The 19th century brought people the industrial revolution and a new way of life. The railways, for example, completely transformed travel and those born towards the end of the Napoleonic wars (in another kind of baby boom) grew up to be much more reform-minded.
But these changes were much harder for the older generation. However, they just kept coming.
There’s an obvious parallel with today: technology is reshaping the world, forcing us to constantly keep up, adapt, and leave the past for the history books.
Interested in the gaps formed by the latest developments, Redditor u/Bagolyvagymi asked this question: “What’s something that newer generations will never understand?” And users flooded the post with answers. As of this article, it has 4.9K comments. Here are some of the most upvoted ones.
#1
Being able to be an idiot in your formative years and not worry about it being filmed and/or put on the internet forever
Image source: DenzelEd12, Stock Catalog
#2
There was a time when we felt the world was getting better, not worse.
Image source: MrEngin33r, Eric Brehm
#3
Slamming down the receiver on a landline telephone. Pushing the red button is not nearly as satisfying.
Image source: iamwalldoh, Tom Page
#4
The beauty of being unreachable.
Image source: exioce, Abdulla Al Muhairi
#5
Saturday morning cartoons. I miss sitting in front of the TV and eating a bowl of cereal while Tale Spin, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or whatever Saturday morning cartoon series played. Then getting on my bike once they ended around 10 a.m. and riding over to my friend’s house to play till sunset.
Image source: asportate, Farther Along
#6
Taking pictures and then waiting for them to be developed to see if they turned out okay.
Image source: Cautious_Emotion9839, Garry Knight
#7
MTV played music videos, had music discussion shows, and had news about music 24 hours a day at one point.
Image source: senorchaos718, wikimedia.commons
#8
Having to buy the entire album to get one song you liked, or else wait for it to come on the radio and record it. Missing any part of the song was unacceptable, and you had to wait until it was played again.
Image source: hanginonwith2fingers, Martin Pettitt
#9
Parents not knowing where their kids are and trusting them not to get into trouble.
Image source: malamalinka, Jim Winstead
#10
The street lamps means it’s time to go home.
Image source: These-State-6555, Susanne Nilsson
#11
Not being able to watch whatever you wanted whenever you wanted. We actually had to look up the shows schedule in a TV guide and be available when it came on.
Image source: togotfury1983, GlamourCatNYC
#12
Hows about not knowing who was calling… was it your crush? your grandma? a telemarketer??? It’s like a game show every time the phone rings
Image source: andthrewaway1, Nate Steiner
#13
Having to rewind the tape before returning it to the video store or else incurring a fee.
Image source: slapsmcgee23, JC Gellidon
#14
How to use the card catalog in the library — the ones with the cards in the drawers.
Image source: pixel_ate_it, bookfinchFollow
#15
“Can so-and-so come out to play?”
Image source: mewmewx2, Donnie Ray Jones
#16
Having a three-ring binder of CDs for road trips.
Image source: DarthTrafford, zombieite
#17
That there used to be nine planets in the solar system.
Image source: Lilylivered_Flashman, Wikimedia.Commons
#18
Circling pictures of toys in the Sears catalog as a Christmas list. My brother and my cousin would do this every year at my grandma’s house. We also put our initials so our parents knew who wanted what toy.
Image source: fabes_ohoulihan, @nascarman_rr
#19
Meeting up with a friend at the movies and having no way to communicate once you’ve left the house. Your friend doesn’t show. Is he coming? Should I continue to wait and stand at the precise spot we agreed on? Has he died? Did he forget? I’ll call home using a pay phone and hope my mom is there to tell me whether he left a message on the answering machine.
Image source: chihuahua-mama, Eelke
#20
A thing called encyclopedias
Image source: safeword-is-harder, James
#21
Checking the pay phone change return for any forgotten coins.
Image source: FaberGrad, C WattsFollow
#22
How we got around without GPS navigation.
Image source: Convincing_Potato, Marcin Wichary
#23
The frustration of cassette tapes getting mangled.
Image source: BornToHulaToro, Falk Lademann
#24
Having to properly time getting a drink and snack before the ad break on TV finished. I still sweat thinking about it.
Image source: heyitssunny_, Erica Firment
#25
Maybe not universal. But how to entertain yourself with your mind and nothing else.
I’ve noticed something about my friends/people i know in parenting culture where it’s now a crime for a child to be bored. When I was a kid my parents laughed and told me to go away when I said I was bored.
Image source: fourteendogs, Matthew Paul Argall
#26
Why we say “hang up” the phone
Image source: RynoLasVegas, Eidantoei / kssk
#27
Cranking the rear window in a car by hand
Image source: TorontoMaples, HanzG
#28
missing an episode of a show meant MISSING IT FOREVER. There’s still an episode of “Battlestar Galactica” I never saw. I could go back and watch it now, but 10 year old me hurt like a gunshot wound for a long time after missing that thing.
Image source: The_Patriot
#29
Getting lost in your car and just having to figure it out
Image source: doot_doot, Saurabh Mishra
#30
The difficulty of not being able to instantly find the answer to questions.
Image source: McDunky, A4-Nieuws
#31
“Insert Disk #3 and press Return to continue…”
Image source: everythingisajokeok, Rudolf Ammann
#32
As a kid I read my favorite books more than a hundred times.
Image source: Constant-Truth-5343
#33
‘Let’s all meet back here at 6:00.’ *Looks at watch.* ‘I’ve got 4:35. What time do you have?’
Image source: mr_funnypuns, orwellianrob
#34
Having to say BRB to all your friends on MSN because your mom wanted to make a call, and then having to disconnect from the internet and dial back up when she was done.
Image source: emzyyx, Christiaan Colen
#35
The glory of playing and enjoying snake on a brick phone.
Image source: FlappyDeFlapJack, FlappyDeFlapJack
#36
Having to wait until Monday at school to tell your friends about the crazy s**t that went down at the party over the weekend. I used to love that. There was nothing like saying “bro, guess what happened”!? Now everyone just instantly sees in it happening in real time on social media.
Image source: Rossi-5
#37
Turning the dial on the TV to change the channel.
Image source: Rukawork
#38
Not being able to binge a show unless you literally recorded a bunch of episodes from TV onto a bunch of VHS tapes.
Image source: TheRealOcsiban, Delaney Van
#39
Texting without looking at your phone because -> abc def ghi jkl mno pqrs tuv wxyz
Image source: shipwontsail
#40
Making plans to meet friends and having to commit because you didn’t have mobile phones to ask where they were, how far, and if they were still coming.
Image source: GiantMonkeyBall, hhm8
#41
Privacy.
Image source: LightlyStep
#42
“Stay off the f**kin’ phone, I’m on the internet!”
Image source: Poops_McClanahan
#43
The perfect balance between playing outside and watching TV.
Image source: im_really_that_dumb
#44
Going to the arcade and playing games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. This is my childhood.
Image source: Ujou_Danjin_Ken, Joe Haupt
#45
How great Myspace was. It was a million times better than Facebook. You could choose top friends, music, cursors, backgrounds, and images. It was awesome until everyone transitioned over to FB.
Image source: mdsoccerx9, [deleted]
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