Kids these days. They’ve grown up with a phone in their hand, and don’t know a world without the internet. For us, things are a little different. Perhaps we’re the most fortunate generation of all in that we’ve experienced an analog childhood followed by a digital adolescence.
We grew up without the embarrassment of social media in our formative years, which means we experienced all the joys of a pre-internet era with landline telephone calls and broadcast television yet still managed to nab an email address true to our full name with underscores or numbers (although chances are you chose 69 or 182 by choice to add to the end of your email address).
You can recall seeing films like Leonardo’s Romeo and Juliet remake and Clueless at the movies, but were too young to follow along with Danny and Sandy’s love story in Grease.
Feels familiar? Keep reading to look back at what kids these days will never understand.
1. You communicated almost exclusively via landline
You can still recall yours as well as your best friend’s home phone numbers off by heart. Upon calling, you’d have to speak with your pal’s parents before getting through to them, and you’d proceed to chat and make plans while tethered to one room only via a twisted cord. What’s more, you probably know how to use a rotary phone, and not just from watching old films.
2. You got your first mobile phone in your teens or early 20s
And it was a certified brick or maybe if you were cashed-up, a Blackberry or Motorola RZR. Nevertheless, you spent a lot of time playing Snake.
3. You had a Hotmail account (or still do LOL)
You were one of the first to secure a Hotmail account, which meant you had preference of all usernames. Maybe you had enough foresight to take the simple route and nab your first and last name without any underscores or numbers. Then again, maybe you opted for coolguy69.
4. You watched Friends as it was released
Not the reruns millennials caught up with, the actual episodes on broadcast television as they happened. Once a week.
5. You remember floppy disks
And not just in a ‘look-how-far-technology-has-come’ way. You knew how to use floppy disks, and you were amazed by their ability to store a whopping 1.44 MB.
6. You saw the Thriller music video on Video Hits for the first time
Though it most definitely scared the daylights out of you.
7. You used dial-up internet
That nails-on-the-chalkboard, off-key orchestra probably haunts your nightmares, as does the very thought of having to wait more than one second for your internet page to load. And after all of that, your mum would yell at you to get off the computer so she could call your grandma.
8. You cut pictures out of the National Geographic magazines for school projects
Your parents likely had a subscription and it certainly came in handy when visual aids were required for your biology presentations.
9. You remember the birth of Google
And you were, quick frankly, relieved to have another option aside from Ask Jeeves.
10. Dawson’s Creek was your angsty outlet
You stuck with this show from beginning to end no matter how annoying Dawson was and wished for a Pacy-and-Joey romance of your own.
