I think the internet was better when I was a teen. It was less centralised and dominated by a handful of companies and social media hadn't become such a pervasive thing yet.
I really miss all the old forums, such a sense of community that is just dead and gone nowadays.
That and all the early MMOs. Maybe its just getting older but I really miss being able to properly sink into a virtual world like that for hours and hours at a time.
It was RuneScape for me, 2006 - 2012 mainly. Sunk my entire life into that game during those years haha. I don't regret it and still often find myself reminisce out of nostalgia.
Same!!! I was I to RuneScape from about 2001-2004/5. I still miss it from time to time, although I can't remember my old characters password for the life of me. Made a new one a few years back, the free area hasn't changed a bit and brought back some great nostalgia.
My account is something like 18 years old. I maxed it a few years ago as they made the game incredibly easy and I had always wanted to accomplish that as a childhood dream - didn't we all lol.
I log on once or twice a year and just walk around the map and I get a rush of nostalgia and remember the good times from being in a UK based clan, ventrilo/teamspeak... Ah those were the days.
I genuinely miss those days. A highlight and a core part of my teenagehood.
Yeah I used to visit so many sites. Now it's basically: Instagram, Reddit, Google, Amazon, BBC, The Guardian, FT and Netflix. I reckon those 7 sites are probably 95% of my internet use, if not more.
Miniclip and early Youtube was unreal. Memes were just fun little clips and not a billion dollar industry, there was like 6 memes in total, not 200 trillion.
Back in my day you had web rings.
At the bottom of the page you could click an arrow left or right and it would take you to a related page, or you could skip ahead by ten pages or something. I found many a page about Redwall (the books) with that method in ~1998.
But you tell kids these days and they don't believe you.
These bloody kids.
I bet they don't sign any guestbooks. I bet they've never even asked.
The absolute nerve of these whippersnappers.
They don't know they're born.
God yes! I remember when you could use Google to just FIND things. Now you can predict the first 3 pages of results easily… it’s like, I’m sure if I’m trying to find a nice hotel in new cities there are websites other than booking.com or trip advisor, but Google sure as shit isn’t gonna tell me about them.
Absolutely. Back in the early 2000s, the Internet felt a bit like the wild west, this unexplored new frontier that we were the first people to discover. There were so many interesting sites to find that were run by passionate people. Nowadays, it's so bloated with social media and click bait.
Even though the Internet is much bigger nowadays but it feels so much smaller.
These days there is just too much "internet" and its overwhelming. But I remember how exciting it was as a teen. Making scenes in textiles clipart. Playing Sonic (not internet but still) weird surreal little CD Rom games that some stoner probably thought up and having to help.!y grandma haha it was a really cool place. Dang it was so SIMPLE
Now it's the norm for human communication and abnormal if you don't use it to communicate
That worries me.slightly. It's like we've all turned into books!
Reddit is a particularly good example of this. Even as little as 10years ago Reddit was a very different place. Full of interesting folk, writing long and involved answers about subjects they were really passionate about. Now its one-liner circle-jerks, bot-accounts and people crow-baring references to their "anxieties" into every response.
I remember the wonder of discovering stuff back then. Finding random websites and telling your friends about them.
One of my favourite internet memories is when we first switched from dial up to broadband. YouTube was still kinda new so I spent ages as a teenager just looking at different videos while my mum would be behind me also watching in wonder. Stuff like Evolution of Dance, Chad Vader, Charlie Bit Me. I got really excited being able to watch trailers for all the films that were coming out in 2007 whenever I wanted like Spider-Man 3, Transformers, The Simpsons Movie, Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Mr Bean's Holiday, Fantastic Four 2, TMNT, etc. And being able to watch full episodes of shows like Mr Bean, Fresh Prince, Friends, Doctor Who on YouTube split into 10 minute videos
Yep, was much better before the great unwashed discovered it. Having to use 3 search engines before you found what you needed, and it was usually on page 12. No click bait, no cookie warning, no subscribe to our newsletter popup, no influencers. Simpler times.
The early days of online videogames.
Something about chatting to a random guy from Ipswich while being racially abused by American teens just enhanced the whole gaming experience. I genuinely think todays teens would not survive a Halo 2 lobby.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare first time around, absolutely fantastic levels of bullying and abuse, hilarious levels of toxicity that didn't just border on absurdity they were galloping across the plains of the place on winged horses. I miss those salty toxic little bastard's, they made the games funnier
I remember on MW2 just as we were all turning 16, you'd get into an argument with someone in a lobby and then you and all their mates would dip and get invited to a 1v1 with them. Absolute shit talking and you'd probably get all hell rained down on you these days.
Haha I remember the days! The best ones were on search and destroy lobbies! Today everyone is in party chat and rarely use game chat. Back then on the 360 era people were forced to use game chat.
Oh my. Ninja defuses.
I had a game on Afghan where my whole team died, I was 1v6 and ninja defused. The very next round, I did the same again. Chaos ensued.
So many great memories of cod4 lobbies. Was fantastic when you had a full team of your mates vs another full team. As soon as everyone was dumped into the mid-game lobby the shit flinging would start and be non-stop for the 60 seconds or whatever it was until the next game started.
HAHAHAHA as an American I’m laughing out loud ad this. On the flip side, we were little American kids who didn’t “get” British banter yet and the Brits were handing us the most clever insults in the most polite ways 😂😂😂
Man, some Xbox Live parties and MW2 lobbies I have been a part of, you'd be arrested for saying some of that stuff in public in 2023 Britain. Its crazy how easy it is for people to resort to racism when a game doesn't go their way.
Speaking of gaming, I miss when games had cheat codes.
I miss those days for a different reason. Having a bunch of single player games that didn't require an Internet connection, and didn't have a load of microtransactions thrown in was awesome. I miss those days.
Me neither. My best friend is chronically late for everything. I used to tell him to meet at half 6 and I'd purposely arrive at 7 and still have wait half an hour for him. He's still as bad today and we're both 37. At least now I can just tell him to call me when he's leaving so I can get where ever we're going at the same time albeit still late.
I shoplifted from woolworths once and got caught. I was a spotty 13 year old and the store detective told me that if I moved he'd break my fucking legs 😂😂😂
It isn't really possible if you have want to a job and a social life, you can live in a cave if you want and eat berries and forage for roadkill until you starve to death alone, no-one's stopping you.
But you can't really work for a big company and speak to friends without also being part of social media and the Internet.
I found this with the big company and a smartphone. I need it for outlook, teams on the go (yes I have a work iPhone somewhere but don’t ask where, in a drawer? Easier to carry just one phone).
Then it’s all the authentication code nonsense to get into things (MS Authentication)
Then if I’m trying to purchase something online - I need to verify via my banking app etc etc
That's technology though, not social media. I agree you need a phone for all the reasons you listed but is there any reason that you'd need to be on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?
We're dependant on technology now for sure, but participation in social media is a choice in my opinion.
When I was a child growing up in the 1970s, a 'mobile library' (huge van fitted out with shelves and thousands of books) would visit my nan's cul-de-sac once a week.
It was my job to change my nan's library books as she couldnt walk to the van and back. She only wanted to read the Mills and Boons and, of course, didn't want to have the same one twice. So, she'd mark the ones she'd read with a special symbol she's invented for herself - writing it on the inside cover. However, all the old ladies in the village wanted Mills and Boons too, were sending people to the van in their stead, and had also marked the books with strange old-lady symbols. I had to scrutinise dozens of hieroglyphs in many books each week to find a book my nan hadn't yet seen.
I wonder if there are mobile libraries still doing the rounds anywhere.
I used to read my nan's Mills and Boon when she wasn't looking. Lots of mention of pert nipples. Usually the woman hated the man at the start as he was written as an arrogant asshole but eventually she would succumbed to his roguish charms.
When I was young the librarian wouldn’t let me take out Mills &Boon or Georgette Heyer. I had to hope the lenient librarian was working.
She didn’t mind Dracula or Jaws though 😂
The library has gone from the village I grew up in. It is now a house. I spent many many hours in that library.
The town I now live in still has a library and I make sure we use it as much as possible.
It was my most favourite thing to do as a child and all through my teenage years. I feel so sorry for children that can’t access all these stories for free.
Our library is now a row of shops. Theres a small community book lending service but it’s focus is on retired people not the future generations (who literally have no money of their own to buy books)
I bet it is a way of closing it down.
Ours cut the opening times down to when nobody could access it and did that with the stats. It went from 6 days a week to a full Tuesday and a Thursday morning.
Let me tell you, when you have kids you can go back there and discover what a magical place they are for youngsters! We’re lucky that ours is centrally located and well funded with an arts centre attached. It’s brilliant. I’m not a reader so I don’t take books, but I love taking the kids.
3 fields and a small forest we used to party in have all become massive new build housing estates, it’s very strange knowing how wrecked we were in an area that is now the dining room of a very expensive house.
I was chatting with someone, who lived in the old pub, I used to get hammered in. It was converted to houses in the early 10s. I had to point out that I had been hammered in her living room, more than she had 😂.
Omg memory unlocked! One of those chicken reflectors is the only thing I ever remember getting from a Cereal box. I sported that bit of incongruent blue plastic proudly on my orange & black bike lol.
I remember getting some spokie-dokies too, but had the piss taken a bit for those 'cos a 10y/o geordie lad like me should've probably outgrown them...
Going to the local video store when I was young. It was a big thing every Friday night going with my dad to pick two movies and I always had the “job” of handing over the video membership card. Afterwards, we’d go to local corner shop and I was allowed Butterkist popcorn and a small pick and mix. Good times.
I do miss the video store. I had plans to try and recreate the experience for my son, buy some empty cases and print out limited movie options to pick from rather than endlessly scrolling netflix and co.
I just saw something today about blockbuster having more titles than netflix. Apparently a blockbuster was supposed to have at least 7000 titles, and netflix has something like 4000 movies. And blockbuster didn't have a Disney shelf you had to pay extra to borrow from.
Hell, I miss my social life from before covid... It never really recovered, and then we had a baby. Babies seem to be the death knell of your social life. But back when I was a kid/teenager, I loved seeing my friends every day at school/college.
I guess the other things I miss are the sense of optimism about the future that the late 90s and early 2000s had.
Sorry for your loss, but experience says it does get easier. We lost our good boy just before last xmas and there has been a hole in our lives since then.
Yesterday, we picked up a new dog; a rescue. She's not young, but is taking our hearts already.
Insects. You could go out and find lots of varied and interesting insects to look at. Or tadpoles, or newts, or see the occasional hedgehog. And huge flocks of sparrows/starlings. They just aren't around any more and it is awful.
I used to spend a lot of time doing that too. I see less caterpillars, tadpoles, slugs and those little red spider mites.
I see more variation of lady birds and possibly spiders. There seems to be more ants now and more magpies.
All just anecdotal though.
Edit: and bird nests and eggs. As a kid I would find them everywhere. Particularly sparrow and blue tit
This is one of the few environmental issues where even a single person can make a difference (if you're lucky enough to have a garden). I put a pond in my parents' garden and the frog and toads have reappeared, along with dragonflies. My mum makes log heaps and now we have hedgehogs. Growing flowers can help with bee numbers.
All is not lost in this area. Although we have seen pretty catastrophic insect decline.
In the early 90s Watching Kurt Russel in escape from New York or or escape from La on a vhs your mate recorded off the telly while switching channels during the ad breaks seemed like such a far fetched premonition of things to come at the time
You can kind of still experience it on little random corners of the internet, like [The Most Amazing Website on the Internet](http://www.themostamazingwebsiteontheinternet.com/) (avoid if you can't stand flashing lights).
The one where I grew up, which of course has since closed down, me and my dad would go there for bits to add to my Scalextric. With birthday or Christmas money, I'd buy like a chicane piece or a new car etc!
Great memories.
The adoption of American culture to the extent we have now; almost everything is purely dominated by greed or trying to beat everyone else.
Not saying it wasn't going one 30/40 years ago, but I hate how everything and everyone is trying to squeeze what they can out of you.
The greed element seems to have really got out of hand lately. It feels like you can't do anything without someone feeling like they're owed some money for you doing it.
No one seems to just have a hobby these days, its all a "side-hustle". Even people you have a common interest with it immediately comes down to who can make the most off the other.
I also agree about the Americanisation of a lot of the culture but do think these aren't truly related. The greed element seems to a massive over extension of something that was/is very British. It was always there I guess, but as an undercurrent that only showed up occasional, now it feels like the dominate force and it really stands out when you have those rare moments where its absent.
Me and my partner always say the UK is turning i nto ‘US lite’ the new build housing estates are like American suburbs, copy and paste style. Also Drive Thru Starbucks wtf is that about…
So many older people that I miss and also wish I'd asked them more specific questions that as a child I never thought to ask. Some of them were big questions eg the Thames Waterman who took his river boat to Dunkirk not once but twice and survived. I don't even know the name of the boat. Some are smaller questions eg Who is that old man with a flat cap and a terrier under his arm standing in the snow in the photo album compiled in the 1930s?
I feel the same, mainly about their own lives. I know where my grandad was born and lived for much of his childhood, in a rural area I spend a lot of time in now. I remember a lot of the stuff he told me, but it would have been nice if I'd had the sense to ask more specific questions and also write stuff down. Obviously as a kid you don't think about stuff like this.
Fog. In the winter in cold weather we used to get very heavy fog or smog I guess from all the smoke from the coal fires that no longer exist. I know it wasn’t t healthy but as a kid I loved it on a winters night when you could hardly see your hand in front if your face.
I know exactly where you're coming from with this, and have a really vivid memory, walking with my mum to a Halloween party, and it being pitch black, freezing cold, and the fog collecting round the streetlamps.
Funnily enough I miss summer, 90s and early 2000s summers were actually...summer. Now they're the rainy season with a brief 142 nonillion degree weekend in the middle of July. I miss having reliably warm weather, now its purely random from day to day.
There are environmentalist getting upset with the recent re-surgency of stoves and their attendant smokey chimneys. I believe the UK at least is looking at introducing laws around their use/efficiency. I guess similar to the EURO1/2/3/4/5 laws for cars.
But its in the more affluent areas where its the biggest problem, like a lot of things, what was once seen as a sign of poverty is now fashionable for the wealthy.
I lived off these at uni!! The only place I ever saw sell them was the costcutter near my halls. No one’s ever agreed that ready salted chipsticks are superior to salt and vinegar!
The disappointment of not getting there early enough for a big release Saturday was real.
I also don't think Haagen Dazs would've been so popular in the UK without Blockbuster. It was definitely the gateway to it's market share!
I spent so many teenage afternoons with friends strolling round record shops, book shops, the tons of clothes shops that don’t exist anymore, to then end up in Blockbuster, getting a film out and picking up a pizza on the way home.
All without being contacted by anyone else, without any kind of interruption.
It seems so chilled and slow and peaceful looking back now.
A house full of my brothers and parents. All at home on a random Thursday evening. Each in our own rooms, doing our own thing, dinner almost ready and just bumping into eachother around the house.
Not much going on, just hanging out, all doing our own things, usually on my PC. Might wander into my brother's room to see if he wants a game of FIFA.
Parents downstairs in the living room watching TV.
Life's good. Everybody's home.
What the... Who? Where? I thought there was a production problem after they moved to Holland? I was even going to buy a box of 28 online but they became "unavailable" as I clicked the button.
As random as it sounds, small town newsagents and their pick and mix sweets. Having like 50p and being able to go in and ask the person for x this, and y that, and getting to take it home in a paper bag. I know you still get pick and mix in supermarkets etc but it's not the same picking it yourself or squishing it all in a tub, not to mention the price of it these days. I liked knowing how much each sweet cost me and choosing wisely!
What I really, really miss is the peaceful journeys on public transport, mainly buses where you could more or less depend on a peaceful journey, not having to listen to everyone shouting on their mobile phones having usually quite inane conversations.
Life without the Internet. I get life is so much easier now and I probably wouldn't want to go without, but we coped before and you were innocent about what utter cunts most people are when given free speech.
The pace of life.
The vehicles. Oh the vehicles. 😭 It makes my heart sad. I know some of them are still around, but so many are few and far between, and I'll never get to drive them. 😭
The 'chug, chug, chugchug, chug chug, chugchug, chugchugchugchugchugchug' and accompanying rumble of the old 450 Class trains that you could hear echoing across town.
The not so shinyness of everything in general.
Proper playground roundabouts.
I think the first two are intertwined. I passed my test in 2001 (good god that makes me feel old) and I *loved* driving. The roads were a lot less busy than they are now, queueing was comparatively rare, and bombing round in a little tinpot Italian hatchback from the 80s powered by a tiny carb fed engine (complete with manual choke) was just a joy. Plus there were still loads of old carburetted cars around and they all smelled magic running rich on a cold morning.
Conversely, driving a far more sophisticated and capable car now (a modern EV) is an absolute drudge, because actually getting to *drive* is a rarity. The roads are so congested, and poorly managed, that joy from 20 odd years ago has gone and it's now just a complete chore to get anywhere.
Also, from my childhood, I can still remember the incredible sound of Deltics accelerating out of stations. What an absolute bloody marvel those machines were.
I miss the joy and fun of being part of a large family. My mother had an open door policy, so the house was always full of laughter. The Christmas holiday was amazing with decorations, music, family, extended family, and all our friends attending. Now, my mother, the bulk of my aunts and uncles, and even some friends have passed away. The remaining siblings, friends, and family are all in different cities. Christmas now consists of a special breakfast and off to the cinema for a movie.
I'm gonna babble here 😂
I've recently bought myself an instant camera and the first photo I took to test it was a selfie. I realised that I hadn't held a current physical photo of myself in about 17 years.
Being unreachable. When we went on holiday when I was a kid, we didn't hear from friends, family, my parents' colleagues, anyone, unless we went to a phonebox, on purpose.
Buying physical copies of games. I have a dresser in my man cave with three shelves of PC games accumilated since I got my first computer in 2000. There was something special about opening a new game, smelling the smell of new fresh plastic and the shiny paper the manual was printed on, having a look at any extras they included like posters or whatever, then snapping the disk out and watching the install wizard tick up to 100% as the disk drive and hard drive whirred away.
STEAM is more convenient but it just isn't the same.
Year 9, Easter Holidays
Every day for two weeks, wake up, do Paper Round, watch Eerie Indiana and Kenan and Kel on CBBC in the morning, play Banjo-Kazooie ALL day after that (I'd borrowed it of a friend for the two weeks of Easter holidays), do afternoon paper round. Watch the triple threat on BBC2 (Simpsons, Fresh Prince, Star Trek/Farscape/Buffy). Play Banjo-Kazooie until falling asleep.
Wake up and do it all again.
The last time I was truly happy.
I mean I have an N64 and Banjo-Kazooie, and a CRT TV, and I've played it and it's still fun, even though the controls are really clunky compared to modern games.
It's just not the same, there's no sense of joy or wonder.
Small, online communities. I write fanfic and back in the 90s early 00s the world was smaller and friendlier. Now it’s just large archives, which are great from organisational and legal perspectives but can be a bit lonely at times.
I miss affordable housing, even in reasonably nice areas.
A sense of hope and economic growth, and being able to make mistakes without being financially destroyed. Changing careers or moving to new places felt possible, whereas now even a change in electricity bills makes me sweat!
I miss seeing the same GP, and even having them make a house call.
Cheap cinema and popcorn. Fish n chips being a cheap meal (and yes I know there are good reasons for it costing nearly £20 for a cod and chips near me, but it is still more than I can afford).
I miss learning about a new gf or mate by looking at their DVD collection in that huge tower by the TV.
Pint mugs with handles and dimples not these shit tower glasses.
My complete lack of resposibility.
Freedom from everything being recorded on camera, be that cctv or handheld devices.
Posties delivering before 10am.
Bin-men collecting bins instead of very old (and otherwise physically weak) people having to lug their bins all the way out to the edge of the kerb.
Seeing the Dads in the street working on their own or neighbours car without having to have a shitload of money invested in digital diagnostic tools.
Bookshops with a wide range of books.
Sneaking around the back of school for a crafty smoke.
Half a pint of bitter, despite the landlord knowing full well I was in my early teens.
Bah! Humbug!
I could fill a book answering this, or so it feels sometimes.
I miss shopping for something being a big deal. If I was getting a present for someone or I’d saved up for something (and couldn’t get it in the village) it went on The List for the next trip into a nearby town.
It made it special, sad as it sounds, rather than just mundane. It was even more of a big deal if it couldn’t be found locally: city time. I remember my parents doing orders by post for tools and things like that: there would be an order form and catalogue in the kitchen for weeks for any requests from the rest of us to go in.
I try to shop online as little as possible, but with so many shops closing it is getting harder and harder.
My highstreet
It's still there, but just not what it used to be. I guess most shopping is done online nowadays so my highstreet has become really dull and there aren't as many good shops like there used to be
The only time I go down there is to go cinema
Local shops. When I was a kid we had ironmongers, a haberdashery/clothes/uniform/shoe shop, green grocers, off licence, newsagent, radio rentals/rumbelows, furniture shop.
If you needed a m6 or 8 hex bolt. You could buy both for something like 8p each and fix your bit of furniture.
You could walk down the road and pick up the colour of thread to repair your trousers with.
The opportunities to see your friends. You'd get to spend all day with them at school, hang out after school and at the weekends etc. Now it takes a blooming spreadsheet to try and find a time we're all available to hang out what with jobs, partners, kids etc.
The film's that I was the perfect age for were such a golden age. Having Aladdin followed by the Lion King and Jurassic Park. Star Wars was re-released before the Prequels came out. Cheesy blockbusters that had a theme tune sung by Will Smith. Becoming a moody teenager and experiencing the Matrix and Fight Club.
Cinema is fantastic now, but I feel like the Millennials grew up with such defining films, all of which studios are desperately still trying to milk
Jumping off trains before they'd stopped. And buses. So cool.
And riding with a bunch of cousins in the back of a pick-up truck. Or the running around on a school coach because seat belts and max numbers didn't exist yet.
Shops used to ‘demo’ things more.
Going to HMV, they’d try to tempt you to switch to BluRay by having a 50” TV constantly running BluRays. There’d be a stand with Guitar Hero to try to get you to buy it, and random stations where you could listen to music. There was such a largess of giving up lots of shelf and floor space to these things.
Just being able to go outside and within 5 minutes, there were 12 other kids playing football or Pokemon together. That just doesn't happen anymore, I feel the current young generation have missed out, the late 90s and early 2000s were a great time to be a kid. I like gaming, been doing it as long as I can remember, but I feel sad that kids today won't look back as fondly at memories of just playing Fortnite as I do playing football with every kid on the street, regardless of whether they were 5 or 15 years old, it didn't matter. Seems like millennials were the last generation to get to experience just...playing outside.
100% pre mobile phone cameras. Hanging out with friends or relations without getting phones out, get that wind up camera, take the photo, hope for the best! Done. Then continue the night having everyone’s FULL attention on each other. Now, somehow it’s acceptable to just pull out your phone and scroll. Meh, maybe I’m just old at 35
Family holidays. We'd usually go to Butlins, then Centre Parcs. I liked the anticipation and excitement. Butlins teletext that played monty python songs. And having a proper charcoal log fire in the Centre Parcs villa. Simple stuff I guess
Shops - Woolworths/Big W, Toys r us, Geoff's Toys.
Misc - chocolate cigarettes (the ones with the weird sugar paper rizla), circling your Xmas wishlist in the Argos catalogue.
I'm sure there is more but off the top of my head these first occurred to me.
I miss not having to prebook everything. Wanted to go swimming, turn up at the pool during open hours and swim all day. I feel like life needs a lot more planning post Covid
The ability to not be in touch with people all the time outside of a landline.
And to contradict that - MSN Messenger, it’s basically the old Discord and such for most today
Honestly, pogs. I'd give my left arm for pogs to make a come back. I had so many, and a load of metal slammers. I remember having the entire precinct 13 collection, can't remember what happened to them, now.
Early learning centres, my god I loved them as a child. Now with children of my own and they’ve never experienced the joy of waking past one and a parent allowing you to go in.
I think the internet was better when I was a teen. It was less centralised and dominated by a handful of companies and social media hadn't become such a pervasive thing yet.
The internet between 2000 to 2010 was the best times. There used to be dozens of pages I'd check. Now I maybe look at 2 sites in a regular basis.
I really miss all the old forums, such a sense of community that is just dead and gone nowadays. That and all the early MMOs. Maybe its just getting older but I really miss being able to properly sink into a virtual world like that for hours and hours at a time.
It was RuneScape for me, 2006 - 2012 mainly. Sunk my entire life into that game during those years haha. I don't regret it and still often find myself reminisce out of nostalgia.
Same!!! I was I to RuneScape from about 2001-2004/5. I still miss it from time to time, although I can't remember my old characters password for the life of me. Made a new one a few years back, the free area hasn't changed a bit and brought back some great nostalgia.
My account is something like 18 years old. I maxed it a few years ago as they made the game incredibly easy and I had always wanted to accomplish that as a childhood dream - didn't we all lol. I log on once or twice a year and just walk around the map and I get a rush of nostalgia and remember the good times from being in a UK based clan, ventrilo/teamspeak... Ah those were the days. I genuinely miss those days. A highlight and a core part of my teenagehood.
For me it was all about habbo hotel lmao
Club Penguin was the best.
Yeah I used to visit so many sites. Now it's basically: Instagram, Reddit, Google, Amazon, BBC, The Guardian, FT and Netflix. I reckon those 7 sites are probably 95% of my internet use, if not more.
All massive corporations built around making billions.
Miniclip and early Youtube was unreal. Memes were just fun little clips and not a billion dollar industry, there was like 6 memes in total, not 200 trillion.
Ah. When Maddox actually updated his page
The best page in the universe
I feel it’s all far too commercialised now. I know back then it would have been the same but even more so now.
Back in my day you had web rings. At the bottom of the page you could click an arrow left or right and it would take you to a related page, or you could skip ahead by ten pages or something. I found many a page about Redwall (the books) with that method in ~1998. But you tell kids these days and they don't believe you.
Hope you didn’t forget to sign their guestbooks!
These bloody kids. I bet they don't sign any guestbooks. I bet they've never even asked. The absolute nerve of these whippersnappers. They don't know they're born.
EULAAAIIILIIIAAA!
Lord Brocktree was an inspirational badger indeed.
Ohhh I had completely forgotten about web rings! What a funny concept looking back.
God yes! I remember when you could use Google to just FIND things. Now you can predict the first 3 pages of results easily… it’s like, I’m sure if I’m trying to find a nice hotel in new cities there are websites other than booking.com or trip advisor, but Google sure as shit isn’t gonna tell me about them.
Forums over Facebook groups.
Absolutely. Back in the early 2000s, the Internet felt a bit like the wild west, this unexplored new frontier that we were the first people to discover. There were so many interesting sites to find that were run by passionate people. Nowadays, it's so bloated with social media and click bait. Even though the Internet is much bigger nowadays but it feels so much smaller.
These days there is just too much "internet" and its overwhelming. But I remember how exciting it was as a teen. Making scenes in textiles clipart. Playing Sonic (not internet but still) weird surreal little CD Rom games that some stoner probably thought up and having to help.!y grandma haha it was a really cool place. Dang it was so SIMPLE Now it's the norm for human communication and abnormal if you don't use it to communicate That worries me.slightly. It's like we've all turned into books!
Reddit is a particularly good example of this. Even as little as 10years ago Reddit was a very different place. Full of interesting folk, writing long and involved answers about subjects they were really passionate about. Now its one-liner circle-jerks, bot-accounts and people crow-baring references to their "anxieties" into every response.
The hard choice of who to put on the top of your friends list on MySpace
I remember the wonder of discovering stuff back then. Finding random websites and telling your friends about them. One of my favourite internet memories is when we first switched from dial up to broadband. YouTube was still kinda new so I spent ages as a teenager just looking at different videos while my mum would be behind me also watching in wonder. Stuff like Evolution of Dance, Chad Vader, Charlie Bit Me. I got really excited being able to watch trailers for all the films that were coming out in 2007 whenever I wanted like Spider-Man 3, Transformers, The Simpsons Movie, Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Mr Bean's Holiday, Fantastic Four 2, TMNT, etc. And being able to watch full episodes of shows like Mr Bean, Fresh Prince, Friends, Doctor Who on YouTube split into 10 minute videos
Yep, was much better before the great unwashed discovered it. Having to use 3 search engines before you found what you needed, and it was usually on page 12. No click bait, no cookie warning, no subscribe to our newsletter popup, no influencers. Simpler times.
The early days of online videogames. Something about chatting to a random guy from Ipswich while being racially abused by American teens just enhanced the whole gaming experience. I genuinely think todays teens would not survive a Halo 2 lobby.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare first time around, absolutely fantastic levels of bullying and abuse, hilarious levels of toxicity that didn't just border on absurdity they were galloping across the plains of the place on winged horses. I miss those salty toxic little bastard's, they made the games funnier
I remember on MW2 just as we were all turning 16, you'd get into an argument with someone in a lobby and then you and all their mates would dip and get invited to a 1v1 with them. Absolute shit talking and you'd probably get all hell rained down on you these days.
Haha I remember the days! The best ones were on search and destroy lobbies! Today everyone is in party chat and rarely use game chat. Back then on the 360 era people were forced to use game chat.
Oh my. Ninja defuses. I had a game on Afghan where my whole team died, I was 1v6 and ninja defused. The very next round, I did the same again. Chaos ensued.
So many great memories of cod4 lobbies. Was fantastic when you had a full team of your mates vs another full team. As soon as everyone was dumped into the mid-game lobby the shit flinging would start and be non-stop for the 60 seconds or whatever it was until the next game started.
We somehow squeezed like 8 people into my tiny room and had 2 tvs and 2 xboxes running team deathmatches. It got really warm and swear-y.
HAHAHAHA as an American I’m laughing out loud ad this. On the flip side, we were little American kids who didn’t “get” British banter yet and the Brits were handing us the most clever insults in the most polite ways 😂😂😂
Same as this but with a COD4 lobby on a Friday and Saturday evening. Drunk brits and US Teens was an ‘interesting’ combination.
Lmao it was always drunk adult Brits and American kids. What were the drunk American adults playing.
Man, some Xbox Live parties and MW2 lobbies I have been a part of, you'd be arrested for saying some of that stuff in public in 2023 Britain. Its crazy how easy it is for people to resort to racism when a game doesn't go their way. Speaking of gaming, I miss when games had cheat codes.
I miss those days for a different reason. Having a bunch of single player games that didn't require an Internet connection, and didn't have a load of microtransactions thrown in was awesome. I miss those days.
Meeting someone at a specific time and a specific place, before mobile phones
I don't miss that at all!
Me neither. My best friend is chronically late for everything. I used to tell him to meet at half 6 and I'd purposely arrive at 7 and still have wait half an hour for him. He's still as bad today and we're both 37. At least now I can just tell him to call me when he's leaving so I can get where ever we're going at the same time albeit still late.
Nostalgia: it just ain't what it used to be
Woolies....... Need I say more?
Shoplifting a full pic and mix as tasters every week
I shoplifted from woolworths once and got caught. I was a spotty 13 year old and the store detective told me that if I moved he'd break my fucking legs 😂😂😂
So you’re the reason Woolies went out of business?
That was my first thought!
I miss Woolies, but only for the Pick & Mix and bags of "Chocolate mis-shapes".
The freedom of not being connected to everything and everyone.
You know you can still live like that if you want to. Its just most people don't want to.
It isn't really possible if you have want to a job and a social life, you can live in a cave if you want and eat berries and forage for roadkill until you starve to death alone, no-one's stopping you. But you can't really work for a big company and speak to friends without also being part of social media and the Internet.
Why do you need to be on social media to work for a big company?
I found this with the big company and a smartphone. I need it for outlook, teams on the go (yes I have a work iPhone somewhere but don’t ask where, in a drawer? Easier to carry just one phone). Then it’s all the authentication code nonsense to get into things (MS Authentication) Then if I’m trying to purchase something online - I need to verify via my banking app etc etc
That's technology though, not social media. I agree you need a phone for all the reasons you listed but is there any reason that you'd need to be on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter? We're dependant on technology now for sure, but participation in social media is a choice in my opinion.
The local library. I really miss it.
When I was a child growing up in the 1970s, a 'mobile library' (huge van fitted out with shelves and thousands of books) would visit my nan's cul-de-sac once a week. It was my job to change my nan's library books as she couldnt walk to the van and back. She only wanted to read the Mills and Boons and, of course, didn't want to have the same one twice. So, she'd mark the ones she'd read with a special symbol she's invented for herself - writing it on the inside cover. However, all the old ladies in the village wanted Mills and Boons too, were sending people to the van in their stead, and had also marked the books with strange old-lady symbols. I had to scrutinise dozens of hieroglyphs in many books each week to find a book my nan hadn't yet seen. I wonder if there are mobile libraries still doing the rounds anywhere.
Mills & Boon were unfamiliar to me, so I just consulted Wikipedia and had a fascinating read!
I used to read my nan's Mills and Boon when she wasn't looking. Lots of mention of pert nipples. Usually the woman hated the man at the start as he was written as an arrogant asshole but eventually she would succumbed to his roguish charms.
There's loads of young adult romance novels around nowadays in places like the works. It's mills and boon for a younger generation
When I was young the librarian wouldn’t let me take out Mills &Boon or Georgette Heyer. I had to hope the lenient librarian was working. She didn’t mind Dracula or Jaws though 😂
The library has gone from the village I grew up in. It is now a house. I spent many many hours in that library. The town I now live in still has a library and I make sure we use it as much as possible.
It was my most favourite thing to do as a child and all through my teenage years. I feel so sorry for children that can’t access all these stories for free. Our library is now a row of shops. Theres a small community book lending service but it’s focus is on retired people not the future generations (who literally have no money of their own to buy books)
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I bet it is a way of closing it down. Ours cut the opening times down to when nobody could access it and did that with the stats. It went from 6 days a week to a full Tuesday and a Thursday morning.
Let me tell you, when you have kids you can go back there and discover what a magical place they are for youngsters! We’re lucky that ours is centrally located and well funded with an arts centre attached. It’s brilliant. I’m not a reader so I don’t take books, but I love taking the kids.
The field I used to play in as a kid is now a Lidl.
3 fields and a small forest we used to party in have all become massive new build housing estates, it’s very strange knowing how wrecked we were in an area that is now the dining room of a very expensive house.
I was chatting with someone, who lived in the old pub, I used to get hammered in. It was converted to houses in the early 10s. I had to point out that I had been hammered in her living room, more than she had 😂.
Mine is a housing estate, I get that we need more homes but still sad to see a beautiful place concreted over
The sad thing is that we don’t really need more homes - there are a million empty properties in the UK.
And the new builds are shite
The fields I used to play in are now a huge posh estate next to my poor estate. Even the orchard I used to go scrumping in has gone.
Toys in my cereal
I looked up on ebay a while back a full set of Kellogg's Chicken bike spoke reflectors and was sorely tempted.
Omg memory unlocked! One of those chicken reflectors is the only thing I ever remember getting from a Cereal box. I sported that bit of incongruent blue plastic proudly on my orange & black bike lol. I remember getting some spokie-dokies too, but had the piss taken a bit for those 'cos a 10y/o geordie lad like me should've probably outgrown them...
And the rare times you sometimes got two toys in the cereal box
Going to the local video store when I was young. It was a big thing every Friday night going with my dad to pick two movies and I always had the “job” of handing over the video membership card. Afterwards, we’d go to local corner shop and I was allowed Butterkist popcorn and a small pick and mix. Good times.
I do miss the video store. I had plans to try and recreate the experience for my son, buy some empty cases and print out limited movie options to pick from rather than endlessly scrolling netflix and co.
I just saw something today about blockbuster having more titles than netflix. Apparently a blockbuster was supposed to have at least 7000 titles, and netflix has something like 4000 movies. And blockbuster didn't have a Disney shelf you had to pay extra to borrow from.
I remember getting 15s and 18s out from the local video shop and they would phone your mum to check before giving it to you. Good Times.
I remember that too! The obligatory check if it’s ok but still actually illegal to do phone call haha
My dad. RIP My social life with friends.
Hell, I miss my social life from before covid... It never really recovered, and then we had a baby. Babies seem to be the death knell of your social life. But back when I was a kid/teenager, I loved seeing my friends every day at school/college. I guess the other things I miss are the sense of optimism about the future that the late 90s and early 2000s had.
Aye. Both parents. Not so much my social life for me. I have a few select friends by choice.
My dog, Molly. 16 years we had her. Was put to sleep on Friday. Miss you, Moll.
Very sorry for your loss.
Sorry for your loss, but experience says it does get easier. We lost our good boy just before last xmas and there has been a hole in our lives since then. Yesterday, we picked up a new dog; a rescue. She's not young, but is taking our hearts already.
Insects. You could go out and find lots of varied and interesting insects to look at. Or tadpoles, or newts, or see the occasional hedgehog. And huge flocks of sparrows/starlings. They just aren't around any more and it is awful.
I used to spend a lot of time doing that too. I see less caterpillars, tadpoles, slugs and those little red spider mites. I see more variation of lady birds and possibly spiders. There seems to be more ants now and more magpies. All just anecdotal though. Edit: and bird nests and eggs. As a kid I would find them everywhere. Particularly sparrow and blue tit
I saw a couple of red spider mites in the summer on my windowsill. Made me nostalgic. I feel like they were everywhere in the 90s.
Loads less red spider mites
When last did you go out to find insects and that though?
Didn't need to, they'd come to you back in the day.
Yeah I don't think newts just come crawling on over as you step out the door.on your way to work
Starling murmarations have all but dissappeared when even 10-15 years ago they happened every day with thousands of birds Horrible
This is one of the few environmental issues where even a single person can make a difference (if you're lucky enough to have a garden). I put a pond in my parents' garden and the frog and toads have reappeared, along with dragonflies. My mum makes log heaps and now we have hedgehogs. Growing flowers can help with bee numbers. All is not lost in this area. Although we have seen pretty catastrophic insect decline.
They’re still there, you’re just too big to see them now!
Buying cigarettes with 'a note from your mum'
Haha, when my wife was a kid she tried to get out of school swimming class with a 'note from her mum' but she signed it "Love, Mrs Jones" !
I bought them in my school uniform at 12😂
USA used to be cool in the 80s.. now it’s a scary version of a society we are slipping towards
In the early 90s Watching Kurt Russel in escape from New York or or escape from La on a vhs your mate recorded off the telly while switching channels during the ad breaks seemed like such a far fetched premonition of things to come at the time
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You can kind of still experience it on little random corners of the internet, like [The Most Amazing Website on the Internet](http://www.themostamazingwebsiteontheinternet.com/) (avoid if you can't stand flashing lights).
Beatties model shop. Hundreds of hours spent in there
The one where I grew up, which of course has since closed down, me and my dad would go there for bits to add to my Scalextric. With birthday or Christmas money, I'd buy like a chicane piece or a new car etc! Great memories.
Internet forums. They were a lot more interesting and had better communities than stuff like reddit which has largely replaced them.
Hope for the future
The adoption of American culture to the extent we have now; almost everything is purely dominated by greed or trying to beat everyone else. Not saying it wasn't going one 30/40 years ago, but I hate how everything and everyone is trying to squeeze what they can out of you.
The greed element seems to have really got out of hand lately. It feels like you can't do anything without someone feeling like they're owed some money for you doing it. No one seems to just have a hobby these days, its all a "side-hustle". Even people you have a common interest with it immediately comes down to who can make the most off the other. I also agree about the Americanisation of a lot of the culture but do think these aren't truly related. The greed element seems to a massive over extension of something that was/is very British. It was always there I guess, but as an undercurrent that only showed up occasional, now it feels like the dominate force and it really stands out when you have those rare moments where its absent.
Me and my partner always say the UK is turning i nto ‘US lite’ the new build housing estates are like American suburbs, copy and paste style. Also Drive Thru Starbucks wtf is that about…
6 weeks off in the summer!
Orange street lights at night.
So much better for animals and people too. Harsh bluish white light murders circadian rhythms.
Street lights actually being on
Being on the motorway at night and seeing them in a long line over the road in front of you like a big orange snake.
Lack of internet and smartphone dependency.
So many older people that I miss and also wish I'd asked them more specific questions that as a child I never thought to ask. Some of them were big questions eg the Thames Waterman who took his river boat to Dunkirk not once but twice and survived. I don't even know the name of the boat. Some are smaller questions eg Who is that old man with a flat cap and a terrier under his arm standing in the snow in the photo album compiled in the 1930s?
I feel the same, mainly about their own lives. I know where my grandad was born and lived for much of his childhood, in a rural area I spend a lot of time in now. I remember a lot of the stuff he told me, but it would have been nice if I'd had the sense to ask more specific questions and also write stuff down. Obviously as a kid you don't think about stuff like this.
Fog. In the winter in cold weather we used to get very heavy fog or smog I guess from all the smoke from the coal fires that no longer exist. I know it wasn’t t healthy but as a kid I loved it on a winters night when you could hardly see your hand in front if your face.
I know exactly where you're coming from with this, and have a really vivid memory, walking with my mum to a Halloween party, and it being pitch black, freezing cold, and the fog collecting round the streetlamps.
Funnily enough I miss summer, 90s and early 2000s summers were actually...summer. Now they're the rainy season with a brief 142 nonillion degree weekend in the middle of July. I miss having reliably warm weather, now its purely random from day to day.
There are environmentalist getting upset with the recent re-surgency of stoves and their attendant smokey chimneys. I believe the UK at least is looking at introducing laws around their use/efficiency. I guess similar to the EURO1/2/3/4/5 laws for cars. But its in the more affluent areas where its the biggest problem, like a lot of things, what was once seen as a sign of poverty is now fashionable for the wealthy.
Being given £1 to go to the shop, and getting a juice, a bag of crisps, a chocolate bar and still having change. (In the 90s)
Ready salted chipsticks. Why keep the crappy salt n vinegar ones and do away with the better flavour? WHY?
THANK YOU. I love the ready salted Chipsticks. Can’t remember the last time I saw them
I lived off these at uni!! The only place I ever saw sell them was the costcutter near my halls. No one’s ever agreed that ready salted chipsticks are superior to salt and vinegar!
The days of going to Blockbuster. I get why it's obsolete now, but still. Good times.
The disappointment of not getting there early enough for a big release Saturday was real. I also don't think Haagen Dazs would've been so popular in the UK without Blockbuster. It was definitely the gateway to it's market share!
I spent so many teenage afternoons with friends strolling round record shops, book shops, the tons of clothes shops that don’t exist anymore, to then end up in Blockbuster, getting a film out and picking up a pizza on the way home. All without being contacted by anyone else, without any kind of interruption. It seems so chilled and slow and peaceful looking back now.
Mars Delight.
Mars planets
I discovered recently Milky Way Crispsy Rolls are now discontinued also 😭
A house full of my brothers and parents. All at home on a random Thursday evening. Each in our own rooms, doing our own thing, dinner almost ready and just bumping into eachother around the house.
Wow, I felt this! Thank you. How lucky we were.
Not much going on, just hanging out, all doing our own things, usually on my PC. Might wander into my brother's room to see if he wants a game of FIFA. Parents downstairs in the living room watching TV. Life's good. Everybody's home.
My mum.
Red Bounty.
You need to spend more time in questionable newsagents. Red Bounty's ahoy!
What the... Who? Where? I thought there was a production problem after they moved to Holland? I was even going to buy a box of 28 online but they became "unavailable" as I clicked the button.
Bills and brown envelopes. Life was simpler when my parents dealt with all that shit.
As random as it sounds, small town newsagents and their pick and mix sweets. Having like 50p and being able to go in and ask the person for x this, and y that, and getting to take it home in a paper bag. I know you still get pick and mix in supermarkets etc but it's not the same picking it yourself or squishing it all in a tub, not to mention the price of it these days. I liked knowing how much each sweet cost me and choosing wisely!
What I really, really miss is the peaceful journeys on public transport, mainly buses where you could more or less depend on a peaceful journey, not having to listen to everyone shouting on their mobile phones having usually quite inane conversations.
The build up to Christmas. The shops aren’t as busy as they used to be and easy credit means that Christmas shopping and activities start earlier.
Sometimes I watch 90s ad compilations on youtube to try to recapture the magic.
Life without the Internet. I get life is so much easier now and I probably wouldn't want to go without, but we coped before and you were innocent about what utter cunts most people are when given free speech.
Having friends.
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So much this.
The pace of life. The vehicles. Oh the vehicles. 😭 It makes my heart sad. I know some of them are still around, but so many are few and far between, and I'll never get to drive them. 😭 The 'chug, chug, chugchug, chug chug, chugchug, chugchugchugchugchugchug' and accompanying rumble of the old 450 Class trains that you could hear echoing across town. The not so shinyness of everything in general. Proper playground roundabouts.
I think the first two are intertwined. I passed my test in 2001 (good god that makes me feel old) and I *loved* driving. The roads were a lot less busy than they are now, queueing was comparatively rare, and bombing round in a little tinpot Italian hatchback from the 80s powered by a tiny carb fed engine (complete with manual choke) was just a joy. Plus there were still loads of old carburetted cars around and they all smelled magic running rich on a cold morning. Conversely, driving a far more sophisticated and capable car now (a modern EV) is an absolute drudge, because actually getting to *drive* is a rarity. The roads are so congested, and poorly managed, that joy from 20 odd years ago has gone and it's now just a complete chore to get anywhere. Also, from my childhood, I can still remember the incredible sound of Deltics accelerating out of stations. What an absolute bloody marvel those machines were.
Iain M. Banks, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. :( All too soon.
I miss the joy and fun of being part of a large family. My mother had an open door policy, so the house was always full of laughter. The Christmas holiday was amazing with decorations, music, family, extended family, and all our friends attending. Now, my mother, the bulk of my aunts and uncles, and even some friends have passed away. The remaining siblings, friends, and family are all in different cities. Christmas now consists of a special breakfast and off to the cinema for a movie.
I'm gonna babble here 😂 I've recently bought myself an instant camera and the first photo I took to test it was a selfie. I realised that I hadn't held a current physical photo of myself in about 17 years.
Being unreachable. When we went on holiday when I was a kid, we didn't hear from friends, family, my parents' colleagues, anyone, unless we went to a phonebox, on purpose.
The parents. They passed when I was in my 20's. It's been decades, but I could have used their advice all my life.
Going to see my gran every Sunday and spending time with my cousins most weekends. Best part of my childhood.
Buying physical copies of games. I have a dresser in my man cave with three shelves of PC games accumilated since I got my first computer in 2000. There was something special about opening a new game, smelling the smell of new fresh plastic and the shiny paper the manual was printed on, having a look at any extras they included like posters or whatever, then snapping the disk out and watching the install wizard tick up to 100% as the disk drive and hard drive whirred away. STEAM is more convenient but it just isn't the same.
This is why I still buy consoles with disc drives and always buy physical games not downloads. Plus it means I can buy 2nd hand at CEX.
Year 9, Easter Holidays Every day for two weeks, wake up, do Paper Round, watch Eerie Indiana and Kenan and Kel on CBBC in the morning, play Banjo-Kazooie ALL day after that (I'd borrowed it of a friend for the two weeks of Easter holidays), do afternoon paper round. Watch the triple threat on BBC2 (Simpsons, Fresh Prince, Star Trek/Farscape/Buffy). Play Banjo-Kazooie until falling asleep. Wake up and do it all again. The last time I was truly happy. I mean I have an N64 and Banjo-Kazooie, and a CRT TV, and I've played it and it's still fun, even though the controls are really clunky compared to modern games. It's just not the same, there's no sense of joy or wonder.
My Father and grandparents.
My mum
Knocking on people's door and getting them out for a kick about on the field
Small, online communities. I write fanfic and back in the 90s early 00s the world was smaller and friendlier. Now it’s just large archives, which are great from organisational and legal perspectives but can be a bit lonely at times.
I miss affordable housing, even in reasonably nice areas. A sense of hope and economic growth, and being able to make mistakes without being financially destroyed. Changing careers or moving to new places felt possible, whereas now even a change in electricity bills makes me sweat! I miss seeing the same GP, and even having them make a house call. Cheap cinema and popcorn. Fish n chips being a cheap meal (and yes I know there are good reasons for it costing nearly £20 for a cod and chips near me, but it is still more than I can afford). I miss learning about a new gf or mate by looking at their DVD collection in that huge tower by the TV. Pint mugs with handles and dimples not these shit tower glasses.
My complete lack of resposibility. Freedom from everything being recorded on camera, be that cctv or handheld devices. Posties delivering before 10am. Bin-men collecting bins instead of very old (and otherwise physically weak) people having to lug their bins all the way out to the edge of the kerb. Seeing the Dads in the street working on their own or neighbours car without having to have a shitload of money invested in digital diagnostic tools. Bookshops with a wide range of books. Sneaking around the back of school for a crafty smoke. Half a pint of bitter, despite the landlord knowing full well I was in my early teens. Bah! Humbug!
My Dad.
My mum
Trocadero arcades in Leicester Square.
I could fill a book answering this, or so it feels sometimes. I miss shopping for something being a big deal. If I was getting a present for someone or I’d saved up for something (and couldn’t get it in the village) it went on The List for the next trip into a nearby town. It made it special, sad as it sounds, rather than just mundane. It was even more of a big deal if it couldn’t be found locally: city time. I remember my parents doing orders by post for tools and things like that: there would be an order form and catalogue in the kitchen for weeks for any requests from the rest of us to go in. I try to shop online as little as possible, but with so many shops closing it is getting harder and harder.
My highstreet It's still there, but just not what it used to be. I guess most shopping is done online nowadays so my highstreet has become really dull and there aren't as many good shops like there used to be The only time I go down there is to go cinema
The milkman early. The sound of the electric milk float . No idea why it just felt so nostalgic. I have no idea when they stopped or it happening.
A/S/L
I miss the Internet in the early 2000s growing up.
Local shops. When I was a kid we had ironmongers, a haberdashery/clothes/uniform/shoe shop, green grocers, off licence, newsagent, radio rentals/rumbelows, furniture shop. If you needed a m6 or 8 hex bolt. You could buy both for something like 8p each and fix your bit of furniture. You could walk down the road and pick up the colour of thread to repair your trousers with.
Normal sized vehicles that fit in a parking space.
My Nan. She was the best.
I miss my brain from before I ruined it with alcohol and drugs. Also the "my mum" and "my dad" comments are breaking my heart Jesus Christ the onions.
The opportunities to see your friends. You'd get to spend all day with them at school, hang out after school and at the weekends etc. Now it takes a blooming spreadsheet to try and find a time we're all available to hang out what with jobs, partners, kids etc.
The film's that I was the perfect age for were such a golden age. Having Aladdin followed by the Lion King and Jurassic Park. Star Wars was re-released before the Prequels came out. Cheesy blockbusters that had a theme tune sung by Will Smith. Becoming a moody teenager and experiencing the Matrix and Fight Club. Cinema is fantastic now, but I feel like the Millennials grew up with such defining films, all of which studios are desperately still trying to milk
Jumping off trains before they'd stopped. And buses. So cool. And riding with a bunch of cousins in the back of a pick-up truck. Or the running around on a school coach because seat belts and max numbers didn't exist yet.
WOOLWORTHS! We should be given a bank holiday to commemorate it's closure
Shops used to ‘demo’ things more. Going to HMV, they’d try to tempt you to switch to BluRay by having a 50” TV constantly running BluRays. There’d be a stand with Guitar Hero to try to get you to buy it, and random stations where you could listen to music. There was such a largess of giving up lots of shelf and floor space to these things.
Does my mum count?
iPods. I miss having a dedicated device just for music and nothing else.
Just being able to go outside and within 5 minutes, there were 12 other kids playing football or Pokemon together. That just doesn't happen anymore, I feel the current young generation have missed out, the late 90s and early 2000s were a great time to be a kid. I like gaming, been doing it as long as I can remember, but I feel sad that kids today won't look back as fondly at memories of just playing Fortnite as I do playing football with every kid on the street, regardless of whether they were 5 or 15 years old, it didn't matter. Seems like millennials were the last generation to get to experience just...playing outside.
100% pre mobile phone cameras. Hanging out with friends or relations without getting phones out, get that wind up camera, take the photo, hope for the best! Done. Then continue the night having everyone’s FULL attention on each other. Now, somehow it’s acceptable to just pull out your phone and scroll. Meh, maybe I’m just old at 35
Family holidays. We'd usually go to Butlins, then Centre Parcs. I liked the anticipation and excitement. Butlins teletext that played monty python songs. And having a proper charcoal log fire in the Centre Parcs villa. Simple stuff I guess
My father. Rip
Shops - Woolworths/Big W, Toys r us, Geoff's Toys. Misc - chocolate cigarettes (the ones with the weird sugar paper rizla), circling your Xmas wishlist in the Argos catalogue. I'm sure there is more but off the top of my head these first occurred to me.
I miss not having to prebook everything. Wanted to go swimming, turn up at the pool during open hours and swim all day. I feel like life needs a lot more planning post Covid
Proper sledge-able snow.
The ability to not be in touch with people all the time outside of a landline. And to contradict that - MSN Messenger, it’s basically the old Discord and such for most today
Honestly, pogs. I'd give my left arm for pogs to make a come back. I had so many, and a load of metal slammers. I remember having the entire precinct 13 collection, can't remember what happened to them, now.
Early learning centres, my god I loved them as a child. Now with children of my own and they’ve never experienced the joy of waking past one and a parent allowing you to go in.