Getting old is a funny thing. One day, you’re partying with your friends, waking the sun, and feeling seemingly invincible. Next, you catch yourself wearing earplugs to concerts and throwing your back out from sneezing too hard.
In a similar vein, since pop culture by nature is always in a constant state of arrival , it can make us feel ancient when we apply a retrospective to it. With that in mind, have a look below at these pop culture facts that are making me feel very old .
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Green Day’s iconic ‘Dookie’ album turned 28 years old in 2022.
The legendary pop-punk band has remained at the forefront of the scene for more than three decades. Singles on the album included “Basketcase,” “Longview,” and “When I Come Around.”
‘The Simpsons’ is entering its 34th Season.
Not only is The Simpsons the longest-running animated series of all time, but it’s also the longest-running series in the history of television — by a longshot. The next closest is Law and Order: Special Victims Unit with 23 Seasons.
Tom DeLonge quit Blink-182 17 years ago.
The Blink-182 you see today is not the real Blink-182. No matter how much time passes, I will never forgive Tom for his selfishness in up-ending arguably the greatest pop-punk band of our (or any) generation.
The kids in ‘Recess’ would likely have children of their own by this point.
TJ and his group of 4th Grade pals would’ve been 10 years old back when the show first aired. Today, that would make them approximately 35 years old. That really womps.
Ross Gellar’s son, Ben, is 30 years old.
More specifically, the actor who played Ben on Friends , Cole Sprouse, is 30 years old . For context, in the last appearance of Ben in “The One Where Joey Dates Rachel,” his age is said to be six years old.
Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” was released 24 years ago.
I can still sing along to every last verse of “Baby, One More Time” and I’m not embarrassed to admit that. Regardless of what anyone says, Britney will always and forever be the undisputed queen of pop music.
Kids today have absolutely no idea or concept of what a floppy disk is.
To be honest, even I have a hard time comprehending and remembering — and I lived through the ’90s! It’s crazy to think that nowadays even CDs are becoming less and less common.
Dwayne Johnson is 50.
That’s right, the most electrifying man in sports entertainment is officially over the hill. I have to admit that I feel sorry for kids today. They’ll never even begin to understand how incredible it was to see The Rock going head-to-head with the likes of The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” invaded the airwaves over a decade ago.
If you think that Carly Rae is little more than a one-hit-wonder — think again. She’s quietly built an impressive catalog of music over the past five years, and her Tiny Desk Concert is one of the better ones in recent memory.
It’s been more than 26 years since the world was first introduced to The Backstreet Boys.
The Backstreet Boys were The Beatles of the ’90s. Absolutely no other group could touch them in terms of popularity and their still packing arenas and selling out shows to this day.
The first computer with storage capacity was absolutely massive and incredibly expensive.
IBM launched the first computer with storage capacity in 1956. It weighed over 2000 lbs , and cost $35,000 ($381, 237.50 today). Oh, and the storage capacity was 5 MB.
“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is 25 years old.
I still remember buying a copy at the Scholastic Book Fair in the 6th Grade as if it happened only yesterday. I still make a point of re-reading it every year.
Facebook is 18 years old.
I’m so old that I can still remember a time when in order to have a Facebook profile, you needed to have an approved college/university e-mail address . My oh my, how the times have changed.
15 years ago, Instagram didn’t exist.
It feels almost impossible to imagine a time without Instagram. The social media sharing app has become the dominant force in the world of social media, although now that TikTok is becoming more and more popular — who’s to say how much longer that will be the case?
According to ‘Back To The Future II’, the future is now our past.
When Marty McFly travels into the future with Doc Brown, they travel to October 21st, 2015 . I’ve got to admit, I feel largely let down. We barely have scratched the surface of self-driving cars, let alone ones that can fly.
‘Friends’ first premiered nearly three decades ago.
If you think that’s crazy, wait until you find out that the iconic sitcom has been off the air for more than 18 years! Still, it remains one of the most popular re-watched shows across streaming platforms.
Kids going into high school this fall were born in the year 2008.
I know, I didn’t want to believe it either, but I’ve done the math and it checks out. On the plus side, I did get ID’d at the liquor store the other day; that was nice.
The events of ‘Bladerunner’ technically took place three years ago.
The first Bladerunner film starring Harrison Ford was considered a marvel of science-fiction. What’s crazy to think, however, is that Ridley Scott’s epic neo-noir thriller technically unfolds in the year 2019 .
Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ is 40 years old.
There’s no escaping the proverbial earworm that is Michael Jackson’s Thriller. For decades, Thriller was the best-selling album of all time. It was recently dethroned by The Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) .
John Stamos was 24 years old when ‘Full House’ first premiered back in 1987.
In case you lost track, that would make DJ, Stephanie, and even little Michelle Tanner all older than their uncle today, by more than 10 years .
‘Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope’ hit theaters more than 45 years ago.
The first film in the fabled Star Wars saga debuted all the way back in 1977 . To this day, it’s still considered to be one of the most monumental films of all time.
