Some say age is just a number and time is only an enigma, but it seems pretty darn real when it catches up with you. At least, that’s how many millennials are starting to feel as they approach their 30s and suddenly ( gasp ) they’re getting older. Here are 15 pics that leave millennials in utter existential dread.
1. CDs
Burning your favorite songs on a blank CD and popping it in a boom box or portable CD player was all the rage–once. Now, kids with their iPods and iPhones have no idea about the epic experience of grabbing your Walkman and knowing you were one of the cool kids.
2. DVDs
While things like Red Box still exist, finding the elusive DVD is rare now. Children are only vaguely aware of what a groundbreaking day it was when Netflix began mailing DVD’s to people that they could select with a monthly service. It was revolutionary–once.
3. TV Shows
There’s the agonizing moment when millennials must accept (or not accept) that the shows they know and love are now considered “oldies” and “in the past.” We guess it’s hard to notice Dawson’s Creek when there’s Euphoria now.
4. Time
When many of us are young, 30 years sounds like it’s a lifetime away—until it’s yelling, screaming and attacking us with a knife. Just kidding, but suffice to say, it happens quite fast and it’s pretty scary when suddenly you realize you were indeed alive 30 years ago and feel ancient.
5. VHS
There was a time when many showed off their VHS movie collections with pride, now kids don’t even know what they are. For all they know, they’re bricks or something. Don’t even get us started on what they might think it means to rewind a VHS and actually hear the film move. The horror!
6. Pencil Sharpeners
Before there were electric pencil sharpeners and even longer before lead pencils, there were these babies. That’s right, millennials remember hand sharpeners with a bit of dread and a little nostalgia. These would give a great exercise, but also put you at constant risk of going too far and breaking the lead off the pencil and then having to start all over again. Then there was also the ones that only sharpened one side of the pencil and some that just ate the pencil without sharpening — to say the least, it was an ordeal.
7. Music
A very dark day has arrived indeed, as kids no longer know *NSYNC songs like the back of their hands, or even who the group is. Suddenly, the entire world is all about Olivia Rodrigo and BTS — and Justin Timberlake is 41-years-old! Make it stop!
8. Age
’90s kids got to grow up with the Rugrats , tamagotchis, and mood rings — all things that aren’t the rage anymore. In fact, ’90s people aren’t kids anymore, they’re ( trembles), actual adults now — and not “young” adults either.
9. History
While many of us are used to reading about history in school, we aren’t usually accustomed to becoming history. The fact that the 1990s are considered an era of history that actual children study is just menacing.
10. Phones
With all the high-tech smartphones now, landlines in which people literally need to “hang up” the phone seem like a fable. Kids have no idea where the term “hanging up” actually came from because they have little to no inkling of what phones were like back in the day.
11. Stamina
When people are in their 20ss, it’s hard for them to imagine slowing down and not having energy. However, by their late 20s, it’s not only time to slow down a bit, it’s also time to find a parking spot and take a long nap before work in the morning.
12. Becoming their parents
Most millennials have to take a good look in the mirror when suddenly, the housing shows are amazing, cleaning the kitchen is a ball and bagging groceries is a delicate procedure. To their horror of all horrors, they’re becoming their parents. The change is already upon them before they even realize it’s happening. What’s next, daytime TV court shows?!
13. Dating
In your 20s, dating usually means getting an app of some sort, matching, going out on the town, asking your friends what they think, and so on and so forth. Yet, in your 30s, no one has time for a bunch of small talk and jumping through hoops when there are bills to pay, jobs to work and maybe even babies to feed. Serious inquiries only!
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14. Health
It pains us to think about it, but as we get (*sigh*) older—our bodies change. Millennials begin to feel some new pains, as things that didn’t always faze them start fazing them a whole lot. What was once an easily detectable headache could be caused by a variety of new getting old bodily stuff.
15. Stability
This was the generation that was trained to go out and get steady jobs, married, settled down in a nice home with children and a dream-like picket fence — but most millennials just have plants and somewhat working cars. With a combination of socio-economic obstacles that Boomers didn’t have, there’s a certain cringe when people around their 30s aren’t where they through they’d be. At least they had slap bracelets and Beanie Babies .
Let us know what you think of these pictures in the comments and if you relate to any or all of them.
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