Rec
- running around outside spontaneously with neighborhood kids and siblings. once you agreed to be friends, you would just show up unannounced to their house and ask if they can play. No plan. No warning. Doorbell only. their family members would know who you are and when they opened the door would shout your friends name, then announce you’re her for them. Now—this is a terrifying scenario.
-would only go back home when my mom would yell for me from the porch or literally ring a bell or have to come find us. This usually happened around dinner time.
-Dial up internet, would only be able to use extremely slow internet or someone was using the line to be on the phone, couldn’t be both.
-AIM, Xanga, GAIA online (cursed), MySpace eventually. low-poly video games I still like to play like FFVII.
-Exploring areas I wasn’t supposed to like sheds, nearly-abandoned garages, small fields with random paths, and the woods without a sense of direction.
-Cool older friends and sisters had GARMINS to navigate them. Other than that, you had to ask for direction, write them down, MAPQUEST it, use a physical map, or just generally know where you’re going.
-Casettes, but mostly CDs for music. I did have a CD player for the bus in middle school. When iPods came out that was a game changer. Music was mostly pirated from limewire. Burning and making mixed CDs and playlists for people was a thing. New music was discovered on bandcamp, YouTube, and MTV.
When browsing for CDs at a physical store, there were CD players with headphones attached so you could listen to it before buying, otherwise you wouldn’t know what the music was like and it was a blind purchase.
-Home videos were shot on cam-corders, photos taken from digital cameras or disposables. Polaroids were a treat.
-If there was snow, I would stay up watching the news with my mom watching the bottom of the screen to see if my school district was closed for a snow day the next day.
-I didn’t have a smart phone until after I graduated high school, and only shared a flip phone with my brother the last few years of high school, so I missed out on that experience. it was a social handicap for sure.
-still needed to go to the school office or pay phone if I needed to call my mom. And I would need to have her number memorized.
-Cable TV was annoying So many commercials. So many reruns. you had to look up what was playing in a TV Guide: first a printed book, then a channel dedicated to it on Cable. Netflix started with mailing DVDs—I think 1 or 2 at a time. renting movies at blockbuster was still a thing, then Redbox. when DVR came around, it was HUGE. Finally could record a show to watch later, but only if the tv was on and it could only record one show at a time.
-midnight premiers at movie theatres
-game boy color and Nintendo DS were fun.
-2000s skinny culture was toxic af tho and there were many other not great things about 2000s but this was the WORST.
2d ago
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Limewire was nostalgic until you got a bogus Limp Bizkit album that had a Sub7 trojan and keylogger on it instead
2d ago
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💭I saw somebody else respond in this format so I’m going to provide my misc memories from being 6-16 in the 2000s:
• frying an egg on the sidewalk/asphalt/car hoods with kids from my apartment complex because we were convinced it was that hot out • watching SpongeBob seasons 1-3 on repeat • watching mtv after school and always having a talk show or pbs queued up on the “previous channel” button so if my mom came home I could quickly look like I was watching Ellen or Oprah or cyberspace all along (mtv shows were so raunchy) •you had to watch vh1 for anything music related • catalogs!!! i would do all my “scrolling” in limited too catalogs and then dig through racks at tj maxx to find similar things my mom could actually buy •teen mags for the quizzes • driving around with my mom listening to her cds while she smoked and ran errands (honestly this still holds up today/ I keep it alive in my own ac-less suv) • beanie babies and being called out if you had fakes • listening to radio Disney on my boom box before bed •riding my bike aimlessly when I had nothing else to do •walking to the gas station with my $5 allowance and buying Sobe, now n later, tgi Friday potato skins, and cherry vanilla coke •I also got in trouble a lot for wandering off or smoking rolled up sticky notes or vandalizing storage units with “brat girl” or something so y2k •I remember my outfits so well…. Many cheeky graphic tees, ringer tees, layered tanks, peasant skirts, stripes, capris, platform sneakers, chokers •redesigning my MySpace every weekend •changing my aim screen name with the seasons •being bullied by boys in middle school, over aim or getting prank called •when I got a cell phone I never remember charging it, but I do remember trying to break my Nokia brick because I wanted a razr or a chocolate, but it was truly indestructible •listening to mix cds in friends cars as they began to drive because nobody had an aux cord or Bluetooth •2008-2010 we’re really dark so I’ll spare you more details
• frying an egg on the sidewalk/asphalt/car hoods with kids from my apartment complex because we were convinced it was that hot out • watching SpongeBob seasons 1-3 on repeat • watching mtv after school and always having a talk show or pbs queued up on the “previous channel” button so if my mom came home I could quickly look like I was watching Ellen or Oprah or cyberspace all along (mtv shows were so raunchy) •you had to watch vh1 for anything music related • catalogs!!! i would do all my “scrolling” in limited too catalogs and then dig through racks at tj maxx to find similar things my mom could actually buy •teen mags for the quizzes • driving around with my mom listening to her cds while she smoked and ran errands (honestly this still holds up today/ I keep it alive in my own ac-less suv) • beanie babies and being called out if you had fakes • listening to radio Disney on my boom box before bed •riding my bike aimlessly when I had nothing else to do •walking to the gas station with my $5 allowance and buying Sobe, now n later, tgi Friday potato skins, and cherry vanilla coke •I also got in trouble a lot for wandering off or smoking rolled up sticky notes or vandalizing storage units with “brat girl” or something so y2k •I remember my outfits so well…. Many cheeky graphic tees, ringer tees, layered tanks, peasant skirts, stripes, capris, platform sneakers, chokers •redesigning my MySpace every weekend •changing my aim screen name with the seasons •being bullied by boys in middle school, over aim or getting prank called •when I got a cell phone I never remember charging it, but I do remember trying to break my Nokia brick because I wanted a razr or a chocolate, but it was truly indestructible •listening to mix cds in friends cars as they began to drive because nobody had an aux cord or Bluetooth •2008-2010 we’re really dark so I’ll spare you more details
2d ago
Rec
🎭Every new piece of technology was so exciting, because of the monoculture every new release felt like an Event, everything was shiny and glittery and in fun colors. Listening to music for the first time on an iPod was crazy. Getting a portable DVD player to watch Buffy the Vampire slayer DVDs on long road trips made me feel like I lived in the future. Seeing digital cable for the first time where it would display the programming schedule with descriptions blew my mind.
I played so many games on CD-ROM on a clunky beige monitor attached to a giant tower running Windows 98–a lot of my parents’ friends were educators so they were constantly giving me new ones to play. Neopets was my life and I loved exploring new sites. I remember frequenting many websites that were just lists of other sites lol. I did also spend a lot of time playing outside and just imagining things. Everything you see on Buzzfeed 90s kid remember the 2000s articles is accurate. The high of optimism when Obama got elected after eight years of Bush was unparalleled!
That said yeah the forced conformity was incredibly stifling and social groups were still cliquish (though this was starting to dissolve by the time I got into high school). Things that would make you cool now would lead you to be mocked or become an outcast so it was nice that emo kids existed because they were a lot more accepting of idiosyncrasies and quirks. Gender nonconformity was frowned upon—I got my hair cut short in eighth grade and was made fun of by so many people, and my male gym coach called me sir!
The beauty standards were insane and also so narrow. I remember being in a Kohl’s dressing room when I was like 12 and crying as I tried on increasingly larger pants sizes because my butt wouldn’t fit into anything I tried on and wondering why I was cursed with this body.
HONESTLY the hardest thing for me was that I needed glasses and the only ones that were really available at my local glasses shops were very ugly and nerdy (or if there were cool ones they were designer and cost like $600) and you couldn’t just buy them online so I was walking around looking like Harry Potter for most of my childhood and early adolescence and feeling very insecure about it.
The good thing about personal style, culture, and taste is that i truly had to figure it all out on my own by seeking out and curating sources of inspiration, or by word of mouth from other people, rather than having inspiration algorithmically fed to me.
I remember going trick or treating in the mall after 9/11 because some parents including my mother were very paranoid that something (?) would happen? My mom was very paranoid in general because of her own childhood experiences and seeing all of the news stories about child abductions but I wasn’t helicoptered and my parents would let me walk around the neighborhood with my friends as I got older. We spent so much time just walking from strip mall to strip mall and like loitering at Barnes and Noble lol.
So it was a mixed bag really but I wouldn’t go back and my nostalgia is usually only in passing. This is controversial but I don’t have any fondness for physical media other than vinyl records because I remember just thinking CDs DVDs and VHSs sucked and I hated when they would get damaged. When I realized that I could acquire any digital media I wanted on the internet it felt like the world was my oyster and I never looked back.
You know what though actually I just remembered how much cheaper everything was and I got mad so…
I played so many games on CD-ROM on a clunky beige monitor attached to a giant tower running Windows 98–a lot of my parents’ friends were educators so they were constantly giving me new ones to play. Neopets was my life and I loved exploring new sites. I remember frequenting many websites that were just lists of other sites lol. I did also spend a lot of time playing outside and just imagining things. Everything you see on Buzzfeed 90s kid remember the 2000s articles is accurate. The high of optimism when Obama got elected after eight years of Bush was unparalleled!
That said yeah the forced conformity was incredibly stifling and social groups were still cliquish (though this was starting to dissolve by the time I got into high school). Things that would make you cool now would lead you to be mocked or become an outcast so it was nice that emo kids existed because they were a lot more accepting of idiosyncrasies and quirks. Gender nonconformity was frowned upon—I got my hair cut short in eighth grade and was made fun of by so many people, and my male gym coach called me sir!
The beauty standards were insane and also so narrow. I remember being in a Kohl’s dressing room when I was like 12 and crying as I tried on increasingly larger pants sizes because my butt wouldn’t fit into anything I tried on and wondering why I was cursed with this body.
HONESTLY the hardest thing for me was that I needed glasses and the only ones that were really available at my local glasses shops were very ugly and nerdy (or if there were cool ones they were designer and cost like $600) and you couldn’t just buy them online so I was walking around looking like Harry Potter for most of my childhood and early adolescence and feeling very insecure about it.
The good thing about personal style, culture, and taste is that i truly had to figure it all out on my own by seeking out and curating sources of inspiration, or by word of mouth from other people, rather than having inspiration algorithmically fed to me.
I remember going trick or treating in the mall after 9/11 because some parents including my mother were very paranoid that something (?) would happen? My mom was very paranoid in general because of her own childhood experiences and seeing all of the news stories about child abductions but I wasn’t helicoptered and my parents would let me walk around the neighborhood with my friends as I got older. We spent so much time just walking from strip mall to strip mall and like loitering at Barnes and Noble lol.
So it was a mixed bag really but I wouldn’t go back and my nostalgia is usually only in passing. This is controversial but I don’t have any fondness for physical media other than vinyl records because I remember just thinking CDs DVDs and VHSs sucked and I hated when they would get damaged. When I realized that I could acquire any digital media I wanted on the internet it felt like the world was my oyster and I never looked back.
You know what though actually I just remembered how much cheaper everything was and I got mad so…
2d ago
Rec
👶some of my core memories:
- playing on webkinz or bearville with my cousin every night
- making random things out of duct tape (the wallets, the bows, omg) (definitely more late 2000s but still)
- the vibrant and fun patterns on everything (i loveeeeed lisa frank)
- being outside a lot more
- when I got a slide phone and I accidentally pressed the internet button and I had to viciously go back to the home screen or it would add a charge to the bill and my parents would get mad
- land lines, we still have ours, but I'm seeing less and less people have them now
- primarily listening to CD's (and not understanding pirating so I was amazed that my aunt could get me beatles CD's for free lol)
- having the computer in a different room and not being on it all the time besides when Id play games or watch cat video compilations on youtube
- speaking of games, the spongebob computer games were fire
- also speaking of games, playing my dad's ps1 (when we play them now we're like, how could we even play these?? the quality is so bad compared to what we're used to now lmao)
- then there were the unfortunate parts of it like the only jeans that you could find were low-mid rise, which Im pretty sure is why I hate them to this day 😭 love that other people love them again but I can barely do mid rise lol
- also 2000's clothing sizing was INSANE, even for children, I don't miss that at all
- but at least I was alive and conscious for when High School Musical was released
- also the shows were so good (at the time anyway, looking at certain nickelodeon shows as an adult gives me the ick) (you know the ones)
- also you got peak spongebob
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