A few months back, I stumbled upon this TikTok by tiktoker @officialdpainclain, where he genuinely and hilariously asked how people in the ’90s used to get “updates on news and pop culture” as compared to the speed we get things today. He’s clearly young and didn’t live through that era, so it’s understandable that it’s hard to imagine a world without access to the internet literally in the palm of your hand. But it also got me thinking: for those of us who did grow up in the late ’90s and early 2000s, the way we stayed informed, entertained, and connected was truly a completely different world.
So, in the spirit of nostalgia, I put together a list of what everyday life was like for Y2K-era teens and kids — way before smartphones, social media, and 24/7 internet access shaped the way we interact. This post isn’t about saying growing up back then was better, but more about how different things were, and how much effort it actually took to stay connected, make plans, or just find out what was going on. But somehow, we still made it work:
1.
Nobody really owned cellphones. Yes, by the late ’90s and early ’00s, they were becoming more common, but they were still incredibly expensive, and most parents weren’t giving them to their kids. And if you did have a phone as a teen, you used it sparingly because there were strict monthly minute limits, and going over them could get very pricey.
2.
You shared an entire landline with everyone in your house, but if you were lucky, you could get an extension in your room so you could talk in your bedroom (which, of course, also meant your parents could listen in or demand that you get off when they needed to talk). And if you knew someone who did have their own private line, then not only would you be jealous, but you would also go over to use their phone if you wanted to talk to a crush, etc.
3.
Talking on the phone for long periods of time with your friends was VERY much a thing. And if you and your friends had three-way calling, then you could add extra people to the conversation (as seen in Mean Girls).
4.
If you had internet, then you would also use AIM to talk to your friends, especially as soon as you got home, so that you could catch up with as many of them at once on what the day’s gossip was. Also, you’d leave cryptic “Away Messages” if you were in the mood to start drama.
5.
Most families shared one computer, and it was usually in a home office or “computer room.” Also, fighting between siblings over who got to use it so they could get on the internet was an almost everyday occurrence.
6.
Aside from the computer lab, no classrooms had computers. And if they did, it was probably for the teacher or for very specific uses…basically, you weren’t doing anything on a computer.
7.
Once you left the house, you’d literally had no idea what the weather would be like unless you read it in the newspaper or saw it on TV beforehand.
8.
If your parents were going out for the night, it wouldn’t be unusual for them to leave the number to the restaurant they would be at or the number to the house where the dinner party would be* with the babysitter or you (if you were old enough to stay home alone).
9.
It also wouldn’t be unusual for your parents to have the phone numbers to all your friends’ homes, and call and ask to see if you were there or ask to talk to you.
10.
If you had a crush or made a new friend and wanted to give them your phone number, you’d have to write it down on a piece of paper, give it to them, and hope they didn’t lose it.
11.
You likely owned a telephone book or spiral notebook where you wrote down phone numbers, home addresses, and email addresses of everyone whose info you hadn’t already memorized.
12.
And if you needed to call a store or restaurant, you’d look them up in the Yellow Pages.
13.
You had to call and actually talk to someone on the phone when ordering pizza, and then had to wait around for them to show up. Listen, I am not saying that doesn’t happen today, but back in the day, you didn’t have a contactless delivery option, and you couldn’t track where your order was.
14.
Online shopping was still in its infancy, so you were pretty much limited to whatever stores were physically around you. If you lived in a small town or a rural area, your options were slim, and chances are, a real shopping trip meant piling into a car and driving to the nearest big city just to find more variety.
15.
You or your parents would “special order” something if the store didn’t have it in stock. Basically, the store would order it directly from their headquarters and have it sent to the store; they would then call you when it arrived (usually a week or two later).
16.
You’d schedule your week around your favorite TV shows. If you weren’t home and missed it, you literally had to wait until summertime to watch it again in reruns*.
17.
More likely than not, you were pretty dependent on TV Guide or the newspaper television guide to see what shows were on, which shows were reruns, and which ones were new episodes.
18.
Likewise, looking in the newspaper or alt weekly paper to see what movies were playing and their times, what concerts were happening in both large and small venues, and what other events were happening around town.
19.
You’d pick up a magazine at the grocery store checkout (if you didn’t have a subscription) and read it cover to cover — sometimes more than once. It was how you got your celebrity gossip/interviews, behind-the-scenes photos from movies and TV shows, learned about the latest trends, etc. Then you’d take the glossy pages, tear them out, and tape them to your bedroom wall.
20.
Usually, if an artist you liked had a new single coming out, you found out about it from radio stations hyping it up and announcing the date and time of its premiere so you could tune in.
21.
Similarly, MTV VJs would just announce a premiere date and time for a band or artist’s newest music video. Or they would premiere them on shows like TRL,120 Minutes, and, later on, Making the Video.
22.
If you wanted to learn the lyrics to a song you liked, you would read the lyrics from the CD’s liner notes or, if it didn’t come with lyrics (🙁), you’d listen to the song over and over and write down the lyrics on a piece of paper.
23.
If you weren’t already heading together to the mall or some other place with your friends, you’d agree to meet up at a particular time and spot. Truly, you just trusted people to show up.
24.
You always carried around change in case you needed to use a payphone if you were out. As I said before, most teens, let alone kids, didn’t have cellphones, and if you, for example, wanted your parents to come pick you up from the mall, you needed to make sure you had change to call them.
25.
If you visited a theme park like Disney, waiting in line meant actually talking to the people you were with — no phones to scroll, no apps to distract you. And grabbing a paper park map was a must. It was your go-to for everything: ride locations, parade and show times, dining spots, restrooms, and whether an attraction was temporarily closed.
26.
You waited in long lines for popular movies. There was no assigned seating, so if you and your friends wanted good seats, you’d have to wait in a line before being let into the theater (sometimes the wait would be almost as long as the movie itself).
27.
You wrote out invitations and then handed them to your friends at school if you were having a more “formal” party. This was also super awkward if you were handing them out in front of classmates who you weren’t invited.
28.
You couldn’t fact-check someone on the spot. Most of the time, you either took what they said at face value or made a mental note to look it up later — maybe in a dictionary, an encyclopedia, or by asking someone older who might know. Debates could last for days, and proving someone wrong required actual effort.
29.
You had to research schoolwork in encyclopedias and books in the library. And there was no worse feeling than getting late to the library and finding out that someone else had already checked out the book you needed.
30.
You had to make sure you got to the video store early on Fridays if you and your family wanted to rent the newest movie released. They’d run out of copies if it was a popular movie, and it wasn’t unheard of for people to drive from store to store trying to locate a copy.
31.
And you’d watch movies at home in a subpar way compared to theaters. Not only was the TV resolution standard definition (480p), but most people watched full-screen cuts of movies meant to fit the 4:3 aspect ratio of the TV screen.
32.
And finally, sharing photos with friends meant asking for double prints when you got your film developed — one set for you, and one to hand out to whoever was in the shot.
