Let’s Confuse Young People With These 31 Pictures That Will Absolutely Baffle Anyone Born After 2000

Author image for John Summers
John Summers • Contributor
Mar 25, 2025 9:00 PM EDT

You know those YouTube videos where they give kids a rotary phone or a Walkman and just watch the confusion set in? This list is basically that—but in picture form. It's a digital trip down memory lane that also doubles as a pop quiz for anyone too young to remember a time before touchscreens and TikTok.

Grab a teenager, a Gen Alpha cousin, or your own kid and challenge them to identify what's going on in these photos. What's a sweet cigarette? Why did old printer paper have holes down both sides? And what in the world is that mysterious metal contraption that spins when you press it? (Hint: It's called an ashtray—and back in the day, they were everywhere.)

Honestly, the responses might be even more entertaining than the photos themselves. So consider this not just a nostalgia dump for the rest of us, but also a social experiment. Let's see how many of these confusing objects they can actually figure out—and how many leave them thinking we lived in the Stone Age.

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Tags

1990s 90s memes retro nostalgia 80s music Nostalgia Overload 80s 90s kids 90s memory lane nostalgia memes millennial-nostalgia 1980s
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