Without revealing your actual age, what something you remember that if you told a younger person they wouldn’t understand?
Staying up late waiting for the really good shows to come on is more emotionally rewarding than being able to watch whatever you want whenever you want.
Having to be on Channel 3 to play videogames.
Rewinding a VHS tape and watching the characters jump about crazily in reverse to rewatch a show, instead of restarting like a DVD.
Begging your parents to get cable so you can watch high school musical on disney channel and stop being a social outcast at school
Not being able to watch Doctor Who because BBC America only showed the specials and SyFy only played Series 4 on a loop, so having to watch it in pieces on YouTube quickly before YouTube found it and took it down.
Being able to fill my tank for $5.
Passive-aggressive AIM away messages.
Also? Napster. So much Napster.
Not being able to watch Doctor Who because PBS was running a FUCKING PLEDGE DRIVE, and they moved it to 0200 Monday from 1600 Sunday.
Getting hooked on All Creatures Great and Small (and Peter Davidson as Tristan) as a consequence.
Only being able to watch cartoons on Saturday morning - that animated opening for Soul Train meant they were over for the week!
Missing an episode of a show and not knowing when or even if it would be repeated.
Video rental stores with $50 annual membership fees (on top of rental fees).
Friday Night Videos.
The excitement of being connected to the Real Internet and not just a local BBS.
Not having a backlight.
So much sitting out in the sun or craning around awkwardly under lamps.
Zima. Marb lights for $1.80. Having to watch MTV to catch your fave music videos. Roll down windows in your car. Mr. Ed and I Love Lucy on Nick at Nite. Card catalogs.
i woke up at like 7 in the morning just to watch that one linkin park music video for in the end i was obsessed with that song. i never did oregon trail but there were a bunch of weird games for early computers like number munchers (school-4th grade?) or ski free or chip’s challenge. palm pilot and the incredible machine being weirdly popular for a short time. blockbuster being open. netflix requiring you to put used dvds in an envelope to mail out.
Being amazed by color printers and a girl in class had her dad being one in and everyone got a color picture printed for them.
Spending 4-7 every Sunday evening with a cassette in with record and pause hit ready to record your faves as they are on the chart show. And the choice between the Official Chart on Radio 1 and the commercial one on the regional stations…
Not being allowed to see Easy Rider when it was first at the movies. I never got to see it until three years ago!
putting tape on the protection tabs space on cassettes so you could tape over what was already recorded
Not being able to get through to someone and getting a busy signal on the landline because they were on the internet or already on a phone call
Your first walkman that had the toggle switch to play the other side of the cassette without having to take it out and flip it over.
Actually…probably walkmans in general tbh.
That excitement when you got to play with a computer for the first time (and the last time for many years), on a field trip to a university an hour away. It had punch cards. Every kid got one that allegedly spelled their name.
Changing the speed on my parents’ record player to make the song sound funny.
Living in another country from your own before the internet. Pong.
Buying our first desktop (HP Pavilion) and it came with at least 40 free CDs like Time magazine archives or encyclopedias or Sim City; obviously Microsoft Office was included for free because why would you ever have to pay for that separately pffft. Windows 98. Thinking Papyrus was the coolest font ever.
Blowing into my game cartridges to make them work.
That car game that came with every IBM computer
When we got a computer with a mouse and I didn’t use it because I though tabbing worked just as well
Waiting till after 9 when your minutes on your cell phone were free
