10 Things from the ’80s and ’90s That Gen Z Is Totally Missing Out On
Every generation has nostalgia that the newer generations are totally missing out on . . . like how Boomers would walk 10 miles to school, in two feet of snow, barefoot, uphill both ways.
There’s a thread on social media where Millennials and Gen X are talking about the things from THEIR childhood that Gen Z never got to experience. Here are a few highlights:
1. “Not having all your screw-ups forever uploaded to the internet.”
Yes, this! I remember I took our 90s Jeep Cherokee off-roading by an old abandoned airfield in Lemont and I knocked down a small tree. Thankfully, the tree was small enough to not damage the front end enough. ANd it was the 90s, so no one had a phone and people didn’t come by later to take photos of the tire tracks and go all CSI on it!
2. “Parents that let their kids run free.”
3. “Musical involvement. Spotify has made everything so available that it’s destroyed a sense of connection. When you were only buying a few CDs every year, you got to know those albums inside and out.”
I can still sing every word of every song on a few albums I had when I was a kid: Country Grammar, The Ozzman Cometh, Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits, Hell Freezes Over, Big Willie Style.
4. Similarly . . . “Checking the ‘TV Guide’ and getting excited about a show or movie that’d be on later in the week. Having everything on-demand ruins that.”
TGIF, anyone?!
5. “The excitement of getting back developed film.”
…and the disappointment when they didn’t turn out or your finger was covering the lens.
6. “AOL Instant Messenger.”
Classic.
7. “Parents not having HD security cameras.”
8. “Browsing the video rental store.”
If you were lucky, you could get more than one, or a video game, too. The one we went to, Waterford Video, even had an attached ice cream counter!
9. “Real, actual boredom. You were forced to be creative . . . learning instruments, drawing and painting, and writing terrible teenage poetry.”
10. “Not being connected to everyone on social media . . . for better AND worse. And being able to disconnect in general.”
Reddit has some great answers if you want to waste a few minutes today!
