'Kids don't understand the point of... high school reunions': 25+ Outdated things that could never be explained to anyone born after 2000

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 2, 2023 5:00 PM EST

We're glad the internet exists, but before that, we spent a lot more time in libraries. 

Even today's kids still hang out at libraries, in case you were wondering. It's lovely to see parents reading to their kids, librarians hosting story hours for toddlers who won't sit still, and families checking out a dozen books for them and the kiddos. Some things never change. 

The library-going experience for today's kids is usually about fun, though. Most kids will never have to worry about going to the library to use the computer, because they can just use their iPad or their parent's phone to look something up with speed and accuracy. The stress of going to research a school paper five minutes before the library closed, and photocopying pages from books to use as sources, probably isn't going to bother kids these days. We just have the technology for these things everywhere, and we totally take it for granted. I love learning new things by just Googling them and reading news articles or watching videos about random subjects. Today's children will always have these wonderful troves of info right at their fingertips. 

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  • It's hard to explain to people born after 2000 how difficult everyday tasks used to be, compared to how utterly effortless things are now. Not everything is an improvement, though. Lots of people in the comments below ruminated on their incredible childhoods spent biking with friends and coming home when the streetlights went on. We don't see that much anymore… 

    Check out all of the thoughtful answers to this person's question: “What one thing a kid born after 2000 will not understand no matter how long you explain it?” 

    Next up, this woman held onto a petty declaration for fifty years, just to spite her husband. 

  • 01
    What one thing a kid born after 2000 will not understand no matter how long you explain it? 'Waiting for a song to play on the radio so you could press record and have your own copy on cassette tape'
    via Manish Das on Unsplash
  • 02
    What one thing a kid born after 2000 will not understand no matter how long you explain it?
    via u/Amerisbf
  • 03
    john_jdm If you wanted to know something your family or friends didn't know, and you couldn't find it in the library, you were unlikely to find out the answer. This applied to all sorts of things all of the time. I doubt younger people today can really imagine the difference immediate information availability makes in our daily lives.
    via u/john_jdm
  • 04
    winoforever_slurp_ · Looking forward to Monday's newspaper having that week's TV guide so you could see what movies were on that week.
    via u/
  • 05
    slapshrapnel Back in my day, you'd ask an older person a question, they'd make some up, and you'd go on to believe them for years and years.
    via u/slapshrapnel
  • 06
    Flanellissimo Others have mentioned not being online 24/7, dial-up internet, the world before social media, being without the internet etc. I don't any of those are really that hard to explain because you can simulate that experience today. What you can't simulate is what the Internet used to be.
    via u/Flanellissimo
  • 07
    Search engines were borked, there was no "good" search engine and your bookmark field had an actual purpose. Wikipedia didn't exist, the closest you got to something like that was a list of links at some random website: Want to know about ants? Here's a link to a site with pictures in wildly different resolution and a background made to mimic old parchment. You couldn't use the internet to listen to music, you could barely use it to look at low res pictures and you'd be lucky if even half the fe
    via u/Flanellissimo
  • 08
    Old timey internet was wild, it was also in todays eyes an uncanny valley.
    via u/Flanellissimo
  • 09
    quadruple_negative87 How the year 2000 seemed like some year way off in the future. Now I have lived more than half my life in the 21st century. Heck, we had a technology show called "Beyond 2000".
    via u/quadruple_negative87
  • 10
    Brewsleroy Conan had a whole segment called "IN THE YEAR 2000" where they would make predictions about the future.
    via u/Brewsleroy
  • 11
    www othybear I tried to explain to my nieces that you used to get the internet through your phone. They were all like "yeah, duh". Then I had to explain that the phone line had to be connected to a special box which had to be connected to a computer that you could only connect to the internet if no one else was using the phone.
    via u/othybear
  • 12
    slightofhand1 People just went away, and you never saw them again or had any idea what they were doing with their lives. Without social media, everyone but your closest friends or family disappeared from your life forever, and you had no clue what they were doing (remember you can't google them either). Ex boyfriend? I heard a rumor from an old hs buddy I ran into at the mall that he moved to New Jersey. Camp buddy? Randomly ran into him two decades later, and he was totally different.
    via u/slightofhand1
  • 13
    Those stories just don't happen anymore thanks to social media. Women know what hockey team their high school boyfriend's kid plays for. It's why kids don't understand the point of stuff like hs reunions.
    via u/slightofhand1
  • 14
    Themeloncalling Missing the new episode on TV, having no way to see it again, and be completely clueless when it was all anyone at school or work talked about.
    via u/Themeloncalling
  • 15
    slightofhand1 Kids won't understand "it was all anyone at work or school talked about" in this day and age. Hard to explain what it was like when everyone from the 10 year old to the 95 year old granny was watching the same TV show, at the same time, in like every house in America.
    via u/slightofhand1
  • 16
    D phoenix25 How amazing it was to wake up in the morning and see that your torrent for a 320p resolution movie had advanced to 63% overnight.
    via u/phoenix25
  • 17
    No Independence1479 Waiting for a song to play on the radio so you could press RECORD and have your own copy on cassette tape. Albums were expensive so you only bought the ones that were special to you. Nowadays, with internet and streaming options, we can listen to what we want, when we want.
    via u/No Independence1479
  • 18
    Buckmeg How many phone numbers we'd commit to memory.
    via u/Buckmeg
  • 19
    Pheonixmoonfire *AFTER THE TONE, PLEASE SAY YOUR NAME* "Himomitsmecomeandgetmef romthemallillbeattheenteranc ebyhottopic"
    via u/Pheonixmoonfire
  • 20
    Carl_Clegg 70's kid here. Checkout ladies in supermarkets (yes, it was mostly a ladies job) used to manually type in the prices of every item purchased. (Every item had a price tag stuck on it by another member of staff). Their fingers could really fly around a numerical keyboard. It used to fascinate me as a kid.
    via u/Carl_Clegg
  • 21
    MaddenRob Getting pictures developed after a vacation.
    via u/MaddenRob
  • 22
    ivyagogo One phone for the entire family and you could only go as far as the cord would stretch.
    via u/ivyagogo
  • 23
    TashDee267 My 2009 born son can't understand that we had road maps and no gps. "So you had to what memorise the trip? Pull over repeatedly?" Sometimes I would write on a piece of paper L, L, R etc.
    via u/TashDee267
  • 24
    slightofhand1 Watching stuff because it's on. Listening to a song because it's on. Everything's personalized now. We had a much better understanding of the world/old movies/old songs/even sports, because we had so little choice. Sebastian Mani-whatever does a great joke about this. If your dad wanted to watch 60 Minutes, you were walking into school on Monday like "you hear about what's going on in Lebanon?"
    via u/slightofhand1
  • 25
    ecfritz Calling your friend's house and having to ask the parent who picked up if you can talk to your friend.
    via u/ecfritz
  • 26
    ruralgaming "Hey mom! I'm gonna go out for the day around town and hang out with friends/explore around." "Okay dear! Be back when the street lights come on!"
    via u/ruralgaming
  • 27
    theonetheycalljason All you needed was a bike and the world was yours. I also did this on rollerblades. Put shoes in my backpack and went down to the mall, which was 3-5 miles down the road. I felt so free and independent. I still feel that way when I ride my bike.
    via u/theonetheycalljason
  • 28
    Method__Man not being tapped into the internet 24/7. They may THINK they understand but they dont. also, just not being contactable since you didnt have a cell phone on you. when you were out, you were unreachable. GLORIOUS privacy and just unplugging yourself from the
    via u/Method__Man
  • 29
    durkbot Playing with the other kids on my street, we didn't arrange anything in advance via our phones. You either knocked on each other's doors or you'd go out and start riding around on your bike and hope that they'd see you from their window and come and join you. And then one day you find out they're moving away, or you moved away and you'd never see them again.
    via u/durkbot
  • 30
    threadbarefemur The concept of personal privacy, on every level. You might understand it as a concept, but living it is different. There used to be a time before the internet was common where you weren't expected by everyone to be reachable. You wouldn't call or knock on someone's door past 7:00 pm, and this extended to the early days of MSN messenger and texting.
    via u/threadbarefemur
  • 31
    By the time MySpace rolled around it started to go downhill for the chronically online crowd, but most people were warned against posting anything online that was identifying or personal. Now we live in the age of professional sharenting vlogs where people can post an entire child's life from conception to college for millions of people to see. It's crazy.
    via u/threadbarefemur
  • 32
    Infamous-Steak-1043 The phone book. We had a conversation with a teenager where we explained that "there was a book, it had everyone's address, name and their house phone number and every house got a copy of this book every year. You could just look people up and then call their house." Pretty sure their head exploded.
    via u/Infamous-Steak-1043
  • 33
    010 tekfighter Not being able to pause live TV. You ran to the bathroom during commercial breaks and then prayed that you wouldn't hear "It's on" while you were in there. We were all short distance sprinters and couch high-jump champions back in the day
    via u/tekfighter
  • 34
    Tricball Dial-up and having to pay hourly for internet.
    via u/Tricball
  • 35
    reditanian Boredom. Not having lost interest in the 101 things to do/watch/listen to at your fingertips. No, having nowhere to go and nothing to do, and just being alone with your thoughts. Day after day.
    via u/reditanian
  • 36
    When I was a child we were told to "play outside" (in the back yard). What was outside to play with? Nothing. We spent hours upon hours outside, unsupervised, chasing each other around, making up games to play. Entertaining the family dog. There really wasn't much else.
    via u/reditanian
  • 37
    -959 gimmeslack12 You walked into a store that was wall to wall movies to rent. Took that movie home, watched it, and returned it 2/3 days later. This was the only way you could view a movie at home.
    via u/gimmeslack12
  • 38
    (JU Mizuho34 You had to make sure the video was rewound or face the wrath of fees from the store or from your parents who had to pay those fees.
    via u/Mizuho34
  • 39
    _joeBone_ I cut a slot in the end of this broomstick so I can shut off my bedroom light and change between the 3 channels on this black and white TV
    via u/_joeBone_
  • 40
    Waste-Bag3398 TVs being the size of a Washing Machine. And being heavy like one too!
    via u/Waste-Bag3398

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