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

Who is to say what’s normal? People are very different, and things that some people consider normal are strange to others.

That’s conditioned by our upbringing, surroundings, ethnicity… so many factors are involved. But there are some things that everyone finds strange – the things we used to do years ago. The definition of normal seems to change for everyone over time.

People on the r/AskReddit thread called “What was normal in 2000, but strange in 2020?” tried to answer this question, and the answers are interesting and nostalgic.

At first glance, most of these answers are technology-related. However, if you look more closely, technological progress has also changed our habits and lives.

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.

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

3. Movie nights

"Going to Blockbuster on Friday nights"

Gieder,Mtaylor848

4. Dusting

"Blowing into video games to fix them"

lholm0494,Bryan Ochalla

5. Rewind

"Rewinding movies when you’re done watching them"

Raze321,igpetry

6. Emails

"Getting excited about receiving an email."

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."

nofrigginway,PublicDomainPictures

11. Name the place

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

ash894,ms_brightside

12.

13. Both? Wow

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

Substantial_Quote,AviKado

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"

digitalchicken,snd63

19. T9

"T9 texting"

h0sti1e17,reddit

20.

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

MagentaLeopord2018,stevepb

21.

"Frosted tips."

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."

Rustyboyvermont,iwnph

24. Old format

"Television in 4:3"

ThursdayIs7,fran

25. Pen and paper

"Writing down an address or telephone number to store the information for later."

7imTim,Pexels

26. Pay phones

Pay phones. If you see one now, it’s like spotting a leprechaun, genie, or unicorn, and you ask it if it grants wishes

JustAnother0utcast,MichaelGaida

27. Cool thing.com

"Saying dot com at the end of everything because it was cool to do."

1HeyMattJ

28. The truth is out there....

"2000: Your parents telling you not to believe everything you read on the internet.

2020: Your parents believing every post they see on Facebook."

Dijiwolf1975,priscilladupreez

29. Same time

"Watching a show weekly at the same time to catch new episodes"

sib2972,aleksdorohovich

30.

"Waiting for the internet to connect. Yelling at someone in the house for being on the phone when you can’t connect.

I kept a folder of music lyrics that I ripped out of Dolly/Girlfriend magazines. I also loved reading the booklet inside the CD with all the lyrics.

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."

digitalchicken,Orca

31. Call back

"Telling people to call you back after 9 PM because that's when minutes are free"

HotelMoscow,igorovsyannykov

32. CDs

"Buying a stack of blank CDs so you can make your own custom mixes"

LeftHandMorty9,sashaatx

33. MTV

"MTV music videos actually had videos"

theinkedmuneca,public domain