Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Share The Typical 90s Scenarios Gen Z Will Never Experience

Woman with 90s side ponytail and makeup
Photo by Nancy K on Unsplash

Reddit user MediumRareTaint asked: 'What was a typical 90s scenario that today's youth will never experience?'

From latch-key life to knowing when someone's home based on their bike being thrown on the front lawn to the earliest, cringiest days of social media, 80s and 90s kids are full of stories from their childhoods.

But these stories are uniquely nostalgic as kids today will never quite experience this type of childhood ever again.


Redditor MediumRareTint asked:

"What was a typical 90s scenario that today's youth will never experience?"

Landline Etiquette

"Talking to someone's parent and asking for your friend, because it was the landline and no caller ID."

- MixedSyrup

"Answering the phone in the kitchen, then running back to your room to take it there, and yelling, 'MOM, HANG UP THE PHONE! MOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM, HANG UP THE PHONE!'"

- manderifffic

The Dial-Up "Song"

"Dial-up internet. That tone is ingrained in my memory."

- Reeeeaper

Downloading Woes

"The experience of losing connection when you downloaded 99% of the file because your mom picked up the phone. Still hurts."

- Cute_Panda9

"Telling everyone in your family you're downloading a big file; don't pick up the phone."

"Reminding your family that you're downloading a big file; don't pick up the phone."

"Telling your family the file is almost done; don't pick up the phone."

"Then someone picks up the phone with ten seconds left... and you have to start the 14-hour download again tomorrow."

- Mustang46L

Internet Sounds in the Home

"The dial-up internet tone that was like nails on a chalkboard."

"'Welcome! You've got mail!'"

"The happy logging onto AIM sound."

"Someone yelling from another area of the house, 'Get offline so I can make a call!'"

"Starting a file download/upload... walking away to make a sandwich, brew coffee, fold laundry, start a new load of laundry, put the laundry away... and coming back and the download/upload is still not complete."

"Getting disconnected from the internet because someone picked up the phone to make a call while you were in the process of the aforementioned download/upload, and losing your everlovin' mind on that person."

"The best part: The original Oregon Trail game."

- Just_another_Sue

Renting Movies

"Getting a video to rent and watch at home made you feel like you were going 'out' to do something."

- ekimlive

"Oh God, movie rental, a pizza, some microwave popcorn, and some soda. It was such a fantastic night if those things were planned."

- GreenOnionCrusader

True Quiet and Disconnection

"The feeling of coming home free from school or work, and the outside world was very separate from you until the following day."

"You couldn’t easily find out what your friends were doing (they weren’t doing anything anyway), you couldn’t easily catch up on the news unless it happened to be on, and you couldn’t catch up on new movies or celebrity gossip unless you had a magazine lying around, which would come out monthly."

"It’s a level of relaxation that we took for granted, but we were likely the last generation to experience it."

- Own-Firefighter-2728

"Man, this is a really good one. We are so, so connected and it's so, so unhealthy for us."

"It was really nice when we were an entire phone call away. I didn't need to know anything about anybody, the focus was on the people you were with, and experiences outside of the home were more special."

- artemasfoul

The All-Important Meeting Place

"Making plans beforehand and having a meeting place since no one owned cell phones."

- MixedSyrup

Being Stood Up

"My youth and adulthood perfectly straddle cell phones. Last-minute cancellations became increasingly more common throughout my 20s but were rare in my teens."

"What really sucked was when a date didn’t show up and you had no way of knowing whether 1. they were ok, 2. they had a good reason, or 3. they just decided to stand you up. You generally assumed the worst, or at least I did."

- Dudley_Do_Wrong

"I never adjusted to this. I still hold true to my original plans and am confused with today's culture on this. Like, we made plans. If you didn't want to, don't say yes."

"And I am only 39."

- x-Mowens-x

No Cameras Rolling

"I grew up in the 70s and 80s, but this applies to the 90s as well…"

"You could do the absolute dumbest, craziest, most embarrassing s**t you could possibly imagine, and no one was recording it."

- FrankNStein

Safer Surroundings

"A parent saying, 'Here's $20, I'll pick you up at 8:00 when the mall closes. Don't talk to strangers.'"

- Nonsenseinabag

Airport Security

"Meeting people at the gate when you pick them up from the airport."

- Main_Maximum8963

"Romance movies have been ruined because of this."

- lifejustice

Cramming Commercial Time

"Making a dash through the house from the kitchen to the couch when someone yelled out, 'It’s back on!'"

- NicGyver

"This is how my mom used to get my sister and me to clean the house. One commercial at a time during a movie."

- reklawpuck

Live Television Programs

"Missing an episode on tv and never knowing when you can see that episode again unless some chance someone recorded it."

- Cute_Panda9

School Delays and Cancelations

"Waiting for your school district to be announced as on time, late, or canceled on the news when it snowed."

- SuitableNegotiation5

"Seeing your school scroll across the ticker was like winning the lottery."

- umanousti

Simpler Travel

"Stopping at a gas station and asking for directions."

"Or driving around aimlessly looking for a place to eat."

- Actuaryba

"Using an actual physical map. Then trying to fold it again."

- he77bender

Anyone who was a kid or young adult in the 90s will surely get feelings of nostalgia from at least some of these memories, but with the way technology is rushing forward, it's unlikely that kids today will ever get to experience these.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Linda McMahon; Mrs. Puff from "Spongebob Squarepants"
Taylor Hill/WireImage; Nickelodeon

Department Of Education's Bizarre 'SpongeBob' Tweet For Teacher Appreciation Week Backfires Spectacularly

The Department of Education (DOE) was criticized after tweeting a strange image of Mrs. Puff from SpongeBob SquarePants to mark Teacher Appreciation Week, drawing outrage online.

The agency wrote, “Teachers are dedicated,” alongside an image of Mrs. Puff, the boating school instructor from SpongeBob SquarePants best known for repeatedly trying—and failing—to help SpongeBob pass his driving exam, depicted reading a book titled “MAGA.”

Keep ReadingShow less
hantavirus illustration
Joao Luiz Bulcao/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Infectious Diseases Expert Speaks Out After MAGA Makes Predictably Unfounded Claim About Hantavirus

For those unaware, ivermectin is an FDA-approved antiparasitic medication used to treat conditions caused by parasitic worms as well as external parasites like lice.

Parasites are organisms that depend on a host to both survive and spread. There are three main types of parasites that call humans home—the endoparasites protozoa and helminths (worms), which cause infection inside the body, and ectoparasites, which cause infection superficially within or on the skin.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hayden Panettiere
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Hayden Panettiere Just Publicly Came Out As Bisexual—And She Explained Why She Waited So Long

Scream and Heroes star Hayden Panettiere is soon releasing her memoir This is Me: A Reckoning, and according to an interview with US Weekly, she almost didn't write it.

Despite many of her characters being confident, kind, and often bubbly in nature, Panettiere's life at home was riddled with dark moments, including tremendous public pressure, abuse, drug addiction, and tragic loss.

Keep ReadingShow less
Brian Niccol
Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company

The CEO Of Starbucks Just Gave A Mind-Numbing Defense For Charging $9 For Coffee 'Experience'—And People Aren't Having It

What's the absolute most you'd ever agree to pay for a coffee? If you said the absurd amount of $9, you're apparently Starbucks' ideal customer.

The coffee chain's CEO Brian Niccol is getting dragged on the internet for insisting that $9 is a perfectly reasonable price for a cup of joe.

Keep ReadingShow less
Zohran Mamdani
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Zohran Mamdani Praised For His Post About Fashion Industry's Unsung Heroes After Skipping Met Gala

Each year, the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—dubbed just The Met—hosts an invite-only fundraising gala in New York City, currently boasting a $100,000-a-ticket price tag.

The Met Gala has been called "fashion’s biggest night" with icons of fashion and entertainment rubbing elbows with the uber-wealthy in The Met's Fifth Avenue location on Manhattan's Upper East Side. This year's theme was "Fashion is Art."

Keep ReadingShow less