A dash of 80's nostalgia to spend the weekend reminding the days when leg warmers were popular and Blockbuster was a thing

Giuliana Tiscioni • Writer

Sep 12, 2026 8:30 AM EDT

Many of us are too young to have actually lived the true 80's, but that doesn't mean we can't hop on the nostalgia train with the rest of you!

For millennials and Gen Z, the 80's are more of an aesthetic than an actual decade. Our parents and maybe even older siblings (depending on how old you are) lived and enjoyed this decade right as it was passing. They got to see the crazy fashion, the neon colors, the big hair, the amazing music that was coming up, and most importantly, they still remember what the world was like before technology took over everything.

The summers spent playing in the street with friends and riding a bike, listening to the radio, waiting for their favourite song to pop up, the ugly wallpaper that was in fashion, everything! Granted, the real 80's were not as playful and crazy as the media has made us believe. No, they were probably a lot more normal. Just ask your closest Gen X what their childhood/adolescence was like. One thing is for sure: there were no such things as iPhones, flat screens, artificial intelligence, or anything like that. Everything was more… analogical.

According to some Gen Xers, life was quite different for young people. When they wanted to talk to their friends, they had to call the landline and hope the parents were in a good mood to put their kids on the phone. Some other times, they would just show up randomly at other people's houses to see if the children wanted to play outside. They had to use their imagination, their energy, and not spend the entire day glued to a screen.

We were basically born alongside tech, so we learned to pick it up quickly enough. Unlike Gen X, tech has always been a part of our lives, and we didn't get to experience life as they did. All we have left is pretending that we did, putting on our favourite 80s playlist and enjoying nostalgia with our fellow Gen Xers and memes!