Every new generation of people experiences life differently. That depends on what economical, political and cultural environment they grew up surrounded by. They are also heavily impacted by the technology that is available and how it makes their lives easier and less complicated as time goes by.
Those who were born earlier witness the change in the generations, in the global trends and technology development and observe how younger people than them don’t experience the world in the same way they did.
This does not necessarily mean that the way today’s kids are growing up is wrong, but it’s still interesting to explore what things lose their relevance over time and how they immediately expose your age. Redditors went down memory lane when LastPoopOnTheLeft asked them “Without revealing your age, What is something from your childhood that ‘Kids These Days’ wouldn’t understand?”
Let us know if anything in this list was part of your childhood and if you ever had to explain it to a younger person who had no idea what it was!
More info: Reddit
#1
How much time we spent playing outside, but not in organized sports. Pickup kickball in the street where you yell “CAR!” to break up the game briefly for a car driving through. Coming home covered in dirt after disappearing for five hours. We all made fun of how we were called by our parents. We would explore and poke around. Dig up worms, chase butterflies, freak out over finding a dead baby bird, skin our knees at least twice a summer and entertain ourselves for hours.
Image source: GoddessOfOddness, Yi Chen
#2
Getting to be goofy and awkward and not have to worry about it ending up online for everyone to see.
Image source: anon, Osvaldo Gago
#3
Recording music from the radio
Image source: AndNoc, schnaars
#4
TV going off-the-air at night.
Image source: J_David_Settle_1973, Shal Farley
#5
How we had to plan our TV watching around a printed schedule. No VHS, no dvr.
Image source: thorndike, pizhonas
#6
Running to go to the bathroom during a commercial break
Image source: OptimistPrime527, Marnie Morris
#7
Using a road atlas to get somewhere on vacation
Image source: siriusonbroadripple, Rob Russell
#8
Memorizing peoples phone numbers
Image source: OptimistPrime527, Alan Levine
#9
It’s not working, cuz it’s not on Ch3
Image source: moridin82, cucuzza
#10
Knocking on your friends door to see if they could come out and play.
Image source: whit3lightning, Henry Burrows
#11
Hitting that red strip of paper for your toy gun with a rock.
Image source: songinheart17, Harry20
#12
Organising to meet someone on a landline and actually having to turn up on time or they wouldn’t know where you are because you have no way of contacting them.
Image source: withereddesign, Alan Kotok
#13
Rewinding vhs or a cassette before returning.
Image source: est1979, Allan Hazle
#14
Calling the theater to listen to the prerecorded list of what movies were playing and at what time.
Image source: SteamboatMcGee, stu_spivack
#15
Calling a girl and her dad answers the phone. That s**t was rough, kids.
Image source: clydem, Anselm Hook
#16
Phone corded to the wall.
Image source: Dendad6972, Joybot
#17
The joys of Saturday morning cartoons
Image source: GallicPontiff, xmoltarx
#18
We had to walk up to the t.v. to turn it on or off, change the channel, or adjust the antenna when the picture became unclear.
Image source: BingeRedditor, noricum
#19
“Please get off the computer (internet) so that I can make a phone call.”
Image source: Big-Professional723, Blake Patterson
#20
The Wizard of Oz was on once a year, and if we missed it we had to wait another year to see it
Image source: Fearless_Associate_5, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
#21
Walkman
Image source: Shuoinked, Chris Waits
#22
those sort of binoculars with cardboard discs with pictures. I used to have Dora the Explorer ones.
Image source: guitarhansolo, Jack Pearce
#23
Playing the same level on a game over and over because there’s no Saves
Image source: drevilishrjf, blahter09
#24
Video rental stores with adult sections
Image source: est1979, Elliott Brown
#25
That Lite Brite was peak technology
Image source: shanecdotes, fo.ol
#26
NOT DA MAMA!
Image source: BeEccentric, Disney
#27
Walking to blockbuster and spending an hour trying to pick a movie everyone agrees on
Image source: sugarfairymagic, Ben Schumin
#28
Kids these days wouldn’t understand why people who grew up with beanie babies won’t buy NFTs
Image source: Lovebot_AI, Michael Lehet
#29
The sound on the phone when somebody was using the internet.
Image source: Poops_McClanahan, Ajit Beborta
#30
Waiting til nights and weekends to make FREE phone calls on your mom’s Nokia.
Image source: SameAsk6997, Paul Swansen
#31
I’ve noticed a lot of younger people who have grown up with social media don’t have a strong sense of privacy. Everything is filmed and turned into a tiktok or an insta story without asking if you consent to having your life shared like this.
Image source: Houndie, Marco Verch
#32
Waiting for your friend to get home to call them. (Not having constant access)
Image source: est1979, David Wilson
#33
A computer with a black screen with orange or green font.
Image source: Just_Series_3125
#34
Blowing on Game cartridges to make them work.
Image source: PrudentBuffalo4535
#35
Going on road trips as a kid where the only form of entertainment was some sort of game played amongst your siblings in the back seat involving the license plates of other passing cars. On our car trip to Disney/FL from central PA me and my brother had a competition on who could write down the most license plate numbers… we ended in the thousands but for the life of me I can’t remember who “won” 😂
Image source: Ambrosia0201, Rod Waddington
#36
Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?
Image source: cfishlips, The Learning Company
#37
Hunting for dimes in pay phones
Image source: stupidlyugly
#38
Picking up the telephone to call your friend and hearing people talking because it was a party line, meaning multiple households all had to share the same line and so you had to wait until it was available.
Image source: doinmybest4now
#39
I recently had to explain what “changing the channel” meant to my small kid because he only knows streaming. We’ve already covered CDs, VCRs, and what it means to roll down a car window. It was a little rough (for me, not him). Edit: oh and we watched “Turning Red” and I got to explain what a flip phone is.
Image source: Proper-Emu1558, Forsaken Fotos
#40
You needed a light accessory for your Gameboy because those suckers didn’t have back lighting. And to trade Pokemon, you needed to use cables. CABLES.
Image source: gracefultime, Phil Nelson
Follow Us
