Comparing your generation to subsequent ones tends to evoke platitudes like “Back in my day, we had to walk 20 miles uphill each way to school every day.” When you take the concept to Twitter, however, it feels a little less cliché.
Many former kids – aka adults – have tweeted about the everyday “struggles” they experienced growing up and other sources of nostalgia that children coming of age these days will never understand.
Needless to say, these musings have evoked some strong feelings, especially for millennials and Gen Xers.
Without further ado, we’ve rounded up 30 funny tweets about the things kids today will never be able to understand.
Today’s kids will never know how hard it was to make this choice. pic.twitter.com/v9neXmmNeU
— P Ξ N N I 🧏🏾♂️ (@kemar395) January 6, 2020
Kids today will never know the rush of the internet finally connecting on that third dialing attempt
— Crockett🍀 (@CrockettForReal) August 2, 2020
kids today will never understand the annoyance of calling your friend and having to ask to speak to them
— Lovely Potatoes (@robin_991) July 26, 2021
Kids today will never know the excitement of waking up to a blue light flashing with AIM notifications & texts 😔 pic.twitter.com/ACkcPk4waD
— Essence Maylani (@la_essenciaa) January 29, 2021
Kids today will never know the struggle of tryna beat a playstation game without a memory card
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) September 28, 2020
Kids these days will never understand the pain of not dialing a phone number fast enough before the phone just gives up on you.
— Dadman Walking (@dadmann_walking) November 26, 2020
Kids today will never understand the struggle… pic.twitter.com/QN1rOJfXn5
— Shilpa (@cnshilpa) August 28, 2021
do kids today even know about how DESPERATELY cartoon network wanted their viewers to buy the shirley temple dvd boxset in the mid-2000’s
— PJ ☔️ (@passionpeachy) July 30, 2021
Today's kids will never know how much strength you needed to get the car window down pic.twitter.com/OaTLYXJn2p
— JAYY_ 💅🏾 (@Jaytheofficialx) August 26, 2021
Today's kids will never know the emotional distress of telling a caller "She just left" when their mom whispers "Tell them I just left!" as she heads for the shower
— Just Bren Is Fine (@ogbrenna) June 17, 2021
Sad that kids today will never know the breathless anticipation of flipping pages in the phone book to find just the right name and number...to prank call.
— Just J (@junejuly12) August 28, 2019
Kids today will never understand. pic.twitter.com/x38LjFrkXw
— ひ (@Threaltrildavid) May 6, 2020
Kids today will never understand how much “field day” meant to us back then 😭💯
— 💋 (@da_donnnnnn) April 18, 2021
Kids today will never understand the euphoria of grabbing the last tape of a latest release on a Friday night at Blockbuster.
— Dan Regan (@Social_Mime) July 30, 2021
Today's kids will never know what if was like to take ton of pictures and have to wait a week to get, like, 2 good ones. pic.twitter.com/prJRfDVBOm
— Eric Alper 🎧 (@ThatEricAlper) August 30, 2021
Kids today will never understand that if you didn't see the TV show when it originally aired, you just didn't see it.
— 🤠CoolHTownGirl🤠 (@Coolhtowngirl) May 4, 2021
Kids today will never know the sheer fleeting joy of having a new phone cord that isn't hopelessly tangled like 8 day old fettuccine
— Frankzulla (@frankzulla) September 15, 2021
Music streaming makes music too accessible. Kids today don’t know the struggle of getting the wrapping and stickers off of a CD jewel case.
— Teen LaQueefa (@LaqueefaTeen) August 8, 2021
kids today will never know the suspense of turning on the news in the morning and waiting to see if their district crosses the scrolling banner of school closings
— Adrianna McIntyre (@onceuponA) December 3, 2019
Today’s kids will never understand how amazing these were... pic.twitter.com/dZeYBuGMNV
— Aubs ❤️ (@AubNics) August 26, 2019
Kids today will never understand the autopilot brain mode of singing the first line of the next song before it happens because you’ve memorized the album order.
— Lovely Potatoes (@robin_991) August 22, 2021
My generation knew about suffering. My kids will never know the pain of pinching the tip of their finger in an aggressive rotary dial phone.
— The Untastic Mr. Fitz (@UnFitz) January 15, 2021
Look, I’m not saying kids today don’t have it tough in school, but we had to chew these and everyone knew who didn’t brush their teeth. pic.twitter.com/xkYmVZMPvz
— Eric Alper 🎧 (@ThatEricAlper) December 21, 2020
Kids these days will never know the pain of letting your friend borrow your CD and never getting it back, or worse, getting it back with a scratch on your favorite song.
— Possum Kingdom 🖤 (@aissalanis) April 15, 2020
Kids today don’t know how good they have it with lyrics sites.
— Cassi Mitchell Smith (@G88Gassi) March 27, 2021
We used to have to sing songs wrong for years...until the truth destroyed us.
kids today don't know what we went through to get a 0.75 megapixel selfie. pic.twitter.com/yc9P6L4hlx
— 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐢 (@disco_socialist) November 17, 2020
Kids today don`t know what hardship is. When I was younger I sometimes had to wait ALL DAY for MTV to play my favorite video.
— 🍀 Tabatha 🇺🇸🇮🇪🇮🇱 (@Winning4Him) September 2, 2021
Kids these days will never understand the hilarious rush of pulling up next to a car and seeing the driver belting out the same song you were listening to on the radio.
— Scary Mommy (@ScaryMommy) June 17, 2021
RIP AIM. Today's kids will never understand the struggle of writing the perfect away message. #RIPaim
— Phyllis (@iamphyllis) October 6, 2017
Kids today will never know the trauma of waking up in the middle of a sleepover to hear the DVD main menu screen blasting the same music on loop
— Sydney B. (@syddraex3) September 22, 2020
