There’s a term called the generation gap and it refers to the differences in experiences, opinions, habits, and behavior that separate age groups.
To learn more about this phenomenon, Reddit user MatsGry decided to look at it from another perspective. One that is often neglected and ridiculed on the internet. Baby boomers. So they made a post on the platform, asking the elders: “What’s something today’s youth would never understand?”
People immediately started sending in their replies, listing all the things that millennials and zoomers — in their opinion — can’t wrap their minds around. Of course, some of them are up for debate, but that made the comment section even more interesting.
#1History Channel, Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and a bunch of other cable networks that are now dedicated to absolutely bottom-tier garbage reality TV shows used to be amazing nonstop documentary TV.
Image credits: Chubby-Tumbles
#2People could not always get a hold of you and it was a good thing.
Image credits: TechFiend72
#3Memorizing phone numbers.
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#4Needing to do a report on a topic. No internet. No encyclopedia on CD. Going to the actual library to find someone in your class already grabbed the one book on the subject.
Image credits: ImCaffeinated_Chris
#5Waiting for your favorite song to come on the radio
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#6The excitement of going to a video rental store on the weekends to get to pick out a movie.
Actually picking one out was just as exciting as watching the movie.
Image credits: brokendowndryer
#7Opening up the newspaper to look at the TV guide to see what was on that night.
Image credits: Actuaryba
#8The relationship between audio cassettes and Bic pens (or pencils).
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#9omg smoking EVERYWHERE! In theaters, planes, offices, hospitals, trains, restaurants, schools… just everywhere (and the outrage when it was finally banned lol)
Image credits: MagentaX
#10Going to the bathroom during a commercial break and hearing the dreaded “IT’S ON!!” when you’re not done.#11Calling the movie theatre to hear the recording with the movie times on it.
Image credits: StanePantsen
#12The sheer joy of receiving a handwritten letter from someone you haven’t seen in a long time. I really miss the days when I had a nice stationery set, and I would write long letters to friends and relatives.
Image credits: IrianJaya
#13Watching a draft lottery to see if your number would be low enough that you will be drafted to fight in a war in Asia
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#14When you left work you left work. There is an emergency? Oh well, I guess we can solve that problem tomorrow.
Image credits: StanePantsen
#15Picking up or saying goodbye to airline passengers right at the gate
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#16Be kind rewind.
Smoking or nonsmoking
I left a message but I think the tape cut out.
So when should I call?
Get off the line!
I got to swing by and drop off some film.
I tried calling but I think he’s online right now.
Everything glass is brown and that’s normal.
Image credits: ClusterChuk
#17Taking photos using those little rolls of film and having to take them into a shop for processing. You often wouldn’t know if any of the photos were good until a couple of months later.
You also had to manually wind on the camera after every shot.
Image credits: Orlando_the_Cat
#18Hovering over your stereo with your fingers ready to hit play and record simultaneously while the radio DJ intros the song you’ve been dying to hear.
Recording movies straight off the TV onto VHS tapes and having the dedication to stop the recording to cut out the ads.#19Making plans ahead of time (meet you in front of the theater at 8:25, okay?) and if said friend was late to show up, you had no idea what happened to them. No changing plans last minute, no finding out where they were, just you standing in the meeting place, wondering how long to wait, if you should just tell the ticket seller to let your friend know you’ll be inside etc… (we all had one of those friends).
Image credits: FadeOutAgain4
#20Watching Saturday morning cartoons with cereal.#21TV Channels signing off for the night.#22″Insert disk 2″#23Buying a home at 3-6 times your annual salary and being able to get by on a single income
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#24Getting a free toy inside a box of Breakfast cereal.
Image credits: The_Geordie_Gripster
#25Asking for and writing down directions to somewhere, or even looking up and following directions on a map.
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#26Your friends used to just show up unannounced, and you’d have to hang out with them. It was called a pop in, and it was totally normal.#27On the job training. Actually being promoted for working hard.
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#28Suitcases never used to have wheels
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#29If there were 2 shows on tv at the same time and day you had to make a choice. No dvr no vcr no on demand#30Lining up the carbon paper so you could get two copies of the document you were writing in the typewriter. And then how annoying it was if you made a mistake and had to break out the Twink.
Image credits: Orlando_the_Cat
#31I think youth do understand mundane things like landline phones and B/W TVs, but I don’t think they understand how different the life felt back then. I’d say mobile phones and Internet caused the change somewhere in 2000-2005. We went from unconnected to always connected.
The world back then felt much slower. The days that were simply boring and nothing to do were super common. Today? I can’t remember when I was previously really bored. Everything is so available and entertaining.
I also remember how small the world felt. Like, there’s your family, guys at work, relatives and that’s about it. Someone might have had a pen pal. You couldn’t follow your idols, instead you just imagined how they were through their work and perhaps a poster.
Personally I’m super glad that I got the change to see both worlds.
Image credits: Raunhofer
#32Getting in your vehicle and driving to your friends house to see if they were home. No cell phones, gas was cheap. Driving was freedom.
Image credits: SoCalRc
#33How kids at one point were just everywhere with no supervision. Hell, when I was little it wasn’t uncommon for a group of us under the age of 12 to just disappear into the forest/woods/desert for the entire goddamn day. As long as you were back before the streetlights turned on and didn’t come back injured your parents just did not give a f**k so long as you were out of the house and out of their way.
Also, and this is definitely a guy thing, but every friend group had that friend with an older brother who at a certain point would bequeath their entire porn collection onto the younger kids, usually by telling them where it was hidden. I’ve seen hollowed out trees with hidden trap doors that had entire libraries of ancient playboy, hustler, and misc porno mags in them. Now if a kid wants to look at porn and their parents don’t lock everything down, they just go to any of the millions of available sites for it.
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#34Having to call your best friend on a landline and the ensuing anxiety that:
A. Their mom might answer. B. They might not be home and who the hell knows where they are?! C. Nobody answers and how long do I wait to call back???
Image credits: adrivebycastellanos
#35I miss not knowing where anyone was on a Friday night. You just had to drive around to all the regular spots looking for your friends. You didn’t always find them but sometimes you met other cool people and had other adventures. There’s less chance for serendipity when everyone knows where everyone is 24/7.
Image credits: headzoo
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