It’s hard to believe that the ‘ 90s are so far behind us. Many of us lived some of our best days and memories in the ’90s, having our childhoods revolve around plaid grunge shits, Nirvana , and Saved by the Bell. Back in the day, things were much more simple —not so much technology and definitely not as many issues. But, as time has progressed, so has the rules and regulations that come along with life.
Dubbing people on plans.
“Making plans with someone multiple days in advance, not talking to them about it again, and just showing up without having to confirm that day that your plans are still on,” said Reddit user LetMeStopURightThere
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Walking around the mall for hours barely buying anything at all.
Back in the ’90s, our nights weren’t spent at home watching Netflix.
Nor were they out exploring the club or the bar scene. We used to walk around the mall aimlessly and never really buy much. Maybe a t-shirt with the $20 our parents gave us if that at all.
Remembering everyone’s phone numbers.
“Memorizing phone numbers. Back then, it was necessary. Now if you tell someone you memorized their number, it makes you look like you’re obsessed with them. What kind of weirdo memorizes peoples’ numbers,” said Reddit user esoteric_enigma .
Waiting to hear a song on the radio.
“Waiting for your favorite song to play in the radio so you can record on your cassette tapes.
I remember when I recorded Wonderwall the first time I could catch it on a radio here in Brazil.
Also, waiting for a month or so after the premiere date of Titatic in US to watch it here. It used to take forever for american movies to get here,” said marifomin .
Those inflatable chairs we were all obsessed with.
Remember back in the day when the neon, inflatable furniture was what we all had on our birthday wish list?
We literally were obsessed with having see-through furniture that would deflate after an hour or two of sitting on it.
Pay phones.
“Using 1-800-collect to call people. Oh, and pay phones. And waiting for pay phones that were being used. and then putting your mouth right next to were their mouth was a moment later, feeling the perspiration on the ear part of the phone from the last users head being pressed all up on it,” said Butthead21 .
Not knowing the answer to a trivia question.
Back in the ’90s, when you played trivia and you didn’t know an answer, you couldn’t Google it or look it up.
Could you imagine not knowing an answer to something and not being able to actually figure it out? Thank goodness for Google.
Pushing people into the pool.
“More the early 90s, but pushing people into pools. Back when no one had cell phones, it was funny. Their clothes got all wet!
Now you do it, and you’re likely to owe that person like $500,” said Reddit user Levelagon .
Losing all of your music in one fell swoop.
Having a music collection today is very different than having one back in the 1990s.
Today, you have everything on your Spotify account or even on your iPhone through iTunes. But, back then, if we lost our CD case, that was that. It was all gone!
Letting kids ride their bikes out alone, at night.
“I’m 41 years old. I used to regularly ride my bike 10 miles to my friend’s house, completely alone, starting around age 8. I would stay there all day hanging out and then ride home for dinner. This was completely normal – lots of kids did similar things,” said TunaFishManwich .
Going to rent videos at a store.
Remember on Friday nights when you would go with your parents and pick out a new movie to watch together as a family at Blockbuster and other rental video places?
It was a totally different time. Picking out snacks and begging your parents to get a movie with Brad Pitt. Iconic.
Paying for things with checks at stores.
“Writing a check to pay for something at a store. You may not even know what that means, but that’s how non rich people payed for stuff then.
You could buy food on Wednesday with a check and no money in your account, then pray that you got your paycheck (they gave you a paper check that you had to drive to the bank and go inside to deposit using a human teller) to the bank before the bad check you wrote for the food did,” said Ils20l .
Using print-out directions or a map.
Having to use a map to navigate everywhere when on a trip in the car was something that we look at now as totally archaic and truly terrible.
Thanks to navigation on our phones, we don’t need to know how to read a map (thank God for that).
Not talking to people for a few days and them not worrying so much.
Back in the ’90s, you went days without speaking to some of your friends and family.
Nowadays, with texting and social media, if you don’t hear from someone for a long time, you assume they are dead or something bad has happened.
Not knowing what happened if you missed an episode of your favorite TV show.
If there was a new episode of your favorite show on TV and you happened to miss it, you were pretty much out of luck until there was a rerun or someone told you all the details. DVR and streaming were so not a thing back then.
So, we were glued to the TV when we had to be!
