Obsolete Household Gadgets Younger Generations May Not Recognize
Reddit user motivetodayy asked: 'People born before 1980, What are some obsolete household items or gadgets from your childhood that younger generations may not even recognize?'
Technology has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few decades.
A lot of formerly everyday gadgets are now completely obsolete.
For example, unless you grew up when 8-track cartridges were a common music distribution medium, the very sight of a cartridge might be confusing.
Reddit user motivetodayy asked:
"People born before 1980, What are some obsolete household items or gadgets from your childhood that younger generations may not even recognize?"
TV Tech
"Those GIANT projection TVs the size of a closet that only looked good if you were sat in the EXACT right spot. That one kid whose parents let him hook up his Nintendo to it was king."
"The same family probably had one of those satellite dishes in their back yard that were absolutely massive and made your house look like you were trying to spy on the Russians."
- nailbunny2000
How To Keep In Contact
- fidelkastro
"Wow, you just brought back some memories of me playing with one of these as a kid!"
- ajlm
"I worked for a large, billion dollar company in 2007 and the CEO/founder, 70+, who I had to meet with occasionally, insisted on having that exact phone book. He had a computer on his desk, and an executive assistant, and still HAD to have that mechanical phone book to access his phone numbers. Much to the dismay of the office manager when his old one wore out. By god, she found one. Edit for detail."
- -mopjocky-
"We still use this where I work...."
"And we are the ones supplying the natural gas to your homes and businesses. Till next time"
- braize6
Party Lines
"Phone lines that you share with a few neighbors. It was called a party line. Don't confuse this with the party line of the 90s where people could in a talk with several strangers at one time."
- Cultural_Standard_58
"I remember these! Knowing what series of rings was your phone number, and picking up quietly when the old ladies up the road were gossiping lol"
- cinkiss
GiphyPause So You Don't Get The Commercials
"The VCR recording clicker to pause the recording during commercials."
"Single button with a long cord to the VCR"
- queuedUp
Be Kind, Rewind — With Your Model Car
"VHS rewinder. Ours was shaped like a race car. Be kind, rewind."
- EddieRando21
"Ours was a red sports car!"
- fire_fairy_
"Whoever started the rumor that rewinding videos ruined your VCR made a lot of money in the late 80s."
- Peemster99
"My memory was that it took 10 minutes in the VCR player. Not in the Race Car Rewinder though."
- postmaster15
Home Intercoms
"The house I grew up in had an intercom system."
- Geek_off_the_streets
"Yep, wired intercom systems that could also play AM and FM music to all the rooms were a big fad in 1970s new home construction"
- Xyzzydude
The Origin of CC
"An actual carbon sheet that was placed between two sheets of paper to carbon copy the bottom paper from the top paper."
- tranquilseafinally
"Fun fact, this is where 'cc:' on emails comes from. ('bcc' is blind carbon copy, since the recipient can’t see other recipients.)"
- vandezuma
"And that's how I learned to copy my mother's signature on to bad school stuff."
- MickCollins
Smoking Was Everywhere
"‘Floor model’ ashtrays. Short stands that sat on the floor, and the top was an ashtray. Back in the day when people would just walk into your house and fire up a dart without asking, and nobody thought twice about it."
"The only place you didn’t smoke was in church."
- Joseph_Bloggins
"My Grandparents had ashtrays with places to hold cigarettes, when I asked, my mom said it was normal to provide cigarettes at parties, along with alcohol and food. 1950s and 1960s"
- Jbruce63
"No one in our family smoked, but we had a stash of ashtrays Mom would have us set out for company."
- mustbethedragon
"Remember the ones where you push a button and the floor of it hinges open to dump all the ash and butts into a compartment below?"
- GozerDGozerian
GiphyErgonomics Are Important
"A neck phone holder."
- modshavenopenis
"Those things always drove me nuts, it seemed like they were always made for giant people."
- Rokhnal
"We have these at my work for employees who have to spend a lot of time on the phone - though now that I think of it, maybe everyone's transitioned to headphones. Hmm."
- froglover215
"Grandma had one of these all throughout my childhood. I never "got" it until I hit 40...."
- Glum_Time3479
Milk Doors
"A milk chute built into our house. The milk man would leave the milk in the chute in the morning from the outside and we would pick it up from the inside."
"I am beginning to believe that this is a good idea again, albeit with a good sturdy lock on the inside door, so packages and food deliveries can be left out of sight but available to the homeowner from the inside. If I were building a house now, I would add that in to the plans."
- aeraen
"I would love to just have the whole fresh milk delivery thing again."
- dblshot99
"Growing up, our house had a milk chute. Never had milk deliveries, but we had cats."
"The milk chute became the cat door, which they learned and taught each other to open. Came in handy for when I'd lock myself out of the house."
- residentialnemesis
"I could contort my upper body through ours since I’d forget my keys a lot and could open the back door. Ah the latchkey days I remember them so fondly."
- raylab810
GiphySo Many Antennae
"My six year old daughter and I were walking through the parking lot of Auto Zone and she started laughing pointing at this like early 90s truck that had an old, aerial antenna sticking three feet out of the car hood and started laughing:"
'"Daddy that car has a whisker! It has a kitty whisker!'"
"She'd never seen an old antenna like that before."
- SeaTie
"My dad had a Mercedes back in the day and when you started the car, the antenna would extend up."
- lzwzli
"Now there’s no where for an antenna ball. Makes me sad."
- jburton24
Video Games Were Very Different
"Computer games that were loaded on cassette tapes"
- PrincessTusi
"Even before the cassette tape, they’d publish the games’ code in a magazine and you’d have to type it all in without any mistakes. No editor. No debugger."
- sapientia-maxima
"R…U.…N Enter. And pray to god you didn’t miss a colon somewhere"
- LadyGreyNoJoy
Mr. Yuck
"Mr. Yuck"
- Bmc00
"Child safety: Should we lock up these absolutely lethal chemicals? Nah, let's just put this green sticker on them!"
"This is also why the number for poison control was always on the first page of a telephone book, and often written as one of the emergency numbers on your telephone."
- MrHyde_Is_Awake
"As of a few years ago, you could still contact your local poison control office and request a sheet of these."
- ThatsABunchOfCraft
Analog Doorbell
"A doorbell that uses pipes to make sound. Most contemporary doorbells are just a box on your wall, a buzzer, or an app. That's if you even have a doorbell."
- Sigseg
"We would switch the pipes around at my friend’s house. It would drive his mum mad when the doorbell would ring and the time was all wrong."
- badpuffthaikitty
What now-obsolete technology did you grow up with that you think the young people around you would be confused by?
Toys People Always Wanted Growing Up But Never Actually Received
Unless you grew up with the most doting parents on the planet, there's probably a toy or two that you really wanted as a kid, but never received.
Whether it was too expensive for your parents to afford, or something like a noisy toy that was going to be way too annoying for your parents, there are probably some toys that you really missed out on as a child.
Redditor Moist-Patience-4989 asked:
"What is a toy you always wanted growing up, but never got?"
Power Wheels
"The Barbie Jeep that you could actually ride in. But once I had kids, I bought them one (not the Barbie version, but still). And guess what? I was five pounds under the weight limit so I was able to ride in their battery-powered Jeep. I mean, it was a couple decades late, but I eventually got to do it."
- smugmisswoodhouse
"Lol I never got one of those as a kid either. It still haunts me till this day. I have no idea why but it still does. My mom bought me a car for my 16th birthday but I still bring up the freaking power wheel. I guess it really scarred me."
- Annonme123
Easy - Bake Oven
"Easy - Bake Oven"
- Antibara
"Me too. I wanted one so bad. When they came out with the real retro looking ones a while ago, I was sooo tempted. LOL"
- Real-Web8925
"I was a child of the 70s, and wanted the Holly Hobbie version. My parents were poor and/or didn't want me cooking in my bedroom, so they dodged by pointing out it was for ages 8 and up. By the time I was 8 I was cooking real food in an actual oven so the request was dropped. Still low-key want one though, entirely to indulge my inner child."
- pepperminticecream
"Easy bake oven. Parents didn’t think it was a toy for boys. I still became a baker anyways"
- Soggy-Juggernaut-569
Mini Bike
"A mini-bike like they advertised in the Sears Christmas catalog."
- XploringTheWorld
"Same. I wanted one so bad. All the guys on my street had one and to get into the woods they drove their bikes between my house and the neighbors. On our lawn! I was so pissed off they got to do it but my dad didn’t think it was safe for a girl (in 1968)."
- SnowinMiami
Tamagotchi
90S Nostalgia GIFGiphy"Always wanted a Tamagotchi"
- DuracellCosmonaut
"They were banned at my school. I think there was a bit of controversy with them at the time."
- Maso_TGN
"I have mine! Just put fresh batteries in it a couple weeks ago and I still can’t keep the dumb thing alive 😅"
- IJustWantWaffles_87
TMNT Pizza Shooter
"The ninja turtle pizza thrower van."
- Ph33r-Enigma
"My friend brought his TMNT Pizza Shooter over. We then spent the next 2 hours shooting my older sister. I asked for one and my parents (for very good reason) told me absolutely not."
- HoopOnPoop
"I just used it to shoot pizzas at my little brother. Thing was amazing
- MrJimBusiness18
American Girl Dolls
"An American Girl doll. Loved the books so much. I've been tempted to buy myself a Samantha now that she's out again, but I like the original outfit better."
- horseruth
"I read that catalogue cover to cover every time I got it (which is back when there were only three dolls and nothing ever changed). I was convinced when I grew up and had kids, my daughter would have all three dolls, each in its own room so that the historical eras didn't get mixed up. Spoiler alert: that did not happen. No kids, and my house doesn't have three extra bedrooms to devote to dolls."
- jleebeane
Castle Greyskull
he-man GIFGiphy"Castle Grayskull, from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe."
- Maso_TGN
"My brother had it and I played with my strawberry shortcake dolls in it."
- GlamSpam
"By The Power Of Grayskull, sacrilege!"
- Maso_TGN
"They actually made a new one recently, and it’s identical to the original 80’s one, just with modern details. You can get it here."
- IncreaseWestern6097
Rock Tumbler
"A rock tumbler"
- Picklesgal111
"I was looking for this one. We are two rocks in the tumbler together."
- Independent_Cut8651
"Not really a toy, but I’ve wanted a rock polishing kit for as long as I can remember and would ask for one every Christmas and birthday."
- awesquirrel
Pokédex
"a pokedex. I wanted one so bad, but NoOoOo, mom and dad thought pokemon was annoying"
- CptJaxxParrow
The Big Box of Crayons
"The Crayola 64-pack with the three metallic colors."
- wholewheatscythe
You may have missed out on these toys as a child, but the great thing about being an adult is that you can do what you want. If the toy you desperately wanted as a kid is still available, you are totally allowed to just go out and buy yourself one.
With millennials now reaching their thirties and forties, many are looking back on the childhood they had compared to the ones they're witnessing now.
With technology advances and a constant need to impress, these two worlds of childhood are undeniably different.
Redditor professorf asked:
"What did your generation have that kids need more of today?"
Unstructured Playtime
"Unstructured playtime outside with others that are a variety of ages. Not under the eyes of an adult."
"This was my favorite part of being a kid. There were 10-12 kids within a six-year age range on my street and we'd all be out playing between multiple blocks, houses, and wooded areas. Our parents would just yell or whistle from the porch at dinner time, and sometimes we'd go back out again after!"
"Beyond playing and having fun, being unsupervised and big kids amongst little kids provides so much mental enrichment that kids don't get sitting in front of a screen being constantly tended to. Problem-solving, imagination, cooperation, taking care of each other, sharing, working things out, navigation, self-awareness... on and on."
- EarthCadence
Ghosts in the Graveyard
"I miss playing 'Ghosts in the Graveyard'!"
"I grew up with an actual cemetery in my backyard (once you hopped a fence, of course) and you haven't really played 'Ghosts in the Graveyard' until you played it in an actual graveyard!"
- Fred_the_skeleton
Computer Literacy
"Typing classes. Most Gen Z/Alpha kids grew up with tablets and maybe a laptop, no desktops. Teachers assume they know how to type, but they've only done it with their thumbs, they don't have the muscle memory for a traditional keyboard."
"The ability to type on a physical keyboard is really important in the working world, and a lot fewer kids can do it well these days."
"We need to bring back typing classes, along with how file/folder/directory systems work in general, a lot of college students don't know how to use them!"
- cinemachick
Imaginative Play
"Toys that were just toys. Not everything had to be educational. Just let kids play and explore and discover. Let them get bored."
It Takes a Village
"Village grandparents. My parents would leave me with my grandparents for months during summer. We had a large, large yard with many old collapsing or collapsed buildings, a variety of animals roaming around, and a few gardens."
"I’d climb trees, and buildings, play with the animals, and go fishing in the small river near the house with a self-made fishing rod made out of a bottle, rope, and an old nail."
"I never caught anything. Best time of my life."
- John_McTaffy
Thinking Outside the Box
"Freedom to explore, invent, and create. Today's kids are so scheduled with activities and online all of the time. Getting out in the world without an agenda would be helpful."
"I'm now seeing college graduates who have a hard time doing anything other than following explicit instructions from their boss. They don't problem-solve. They don't innovate on their own."
"I can teach someone numbers or the structure of loops or conditional statements. I can't fix an issue with someone not understanding why they would choose a certain solution or not being able to relate what they are doing to the software module's objectives. I see perfect Leetcode problems with no understanding of the problem they're solving or even why they want to be an engineer. Or what to do if something varies slightly from what they memorized."
"AI will take over a lot of jobs if kids can't think nonlinearly or relate information. ChatGPT already writes code akin to what I'm seeing from young engineers. It doesn't have human reasoning about the problem and why you'd need to solve it a particular way, but it sure codes a variety of solutions quickly. A senior engineer can replace the junior engineers who don't think through the problem with AI."
- LilMick786
Boredom
"I feel like kids have no tolerance for 'boredom.' I try to tell the youngins to let their minds wander and allow thoughts to flow, but they feel compelled to stuff every moment with games or videos."
"They’re not even enjoying music anymore. It’s all, 'Can I play this song? It’s from a meme.' And they change the song before it’s over because there’s less appreciation for composition anymore."
- Specific-Pen-1132
Lacking Patience
"No patience. That's a side effect of the tech culture. My friend's kid is 10, and she's only known the instant gratification of TV, iPad, and Nintendo Switch all without ads. She never has to wait. If she's losing a game, she hits the reset button. Doesn't like a song, she skips."
"The rest of us grew up with limited or no tech. We had commercials on TV. Our favorite shows were only on once a day at a specific time. We were prisoners to whatever the DJ was playing on the radio. Sometimes our friends were grounded, so we'd have to play alone."
"Now I have friends with kids who place limits on the 'electronic babysitter.' These kids do have patience and they use their imagination. So there's hope."
- popcornstuffedbra
Basic Connections
"I love technology for its educational pieces. I avoid my kids on YouTube etc. They are aware of those people but not how you access it from their tablet. Coding, PBS Games, reading, writing, math, stem games."
"Kids today need time to just be kids. I believe study hall should exist after their main subjects. They can do homework, tutoring, and extracurriculars afternoon until their parents pick them up or they ride home on a bus. It should be a time of exploration, soft social skills through board games, etc."
"They are missing, and even daily living skills because the world is always on the go."
"They need access to actual food. Vegetable gardens, rabbit pens, etc. Helping others. Time to just be kids, make mistakes and get messy without it being filmed. We all f**k up that doesn't mean it needs to be filmed and posted or shamed for it."
"They need time to build resilience, kindness, and just to be with their family and friends. Access to actual public transportation. I could go on and on."
- Taterandabean
Being Held Accountable
"Accountability! Especially in schools. In my district, they think it’s unfair to the children and can hurt a child’s self-esteem if they’re held back in school. So, even if they never do a single assignment, flunk every class, and learn nothing, they advance to the next grade."
"Because of this, I have sixth graders who don’t know how to spell anything, don’t know punctuation, have no idea what to do with commas, and have no clue that they need to capitalize the first letter of a sentence. They don’t know how to write a paragraph. They are disrespectful to teachers and just don’t care because it doesn’t matter if they flunk. It is just sad."
- meow1983
Enjoying Nature
"The outdoors without electronics. We have nature trails that border where I work and when I see people out 'enjoying' the great outdoors, most of them have their faces buried in their phones."
"There is so much beauty in nature and being able to observe it can teach a person a lot."
- crewchief1949
Less Technology Dependence
"Growing up in the '90s/early '00s was a lot of fun. H**l, I didn’t get my first cell phone until ninth grade."
"Kids are surprised when I tell them I had to share it with my brother, had no internet access, and it only had enough memory to store 50 texts. If you reached that, you had to delete some in order to receive new ones. Oh, and I got so good at texting without looking at my phone."
- WolverineJive_Turkey
Poor Attitudes
"I'm Gen Z but I see older people being a lot more optimistic. If something fails, they try something else. A lot of young people are so fed up with life (me included), they can barely function and they either isolate themselves or indulge in obscene hedonism."
- pensiero_97
"Free time (too much homework in my opinion)."
"Privacy (social media and constant connection via a phone/laptop)."
"Downtime (time to just chill and do nothing, they feel like every moment needs to be filled or they’re missing out)."
"Ignorance (they’re introduced to world/political issues way younger)."
- Strude187
Kids Being Kids
"A youth without having to be perfectly styled and ready for social media..."
"We played. Outside. In the mud and snow and in the summer's heat. We came back with dirty clothes, freezing cold noses, and wet from jumping into the nearby lake. We didn't care about our clothes, about our "style" and happily wore the same green t-shirt and jeans every day (of course, cleaned)."
"We knew when to come home , not because we had a smartphone or a smartwatch, but because of the sunset. I'll never forget sitting on the porch, watching the sunset, eating ice cream, and being completely and undeniably unworried."
"No one captured every third step on digital videos and posted them on every single social media platform. No one needed 'likes' and 'retweets.' No one bullied you because you didn't have the iPhone 383637 S for ˘$3000..."
"We were KIDS. Just. Kids. Not miniature adults with bad manners and mobile phone addiction."
- DieDobby
For people who grew up in the early 2000s or sooner, these memories are undeniably nostalgic, and even sad, knowing that today's kids won't share in the same memories.
The biggest takeaways seemed to be the push for a full schedule and impressing the internet, when really, the point used to be to unplug and relax with friends.
Those who grew up between the '80s and early 2000s have a long memory of items and experiences that either went out of style or disappeared completely.
From early PC games to Blockbuster to favorite snacks, there's a lot to miss from childhood.
But the odd thing is how quietly some of these things went away, and how few people seemed to notice.
Feeling nostalgic, Redditor lukiiiiii asked:
"What quietly went away without anyone noticing?"
Top-Notch Abbreviations
"ROFL (Rolling on the Floor Laughing) dropped off of the face of the planet, and now we just go straight from LOL (Laughing Out Loud) to LMAO (Laughing My A** Off)."
"I've been using it way more lately because of this. ROFL; can't let the classics die."
- habofi2125
Save Those Box Tops!
"Actual toys in cereal boxes and Cracker Jack boxes."
- GuttMilton
The Early Facebook Years
"Facebook 'Poke' wars."
- Hot_buttered_toast
How the Times Have Changed
"People calling them 'camera phones.'"
- NecroJoe
Advancing Technology
"When you turn off the TV, how the image would shrink to a dot before slowly fading away."
- ConcreteCubeFarm
TV Connection
"When you turn off the TV and then you run your finger on the screen and hear the crackle and feel the static on the glass."
- iwannaberockstar
Positive Environmental Change
"Acid Rain."
"It was a huge environmental issue in the late 70s through the early 90s. Rain was acidic and damaged fertile areas among other things."
"In the US, there was much research done, and eventually industrial regulations were put into place. Companies were allowed to decide what approach they chose to take as long as the results showed the appropriate amount of reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions."
"Unfortunately, positive news doesn't sell, so news outlets did not do justice to reporting this success. As we went into the 2000s, hardly anyone remembered what was done."
- GurglingWaffle
Can We Say, 'Nom Nom Nom'?
"McDonald's all-day breakfast menu."
- EmeraldAlicorn
Old Pastimes
"The pandemic killed a lot more than just people. I really miss McDonald's all-day breakfast."
"And being able to go to Walmart at 2 AM."
- LyrMeThatBifrost
The Days of Landlines and Cords
"I live in a rural area and have to pay for landline service to have internet. Since I have to pay for something so stupid, I figured I'd have to get something stupid."
"...So I got the hamburger phone from the movie 'Juno.'"
"Not gonna lie, the landline has come in clutch a few times, and holding a hamburger to your ear is amusing every time. 10/10 would recommend."
- Meat_Skeleton
Late-night Grocery Runs
"I think people have noticed now but at the time, nobody noticed it was happening: the closing of 24-hour stores. I live in a major city and we don’t have a single 24-hour grocery store ever since the pandemic."
- anxiousfamily
"In a World Where..."
"Movie trailers with that deep voice guy [Don LaFontaine] doing the voiceovers."
- jonathonkarate
SoBe Drinks
"SoBe. I think the last time I had one was at Quizno's."
"[cue 'X-Files' Music]"
- kooshipuff
Gizzard the Taco Bell Dog
"Taco Bell used to have a chihuahua as their mascot. Little dude just disappeared one day, and anyone born after 2000 probably doesn't even know what I am talking about."
- To_Fight_the_Night
Google+
"Google+ was the only social media our school forgot to block on our laptops, so I used it a lot. RIP."
- AgentBieber
Some of these really brought back some deeply-engrained memories for the '80s to '00s kids, and it's true that many of them blipped out of existence quietly.
But if this teaches us anything, it doesn't mean that "out of sight, out of mind" also has to mean "out of heart."
And let's have a moment of silence for the vocal stylings of Don LaFontaine and Gizzard the talking Taco Bell dog.
People Who Grew Up In The 1990s Describe What It Was Really Like
With certain trends coming back into fashion from the 1990s, as well as reboots from '90s kids' favorite TV shows and movies, some who were born since then might be wondering what all the fuss is about.
And the '90s kids were ready for a walk down memory lane.
Redditor Anitoko_chan182 asked:
"To all those who grew up in the 1990s, what was life like?"
What Homework?
"Get home from school, lie and say I had no homework, and go ride bikes or hang out in the tree house with neighborhood kids until it got dark."
"Go home, eat dinner, watch cartoons or play video games, and lay in bed with anxiety because I didn't do my homework."
"Rinse and repeat."
- Slawth_x
"Car!"
"'Car!'"
"What amazes me is the universality of this. Because there was no other phrase. And I think people think it's a reference to 'Wayne's World,' but let's be real, that was art imitating life, not the other way around."
- whatever_befall
The Sweetest of Afternoons
"Don't forget riding bikes with a group of like eight kids to 7-11, all of you leaving your bikes out in front unlocked while you went in and loaded up on candy and Slurpees, and then going back to someone's house to play cards and listen to music while we ate the junk food."
- brasslamp
Unlimited Nights and Weekends
"I remember my parents got cell phones when I was pretty young. Like early-early versions."
"My mom turned hers off unless she needed to make a call. And then one day my dad had road trouble or something and then couldn't get ahold of her because she just didn't turn her phone on."
"It was a whole thing. But it was like this light bulb moment of, 'if I have a mobile phone so I can be reached wherever I am, I need to keep it turned on.'"
- Catsdrinkingbeer
Ghost in the Graveyard
Staying out playing in the front yard until dark (yes, the cliche was true). We played 'Jurassic Park' a lot and made up dances to the Spice Girls."
"My personal favorite was Ghost in the Graveyard (Hide and Seek in the dark), but it sounds like that may be a regional thing."
- midnightlightbright
That Dial-Up Sound
"No social media, which means all my f**kups are only captured on Polaroids and the mind of people slowly approaching dementia, thank merciful Christ."
"The internet was slow as s**t, like it took 20 minutes to get online with dialup. China's economy was still dominated by Hong Kong, and Russia looked like they were going to modernize into a real democracy. The president of the US played jazz on live TV, and hair gel sold faster than crack."
"We were definitely more optimistic than we are now, but maybe that was just delusion rather than fact. It's hard to tell sometimes if things were actually better, or if I was just a kid who could enjoy the simple moments in life."
- Cyanora
The Little Things
"No social media, or cell phones, was the absolute best. If we wanted a picture, we had to remember that the person, who in my case was a real gossip at high school, was going to see it."
"I was in high school in the mid-90s, my elementary days were spent playing hide and go seek with the neighborhood kids, and every front yard on the block was fair game; not one neighbor ever complained."
"Everyone seemed kinder, the music was awesome, and we were all so much more connected it seemed. Lots of basketball, rollerblading, and 'jacka**' type shenanigans that we would come up with."
"And Dunkaroos, Surge, and Flinstone push-ups were the ultimate treats."
- expecto_your-mom
Just Relax
"Colorful, unashamedly campy, and everything basically had that 'your lame parents trying to impress your friends' vibe... and it worked."
"I was born in 87, but I grew up in the 90s. I miss that decade immensely. It was so laid back and carefree (as a child)."
"Everything now takes itself so f**king seriously. It's depressing."
- MateriaMuncher
Before the Crash
"I was reading something about this not too long ago. Compared with much of the previous century, the 90s would have come off as amazing."
"No world wars, the cold war had just ended. The economy was doing very well. The modern tech industry was up and coming and the downsides that we're aware of today hadn't become apparent yet. 9/11 and its aftermath hadn't happened yet."
"Someone growing up in the 90s would have definitely felt pretty optimistic."
- Always_Statsing
What Health Issues?
"We all had health issues and ate the terrible 1990s all-carb diet."
"We just didn't discuss mental health, etc. Those topics were incredibly taboo. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid, nobody wanted that diagnosis, nobody wanted to have to be in special needs classes, etc."
"Tony Soprano being public (on tv) about taking Prozac was a HUGE deal."
- imnothereurnotthere
Entertainment on the Rise
"Pretty cool. The Internet was fresh and exciting. Video games were this really creative interactive medium that was seeing rapid development."
"3D animation became a thing and had some really creative TV shows like 'Reboot.' 'Chumbawumba' made us all feel like nothing could keep us down. 'The Simpsons' were a comedy powerhouse."
"Pokemon became an international craze and kids were obsessive about it."
- ILikeToThinkOutLoud
Living Slower
I am super grateful for my coming of age in the 90s! I’ve written about it before, but looking back, it was a great time for a childhood. It was hard to beat Friday night at the local video rental place, perusing the horror VHS movies from the 80s."
"I was born in the early 80s and remember the late 80s well and had my formative years in the 90s. It was actually really amazing, gaming on the early consoles, but having a full life outside that the digital world just didn’t really intrude upon. Playing outdoors on summer days and retiring to the Super Nintendo at night was a really great balance."
"We watched and participated in the growth of the internet, with a pretty solid delineation between a time before the net and the time after. To a middle schooler, getting the internet for the first time was damn near a magical experience."
"Things were slower. We didn’t have instantaneous gratification or access to so much information/goods/services so quickly. Even though I enjoy getting my stuff within a day or two as much as the next yak, I would be lying if I said that we didn’t sacrifice something important for the wonders of same-day shipping."
"In short, I wouldn’t trade my childhood in the ’90s for anything. While I love my awesome gaming PC, my home theater, and above all else, my iPad that I’m typing this out on, I miss the slower-paced world of the 90s and wish we could get a little of that patience back."
- The_Best_Yak_Ever
The Information Age
"Hank Green recently did a video talking about how, in an earlier video he'd joked about the internet being as big a change for society as the printing press. And while he'd originally intended that as joking hyperbole, it's become apparent that it might be an understatement."
"Us born in the 80s kids are more or less the last generation to remember life before the internet. My family had a computer early on, and I'm really nostalgic for the early days of chatrooms and message boards before everyone was online and in these walled gardens."
"It's a little helpful to realize we're still in the early days of the Information Age. It takes time for society to adjust and figure out healthy ways to live with big things like this in our lives."
"It doesn't help, though, that big things like this seem like they're happening at an increasing rate."
- Krail
Knowledge in Your Pocket
"I am still impressed with the idea of literally having a repository of essentially all human knowledge in my pocket."
"Back then you couldn't remember something or wanted to know what was the primary language of a different country? Hope you know someone reliable who knows that or you own an encyclopedia or can get to the library. Good luck with the dewy decimal system in the card catalog."
"The amount of effort to obtain knowledge has become so minute that we should all be smarter than we are but when it's so accessible the value is diminished to some degree."
"I remember seeing on inspector gadget penny his niece have a book that was effectively a mobile computer and videophone and thinking it was pure insanity if that were to ever exist. I am literally typing on such a device now."
"When I saw the internet become accessible on a phone for the first time it was 2006 and my friend's sidekick and I about lost my mind. We are living in the future."
- DanielFyre
I.R.L.
"Everything felt a lot more real, and a lot more wholesome, for the most part. Mind you, I was a child back then so I'm sure I'm biased. Things felt slower. Kids used to play outside whenever they could, and no one was EVER using electronics outside, except for the occasional Walkman."
"I preferred the houses back then a lot since they still had some semblance of beauty and color. Unless you were in a big city, almost everyone had yards. There were a lot more trees everywhere. People weren't just constantly cutting down every single tree in every town for no reason."
"And the average person's language skills were MILES better than they are today."
- RebeccaETripp
Watching a Movie
"When the commercial came on, you RAN to the bathroom. Then your sibling yelled, 'it's back on!' And you RAN back to the couch!"
- chompytown
Snuggled in-between wars and economy crashes, the 1990s felt like a uniquely safe time that we may never fully see again. But it sure is fun to reminisce.