Women In Their 30s And 40s Are Sharing The Things They Miss About The 1990s And 2000s, And It's A Reminder Of What A Much Simpler Time It Was
Folks who grew up in the '90s, I am going to start with the very obvious here, but the '90s ended 24 years ago! And a lot of the stuff we remember about the 2000s is now 20-plus years old. So, yeah, yikes, let's not think about that too much.
But even though it feels like the Y2K era was only a few years ago, you also know how much has changed since then. And it was with that time period in mind that a few months ago, Reddit user Glittering-Syrup-339 asked: "Women in their thirties, which things do you miss from the '90s and '00s eras?"
Needless to say, the question got a lot of women reminiscing about the good old days. Below are some of the best and most repeated comments:
1."Going to the movies was a thing you did when you DIDN'T have any money."
"Loved going to the movies when I was in high school (early to mid-00s). My family didn’t have a lot of money to throw around but I could at least go to the movies very regularly. I continued a bit into college but now I haven’t seen a movie in the theater in years. It’s just way too expensive for what it is now."
"YES! Now it costs $20 for the popcorn alone! :("
2."I miss the music videos on MTV/VH1. You found a lot of new music that way. The videos were huge budget productions, and some had really good directors."
"Not to mention the documentary shows on those networks, like Behind the Music on VH1 and True Life on MTV. They were extremely well done and I learned so much about music and the world in general from them."
3."The Delia's catalog."
"How else will I know what I can't afford to buy to look cool?!"
"My favorite pastime was circling items, showing my mom, and being told no ❤️."
4."I miss phone calls being the norm with friends and talking daily or for hours — even if it was just nonsense. Now everyone seems to have phone phobia and also don’t know or have time to have a convo with anyone anymore."
"It's ironic that I have a phone on me all day everyday and I'm an anxious mess when I need to make a phone call."—Revolutionary-Beat64
5."Nick at Nite, fastest way to fall asleep as a kid. And Keebler Magic Middles."
"Nick at Nite and Vault Disney! I remember waking up to Vault Disney at 3 a.m. and it feeling like I was in a fever dream 😂."
"OMG, I looooved Magic Middles! I miss those so much."
6."Being a mall rat."
"Mall rat 💯. Why did we unemployed, broke kids love the mall so much I wonder 😂. At 31, I lose breath just thinking about walking around the mall."
"I miss malls and mall culture. It feels bizarre to me to go to a mall and try stuff on when I can just order everything online after 'shopping' around different sites."
7."I miss sweats and hooded sweatshirts. Baggy comfy clothes. Athleisure made it so we have to wear tight leggings because that's all that's sold now. Give me back my folded-over sweats and one size too big shirts. Maybe it was a rural America thing, but I really miss not having to try to look good all the time. I really do dress like Adam Sandler at home and for errands though."
"To comment on the sweats thing, you used to be able to go Target or Walmart or even Sears or Mervyn’s when they still existed and get like Champion brand sweats for cheap. Then the brand disappeared from those stores and sorta came back as a more expensive brand. If you go on the Champion website, things are close to $50 which is insane."
8."RIP to Pop-Up Video and all the I ♥️ the [insert decade here] shows that were the greatest time wasters."
9."Browsing the shelves at Blockbuster with my friends to find a film to watch."
"My father used to take me and my sister to Blockbuster on Friday night, after temple. It always came with one condition: both of you can select ONE MOVIE each. I always wanted to get the movie that was on display — the one that just went to video, the one that everyone already grabbed every copy of. And my sister would always rent some random shitty movie I didn’t want to watch, so 50% if what we were watching every weekend was always going to be crap. We were a terrible team.
Now these kids have Netflix, Disney+, all this s**t. They don’t even have to sit through commercials, or wait next week for another episode, they have thousands of movies at their fingertips whenever they want."
10."People who actually dressed like it was '90s and '00s and no one pretending. That and non-stretch rigid denim."
"Having clothes that don't disintegrate in the wash after you've only worn them once or twice... The no fast-fashionification of everything."
11."No social media and no streaming. I feel like we were the last generation that really had a childhood. I played outside with my friends, I had two TV shows that I made sure I was ready to watch at 7 or 8 p.m. Things were just simpler. I feel bad for kids these days."
—[deleted]
"I miss those days so badly... waiting for the next Buffy episode which would be released one-week later, watching Malcom with my bother while eating super sugary cereals."—Glittering-Syrup-339
12."Delayed gratification. Like, waiting for disposable cameras to be developed."
"Looking through pictures from disposable cameras after a party was always so much fun ❤️. Even if they didn’t always look good, haha."
"And getting double or triple prints so you could give them to your friends!"
13."The newness of things. The time was so transitional with technology and there was so much possibility. While I'm sure some of that is because I was younger then, the adults in my life back in the '90s also seemed curious and excited about all the possibilities for how the future would look. As adults, in this era, most of the people I know definitely don't feel the same way now."
14."Going to live events and not having everyone just filming everything with their phones."
"I don't get people who just stand there filming concerts on their phone. A few seconds for a memory or to share on Insta or whatever, sure. But the whole thing? I paid to enjoy the show in the moment; if I wanted to watch a shitty live-recording later I'd find it on YouTube for free."
15."Midnight movie and book release parties. LOTR, the Star Wars prequels (which...eh), the later Harry Potter books. The stores and theaters would throw these big midnight release parties and all my friends and I would go."
—[deleted]
"Midnight book and movie release parties were magical! We had a huge Books-A-Million store not too far from where I lived that would go all out for the Harry Potter books. Decorations, small snacks, game and craft stations, etc. all things for us teens to do while we anxiously waited before getting in line."
16."Music of the '90s was awesome — and early '00s music wasn't too bad either. Even though there is more access now, exposure was easier because you could still hear the stuff on TV or radio... which made it an easy gateway to better music."
"Music in the '90s was the best."
"I'm surprised I had to scroll this far to find mention of '90s music! Also making mixed tapes from the radio by having record and pause pressed together because it was quicker to un-pause than hit record when the song of the moment came on. So satisfying to finally catch it on tape."
17.And lastly: "People being able to function without cell phones."
"I was thinking this last night…I miss being out and people can leave me a message on an answering machine that I’ll deal with when I get home — whenever that may be.
I never realized how even just being in constant accessibility has ramped up my anxiety."
You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.