Are you like me and the 1990s were only 10 years ago?
Yes, I can do the math, but 1990 being 32 years ago still seems unreal.
Why is that?
Maybe it's the fact it marked the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st.
Either way, it just doesn't seem that long ago and the nostalgia for the trappings of the 1990s is strong.
Redditor PrimaryYam9432 asked:
"What is something outdated from the 90s you want back?"
Affordable Housing
"I lived in a one bedroom apartment in San Diego in the nineties to the tune of $400 a month. I'd like that back, please."
"I looked up the specific place I lived. That one bedroom runs $1,650 now."
– stupidlyugly
Missed Opportunities
"the lighter side: malls, there was literally everything there. I lived at that place. Also, for some reason, floppy disks. IDK why, but I really miss them"
"the darker side: a sense of hope for my financial future. I was 15 in 1999, working my first job. Trying to leave a sh*tty situation, had plans to join the military after high school to pay for college.
"Had a grand mal seizure the summer after I graduated (got diagnosed with epilepsy) so that nixed that; and after multiple failed attempts at college, finally graduated when I was 32. I'm making 4x what I did in high school, but I've never left the midwest. never seen the ocean, or been on a plane."
"Had to file bankruptcy twice because of medical issues, and have always had clunker cars. Unfortunately I'm not the only one in this situation, but it still sucks"
- rabbid_panda
Cheesy Video Games
"Westwood Studio's real time strategy games featuring cheesy live action videos between the levels. I'm fine without the dial-up multiplayer though."
– 3Bonhomme7h
Subscribe, Subscribe, Subscribe
"Software that you buy one time and own. Looking at you Adobe."
– mtsai
"Being able to own things without having to take out a subscriptions."
– qzcl
"This is exactly what I was going to say. Being able to buy something and be done. Now everything has a subscription attached to it."
"Software is one of the worst examples but even the auto industry is trying to get in on the subscription money by requiring additional monthly plans to access features of your car that you already paid for."
"A local HVAC company is attaching a subscription to their work. So you pay them to install it all and then a monthly fee for them to be on-call in the event it needs maintenance."
"At work our IT support company stopped doing ad hoc service calls unless you subscribe to their monthly service plan. So the company is paying triple the price and getting basically the same thing except in theory the amount of service call they can request is 'unlimited'."
– sullivan80
Your Local Video Store
"I miss going to video stores and browsing."
– sonic_tower
"I do too. That was a fun Friday night as a kid. Going to Blockbuster to pick out a new movie to watch."
"It's not the same getting on Netflix and spending an hour looking for something to watch to only wind up watching something you've already seen."
– brokendowndryer
"Yep! As a kid my dad would come home from work on Friday evening and take us to Hollywood video."
"We’d pick out a movie and get a pizza on the way home. Good times."
– Its_Juice
Commercial Breaks
"Reasonable commercial lengths."
"Now ESPN has 5 minute commercial breaks..."
– coreynj2461
"My least favorite trend is a commercial break, then they come back for 1-2 minutes with some tiny snippet of 'coming up next!' then go to another commercial break."
– thishasntbeeneasy
"Or they smash the credits into a tiny window, while running ads on full screen. Can't even read the credits if you wanted to."
– reddit_bandito
Accountability
"Not having to make an account for EVERYF'KINGTHING!"
– Dapper-Discipline-54
"And lately every time I sign up for something, they send me texts now too in addition to emails that I don’t want. Leave me alone!!"
– Sefira23
"I'm so over this. Especially when you're supposed to make a different password for every account you have. My brain only has so much memory for passwords anymore."
– McUberForDays
Social Media
"This is probably more late 90s/early 00s than the 90s as a whole, but a social media-less internet."
"It felt like an escape from real life, as opposed to an extension of it."
– Spooginho
"Remember when they told us to never identify yourself on the internet? And now they put their whole life on it."
"I miss web 1.0 where anonymity was the point."
– duffman13jws
"Remember when our parents told us not to trust anyone on the internet, but now believe everything they see online and lecture us about it?"
– Harsimaja
"My mom when I was 16 and got my first PC: 'Don't put your pictures online!'"
"My mom now: 'Send me grandson pics nowww! Need new profile pic and header!!'"
– Myrmele
RIP Geocities
"Geocities web pages, made with heart, not for money."
– RaminGold
"I do miss Geocities. It was sh*t, but atleast anyone could have a web site for free hosted on a server that was relatively fast and reliable."
"Nowadays, good luck to find a good free web hosting..."
– thephantom1492
"Oh my god, my bff would purposely go to my crappy Geocities site and sign the guestbook as ridiculously over the top characters like 'Madame Consuela de Soliz-Camacho-Dubois St Bernard,' and she'd write their comments in Spanish, German, French, whatever she felt like that day."
"It was so stupid but for idiot teenagers back in the 90's, it was the height of hilarity that she could prank me without being in the same room. Good times."
– avoidance_behavior
Why Is This Phone Smart?
"Not being able to be reached 24/7."
"Remember when the only people who had cell phones or pagers were doctors and high end business professionals that NEEDED to be reached at a moments notice."
"Now, everyone is expected to be available at any time. And if you elect to stand your ground and establish a separation between work/personal life you're considered 'rude' or 'difficult to communicate with'."
– Luke5119
"Yeah, remember when you let the house phone ring during dinner?
"I remember my dad grumbling if the phone ever rang: 'It's dinner time, nobody should be calling now. Who calls during dinner?!'"
"You didn't call people's house after about 8pm either unless you knew it was okay. It was rude—that was private, home time."
– what_the_a
Buttons & Knobs & Dials
"Technology with buttons and knobs."
– Ashtar-the-Squid
"Agreed! Some things I just don’t want a touch screen for."
– Knightly-Bird
"I hate touchscreens in cars because 1) you just know they'll wear out and be expensive to replace and 2) I can't use it by feel and have to take my eyes off the road to adjust anything."
– Msktb
"Agreed! Why does my Microwave need to have touchscreen? I don't want to touch the panel with my fat butter and chips fingers. I want use the back of my hand."
– MedonSirius
"All my touchscreen appliances start to fizzle and fail pretty quickly. All the analog or mechanical ones still work from decades ago, or I can at least open them and clean some contacts."
– F*kM0reFromR
Pinball Wizard
"Arcades, I think going to arcades to play classic games or new games would be fun."
- T3Dofficial
"I miss arcades, they're still around but not as common as they once were. You could go to the mall and it had one, movie theaters would have a little arcades, there were cabinets all over.
"Now, if you find an 'arcade' it's usually prize games. Claw machines, those stacker games, etc..., you rarely find the actual video games."
- Crissxfire
Low Tech
"Appliances that didn’t have any smart features! I want a bloody fridge that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that can last 2 decades."
"I don’t want a smart fridge that dies in 5 years because a circuit board in it is destined to fail in that time frame."
- vp2008
One Stop Shopping
"Toy stores. Toys R Us died years ago, KB Toys way before that."
"We have toy sections at Walmart, Target, and others but it's not not same. Getting some birthday money and browsing an entire store with all these options."
"Way better than just looking at pictures on a site like Amazon. Shame we don't have any big chains like that anymore."
- Crissxfire
Top 10
"I miss the music charts (and if you are in the UK you will know, Top Of The Pops). They still exist, but aren’t the same now that streaming is included."
"Back then if you wanted to hear you favourite song you had to wait for it to come on the radio and record it on a tape, or find it on CD in a shop."
"Now you can listen to whatever you want whenever you want, and that’s really f'ked up the charts, and the association of particular sub cultural movements in music with a time, like grunge and Brit pop."
-
Look Forward To All Week
"Saturday morning cartoons. WB Kids, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Static Shock, Jackie Chan Adventures, you name it."
"Used to sleep over at my best friend's house on Friday nights and we'd wake up at 7 in the morning on Saturday to watch cartoons and eat pancakes. His mom would always make the pancakes small and we'd sit and brag about eating 14 pancakes."
"Brown sugar, maple syrup. By noon we were drunk on Dr. Pepper, by 2 in the afternoon we were destroying each other with Smash Bros.
"Wash, rinse, repeat. Every weekend."
- brashull
Exploration Over JFGI
"A feeling of the unexplored, of adventures."
"Is that BBQ place any good? Only way to know was to try it."
"What’s over in that neighborhood next to ours? Take a drive for yourself."
"Even wondering about facts, like when something originally happened or who did it, or the capital of Kazakhstan."
"The world felt bigger, full of unknown places, things and people."
‐ LoveSpiritual
Work/Life Separation
"The lack of expectation that your employer and coworkers are entitled to your entire life, including your web activities."
"I get labelled as 'weird' or 'secretive' because I refuse to give out any social media accounts to current co-workers. In fact, I preemptively block my coworkers' accounts if I can find them."
"You had work friends and they were just that: work friends. They knew you at work."
"If they were a truly great person you wanted in your non-work life, you invited them in."
"Now people feel entitled to your entire life just because they see you regularly."
"P.S. Make one easily found 'work' account under your legal name if you must, post nothing, say 'you have x account but you don't really use it much'."
"Set up a second account, be intentionally vague about identifiable info, NEVER mention your employer/school by name and DON'T SHARE THE ACCOUNT WITH ANYONE IN YOUR OFFLINE LIFE."
"Even if they won't intentionally give it out, the algorithms will."
- -ArtFox-
Offline Learning
"Decent offline encyclopedias and learning software."
"Encarta or another decent offline digital encyclopedia of some form would be ace even today. As soon as you've lost signal/WiFi, or out of data, your mobile phone or computer suddenly becomes a lot more useless than before."
"So if I could purchase a one time reputable program, then I could learn stuff free from the biases and distractions of the internet.
"Computers before the internet exploded, seemed to rely a hell of a lot on offline software for research purposes. So there were a lot of good ones."
"I remember there were decent bundles, so as well as Encarta 99, we also had this really cool Space educational disk."
"I suppose, technically Apps on phones could fulfill this to a degree these days. But all the ones I've used are online connected and ad-ridden."
- Quit_social_media
🎵 J - E - LL - O 🎶
"Jell-o Pudding Pops."
"They were the best thing ever!"
- hamiltd3
Nostalgia is a funny thing—we tend to romanticize our past.
If we truly went back, we'd probably discover all the things we'd miss from our future.
But we still miss a lot from the 1990s.
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Since its advent way back in the 1960s and its popularization in the 1990s, the internet has long departed its primitive roots and become the most influential technology to grace the human race since the printing press.
With every passing year, the capabilities of just a few years before seem quaint, slow, and clunky.
What used to be an interconnected network of documents using fax machine technology is now a robust invisible universe that facilitates sweeping political action, allows for the creation of multi billion dollar corporations, and even exerts long-term influence on our personal neurochemistries.
It's so easy to take the latest advancements for granted. Some Redditors took a momentary step back and reflected on the earliest days of the internet, before it had already changed the world.
They recalled the silliest idiosyncracies they could.
DevilYouKnow asked, "What was the weirdest part of the early internet?"
Absolute Chaos
"The early days of CSS & HTML with cursor effects, far too many different fonts, visitor counters on every website, inexplicable scrolling text, animated gifs everywhere, etc."
"It was an assault on the senses, but it was also glorious!"
When it was Small Enough
"How AOL didn't use URLs. Every 'website' had a keyword, meaning that every topic literally only had one website."
"I remember when Nickelodeon would constantly promote themselves on TV and said 'Log on to AOL keyword 'Nick!' meaning that that was literally the only place you could see Nickelodeon content."
-- redxrain86
"Fast" is a Relative Term
"Starting a download before you went to bed so it would be done when you got up the next morning." -- Nightdave
"I've had my taste of that recently. A friend broke his phone so hard, the only thing that still worked to get his files out was Bluetooth. Estimated transfer time to my PC: 9 hours."
"Felt just like downloading Empire Earth again." -- Allegutennamenweg
The Wild West
"I must be older than anyone here, because the 'early days' of the internet was back when years still started with 19. And there were NO RULES."
"There was no online tracking, no ad-bots, just no enforcement of any kind. Essentially the internet then was what the dark net is now. Anything could be found, but only if you knew where to look."
"Search engines we're all but useless and nothing was protected for sh**. A few hours in a dumpster full of paper could get you access to nearly anything."
"That was the early days of the internet."
-- jk013x
A Little Too Interconnected
"Telling people not to use the phone because you were on the internet." -- omegaclick
"Downloading a big file when someone picks up the phone. Fffffffffff" -- 1019throw2
"Mom, hang up! I'm on the Internet!!!!" -- philpalmer2
First to Market
"Who here remembers Netscape Navigator being the best browser?" -- UndeadWarlord
"Oh god, I hung on to using it way longer than I'd like to admit!" -- BootlegMickeyMouse
"Just yesterday I was signing up for an account on a company's site and on their recommended software for viewing the site they had Netscape still listed." -- rhen_var
Digitized Rascals
"My friend's mom's reaction when I replaced AOL's 'you've got mail' with 'you've got porn'" -- UndeadWarlord
"I replaced mine with the 'You just got a letter' song from Blue's Clues." -- KnockMeYourLobes
"I had the twang 'message for you sir' from Monty Python and the Holy Grail." -- house_autumn
Before it Owned the World
"Amazon was still a bookstore." -- HumongousBratwurst
"And it would list the best selling books in your location." -- Roche77e
"And it used to have a little monkey swinging on a vine as it's logo" -- watchman28
"My Amazon account, created in early 2001, is older than Billie Eilish..." -- Knauserer
Pining for Old Simplicity
"I dunno. But, I really miss the way recipes used to be shared online. No scrolling through a giant website of background story of the recipe and countless ads."
"It was literally just the text of the recipe, with comments under of how to tweak that recipe."
"We were so spoiled by the simplicity and immediacy of ingredient lists back then and we didn't even know it."
-- rawsugar87
Quite the Scheme
"People printing porn at the library" -- Chunky0P
"Ahem. I had myself a little system."
"I couldn't do it now, but I managed to learn how to read normal text printed in Cyrillic font. Not a different language -- literally just the English text printed in Cyrillic font.
"At the time I couldn't possibly have got hold of a private printer, or indeed a private computer where I could... err... be myself. The University printers at the time were all run by actual staff and you had to collect and pay for your printouts from them."
"My little system allowed me to print out lots of alt.sex.stories content on the University printers and when collecting, claim to my dismay that the printout went a bit wrong, and aww shucks I guess I'd better just pay for the failed printout and I'll take it and use it to wrap fish or something." -- IcyCrust
A Contemporary Edison
"My step dad made a 'receiver' to steal the neighbour's internet out of a strainer covered in tinfoil."
"I'm sure there was more to it but that's how my 12 year old brain perceived it."
-- RyuksShadow
Outdated Selling Points
"Idk how weird it is, but does anyone remember the early Road Runner internet commercials where the spokesman bragged about the size of their internet cables compared to dial up?"
-- CrashRiot
Needed a Whole Extra 30 Seconds
"Driving in the car and hearing radio commercials explain how to spell the URL."
"'Now kids, ask your parents for permission to log on and type 'h t t p colon two forward slashes (that's the one that goes up from left to right) double u double u double u dot (that's the period)...'"
-- jaa928
Informed Downloading
"There were websites that posted videos, and they'd describe what's in the video, and how big it is."
"So you'd be able to decide if it's worth waiting an hour to watch it."
-- SensiSparx
Tread Lightly
"All the random sh** on Limewire under completely different titles" -- pdxblazer
"Limewire was horribly dangerous." -- archavex
"That was like going into a wild orgy without a condom. So many virtual STDs. I think I had Norton antivirus at the time." -- P_elquelee
End of an Era
"I think it's a tie. Either trying to download something like "Barbie Girl" on limewire to make a mix CD you could bring to summer camp and after waiting 10 hours for it download you find out it's just an audio clip of Bill Clinton saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" and having to start all over again."
"OR, it was playing what you assumed was a basic flash maze game or maybe watching a sweet music video that your friend sent you only to be terrified by a picture of Regan from the exorcist popping up and screaming at you when you least expect it."
"Between those two and the Ally McBeal dancing baby, I think that covers all my early experiences of the internet."
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People Noticed A Common Thread In This Photo Of A Movie Theatre Marquee, And 90s Kids Are Relating Hard
As the republic continues to crumble, nostalgia has never been more in.
This is exemplified by the theatre marquee at Edwards Cinema which features a list of movies that will have you checking the date to make sure you're in the right decade.
The picture of the marquee shows the films Toy Story 4, Men in Black, Godzilla, Aladdin, and Child's Play—all of which had wildly successful iterations in the 1990s.
Devon Sawa—himself a 90s heartthrob—tweeted the image with the caption:
"Dear children of today: Like it or not, you're really 90s kids."
Dear children of today: Like it or not, you’re really 90s kids. https://t.co/M1CDSzO5nI— devon sawa (@devon sawa) 1561515289
The films are still a little different than their original counterparts: Pixar's animation has grown by leaps and bounds since the original Toy Story's release in 1995, Aladdin is a live-action remake, This decade's Child's Play revolves around technology rather than voodoo, and Men in Black now features a woman as the lead.
Nevertheless, the marquee had people hella disoriented.
@DevonESawa https://t.co/2wNkBSW8Kg— Shane Deegan (@Shane Deegan) 1561515430
@DevonESawa @kyliesparks This is wild— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@Yashar Ali 🐘) 1561573714
@DevonESawa @grantwarkentin It's like 1997 all over again. All we need is torrential rain at the Glastonbury Festival and- ...oh.— Jay Bluff (@Jay Bluff) 1561570070
Some lamented that the nostalgia is actually a lack of originality.
@DevonESawa ....huh. We’re denying a generation their own formative pop culture experiences, instead forcing them… https://t.co/Op7Qk1kBj7— Asherd the D&D Character (@Asherd the D&D Character) 1561519298
@DevonESawa And they wonder why cinema is going down the drain. Nothing is new.— Katie (@Katie) 1561533298
If that doesn't overwhelm you, The Lion King will be arriving to theatres next month.
Overly Prepared People Reveal The One Thing That Saved Them A Major Headache
Life will always through us curveballs. You can prepare and prepare and prepare to a fault but things will still go awry. It's how you handle yourself in those moments that matter. We must have a mantra, a count to ten mini-break, whatever can get you over the hurdle that the situation you planned meticulously has blown up in your face. But you can be saved.
Redditor u/OvertOperation needed to find some ways to avoid stress by asking... What "you know what, just to be safe..." thing you did ended up saving your ass later?
Freeform has announced that is picking up a reboot of the classic show Party of Five. The show followed five siblings struggling to make their way through life as a family after the unexpected loss of both of their parents. The show ran for six seasons, won tons of awards, and still has a passionate fanbase even though it's been over for nearly two decades. Freeform announced that the new version will be a "modern reimagining" - and the new plot is bound to make a few people upset.
In the initial series, the Salinger kids lose their parents after an accident with a drunk driver. The show followed the kids through six years of essentially raising each other and fighting their hardest to stay together as a unit.
Original Executive Producers Amy Lippman and Christoper Keyser released a statement saying they will focus on something closer to the heart of the current American political climate.
Twenty-five years ago, we imagined a story about five kids navigating the world after the untimely death of their parents. Today, stories of families being separated, children having to raise themselves in the wake of their parents' deportations, don't require any imagination; they are everywhere. This new iteration of Party of Five isn't a retread of the original; it's a whole new look at kids trying to parent each other in the wake of circumstances beyond their control, yet learning a similar lesson: that families persist no matter how great the obstacles.
Freeform's Executive VP of Programming And Development said the network "just had" to have the series and they were proud to help tell this new story.
News of the reboot is spreading fast on Twitter, and people have a lot to say. Warning: It's not always something good.
@JustJared Yes! I loved that show— KREAM OUT NOW 🇦🇺 (@KREAM OUT NOW 🇦🇺) 1536272870.0
@THR So sad 😞— rarebella (@rarebella) 1536274055.0
@THR Show with a clear political agenda #byebye— jd (@jd) 1536306096.0
@people Cashing in on the real traumatic experiences for some Latino families. Great job ABC 🙄— chelchel (@chelchel) 1536287758.0
@Grateful24x7 @DEADLINE Same here.— Brenda Libby (@Brenda Libby) 1536276599.0
@newsbusters And on the season finale, ICE comes and deports everybody back to the country where they are legally a… https://t.co/fPMgc7mdBt— Dave Cullather (@Dave Cullather) 1536340064.0
(Stoked for the Party of Five reboot in which the parents were deported instead of killed. It's a smart, relevant s… https://t.co/crDu9IXDhz— Carina Adly MacKenzie (@Carina Adly MacKenzie) 1536268515.0
"Reboot, but make it Latino!" streak going on strong: - One Day at a Time - Charmed - Magnum, PI - Roswell, New Me… https://t.co/WG3KTJkRWi— Manuel #LordDámeloTodo Betancourt (@Manuel #LordDámeloTodo Betancourt) 1536267848.0
@THR https://t.co/mxMjqeyhkU— Fraulein Steve (@Fraulein Steve) 1536303685.0
What are your thoughts? Does the retooling strike you as relevant and modern or like a "clear political agenda?" Maybe both? Let us know!