and they didn’t move stuff around all the time. Can’t say I miss writing checks at the supermarket though, or using checks and cash in general. Ease of checking in at the airport. TSA stresses me out. They pick up on that, and I think it causes them to be distrustful. Although I know they are there for a good reason and respect them for doing such a stressful job where most people are grumpy and rude.
my gameboy
Being able to completely BS my way through a subject I knew nothing about because no one could fact check in the moment. Also, no one else knew anything about the subject either.
Born in 1997 and I miss not being cognizant, not paying bills, not having a fully formed brain, not paying bills, not being aware, not paying bills
Dinosaurs cant talk, cmon man, do better
being a kid with no restrictions. 4 yrs old stomping the terra. not a single fuk to give. absolute freedom
When you had to log onto the internet, like you visiting a store or mall, rather than it being a constant invasive presence.
No one expected you to be reachable 24/7
The most important thing about the 1900s other than your grandma being born is nirvana point blank periodĀ
My best friends that passed away during those years.
Lost a lot of real ones.
Clint Eastwood scowl
My youth
You actually owned stuff, not just a subscription.
Way better music and everyone just seemed so much happier.
“I’m gonna party like it’s 1999!”
1899
We werenāt all terminally online.
Affordable housing.
Being a kid playing outside with all the other neighborhood kids.
Being able to be not found
The type of common sense that comes from SOCIALIZING outside of the computer in the air and doing stuff that adds to life experience and all life is at the end of the end is a collection of your experiences this time
Going to the music shop to buy a cassette
The prices
Get out.
My grandmother was born in 1899. She passed in 1992. Talk to me about age. I was born in the 50s and feel the same as I did 40 years ago.
The VHS rewinder my parents has that was shaped like a black muscle car
Mattresses that weren’t made of petroleum based foam rubber.
Clothes made of fabric rather than the thin, see-through stuff that smells like dye vats.
Democracy.
The lack of smartphones, great music and music sub-culture. great films, seeing young people outside, having lots of friends, the lack of widespread mental health issues, everything relatively much cheaper, a reasonable expectation of living better than previous generations…
And the big one: being young, with my life ahead of me.
Being the last generation with non digital baby photos.
Diversity. There were more Black folks in pop culture than there are today. I grew up watching Black sitcoms and they left a huge impact on me.
Things were getting a bit too progressive and then it was taken away because without some vendetta what would the politicians do and talk about
Republicans being shitty but at least they were not trying to establish an authoritarian state
Club Nintendo š¢ Kids today will never experience this magic of Nintendo, it was so cool.
No social media or binge watching. You had to ābe thereā and actually experience shit in real time. Being present. Going to a concert and just getting into the music. Meeting with friends to watch whatever it was on tv to experience it together. It sounds dumb but lining up for a big movie premier. I remember lining up for the Phantom Menace to the last Harry Potter movie to The Dark Knight and everyone just waiting and hanging out and the collective experience. The news just being the news. It was news and mostly facts instead of people telling you what you should feel and what they āthinkā is happening and āhowā you needed to react. Itās all opinion now.
There used to be a reality and now thereās 10 different ones depending on what you feel like believing.
Hope?
In the 90ās we thought the future was bright and we tempered that with dystopian fiction that showed us worlds that would never come to pass.
Now we are rushing into a dystopia, and hope punk is a thing where people try to find some solace in writing about how the world could be.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE streaming music services for allowing me to listen to whatever I want whenever I want, but I miss collecting CDs in a big binder, nerding out over the inserts, reading the lyrics, and showing off my collection. It was like a cool way to show off that was both socially acceptable and unique to you as a person.
Snow and real winter. We used to have that every year. Now (middle Germany) we have mild winters with no snow. Just a lot of rain
honestly? nothing really comes to mind.
growing up autistic and lgbt+ and dealing with people (and myself) not understanding either sucked. i thought i was alone in being that way, was alone in general, and that there was something deeply wrong with me.
i guess i miss being able to play outside, go on the swings, or swim around in a ballpit. just being able to have fun, especially in a “childish” way without people thinking you’re some sorta cringy deviant for it.
Im chronically online because I choose to be. Seeing a lot of answers say āinternetā and āI wasnt reachableā is kind of wild to me. You are allowed to put down, silence, or turn off your device. Just because its there doesnt mean you need to use it. Is the internet really so addicting? (Im autistic. Early 30s. Was terminally online at age 10 when we first got a home computer. This is how I connect to other humans – life was silent and lonely before it, so Im greatful. But I can and do put it down when I want to be alone. It seems the opposite for most??? The ārealā world being a physical one, but the internet being an addiction that keeps them from it? I just find it so weird how many people are saying things like they are physically unable to just ignore a notif or silence their phone)
The early days of the internet when it was kind of weird and not dominated by massive corporations.
I miss the double decker taco and the chili cheese burrito at Taco Bell..
In English, we call that the 20th century.
Nineteen-hundreds refers to the years 1900-1909, the “1900s”.
For example, 1962 is in the nineteen-sixties. 1906 is in the nineteen-hundreds.
This may differ in OP’s native tongue.
I miss the world before social media. You didn’t want or need to know everything that was going on with your friends and family, and your life wasn’t plastered for everyone to see and judge
The OG Hawaiian Punch and Capri Sun; the way they used to taste. This stuff my kids have to drink now is not like what we had āback in the dayāā¦.
we hadn’t gone full oligarch quite yet.
I remember Christmas and toys being just lumps of plastic and wood. A xylophone maybe or drums. The odd doll or teddy. Then suddenly toys had electronics. Every year new things were possible. It was very strange to go from very basic technology such as pre VCR and then have a home computer.
Tvās with sonic clickers to change channel. VCRs with a cabled remote. Then Atari games systems. Calculators. Cordless phones. Nowadays the tech seems more stable but is just the same thing being improved upon. Back then everything was new and mind blowing.
I remember a sense of smallness, thatās it. The world wasnāt as exposed as it is now, and you couldnāt just google shit.
It was fun.
the music, the freedom, the friends
You mean the 20th century?
The whole dating culture. It was a simpler time just meeting people through friends, at events and gatherings and just taking it from there. Getting friendly at first, and building on it.
Now it’s all apps with CVS receipt bios containing a life story of trauma from previous relationships, choosing which red flags to accept or ignore, and games upon games with who should text first, what to text and an encyclopedia of meanings upon meanings which all have subtext that can mean at least ten different things
not being expected to be reachable at all times. social media not being so prevalent. not everything needing a fucking app. lot of things.
Offline time. Simple communication without technology.
Meet your neighboorhood/school friend by going to their house and ring the bell. Or they’re anyway in the street playing. Hang around until it’s dark, then go home.
When adult: Meet your friend in front of the cinema, then you’ll go for some drinks.
Owning stuff (games, comics, physical stuff). Having to disconnect from the Internet to go outside (unless I wanted an outdoor lan party, which ruled). Going to concerts without seeing phones everywhere.
My parents still loved each other
Pokemon and simpler timesĀ
The lack of cell phones. It felt much nicer to stay in contact with people in person rather than sending an occasional text and not getting together face to face.
Yea I miss 1998-1999.. I saw an eclipse, I got my first bootleg console, I learned to play Monopoly and I had no responsibilities whatsoever!
Iām a child of the 80s. I miss talking with people about TV shows that aired weekly, especially shows that ran for 20+ episodes a season like ER and DS9.
I miss not having to talk about politics like it defines you.
I miss having nothing to do
I miss a world without social media. Where you could look up to someone and say āI want to be like Mikeā before you had the ability to find out Mike was an egomaniac and a compulsive gambler. You saw someone doing something great you could just want to share that greatness. Social media has ruined our society more thoroughly than war ever has.
Being genuinely excited and happy to browse movies at the video store, to pick what youāll rent for the weekendās entertainment
No cellphones. Great invention but honestly it’s like having constant surveillance and intrusion. It’s a necessity now unfortunately. There is also cellphone addiction which many many people suffer from myself included.
Only time I can stay off my phone is if I am sleeping. It’s 3am and I am on my phone.
Being offline. I know I could still be now as a choice, but realistically you need your phone nearby at all times, which means you are online. It’s so unhealthy.
When I was a child, there were loads of people around who loved through ww2. You could ask them about it, but now not so much
No Internet,
No mobile phones,
More connection.
Playable games.
Affordable stuff.
Enjoying a concert without seeing a sea of cell phone cameras in front of me
I miss seeing people just sitting around and talking. Now if there’s more than 2 minutes if downtime you see people staring at a screen almost instinctively.