15 Things From the 90s and 2000s That Would Astonish Today’s Kids

Oh the times they are always changing. In fact, it just seems like things are continuing to change at an even more rapid rate. Plus, they’re showing no signs whatsoever in slowing down. It’s a valuable practice to take a step back every now and again, and take a wide panning look at how much things have changed. We’ll take a look at some of the things from the 90s and the 2000s that would plenty surprise kids from today’s generation.

1. Netflix by mail

Netflix used to come in the mail. Yes. Isn’t that just wild? You’d wait with eager anticipation for those crisp and/or overused envelopes to show up in the mail with whatever movies you’d settled on for this time around.

2. Info on demand

Not being able to get information on demand during the 90s was a very real thing. Just think about how tough conversations must’ve been to navigate when you couldn’t quickly Google your way into being “right.”

3. Actually getting lost

The very real possibility of getting lost due to not having a GPS via your phone on you at all times was such a situation. Or, maybe you did get lost, but all you had on you was a paper map. Kids these days probably wouldn’t know how to use a paper map properly.

4. Ordering pizzas

To successfully order a pizza or any other takeout you generally had to have an actual physical menu on hand to get the job done. And then it was a process of collecting those menus from all your favorite pizza places in town.

5. Cereal box toys

All those glorious cereal boxes with the prizes in them are not to be underestimated. You might not even have liked the cereal, but you heard from a friend that a certain kind of cereal had the best toys.

6. Coordinating hangs with friends

Trying to coordinate hangouts with your friends without having access to those handy cellphones was an ordeal and a half. You really had to become a kind of master of timing things out properly.

7. Recording songs off the radio

Recording a song off the radio using a cassette tape and then simply putting tape over the little holes. This was just plain old fun, and so very different from the streamlined process we have nowadays in terms of curating various Spotify playlists.

8. Real boredom

Actual boredom was rough. Nowadays if you find yourself temporarily unable to distract yourself with quick dopamine hits from short videos, you can just as easily doom scroll through a place like Reddit. Back then though, you had to really sit with your boredom. No only was this probably healthier for your brain on a certain level, but creativity can find life in those windows of boredom.

9. Phone books

Phone books were a whole process. You had to exercise some serious patience when you went about finding your friend’s info.

10. Typing Class

The typers of nowadays are oftentimes quite a bit slower than the typists of older generations. A large part of this can be attributed toward those intensive classes.

11. Paper checks from work

Not only did you actually have to show up for those shifts, but then you had to take that physical check to your nearest bank to cash it out. What a haul.

12. Free coffee refills

These are pricy times. These are also times that don’t often accommodate understandable realities like the fact that plenty of people aren’t satisfied with a mere cup of coffee. No, the coffee refills are really where it’s at.

13. No phones and internet at the same time

This was tricky to navigate. Can you imagine? On the one hand you need access to the internet to maybe complete an assignment, but you also need to be able to use your phone to communicate with someone else about the assignment. Unfortunately, that was an insurmountable situation.

14. Running to the restroom during commercials

Oh boy. You really had to time out your bathroom breaks with grace when you were watching live television programs back in the day. Otherwise, you’d find yourself in a pickle where you end up missing the best part of a show just because your bladder wasn’t going to be rushed.

15. No virtual appointments

Virtual appointments have really helped folks get the help they need. The flexibility afforded by such an option can seamlessly integrate into a person’s jam-packed schedule. To think that there was a time when a virtual doctor’s appointment or therapy session option seemed like something right out of a sci-fi novel is wild.