People Are Sharing Things And Habits That Look Strange Now, But Weren't 20 Years Ago

Times were strange twenty years ago

Damjan

Published in Funny
15 Oct 2020

People Are Sharing Things And Habits That Look Strange Now, But Weren't 20 Years Ago

Some habits looked completely ordinary in 2000, and now they feel almost unthinkable. A lot of that shift comes down to technology, but it also changed the way people moved through daily life.

This roundup pulls together the things people remember from the early 2000s, from cell phones and landlines to TV, maps, and the little routines that used to feel normal. The nostalgia is strong, but so is the reminder that everyday life has changed fast.

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Some of these throwbacks will feel familiar, others will feel surprisingly dated. Read on.

1.

2000 was also a golden age for cell phones and marked the rise of the famous Nokia 3310. Everyone was playing Snake on their cell phones or Solitaire on their PCs.

We were used to making phone calls and sending SMS messages without knowing who was calling us on the landline.

2000 was also the year when Big Brother started airing. It completely changed television and introduced reality shows.

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2. Paper maps

"I used paper maps to deliver pizza in 2001. I paid about $30 for a map book of my city so I could deliver quickly and efficiently, plus not get lost."

JunkBondJunkie,gregroose

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3. Movie nights

"Going to Blockbuster on Friday nights"

Gieder,Mtaylor848

4. Dusting

"Blowing into video games to fix them"

Vintage paper map and movie night setup, with a TV rewind theme

lholm0494,Bryan Ochalla

5. Rewind

"Rewinding movies when you’re done watching them"

People dusting a room, then preparing for movie nights and email era

Raze321,igpetry

6. Emails

"Getting excited about receiving an email."

Dusting tools beside a VCR rewind button, nostalgia for earlier habits

somasmarti,hostreviews

7. No caller ID

"Not freaking out when someone calls you out of nowhere"

ElectricGelato,Alexas_Fotos

8.

2000 was one hell of a year. The millennium bug was supposed to mess up all computers in the world, causing complete chaos, satellites to fall, missiles to fire, and bank accounts to reduce to zero… you name it.

Well, none of that happened; we are still here.

9. Push the button

"Switching to channel 3 to play video games"

eagleblue44,albertrenn

10. Memory

"Memorizing a phone number."

Hand pressing a doorbell or elevator button, then naming the place

nofrigginway,PublicDomainPictures

11. Name the place

"Having a school project to do and busting out the Encarta disk."

ash894,ms_brightside

12.

Teen magazine stack with a phone contact guessing game, memory and names

13. Both? Wow

"Being pleased that your new car had a CD player AND a tape deck."

Substantial_Quote,AviKado

And if you think 2000 felt strange, these historical moments prove the past was anything but boring.

14. Teen magazines

"Teen magazines (Tiger Beat, M, Mad…) that you could take posters out of and hang in your room"

roo719

15. Times change

"Pretending the internet wasn’t going to be much. Saying, 'Oh yeah, when the internet runs the world?' Or something dismissive like that.

At one point, if it was on social media, people said, 'But it's on social media, so it doesn't really matter.'

People in 2020 lose careers over their posts on social media."

s968339,Pixelkult

16. Print it out

"Printing out your route from MapQuest before leaving the house"

Mason-Derulo,arttravelling

17. Smoking

"'Smoking or non-smoking?' was the first question you were asked when entering a sit-down restaurant."

MjrLeeStoned,couleur

18. Mix

"Recording songs off the radio to make a personal mixtape. I always got annoyed at the DJ for talking over the end of the song"

Printed document beside a flip phone keypad, T9 texting nostalgia

digitalchicken,snd63

19. T9

"T9 texting"

Smoking-related clutter near a phone keypad, mixing habits from earlier days

h0sti1e17,reddit

20.

"Saying that technology is useless. Or that you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket"

T9 phone texting interface next to smoking paraphernalia, older lifestyle choices

MagentaLeopord2018,stevepb

21.

"Frosted tips."

T9 keypad phone used for texting, smoking imagery, fewer regulations reference

Laeif,Toglenn

22. Smoking

"Smoking in bars. Hell, even going to bars"

3mta3jvq,zafarrancho

23. Less regulations

"I remember 25 years ago getting on a plane and realizing I forgot some important paperwork in the car. The flight attendant let me get off the plane, and I ran through the terminal and out to the parking lot to my car to retrieve it. Then I quickly ran back in, zipped past the security screener, out onto the tarmac, and climbed up the stairs to the plane. It was a rather small airport, so it took less than 5 minutes. But I doubt I’d be allowed to do that today."