Remember the good old days?
When we could go to concerts? To movies? To crowded restaurants? Heck, remember when we could hug our friends and family members without being worried about catching a virus?
Yes, things have changed. Especially when we look back to the turn of this century and compare it with 2020.
What was normal in 2000 but is strange in 2020?
Here’s what AskReddit users had to say.
1. Remember when?
“Using Yahoo to search for things.
Or repeatedly signing up for 15 free hours of AOL using a spoofed credit card number and a fake name.”
2. Here come the mixes!
“Buying a stack of blank CDs so you can make your own custom mixes.”
3. Make sure to print it off.
“Printing out your route from Mapquest before leaving the house.”
4. This is so cool!
“Getting excited about receiving an email.
When I got my first email address I had a friend sign me up for all this spam b/c I was sad I wasn’t getting any email.”
5. Be kind, rewind.
“Rewinding movies when you’re done watching them.
The day we got an automatic rewinder was glorious. Just visited my parents a few weeks ago and it’s still sitting next to the VCR.”
6. Tracking down the good stuff.
“Struggling to find a clean .mp3 file of that new hot song to burn onto your cd, meticulously kept in a binder with its peers.”
7. You know it!
“Saying dot com at the end of everything because it was cool to do so.
Woah dude, that’s so sweet. It’s the bomb dot com!”
8. Don’t see that anymore.
“I have a vivid memory from around 2000 of being at a fine dining restaurant with my family and my grandmother casually smoking a cigarette and ashing into a crystal ashtray and nobody batting an eye.
Today I think you’d get arrested for smoking in a restaurant, at the very least you’d get kicked out by the manager.”
9. The good old days.
“Waiting for the internet to connect. Yelling at someone in the house for being on the phone when you can’t connect.
I kept a folder of music lyrics that I ripped out of Dolly/Girlfriend magazines. Also loved reading the booklet inside the CD of all the lyrics.
Recording songs off the radio to make a personal mix tape. Always got annoyed at the DJ for talking over the end of the song.”
10. Sad, but true.
“2000: Your parents telling you not to believe everything you read on the internet.
2020: Your parents believing every post they see on Facebook.”
11. Pretty much gone now.
“Privacy.
Oh man- the movie Minority Report was creepy because Tom Cruise went into The Gap and it knew what he bought last time, or something like that.
IF ONLY that were the only thing being tracked.”
12. It’s all in there.
“Maybe not strange per se, but having an entire area specifically for storing entertainment like movies and music, or an “entertainment center”.
You used to have a HUGE cabinet for storing your VHS, DVD, games, and CDs along with placing your TV in it.
Now it’s just a TV mounted on the wall with MAYBE a shelf small enough to hold a game console.”
13. I’m lost…
“Giving manual directions to someone.
Turn left at the McDonalds, then take your 3rd right, and if you get to the crooked tree you’ve gone too far kind of thing…”
14. I’ll be right back.
“I remember 25 years ago getting on a plane and realized I forgot some important paperwork in the car. The flight attendant let me get off the plane and I ran through the terminal and out to the parking lot to my car to retrieve it.
Then quickly ran back in, zipped past the security screener, out onto the tarmac and climbed up the stairs to the plane. It was a rather small airport so it took less than 5 minutes.
But I doubt I’d be allowed to do that today.”
15. Imagine that…
“See this?
A camcorder, a video editing system, a PC, a telephone, a camera, the Thomas Guide, a PlayStation, your entire CD, LP, and cassette music collection?
Imagine if they all fit in a little device you can put in your pocket!”
16. See you never.
“Moving away from a school with kids and teachers you hated but you know you’ll never hear or see them again.
Thanks to social media, that was taken away.”
Now we want to hear from you.
What do you think seemed normal 20 years ago but is definitely not in 2020?
Talk to us in the comments. Please and thank you!
