Things that Shall Make You Feel Old (for users born between 1980 and 1990)
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Nov. 4, 2015, 10:08 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
This year is reaching its end, and I still have many years left of my life (I hope), but I am not as young as I once was (I now am 28, making me closer to 30 than I am to 20; oh, the horror!), and I recently have been seeing lists intended for people such as myself, who were born between the years 1980 and 1990; lists of things that are making me feel my age.
Therefore, I shall create my own list of things that shall make 80's and 90's children feel old, and certainly invite others to add to it, as well. This list may be long, so be warned of a large wall of text.
-Remember floppy disks? They may have been adequate for document files, but one of them could not store even an average music file, today. An average flash drive has several thousand times the storage capacity of an average floppy disk. Today, many younger users may see the icon for saving a document, and not know what it is.
-Remember dial-up, and the annoying noise that a modem would make? Remember how excruciatingly slow it was, and what a amazing difference there was when broadband/ethernet became available?
-Remember when 1 gigabyte seemed to be a massive amount of storage/memory, or when 1 gigahertz seemed to be amazingly fast? Now, 1 gigabyte is barely practical for anything, and 1 gigahertz is rather slow.
-Remember when 800 by 600 pixels was considered to be a large resolution for a computer monitor (compared to 640 by 480)? Now, 800 by 600 is the smallest resolution that most monitors can display, and they cannot even display resolutions below that.
-It has already been six years since the release of Windows 7 and fourteen years since the release of Windows XP, and this year is the twentieth anniversary of Windows 95.
-Remember when Verizon was once known as Bell Atlantic, and Nynex before that?
-If the titular children from The Rugrats aged like actual people, they would now be in their early- to mid-twenties.
-Numerous anniversaries for movies, music, and television were celebrated last year, are being celebrated this year, and will be celebrated next year. Here are some significant highlights:
-Last year (2014) was the fifteenth anniversary of The Matrix and Fight Club; the twentieth anniversary of The Lion King, Reboot, Gargoyles, Spiderman: the Animated Series, and X-Men: the Animated Series; the twenty-fifth anniversary of Disney's The Little Mermaid; and the thirtieth anniversary of 1984 by Van Halen, Fistful of Metal by Anthrax, Ride the Lighting by Metallica, Ghostbusters, the Karate Kid, Gremlins, Terminator, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Last year was also the twentieth anniversary of the death of Kurt Cobain.
-This year (2015) is the tenth anniversary of Batman Begins, Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the first Hulk film, and Avatar: the Last Airbender; the fifteenth anniversary of the First X-Men film, Titan, A.E., The Sickness by Disturbed, and Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park; the twentieth anniversary of Toy Story, Disney's Pocahontas, and Batman Forever; the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first Home Alone and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films, the original Total Recall, as well as Edward Scissorhands; and the thirtieth anniversary of Back to the Future, The Goonies, The Breakfast Club, the original Thundercats series, Killing is my Business...and Business is Good! by Megadeth, and Bonded in Blood by Exodus.
-On the subject of The Breakfast Club, if Brian Johnson (the "brainy" member of the club) brought a gun to a school, today, he would be arrested, not merely put into detention, and the principal's tyrannical attitude toward the students would definitely not be tolerated today.
-On the subject of Home Alone, that film's plot is almost completely implausible by today's standards, given the prevalence of the internet and mobile devices.
-This year is also the thirty-fifth anniversary of The Blues Brothers, but that may be too far back in history for the intended demographic for this thread.
-Next year (2016) shall be the fifteenth anniversary of the first Spider-Man film; the twentieth anniversary of Space Jam, Mars Attacks, and Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame; the twenty-fifth anniversary of Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Metallica's eponymous fifth album (better known as "The Black Album"); the thirtieth anniversary of Master of Puppets by Metallica and Reign in Blood by Slayer, Jim Henson's Labyrinth, and Ferris Beuller's Day Off.
-On the subject of FBDO, if a student decided to take a day off from school, today, it is very unlikely that they would not be discovered, given the prevalence of surveillance devices, but it is also likely, most unfortunately, that the staff of the school would not care if a student was truant.
-On the subject of Space Jam, it has now been twelve years since Michael Jordan retired from professional basketball in 2003.
-Next year shall also be the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Cliff Burton, Metallica's first bassist.
-In the realm of video games, last year was the tenth anniversary of World of Warcraft and the twentieth anniversary of Jazz Jackrabbit, the original Warcraft, and the first Wario Land, and this year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of Commander Keen and the thirtieth anniversary of the North American release of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Next year shall be the twentieth anniversary of the release of the Nintendo 64. On the subject of Commander Keen, if he aged realistically, he would now be 33, since he is eight years old in his games.
-This year is the fifteenth anniversary of Diablo II and nest year shall be the twentieth anniversary of the first Diablo game.
-Remember when there were only 150 species of pokemon?
-Sega has not produced their own consoles since 2001; the Dreamcast, their final console, was released fourteen years ago.
-Remember when you rented a VHS cassette from a store, and were reminded to rewind it? On that subject, do you remember video rental stories, at all?
-This year is the the year to which Marty and Doc Brown traveled (from 1985) in Back to the Future: Part II; if that film franchise was made today, they would travel back from 2015 to 1985 or forward to 2045.
-It has now been fourteen years since Tom Brady became the star quarterback for the New England Patriots and last year was the twentieth anniversary of the Boston Red Sox' first world series championship in eighty-six years.
-This year is the 20th anniversary of the end of Calvin and Hobbes.
-Last year was the thirtieth anniversary of Dragon Ball and two years from now shall be the twentieth anniversary of One Piece.
-This year is the tenth anniversary of YouTube.
-Apple released the first iPod in 2001, fourteen years ago.
-Two years ago was the twentieth anniversary of Magic: the Gathering.
-Remember when Froot Loops cereal had only four flavors (orange, lemon, cherry, and lime)? Remember when the pot of gold marshmallow shapes were first added to Lucky Charms? Remember the light brown pieces in M&M's, or when blue was first added to the mix?
-Dakota Fanning is now 21, the Olsen twins are now 29, and Macaulay Culkin is now 35 (at the time of this post). Soleil Moon Frye, the actress who played Punky Brewster, is now 38. Eminem's daughter, Hailie Mathers, shall be 20 at the end of this year.
-Children born in the year 2000 are now in high school.
-The year 2000 is as far away from the current years as is the year 2030 (fifteen years in either direction).
Wow, what a long list! I am sorry if it is too long for some users, but I really wished to mention as many items in it as I could, since I can edit only the first post of this thread.
So, does anyone else here have anything to add to this list? Does it make you feel old? What do you think of it?
God, Legends of the hidden Temple brings back so many memories. I don't think I even a caught it on during it's original airings. I still to this day believe that the statue was added in to create drama, as there is NO WAY that people that age are stupid enough to fail on a 3 piece puzzle.
November 5, 2015 12:51 a.m.
are you afraid of the dark, salute your shorts, ahhh! real monsters. in my heart, there will always be just 150(1) pokemon
November 5, 2015 1:12 a.m.
Good Lord, these things make you feel "old"?
Try these on for size:
- No computers.
- No video games.
- No MtG.
- No colour TV (I'm not old enough to have not had TV at all).
- No CDs.
etc.
November 5, 2015 3:03 a.m.
Goosebumps, beast wars, the first set of power rangers, mark grace/ryan sandberg on the cubs, frank thomas/robin ventura/tim raines on the white sox, dan marino,2pac & biggie...
November 5, 2015 3:06 a.m.
JexInfinite says... #9
I was born in the 90s, but I understand the majority of those things. It's not so much when you were born, but how you were raised.
November 5, 2015 3:08 a.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #10
The old school He-Man and Transformers (Generation 1) were my favorite shows as a little tyke. I also remember when the internet first came out to the common people. My school had a "Classroom of the Future" where kids whose parents had the internet would be in and pretty much just typed all their homework instead of writing it. (That was more mid 90's though I believe). I also remember the switch from VHS to DVDs, and video rental stores. Now pretty much all physical digital media devices (like DVDs and CDs) are becoming obsolete since you can just download everything to your phone or PC/tablet or stream them from Netflix/Hulu.
I tried to watch Beast Wars and Reboot again as an adult but just couldn't. Same goes for every single Power Ranger knock-off: Beetleborgs, VR Troopers, etc. They really are terrible shows but I loved them as a kid.
November 5, 2015 8:48 a.m.
Thundercats, You Can't do That on Television, Double Dare, Nintendo (the Original), Atari 7800, Arcade games
November 5, 2015 11:03 a.m.
aeonstoremyliver says... #12
Wow... I was born in 1980. Thanks for the reminder of how old I am :-P
November 5, 2015 11:27 a.m.
I was born in 80 also, but I don't need a reminder post. My youngest of 3 kids is almost a teenager and I've had gray in my hair for at least 10 yrs.
November 5, 2015 11:46 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #14
These next several items may be rather negative or depressing, but I shall still mention them, nevertheless, to show how much time has passed and how greatly society has changed.
-Last year was the fifteenth anniversary of the Colombine High School Massacre.
-This year is the twentieth anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing.
-Next year shall be the fifteenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
-Remember when people could joke about bringing guns or bombs to work or school and no one would take them seriously?
-Remember when people could use the words "faggot" or "retard" without offending anyone?
Now, for some more positive (comparatively speaking) items:
-This year is the thirty-fifth anniversary of Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath and Back in Black by AC/DC (although that may reaching too far back into the past for users born between 1980 and 1990.
-This year is the tenth anniversary of Avatar: the Last Airbender (although that may be too recent of an example).
-Next year shall be the thirtieth anniversary of Master of Puppets by Metallica, Peace Sells, but Who's Buying? by Megadeth, and Reign in Blood by Slayer (I may have mentioned that already, but there is no harm in mentioning it, again).
-Remember when gasoline cost only slightly more than $1 per gallon, and when $2 per gallon seemed to be an outrageous price? Now, $2 per gallon is perceived as a very low and reasonable price.
Rocknj06 says... #2
When Trix cereal was in the shape of fruits instead of balls. Ronald McDonald had a friends, and kids meal toys came with actual good toys such as metal miniature cars instead of the cheap plastic ones of today. There was a Big Comfy Couch and Nickelodeon had game shows everyone wanted to be in such as GUTS, Legends of the Hidden Temple, and Wild and Crazy Kids. All That was Saturday Night Live for children and introduced is to Amanda (That's Me) Bines. Boy Bands dominated the airwaves and a British Girls band named Spice Girls put out lollipops with stickers on the wrapper (and they were delicious). 3D glassea were paper with Blue and Red lenses. Their is a spinoff show of Boy Meets World out no that follows everyones favorite couple, Corey and Topanga's daughter during her school days. We know what a Walkman and a beeper is. You probably made a MixTape on a casssette tape after spending hours waiting to hear the songs you wanted to add.
November 4, 2015 10:42 p.m.