Modern 2000s kids will never understand the beauty and struggle of being a 90s kid. It was indeed a magical time. Filled with beepers, hair clips, boy bands...and the beginning of the internet!
Times were hard before 2000 but it sure was fun. Let’s go down memory lane as we list the things we miss the most from the 90s.
Do you remember those dotted lines that looked more like a moving block than a snake? Yep. Wasn’t it the best game ever? The Snake game came with Nokia phones back in 1998. Before we became so consumed by iPhones, those snakes took most of our time.
Just how many hours have you spent playing Snake on your phones? Well, it doesn’t matter. As they say, time enjoyed is never time wasted. And we enjoyed all those hours making the snake eat those apples!
Before My Little Pony and Peppa Pig, there was Lisa Frank. The queen of colors and neon.
Lisa Frank’s items specialized in bright-colored school supplies. From lunch boxes, notebooks, to stickers.
They mostly featured cute animals such as dogs, cats, dolphins, and unicorns. Having Lisa Frank stickers on your notebooks or bags made you totally cool back in the 90s.
Today, if you want to watch a movie, all you have to do is open Netflix and browse through hundreds of titles and you’re good. 20 years ago, people had to go to an actual store to rent a VHS or a DVD.
Yes, it’s true. People actually browsed real-life shelves looking for movies! What made movie-watching even more exciting back then was that you’re only allowed to rent it for a certain time.
So, if you rent a title for 3 days, you have to return it. If not, you have to pay a fine. And another thing, new releases cost more.
Speaking of DVDs and CDs, remember when we used to store them in CD binders? Yes, it’s the ultimate organizer for movie and music geeks. Hardcore fans would put labels on each flap and divide them based on genre.
You could think of it as something like Spotify, but instead of playlists, you’ll have different binders for each artist. Pretty cool, huh?
Back in the day, there was only one way to talk to your BFF during class. And it was through passing notes.
Long before the days of SMS, students used to sneakily pass each other notes. Sometimes those were about juicy gossip, lunch menus, and if you’re lucky, crush confessions.
The thrilling part about this was that teachers really hated passing notes! If you get caught, they’ll have you read your note in front of the class. Totally embarrassing!
Way before portable speakers and AirPods, cool kids had the boombox. If you don’t know what a boombox is, it’s a portable sound system for tapes and CDs but bigger than radio. It became more popular because of John Cusack’s iconic scene in a movie.
In Say Anything, he held a boombox over his head as it blasted the song “In Your Eyes.” That became a hit and was dubbed as a modern serenade.
I mean, John Cusack, blasting music in front of your house. What could go wrong?
If the 2000s had the iPhone craze, the 90s went crazy for beepers.
As you know, the 90s didn’t have instant messaging or facetime before. So, the fastest way they can talk aside from calling is through pagers.
It was actually pretty useless because you still had to use the phone to get the message. But since Hollywood used it as a fashion accessory, of course, everybody wanted it.
Among the many questionable fashion choices of 90s boy bands, what baffles me the most is frosted tips. Like, what even are those? Just take a look at NSYNC.
So basically, frosted tips is the trend where men would only dye the ends of their hair.
BLONDE. Maybe it seemed cool at the time, but if ever this wants to make a comeback, the answer is a big NO. Moving on!
Do you even know what this is?
It’s a Tamagotchi! A Tamagotchi is a handheld digital pet made in Japan that made its way to every kid’s heart in America in the 90s.
The egg-shaped game required players to feed and take good care of their pets. If you fail, your pet dies and you have to buy a new Tamagotchi. It was a popular way to pass time, long before we scrolled through the void of social media.
Remember the time when your teacher asked you to carry the OHP to your classroom and set it up before the class? Remember that powerful feeling? Yeah, me too.
Before projectors, TVs, and LED screens, teachers used OHP as a visual tool during class. It’s like a projector, but it’s only in black and white. Although it might seem ancient now, in the 90s it used to be modern technology.
Banana bikes were all the hype in the 60s all the way to the 90s. These are also known as wheelie bikes and spyder bikes.
Its designs also vary from muscle-types to kid-friendly and to those with flower baskets on the front. They’re made to resemble a motorcycle so anyone who has it is automatically cool.
Once upon a time, we couldn’t use the internet and the phone at the same time. Remember the dial-up internet? It seems so far away now but oh, such good times!
Back then, computers were connected to the internet via phone lines. So if you wanted to use one, you have to stop using the other. Those born after 1999 never had to fight with their parents over phone and internet time.
Kids nowadays would go crazy if their photos and videos got deleted on their phones. But they can always recover it in the Cloud. 90s kids experienced a different kind of pain back then. The pain of a broken VHS tape.
The 90s was a time of VHS. Everything was on tape: music, photos, and movies. VHS is all fun and games until it breaks and tape spills all over the side. It was actually pretty common to have broken VHS tapes, but still, it hurt.
Remember when you were willing to risk your whole computer just to download a song? Yep. The good old Napster and LimeWire days.
Aside from hundreds of malware entering your PC, the whole download process took 3 hours!
But you never batted an eye because back in the 90s that was normal. This was long before Apple Music and Spotify came into view. I guess people were just willing to risk their PCs just to get the latest Radiohead song.
Who could ever forget the ever so popular game of solitaire? The favorite computer past time. Oh, and all these folders you had to go through just to get to the game.
I mean, that’s a lot of tabs and folders!
But it’s all worth it because flipping those cards were just so fun. A true 90s computer game classic. In fact, Solitaire recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Time really does fly by too fast…
In case you haven’t noticed, devices in the 90s lack in memory space. And that included phones. We didn’t have back-ups then, so we had to free up space for new messages. It was okay because it kept your phone neat and clean, but deleting precious messages?!
Such a bummer. But we had no choice. It’s either we delete old messages or we won’t get any new ones.
Ask a 90s kid what their horror story would be like and I bet you 3 out of 5 will say scratched CDs. True. It’s that big of a deal. Since nobody has iPods then, their most prized possessions are CDs and tapes.
So if you get a scratch on your CD, it feels like the end of the world. Well, kind of. Because once it gets scratched, the music repeatedly jumps and you have no choice but to buy a new one. Oh, refresh button what took you so long?
Before Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, or anything else, there was Encarta. Microsoft’s built-in encyclopedia. It had everything, from Science, Math, Geography, and all other random facts.
Encarta was every student’s best friend and every teacher’s enemy. For lazy students who didn’t love doing research, Encarta was the answer.
There is one thing that the 2000s kids will never understand because even 90s kids are still trying to understand it.
The rise of the VERY weird fad: The Pet Rock. The Pet Rock was made in 1975 and was advertised like a real-life pet. The toy was an actual rock with breathing holes (so it can live) and a bed.
For some reason, the toy rock was a hit and made $1.5 million in sales. Unfortunately, its fad was cut short and after six months, people realized that it was only, just a rock…
Who remembers this guy?
Early Microsoft computers had this talking paper clip that appears anytime you seem to have a problem. It gives you options and asks you yes or no questions.
Tens of them! I know the goal was probably to be helpful, but sometimes it just felt like the paper clip was stepping over the line.
Back in the 80s, the Cabbage Patch Kids were the bomb. Every kid wanted them. Every parent fought for them. It was chaotic.
In 1983, Cabbage Patch Kids reached its peak and had people clamoring in stores. There were even videos that showed parents lined up in front of Toys R Us at 7 AM fighting with each other. In fact, the demand was so high that stores only sold one doll per person.
Remember scanning through hundreds of pages just trying to find someone’s number? Oh, and the thrill and embarrassment of dialing the wrong person? That is so 90s.
You can’t just google contacts before, so you have to find them in the many pages of the phonebook. Everything you need was there, deliveries, offices, schools, you name it. And if your family isn’t listed in the phonebook, well, you’re not legit.
Before smartphones and digital cameras provided instant previews of snaps, people actually had to wait before seeing their pictures.
Back then, cameras were all film cameras. And you can’t see your photo unless you use up the whole roll of film. Plus, since your film is limited, people actually pose well in front of the camera. It was so exciting to get your photos developed!
But also disappointing as some shots turn out too dark or blurry. However, good shots really turn out well. In fact, film cameras are making a comeback these days.
Ever wondered how 90s stars always seemed to have gorgeous big hair? The answer: bottles of hairspray.
Back then, big hair was the trend and you can’t just put your hair up with gel, you need to use hairspray. In fact, teenagers used up so much hairspray in the 80s and 90s they probably put a hole in the ozone layer.
If you know this, it’s official: you’re old.
These flat, square things are called floppy disks. They were used for computer storage before the flash drives and the hard drives.
These disks first appeared in the 1970s and by the early 2000s, they were gone. One could say floppy disks are the forefathers of flash drives.