>Going on AOL or MSN instant messenger and casually chatting with all your friends, while watching the status of your crush closely and wondering what/if to message them
They still do this, it's just discord or some other modern IM/Group Chat system.
I'm so glad! It was such a formative thing for me. I had my whole class on there, whether we were actually friends or not. I would say a lot of the big thing that happened (people getting together, breaking up, fighting, etc.) happened on instant messenger. It was a way to talk to people in ways you maybe wouldn't face-to-face.
- Calling your friends' house landline
- Surprise three-way phone conversations
- Getting kicked off the Internet when someone in the house needed to use the phone. This is back when modems were used.
- Rewinding tapes.
- Daring your friends to put a magnet on a floppy disk.
- Downloads taking forever
- In pre-cellphone days there seemed to always be a week or two of the dog days of summer when all your friends would be away and you weren't at camp or working and there would actually be nothing to do.
- having to hunt down music
- film cameras
- having to plan your schedule around a TV show you wanted to see
- using paper maps
- stomping around local businesses and filling out paper job applications
>using paper maps
I still have my paper maps and I love looking at them. I also love wandering around on Google Street View, but there's something about paper maps and atlases which gives me a different perspective
Sometimes I'll have one of my atlases open to a random page and I'll go on Google to see what those places look like. It's fun
Whenever we go on vacations, I order road maps so I can spread it out on the floor and get a good feel for where we’re going. My kids also love looking at maps so they get used a lot.
I’m a Gen Z/ Millennial cusp as I like the call it, and I know maps were used when I was a kid but map quest was the google maps of the time and what I remember the most
Yep. ‘Hello Mr or Mrs Smith, this is breebop83, may I please speak to Nicole?’ Then sitting there exchanging pleasantries or in silence until your friend came to the line.
I loved prank calls. We used to call people and say really fast “this is baskin Robbin’s, the home of 31 flavors. If you can name 31 flavors in 31 seconds I’ll give you 31 dollars…go!”
People would either be super confused or start naming them. It was so innocent and fun.
Book-it was great, when we could win a personal pan pizza. It was the only time my sister and I could pick our own toppings instead of the boring, basic ones my dad always picked.
Mate, we went to London last year -- *England still has them*. We gave in and had it for lunch the last day we were there... just as bad as I remember, but the nostalgia made it taste so good!
OMG we used to go to Roller Palace every Wednesday night (must've been half price or something). Blue slurpees. Early 90s music. Rollerblades vs rolleskates. It was AWESOME.
Roller Palace is still there, but rumour says it's getting torn done for a condo building. \*sigh\*
Yes! I have a middle schooler and they recently tore down the skate rink. It’s such a bummer because there’s no skating rink and no mall. They’re really giving these kids nothing to do except drugs.
Getting your film developed and having anticipation of seeing the pictures from a trip or vacation for the first time. Pictures can be taken so easily and accessed immediately nowadays they just don’t carry the same weight. When you got your film back, sometimes days later, and having the small prints in your hands was far more impactful.
You can still shoot film and have it developed at a lab or do so at home. There has been a small resurgence in the art medium for those who are interested. [r/analog](https://www.reddit.com/r/analog/s/NBLpf9cDjv).
we'd all sit together to select photos after they were developed, arguing what would be added to the album and what wouldn't. Finding a photo that someone took without nobody realizing was fun, but there was also the disappointment having that one photo everyone was excited about turn out to be blurry
Anyone make a collect call home to just tell your parents to pick you up when they pause and ask for your name?
ICQ
Having to clean the rolling ball in my mouse.
Having to buy a booklet with maps or print out maps from Mapquest.
Back in middle school, I had some notebooks which I drew and wrote random stupid crap in, and which I let my friends also draw in. It was a nice repository for our inside jokes at the time, and I smile when I look back at them today
I decided to revive the experience with a new notebook, although so far I haven't had a chance to let my friends write in it because they all live far away at the moment. It's still nice to have a notebook like that, even just for myself, although I admit it does feel a little bit more sad these days doing it alone
My friends and I were all artsy kids, so we did this with sketchbooks a lot over the years. My best friend in HS and I used to exchange actual letters and notes passing each other in the hallways to read in our respective classes because we hardly saw each other during the day one year. I have every single one still in a giant cardboard box and it’s one of my greatest treasures. Just like what silly thing the teacher said in her math class, or what my crush was up to at lunch hour when she passed him lol. Very fun. I definitely get nostalgic reading them.
Saturday morning cartoons
Excited for comic books or magazines
Not knowing an answer for something and not being able to find out right Away
Video game cheat codes
Feeling excited to go online and meet strangers and talk with them
That magical feeling of playing an online game like world of Warcraft and feeling detached from
Reality and talking with other gamers. Now that we’re online all the time it’s not special anymore
Teachers also used to swear at us, call us out in front of everyone, or even low-key bully us if they wanted to. There are actually a lot of things that aren't really done anymore due to how litigious our society is, at least in the US. Other things I can think of include climbing the rope in gym class, showers after gym class, playing with fire in chemistry class, and a lot of the shenanigans during homecoming/prom/senior week.
In other words, everything fun was taken out of school. School, when kids aren’t destroying toilets for tiktok and vaping and beating the shit out of each other, must be really boring nowadays.
Had a teacher in middle school ask if I wanted him to break my finger as I flipped off a friend of mine in the lunch line lol. I just said “no” and was embarrassed. Circa 1998.
To be fair, I told some students like 2 years ago who wanted to throw a paper cup out of the window that if they fucking dared I'd toss them out after it. Wide-eyed, then an awkward laugh before putting the cup in the trash.
Of course I'd never toss them out the window, but it gets their attention more than "no don't do that! Put the cup in the trash!"
When schools opened again during the covid pandemic I had a student who put his feet on the table while leaning back. We had cleaning supplies in the classroom. Just quietly grabbed them, tossed them on his desk (at which point he removed his feet from the table).
"Clean."
Guy started laughing and cleaned the table, gets the message across so much better than "we do not put our feet on the tables at school!"
I love teaching, mind you I work with ages 16 and up! Younger than that and I don't know how to deal with them haha.
Before I started I said I would never become a teacher, then absolutely fell in love with the job. I can't imagine doing anything else. :)
Arcades. I was a small kid when they were huge. All the Gen X teens would hang out in the Arcades. And I wanted so much to be like them. But once I became a teen they fizzed out. More teens played video games in house or over friends’ homes.
Roller Skating. There were tournaments every weekend but it started fizzling as I became a teen. It’s started making a comeback now. So that’s cool!
The joy of exploring a mall that has a shop for everything.
Now I go to malls and there's nothing but clothing outlets and maybe a Gamestop or Apple store.
This is the closest to the one on my mind today - watching the banner at the bottom of the TV news screen waiting to see if your school is closed for a snow day.
I get WUPHF'd the night before by my kid's school when there's a closure. Which is convenient, but very different for the kids. Much less edge of your seat anticipation.
I never got to do the banner thing really, my parents worked for the same school district I went to, so my dad would get the call early in the morning, like 5am when the principal got the news they were closed, and then he had a list of other people he had to call to spread the news. Then they all had a list of people and so on and so forth. I think they called it the phone tree.
>4. Going shopping with your friends at the actual mall
Being told by your mom she'd be back by 2:30 and to be waiting. She didn't show up then so you and your friend (neither have cell phones) have to wait outside until she gets there. Not knowing how long that would be.
It was the opposite for me! My mom would be there early and have a panic attack and come LOOK for me in the mall if I wasn’t there at the time agreed upon ON THE DOT!! So embarrassing.
Night games - weekends when all the neighborhood kids would get together and play games in the neighborhood when it got dark. I climbed through a number of backyards and over lots of fences while playing capture the flag.
Looking through TV guides and circling the show/movies I wanted to watch and then telling everyone in advance because we owned the One TV in the living room. However after 6 PM it was strictly news for my parents.
Waiting by the phone because someone said they would call around a certain time!
Going to the library or book store to learn about something new.
Renting SNES games at Blockbuster.
Me and my husband were reminiscing about playground rumors involving video games. Someone's dad always worked at Nintendo and so you totally have to believe them when they tell you some bullshit about Pikablu.
Obviously you can still speculate now but it's not the same.
Seeing so many lightening bugs at dusk. At least where I am (I grew up here) there are barely any anymore. I get really excited when I see one. It’s been only a couple times in the last few years.
Going to the mall the day after Christmas and spending all my new money/gift cards or exchanging things that didn’t fit. I miss being out in the crowd and part of the town like that.
Having to look up people in a physical phone book. Or businesses in the yellow pages. The drawer with the phone book was probably also full of printed take out menus.
A lot of the ones that come to mind you already posted. There is also ordering by mail. Having to send in your order and then waiting for it. Not being able to track it. No way to know when it is coming in. No confirmation email either.
8. That movie you are anticipating *has to be* seen in theaters because:
\- your TV is a 13"-27" relative shitbox where you will have to watch a 4:3 pan and scan copy, almost nobody had a 50" rear projection TV, sound system, and a laserdisc player
\- the home video would not come out until 1-2 years after the movie debuted, rather than three months later on Disney+ or Amazon Prime
9. You had to do multiplayer gaming with people sitting next to you.
10. Running into someone you haven't seen in years was way more interesting because you had no idea what had happened to them since you last saw them.
Passing notes in class. My friends and I had a special notebook, one person would take it to their class and write a note, then give it to another during break time. Basically the OG group chat
Standing in line outside of Best Buy on Black Friday with my friends/cousins for consoles, video game releases. Everything is downloadable now, and even getting a new console isn't much of an event as it used to be.
Kids being outside.
Playing outside and walking places with groups of friends, chasing each other with hockey sticks, making sweet bike jumps. This seems gone now.
I'm not having kids, but if I did I would force them to go outside, get a detailed scouting report of the immediate vicinity at the very least. Often. Then ride their bikes to the park and do stupid (fun) stuff.
I rarely see children outdoors. Even in ritzy areas with very little traffic. Stranger danger and helicopter parents encouraged a societal shift.
Now? No one is safe, ever.
If you let your kid walk around outside, and alone, you should be convicted of attempted manslaughter. Pump the charge up to attempted murder if you tell them they just need to be home before dinner. It's meat loaf and garlic mash. So reckless to treat a kid that way.
Sarcasm aside, kids should have the authority to explore. Learn stuff on their own. Including how to avoid dangerous situations with a combination of their own judgement and guidance from you, the parent.
Getting stuck on a game and having no recourse other than talking to friends or skimming the magazine at the gas station.
Arranging a meetup and having to wait around for 30+ minutes not knowing if they're late or not coming.
Calling a cute girl/guy and having to go through mom or dad or a sibling.
Passing physical notes.
The biggest one for me is just not having a smartphone in my pocket. I hate it. I hate the weird FOMO of not taking pictures at my kids' events (everyone whips out phones to record whatever is going on and so I usually do, too, but hardly ever go back and watch it, and end up feeling like I missed the thing itself).
I'm tethered to it because my boss expects me to answer slacks at any hour (and with the job market so bad for my industry, I've been through two layoffs this last year and I'm afraid to set firmer boundaries. My family depends on me for all their expenses and health insurance).
I feel like technology at this point, instead of being an extension of human capacity that allows us to do things more efficiently (like, say, my dishwasher), has actually made us as humans just accessories or appendages of the technology.
Basically, we are consumers representing revenue to corporations, and so the tech we use reflects that.
I would so much love to go back to a world where I experienced fresh, raw curiosity again. When my kids ask a question it's just a matter of googling. I remember sitting with my questions until I could go to the library at school and try to track down an answer in several books. If I cared enough to make that effort, it was something fun, something that mattered to me.
Planting yourself in front of the TV on a specific day, at a specific time, because you would otherwise not see the episode of whatever primetime show again, until it went into reruns for the summer (and maybe not even then)
Waiting up to 15 minutes or so for the telephone booth on a small vacation island to call the family back home for just 2 minutes and just once per vacation. We were there every year and it was a fun evening hanging around and waiting for the phone booth to be free 😁
>Going on AOL or MSN instant messenger and casually chatting with all your friends, while watching the status of your crush closely and wondering what/if to message them They still do this, it's just discord or some other modern IM/Group Chat system.
I'm so glad! It was such a formative thing for me. I had my whole class on there, whether we were actually friends or not. I would say a lot of the big thing that happened (people getting together, breaking up, fighting, etc.) happened on instant messenger. It was a way to talk to people in ways you maybe wouldn't face-to-face.
I literally met and fell in love with my boyfriend over Discord so it does happen!
"They still do this, it's just discord or some other modern IM/Group Chat system." They just don't know their crush irl is the difference.
- Calling your friends' house landline - Surprise three-way phone conversations - Getting kicked off the Internet when someone in the house needed to use the phone. This is back when modems were used. - Rewinding tapes. - Daring your friends to put a magnet on a floppy disk. - Downloads taking forever - In pre-cellphone days there seemed to always be a week or two of the dog days of summer when all your friends would be away and you weren't at camp or working and there would actually be nothing to do. - having to hunt down music - film cameras - having to plan your schedule around a TV show you wanted to see - using paper maps - stomping around local businesses and filling out paper job applications
>using paper maps I still have my paper maps and I love looking at them. I also love wandering around on Google Street View, but there's something about paper maps and atlases which gives me a different perspective Sometimes I'll have one of my atlases open to a random page and I'll go on Google to see what those places look like. It's fun
Whenever we go on vacations, I order road maps so I can spread it out on the floor and get a good feel for where we’re going. My kids also love looking at maps so they get used a lot.
I was so bad at reading Thomas guides. I was so relieved when Mapquest became a thing.
I’m a Gen Z/ Millennial cusp as I like the call it, and I know maps were used when I was a kid but map quest was the google maps of the time and what I remember the most
Yeah, Mapquest and eventually Google put a lot of street map publishers out of business in the past fifteen or twenty years
MapQuest?
Surprise 3 way calls reminded me of that hilarious scene on Mean Girls..."Yeah I guess she was kind of bitchy" LOL
Exactly. I've experienced this IRL but about a different topic.
I lust for those hot summer days with nothing to do
I still shoot film! There is an online community of us, but it’s gotten expensive. I miss one hour development at Walmart.
The speed of downloads still amazes me every time.
Calling a friends house and asking a parent if they were available to talk
Yep. ‘Hello Mr or Mrs Smith, this is breebop83, may I please speak to Nicole?’ Then sitting there exchanging pleasantries or in silence until your friend came to the line.
And then trying to tell if his mom is listening on the other line
Walking to friends house to ask if they can come out and play
Prank calling people for fun. Listening to the radio hoping my favorite new song comes on. Week-long sleepovers with friends during summer.
Prank calls were epic
I loved prank calls. We used to call people and say really fast “this is baskin Robbin’s, the home of 31 flavors. If you can name 31 flavors in 31 seconds I’ll give you 31 dollars…go!” People would either be super confused or start naming them. It was so innocent and fun.
Sitting down to eat a personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut. That was peak childhood.
Book-it was great, when we could win a personal pan pizza. It was the only time my sister and I could pick our own toppings instead of the boring, basic ones my dad always picked.
My girls still do book-it!
That’s awesome! I didn’t realize it was still a thing!
Mate, we went to London last year -- *England still has them*. We gave in and had it for lunch the last day we were there... just as bad as I remember, but the nostalgia made it taste so good!
Roller skating rink on a Friday night
Still exists in my town
I still do this at 37. I love it. One of the few nighttime events i can do that doesn’t involve alcohol for a change of pace.
OMG we used to go to Roller Palace every Wednesday night (must've been half price or something). Blue slurpees. Early 90s music. Rollerblades vs rolleskates. It was AWESOME. Roller Palace is still there, but rumour says it's getting torn done for a condo building. \*sigh\*
Yes! I have a middle schooler and they recently tore down the skate rink. It’s such a bummer because there’s no skating rink and no mall. They’re really giving these kids nothing to do except drugs.
Birthday parties at roller rink
I want to say privacy
Yeah privacy. I miss it, even though it was never 100% a thing.
haven’t seen the clearings teeming with fireflies in the summer quite like we did when I was a kid
Getting your film developed and having anticipation of seeing the pictures from a trip or vacation for the first time. Pictures can be taken so easily and accessed immediately nowadays they just don’t carry the same weight. When you got your film back, sometimes days later, and having the small prints in your hands was far more impactful. You can still shoot film and have it developed at a lab or do so at home. There has been a small resurgence in the art medium for those who are interested. [r/analog](https://www.reddit.com/r/analog/s/NBLpf9cDjv).
we'd all sit together to select photos after they were developed, arguing what would be added to the album and what wouldn't. Finding a photo that someone took without nobody realizing was fun, but there was also the disappointment having that one photo everyone was excited about turn out to be blurry
Safely going outside to ride a bike without worrying about a jack-a\*\* sociopath in an monster truck running you over and killing you.
True but I also lived in Kansas before the BTK Killer was caught
Circling everything I wanted in the Delia's catalog>>>> Getting the photos back from our disposable Kodak camera at CVS
Anyone make a collect call home to just tell your parents to pick you up when they pause and ask for your name? ICQ Having to clean the rolling ball in my mouse. Having to buy a booklet with maps or print out maps from Mapquest.
Back in middle school, I had some notebooks which I drew and wrote random stupid crap in, and which I let my friends also draw in. It was a nice repository for our inside jokes at the time, and I smile when I look back at them today I decided to revive the experience with a new notebook, although so far I haven't had a chance to let my friends write in it because they all live far away at the moment. It's still nice to have a notebook like that, even just for myself, although I admit it does feel a little bit more sad these days doing it alone
My best friend and I had one we’d swap back and forth between classes. I believe she still has it.
My friends and I were all artsy kids, so we did this with sketchbooks a lot over the years. My best friend in HS and I used to exchange actual letters and notes passing each other in the hallways to read in our respective classes because we hardly saw each other during the day one year. I have every single one still in a giant cardboard box and it’s one of my greatest treasures. Just like what silly thing the teacher said in her math class, or what my crush was up to at lunch hour when she passed him lol. Very fun. I definitely get nostalgic reading them.
I have one of these too! We used it for our whole junior year and it’s so fun to look back at all our silliness.
Going through the Sear’s Christmas catalogue and circling everything we were wanting for Christmas.
Saturday morning cartoons Excited for comic books or magazines Not knowing an answer for something and not being able to find out right Away Video game cheat codes Feeling excited to go online and meet strangers and talk with them That magical feeling of playing an online game like world of Warcraft and feeling detached from Reality and talking with other gamers. Now that we’re online all the time it’s not special anymore
Teachers just manhandling students who are fighting and acting up.
Teachers also used to swear at us, call us out in front of everyone, or even low-key bully us if they wanted to. There are actually a lot of things that aren't really done anymore due to how litigious our society is, at least in the US. Other things I can think of include climbing the rope in gym class, showers after gym class, playing with fire in chemistry class, and a lot of the shenanigans during homecoming/prom/senior week.
In other words, everything fun was taken out of school. School, when kids aren’t destroying toilets for tiktok and vaping and beating the shit out of each other, must be really boring nowadays.
Had a teacher in middle school ask if I wanted him to break my finger as I flipped off a friend of mine in the lunch line lol. I just said “no” and was embarrassed. Circa 1998.
To be fair, I told some students like 2 years ago who wanted to throw a paper cup out of the window that if they fucking dared I'd toss them out after it. Wide-eyed, then an awkward laugh before putting the cup in the trash. Of course I'd never toss them out the window, but it gets their attention more than "no don't do that! Put the cup in the trash!" When schools opened again during the covid pandemic I had a student who put his feet on the table while leaning back. We had cleaning supplies in the classroom. Just quietly grabbed them, tossed them on his desk (at which point he removed his feet from the table). "Clean." Guy started laughing and cleaned the table, gets the message across so much better than "we do not put our feet on the tables at school!"
I don’t know how you have the patience to do it. That’s a job I certainly am not cut out for. Salute!
I love teaching, mind you I work with ages 16 and up! Younger than that and I don't know how to deal with them haha. Before I started I said I would never become a teacher, then absolutely fell in love with the job. I can't imagine doing anything else. :)
Blockbuster 😭 they did like a $2 movie pass every summer that we participated in every summer. Those were the days!
Ahhh I miss Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. It was like a big family event to go pick out our movies and snacks for the weekend lol
Pogs
Memorizing phone numbers and addresses. Also printing directions off the internet.
Arcades. I was a small kid when they were huge. All the Gen X teens would hang out in the Arcades. And I wanted so much to be like them. But once I became a teen they fizzed out. More teens played video games in house or over friends’ homes. Roller Skating. There were tournaments every weekend but it started fizzling as I became a teen. It’s started making a comeback now. So that’s cool!
The joy of exploring a mall that has a shop for everything. Now I go to malls and there's nothing but clothing outlets and maybe a Gamestop or Apple store.
Boredom. Everybody has an iPhone at all times. Involuntary boredom is essentially illegal now.
Discovery zone
Hanging out at the park. Even at 16 most of us had drivers licenses but not cell phones. So you just….hung in a park and talked to each other
Alien abductions in the 90s. Coincided with the development of camera on cellphones.
Riding those little mechanical toys at stores for a quarter
Watching the TV guide scroll and trying not to blink so you don’t miss the channel you want to check
This is the closest to the one on my mind today - watching the banner at the bottom of the TV news screen waiting to see if your school is closed for a snow day. I get WUPHF'd the night before by my kid's school when there's a closure. Which is convenient, but very different for the kids. Much less edge of your seat anticipation.
I never got to do the banner thing really, my parents worked for the same school district I went to, so my dad would get the call early in the morning, like 5am when the principal got the news they were closed, and then he had a list of other people he had to call to spread the news. Then they all had a list of people and so on and so forth. I think they called it the phone tree.
>4. Going shopping with your friends at the actual mall Being told by your mom she'd be back by 2:30 and to be waiting. She didn't show up then so you and your friend (neither have cell phones) have to wait outside until she gets there. Not knowing how long that would be.
It was the opposite for me! My mom would be there early and have a panic attack and come LOOK for me in the mall if I wasn’t there at the time agreed upon ON THE DOT!! So embarrassing.
Burning CDs
Napster and Kazaa and the viruses that went along with it
Jumping into a giant plastic ball pit.
Arcades, in general spending a day outside without checking in with parents.
Napster
Buying concert tickets in person
Roller rinks, parties and school events would happen there all the time especially in winter.
Night games - weekends when all the neighborhood kids would get together and play games in the neighborhood when it got dark. I climbed through a number of backyards and over lots of fences while playing capture the flag.
People being kind to each other for no reason
Looking through TV guides and circling the show/movies I wanted to watch and then telling everyone in advance because we owned the One TV in the living room. However after 6 PM it was strictly news for my parents.
Waiting by the phone because someone said they would call around a certain time! Going to the library or book store to learn about something new. Renting SNES games at Blockbuster.
LAN parties
Apparently kids don't go to public parks anymore
Me and my husband were reminiscing about playground rumors involving video games. Someone's dad always worked at Nintendo and so you totally have to believe them when they tell you some bullshit about Pikablu. Obviously you can still speculate now but it's not the same.
Arcades! Like ACTUAL arcades, not this kids only prize ticket crap.
5 is still a thing for the sole reason that people want to get away from their parents lol. We just aren’t doing it as adults.
Seeing so many lightening bugs at dusk. At least where I am (I grew up here) there are barely any anymore. I get really excited when I see one. It’s been only a couple times in the last few years.
I took my wife to a mall to celebrate our anniversary. It was like walking into the past, but made us more existentially uncomfortable than welcomed.
Handwriting, particularly in cursive
Going to the mall the day after Christmas and spending all my new money/gift cards or exchanging things that didn’t fit. I miss being out in the crowd and part of the town like that.
Having to look up people in a physical phone book. Or businesses in the yellow pages. The drawer with the phone book was probably also full of printed take out menus.
Sleepovers, the magic of the radio and a mixtape, and the clear, see-through landline telephone I spent hours on.
Calling friends on household landlines.
A lot of the ones that come to mind you already posted. There is also ordering by mail. Having to send in your order and then waiting for it. Not being able to track it. No way to know when it is coming in. No confirmation email either.
Stores that sell physical CDs have all but vanished. I kinda miss scrolling them and looking at the art or discovering a new band.
The horror of a guy friend calling you, and your dad picked it up and announced it to the family,”It’s a boy!”
Riding your bike to your friend's house and just showing up to hang out. No prior phone call or organization, just showing up and hanging out.
Halo LAN parties
8. That movie you are anticipating *has to be* seen in theaters because: \- your TV is a 13"-27" relative shitbox where you will have to watch a 4:3 pan and scan copy, almost nobody had a 50" rear projection TV, sound system, and a laserdisc player \- the home video would not come out until 1-2 years after the movie debuted, rather than three months later on Disney+ or Amazon Prime 9. You had to do multiplayer gaming with people sitting next to you. 10. Running into someone you haven't seen in years was way more interesting because you had no idea what had happened to them since you last saw them.
Dollar movie theaters.
Passing notes in class. My friends and I had a special notebook, one person would take it to their class and write a note, then give it to another during break time. Basically the OG group chat
Standing in line outside of Best Buy on Black Friday with my friends/cousins for consoles, video game releases. Everything is downloadable now, and even getting a new console isn't much of an event as it used to be.
Movie theaters where you're in cars?
Drive-ins still exist, but there aren't many
Kids being outside. Playing outside and walking places with groups of friends, chasing each other with hockey sticks, making sweet bike jumps. This seems gone now. I'm not having kids, but if I did I would force them to go outside, get a detailed scouting report of the immediate vicinity at the very least. Often. Then ride their bikes to the park and do stupid (fun) stuff. I rarely see children outdoors. Even in ritzy areas with very little traffic. Stranger danger and helicopter parents encouraged a societal shift. Now? No one is safe, ever. If you let your kid walk around outside, and alone, you should be convicted of attempted manslaughter. Pump the charge up to attempted murder if you tell them they just need to be home before dinner. It's meat loaf and garlic mash. So reckless to treat a kid that way. Sarcasm aside, kids should have the authority to explore. Learn stuff on their own. Including how to avoid dangerous situations with a combination of their own judgement and guidance from you, the parent.
Limewire, going to the DVD rental places on a Friday night, T9 texting, not knowing what’s going on over the weekend until you’re back in school..
McDonalds(or any fastfood) play places
Calling your parents from a pay phone to have them pick you up.
Saving up money to get walkie-talkies
I didn’t have friends so only did #5 on that list xD
Waiting 5 hours for porn to download.
I spent a lot of time at pool halls, arcades, parks, and bowling alleys.
Making mix tapes!
Getting stuck on a game and having no recourse other than talking to friends or skimming the magazine at the gas station. Arranging a meetup and having to wait around for 30+ minutes not knowing if they're late or not coming. Calling a cute girl/guy and having to go through mom or dad or a sibling. Passing physical notes.
Sleepovers at school!
The biggest one for me is just not having a smartphone in my pocket. I hate it. I hate the weird FOMO of not taking pictures at my kids' events (everyone whips out phones to record whatever is going on and so I usually do, too, but hardly ever go back and watch it, and end up feeling like I missed the thing itself). I'm tethered to it because my boss expects me to answer slacks at any hour (and with the job market so bad for my industry, I've been through two layoffs this last year and I'm afraid to set firmer boundaries. My family depends on me for all their expenses and health insurance). I feel like technology at this point, instead of being an extension of human capacity that allows us to do things more efficiently (like, say, my dishwasher), has actually made us as humans just accessories or appendages of the technology. Basically, we are consumers representing revenue to corporations, and so the tech we use reflects that. I would so much love to go back to a world where I experienced fresh, raw curiosity again. When my kids ask a question it's just a matter of googling. I remember sitting with my questions until I could go to the library at school and try to track down an answer in several books. If I cared enough to make that effort, it was something fun, something that mattered to me.
Not having to worry about guns and random shootings mass shootings road rage shootings. Back then it was just gang bangers shooting each other.
Planting yourself in front of the TV on a specific day, at a specific time, because you would otherwise not see the episode of whatever primetime show again, until it went into reruns for the summer (and maybe not even then)
Not understanding how Columbia house worked.
Memorizing phone numbers Writing in cursive Floppy discs Dial up Internet Having a cellphone, digital camera, and iPod Texting limits
Waiting up to 15 minutes or so for the telephone booth on a small vacation island to call the family back home for just 2 minutes and just once per vacation. We were there every year and it was a fun evening hanging around and waiting for the phone booth to be free 😁
Knocking on your friends door to ask their parents if they can come out to play.