Older Folks Are Sharing The Pre-2000 Struggles That Today’s Kids Will Never Know (20 Posts)

Reddit

Gotta love a post that’s tailor-made to make millennials feel old, yanno?

Today I’m bringing you pre-2000 era struggles that will make today’s kids look at you like you’re a decrepit mummy back from the dead.

LISTEN KIDS, it’s not our fault technology changed so fast!

Over on Reddit, u/Common-Sprinkles9328 recently asked the question, “Redditors born before the year 2000, what will those born after 2000 never have to struggle with like you did?”

1. The Radio

“Listening to the radio for hours waiting to hit record on a cassette tape when your favorite song comes on. Listening to the end of the set to find out who recorded that song, if they announce it. Then saving allowance money to buy the album where maybe they’ll have printed lyrics so you can find out what the slurred lines said.” doublestitch / Reddit

2. Texts

“Having to delete text messages because your phone could only store 10 max.” Tinkletoe07 / Reddit

3. Remembering media

“Remembering a piece of media   books, TV shows, songs, commercials, even the B movies they’d show on the syndicated channel   and having no idea where to even look to find out whether it really existed or if it was just a childhood fever dream, much less find the title and creators or the whole freakin’ thing on YouTube.” hooptiously_drangled / Reddit

4. Dial-up

“Dial-up!” SaltierThanAll / Reddit

5. LimeWire

“Downloading a song on LimeWire and realizing it’s just a clip of Bill Clinton saying, ‘I did not have sex with that woman’ on repeat.” Bit5plitter / Reddit

6. No GPS

“Driving without GPS. Here’s a paper map. I hope you know how to read it. Better hope it’s up to date.” MikeyPapapacha / Reddit

7. Printed Directions

“I remember printing the directions from Google Maps to take with us in the car, because you could only get it on the desktop computer. If it was a particular long trip, you would have like 10 pages of directions!” the_bourgeoisie_bird / Reddit

8. Waiting

“Waiting around for people. Once they left their home, they had no way to get in touch with you unless they stopped at a phone booth. So if they were delayed or just late, you fucking sat around and waited. I remember many long hours waiting for people to show up.” Botryoid2000 / Reddit

9. The Library

“If you had a project for school, you couldn’t get started until your mom felt like driving you to the library.” rotatingruhnama / Reddit

10. No Screens In Cars

“A five-hour drive with nothing to keep you entertained except your parents’ music and highway games like license plate bingo.” siskulous / Reddit

11. Bad Gaming

“Trying to play your Game Boy in the car at night and only being able to really play when you passed under a street light because it didn’t have a backlit screen.” liontribe613 / Reddit

12. Phone Numbers

“Memorizing phone numbers.” cantstandlol / Reddit

13. Encyclopedias on CD

“Needing to find information on a topic not found in Encarta ’95.” jrinneard / Reddit

14. VHS

“Rewinding a VHS tape to replay a movie.” Significant-Garlic87 / Reddit

15. Magazines

“Sitting in the doctor’s waiting room reading old magazines/ watching the TV that was put on the ceiling.” mydepressingpoems / Reddit

16. TV Guide Channel

“Looking for something to watch on TV, turning to the TV Guide Channel, and waiting for the listings to scroll around to the channels you cared about.” DrakeyC8 / Reddit

17. Nothing On-Demand

“Getting the content you want; imagine going to the video rental store week after week to rent Wild Things at 16 (for reasons) only to find it is always already rented. Or NBA Jam is always rented. Now everything is on demand!” Fritzkreig / Reddit

18. Setting The VCR

“Trying to remember to set the VCR to record your favorite show because or else you’d have to wait until summer reruns to watch it again. You always hoped you got it right, but you never knew until you played that tape. Or worse, you had to be out that night and your usual routine of recording one show while watching the other one live was out the window. Now it was a very hard choice as to which show you were going to record.” inksmudgedhands / Reddit

19. Toilet Boredom

“Being stuck on the toilet without a phone, so you are stuck reading the back of shampoo bottles, bars of soap, etc.”  Habsfan1977 / Reddit

20. Talking On The Phone

“Calling your friends and the terror of having to talk to their parents.”

gutv11 / Reddit

 




Kate Hackett

Kate is a freelance writer, actor, author and columnist living in Los Angeles.