Every new generation of people experiences life differently. That depends on what economical, political and cultural environment they grew up surrounded by. They are also heavily impacted by the technology that is available and how it makes their lives easier and less complicated as time goes by.
Those who were born earlier witness the change in the generations, in the global trends and technology development and observe how younger people than them don’t experience the world in the same way they did.
This does not necessarily mean that the way today’s kids are growing up is wrong, but it’s still interesting to explore what things lose their relevance over time and how they immediately expose your age. Redditors went down memory lane when LastPoopOnTheLeft asked them “Without revealing your age, What is something from your childhood that ‘Kids These Days’ wouldn't understand?”
Let us know if anything in this list was part of your childhood and if you ever had to explain it to a younger person who had no idea what it was!
More info: Reddit
#1
How we had to plan our TV watching around a printed schedule. No VHS, no dvr.
Image credits: thorndike
#2
How much time we spent playing outside, but not in organized sports. Pickup kickball in the street where you yell “CAR!” to break up the game briefly for a car driving through. Coming home covered in dirt after disappearing for five hours. We all made fun of how we were called by our parents. We would explore and poke around. Dig up worms, chase butterflies, freak out over finding a dead baby bird, skin our knees at least twice a summer and entertain ourselves for hours.
Image credits: GoddessOfOddness
#3
TV going off-the-air at night.
Image credits: J_David_Settle_1973
#4
It’s not working, cuz it’s not on Ch3
Image credits: moridin82
#5
Recording music from the radio
Image credits: AndNoc
#6
Playing the same level on a game over and over because there’s no Saves
Image credits: drevilishrjf
#7
The joys of Saturday morning cartoons
Image credits: GallicPontiff
#8
Getting to be goofy and awkward and not have to worry about it ending up online for everyone to see.
Image credits: anon
#9
Using a road atlas to get somewhere on vacation
Image credits: siriusonbroadripple
#10
Calling a girl and her dad answers the phone. That s**t was rough, kids.
Image credits: clydem
#11
Running to go to the bathroom during a commercial break
Image credits: OptimistPrime527
#12
Organising to meet someone on a landline and actually having to turn up on time or they wouldn’t know where you are because you have no way of contacting them.
Image credits: withereddesign
#13
Rewinding vhs or a cassette before returning.
Image credits: est1979
#14
Memorizing peoples phone numbers
Image credits: OptimistPrime527
#15
Video rental stores with adult sections
Image credits: est1979
#16
Phone corded to the wall.
Image credits: Dendad6972
#17
Calling the theater to listen to the prerecorded list of what movies were playing and at what time.
Image credits: SteamboatMcGee
#18
Knocking on your friends door to see if they could come out and play.
Image credits: whit3lightning
#19
The sound on the phone when somebody was using the internet.
Image credits: Poops_McClanahan
#20
Kids these days wouldn't understand why people who grew up with beanie babies won't buy NFTs
Image credits: Lovebot_AI
#21
That Lite Brite was peak technology
Image credits: shanecdotes
#22
We had to walk up to the t.v. to turn it on or off, change the channel, or adjust the antenna when the picture became unclear.
Image credits: BingeRedditor
#23
Hitting that red strip of paper for your toy gun with a rock.
Image credits: songinheart17
#24
those sort of binoculars with cardboard discs with pictures. I used to have Dora the Explorer ones.
Image credits: guitarhansolo
#25
The things on Facebook that say repost this… they were called chain letters back in the day, and you got them in the mail.
Image credits: Plenty_Surprise2593
#26
"Please get off the computer (internet) so that I can make a phone call."
Image credits: Big-Professional723
#27
The Wizard of Oz was on once a year, and if we missed it we had to wait another year to see it
Image credits: Fearless_Associate_5
#28
Waiting for your friend to get home to call them. (Not having constant access)
Image credits: est1979
#29
I've noticed a lot of younger people who have grown up with social media don't have a strong sense of privacy. Everything is filmed and turned into a tiktok or an insta story without asking if you consent to having your life shared like this.
Image credits: Houndie
#30
Walkman
Image credits: Shuoinked
#31
NOT DA MAMA!
Image credits: BeEccentric
#32
Waiting til nights and weekends to make FREE phone calls on your mom’s Nokia.
Image credits: SameAsk6997
#33
Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?
Image credits: cfishlips
#34
I recently had to explain what “changing the channel” meant to my small kid because he only knows streaming. We’ve already covered CDs, VCRs, and what it means to roll down a car window. It was a little rough (for me, not him). Edit: oh and we watched “Turning Red” and I got to explain what a flip phone is.
Image credits: Proper-Emu1558
#35
Picking up the telephone to call your friend and hearing people talking because it was a party line, meaning multiple households all had to share the same line and so you had to wait until it was available.#36
Walking to blockbuster and spending an hour trying to pick a movie everyone agrees on
Image credits: sugarfairymagic
#37
Blowing on Game cartridges to make them work.#38
How exciting it was to open a new box of cereal to see which toy you got and trade with your mates, usually pencil toppers or bicycle reflectors etc lol
Image credits: WishUponAStar35
#39
Hunting for dimes in pay phones#40
You needed a light accessory for your Gameboy because those suckers didn't have back lighting. And to trade Pokemon, you needed to use cables. CABLES.
Image credits: gracefultime
#41
Tamagotchi were actually fun#42
Going on road trips as a kid where the only form of entertainment was some sort of game played amongst your siblings in the back seat involving the license plates of other passing cars. On our car trip to Disney/FL from central PA me and my brother had a competition on who could write down the most license plate numbers… we ended in the thousands but for the life of me I can’t remember who “won” ?
Image credits: Ambrosia0201