The Times They Are A Changing
We don't want to be all old-man-get-off-our-lawn about it, but If you thought things were different today than they were 5-10 years ago, let us take you back to the 20th Century. Back to the oh-so-wonderful decade of the 90s.
Floppy Disks
Kids today know it as the Save icon on their computer. But what they probably don't know is that the icon is based on an actual thing we used to insert into our computers to save stuff on.
Maps
No, we didn't say Google maps. Just maps. Those large paper things that you'd have to unfold to figure out what route to take. No traffic warnings, no rerouting on the fly. Not to mention the frustration when trying to fold them back in on themselves.
Pay Phones
Now when you pass a pay phone on the street it’s almost like walking by an antique in a museum. But back in the 90s they were all over the place and, if you were out of the house, pretty much the only way to call someone. Or page them (which leads us into our next item).
Pagers
A precursor to our modern cellphone and texting life—if you had a pager you'd get a text-based message (often a phone number) and you would then have to find a phone to call the number. If you were out, that phone would probably be one of those aforementioned pay phones.
Corded Landline Phone
We aren't done talking about phones yet. Back in the 90s, before everyone had mobile devices, we had landlines. For many of us they were also corded phones, which meant not only did we have to be home to get a call, but we had to stand by the phone to talk (or walk around as far as the cord attaching the handset to the base would allow).
Who's Calling?
There was no caller ID. The phone rang, you answered it, said hello, and it wasn't until the response that you knew who was on the line. This also meant calling your friend and having to have that awkward initial chit-chat with their parents if they answered the phone before your bestie.
Answering Machines
Okay one more phone-related one. Not just answering machines, but answering machines that used cassette tapes. Seinfeld fans know what we're talking about.
Rolodex
A rolodex was like a spinning phonebook (and yes, we understand that even saying phonebook might confuse those born in the last decade or so). Anyway, it was a collection of cards on which you wrote your contact's names and numbers (and even addresses). Then you could spin it around to flip through the cards and find who you were looking for.
Renting Movies
No, we didn't have to walk five miles uphill in 10 feet of snow to get to school, but we did have to walk (or drive) to a video store to rent a movie. Once we got to the video store we would spend what felt like hours (sometimes it probably was hours), wandering up and down the aisles looking at VHS boxes (VHS what)?.
VHS Tapes
You see, before streaming was even a glint in Netflix's eye, movies came on large physical tapes. How did we watch them?
Video Cassette Recorder
We watched them via our VCR machine, which we connected to our television sets.
Dial-Up Internet
Oh, that sweet sweet connecting to the internet sound. IYKYK!
Fredericknoronha., CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
CDs
Just like streaming didn't exist for movies in the 90s, it wasn’t a thing for music either. We had VHS tapes and DVDs for movies, and we got our music on Compact Discs (CDs). We purchased full albums because we liked one song and we had these big CD cases in our car that our friends would flip through to play DJ while we drove around.
Fax Machine
Stick a piece of paper into a fax machine, enter a fax number, and within seconds an exact replica of said paper would emerge from the other fax machine anywhere in the world. It was like a
America Online
For a huge swath of people in the 90s, America Online was their gateway into the internet with its dial-up internet and web portal. Those free AOL discs were everywhere and their AIM chat client was uber-popular. Don't know what we're talking about? Go watch
Microfiche
What would a 90s thriller be without a scene of the protagonist in a library, side-scrolling through old newspapers on a microfiche reader?
Christchurch City Libraries, Flickr
Typewriter
You mean a keyboard without a monitor? And it didn't underline all our sppelling mistackes in red either?
TV Guide
This will seem odd to a younger generation that barely watches actual network television anymore. Plus when they do, they have a button they can press on the remote to see a guide of what's on, what was on, and what will be on later. Back in the 90s, we waited for the physical TV Guide magazine to see the weekly broadcast schedule.
Encyclopedias
Wikipedia in book form. Were you a World Book or a Britannica family?
Johan Jönsson (Julle), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Cameras With Film
These days we'll take 24 pictures of our plate at brunch. But back in the 90s we had to be a little more judicious about our photo taking. Because instead of digital photography, our cameras used rolls of film. So, what happened after we snapped all of the 24 (sometimes 36) pictures on the roll?
Getting Photos Developed
We had to remove the roll from the camera and take it to get developed. It was both an exciting and an anxious time going to pick up your photos. Opening that envelope hoping people had been smiling and your thumb wasn't in front of the lens the whole time.
Full Service Gas Stations
Pull into a gas station and stay in your car as an employee comes to you and fills your tank for you. You can still find them today in some places, but 30 years ago full-service gas stations were much more prevalent.
Y2K
People were legit scared as we counted down to midnight on December 31st, 1999. Spoiler Alert: Nothing happened!
ANTONI SHKRABA production, Pexels
The Importance Of Commercial Breaks
Commercials: We skip them on YouTube and we DVR programs so we can jump through them during our favorite shows. In the previous decade though, before all that was possible (and before you could just hit a pause button), the commercial breaks served a pretty important purpose. That was the time to go to the bathroom or run to the kitchen to get more snacks.
Mix Tapes
Whether it was an actual tape or a CD, making a music compilation was a special time in all our 90s lives. Was the mix for personal use? A friend? A girlfriend or boyfriend? Someone you wanted to be your girlfriend or boyfriend? These were all very important factors to consider when picking the right songs and, just as important, the order in which you placed them.
Andreanna Moya Photogra, Flickr
