Mr Viral
Recently, u/Just_a_Ginger_Fella asked r/AskReddit, “People over 35, what’s something you genuinely miss that younger generations will probably never experience?” And we thought we’d share the best responses.
1.
“Toy stores. Nothing beats the aisles and aisles of stuff at Toys ‘R’ Us.”
–Chrisinthsth
2.
“Finding a magazine with something you love on it, a band or an actor or whatever. Now if you love something you can immediately consume every piece of media on that thing, which is also cool, but I’ll always miss turning the corner at the grocery store and seeing that Spin is doing an all-punk issue, or the Rolling Stone issue after Hunter Thompson died, and being like ‘FUCK YES’. And the smell! The ink plus the paper and the perfume samples, incredible.”
–drulaps
5.
“Life without tech in everything – whole summers with just you and the backyard, alternating sometimes with friends and bicycles.”
–4llu532n4m3srt4k3n
“I miss when new tech was something to be excited about rather than something where you’re looking for the catch.”
–Dunnersstunner
6.
“Internet before the corporate world got hold of it. It was truly a wild west era.”
–fs_12
“Man the old Internet was just more fun. There was this sense of discovery when you found a niche website or community, like it was something unique and special, and there was more unique forms of expression out there. Now it’s all TikTok and YouTube, and YouTube isn’t even as good as it used to be. It makes me sad.”
–EvilSock
8.
“The excitement of your new favourite song playing on the radio or MTV.”
–ckred
9.
“When everyone watched a TV show at the same time in their individual households and then came together to talk about it the next day. Pre streaming services days. Commercials still sucked but there was something magical about it.”
–jurassicMark618
10.
“The joy of getting off a plane and having someone right there at the gate waiting for you.”
–robbythompsonsglove
“Or waiting at the gate with anticipation for some to get off the plane that you were so excited to see.”
–Korista
11.
“Creating my own ringtone on Nokia composer.”
–nofearnev
12.
“We didn’t have to pay an exorbitant amount of money for concert tickets.”
–30yroldheart
13.
“Living my coyote ugly dream – dancing on bars thinking I’m hot shit but likely being an absolute embarrassment to myself and there being no video evidence of it.”
–aussb2020
14.
“Being able to be unreachable. It’s hard to really get alone time or time to relax when you have a phone on you all the time and you can always be reached.”
–Witty-Radish-389
“Yes and along with this, if you say you’re going to meet someone somewhere you can’t bail at the last minute. Like if you make a commitment you gotta stick with it because the other person wouldn’t be able to be reached to cancel.”
–JSol1113
15.
“Things built to last.”
–GoldenLadyBits
“More than that… Things were built to be fixed.
We joke so much about how Gen Z doesn’t know how to fix anything, but they’ve literally never owned anything they could fix themselves. Literally every single thing is ‘use and throw’. How are they supposed to learn?
I remember in the ’90s taking my boombox apart, finding out that a few cogs had chipped teeth, riding my bike to the neighbourhood store, finding the right cog in a giant box of cogs and then fixing the boombox. It was a fun summer afternoon. I’m pretty good at fixing stuff, but I can’t do anything if my phone breaks now. Or even my car… You need specialised tools for a fucking oil change.”
–iomegabasha
16.
“The arcade. Putting two quarters on the glass indicating you’ve got next. Watching this one dude beat Mortal Kombat 2 on just two quarters.”
–Fun-Palpitation5847
17.
“Blockbuster.”
–Severe_Chicken213
“I remember going and putting in my pizza order. Then going next door to Blockbuster, picking out movies and games. Then going to get my pizza. Heading home and enjoying the evening. It was an event, an experience.
Now I ask my kids if they want to watch a movie. They say they have already watched it on their phone a few days ago.”
–Intelligent_Past_924
18.
“Walking down the street collecting your mates along the way to go hang out.”
–Odd-Table-2610
“Or if you were late – looking for the pile of bikes in the yard to know where they were.”
–Strawberry_Pretzels
Any more to add? Let us know in the comments below!
Additional Thumbnail credits: NBC, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Studios, NBC
