27 Normal Things From The '90s That Nobody Does Anymore

Buzz Feed

10-07-2025

Believe it or not, the '90s ended 25 years ago. (Yep, that's a fact that never fails to amaze and disgust me.) And of course, everyday life has TOTALLY changed in those years...sometimes in ways we wouldn't even realize.
So recently, millennials on Reddit have been answering the question: "What's something that felt normal growing up as a millennial but now seems really strange?" and oh wow, it's really unlocking some memories.
So here's what people said:
"Calling a girl's house to speak with her and not knowing who would answer. That was a fun one."
"No phones for photos. Just actual cameras."
"Cash and cheques everywhere (card wasn't accepted in so many places)."
"Using school encyclopedias to obtain information."
"Tape recording music off the radio..."
"Flipping through the channels and waiting all morning on Saturday for the four shows you actually like, only for two of them to play simultaneously on opposing networks with a limited chance for reruns."
"Going to the mall with friends to get pictures taken with angelic backgrounds and blurry bad Photoshop on our faces, with over-plucked, over-arched eyebrows and fried straight hair. You know what I'm talking about."
"Printing out directions. Also, printing out cheat codes for video games. Growing up we had a binder for all the games we wanted to have cheats for."
"Hanging out with 20-year-old guys when we were 15 and 16."
"All the shit you had to carry around. Cell phone for calls and texts, Discman (and later MP3 or iPod) for music, and digital camera just for photos."
"Knocking on someone's door to see if they can hang out."
"Wandering around the mall on a Friday night. Probably seeing a movie."
"The music on CD players skipping if the player was bumped."
"Never calling adults by their first name."
"$5 footlongs. They're up there with the Pyramids, the Moon landing, works of Shakespeare, and the Sistine Chapel. One of humanity's finest achievements."
"Going to people's doors so often. I knocked on strangers' doors for fundraising all the time and I can't believe that was allowed, let alone encouraged. Once for a friends birthday, we split in groups and went to strangers' doors for a scavenger hunt ('We're looking for a penny from these years or a non-yellow post-it; can you give us one?'). Now I sometimes knock on doors for political campaign volunteering, but even that makes me nervous and I would not want any child doing that."
"'It is now safe to turn off your computer.'"
"Just not knowing something. It's hard to explain to my 15-year-old that when I was growing up, if we wondered something, we had to just not know the real answer because we couldn't Google it."
"Before YouTube, there was 'call your school friend that had the same game as you and ask how the hell to beat the boss in Super Mario Bros 2.' Those were the days."
"Getting home after a long day and seeing, like, five new messages on the answering machine. Then listening to them as you got around the house. I remember this one kid left a rude-toned one saying he was mad at my little brother for not answering the phone that day, LOL."
"Phone books are such an alien concept now. I saw a video recently where a bodybuilder ripped a phone book in half. I was more impressed that he somehow had access to a phone book."
"Playing outside as kids with no parental supervision. I still think it's so weird you can't do that anymore."
"I swear school photos look so different now. For mine, I sat in front of a background and the photographer would keep telling me to move my neck. By the time my brother (Gen Z) started school, it was him standing against a background. The photos I get from my friends who are parents as well are the same, standing against a background."
"Buying cigarettes for my mom as a kid like it was no big deal."
"A cultural zeitgeist where everyone was watching and listening to the same thing. These days, everyone is either listening to a large mix of everything, or they are all watching different shows at different times. It makes it feel like there is little shared culture anymore."
"Just the amount of places you had to go for everything. I got dragged along by my mom to tons of places to do little things that can all be done on an app or through the internet. Like going to the bank to get a money order to take to the cable office to pay for the phone."
"Calling your parents collect but then cramming 'heyitsmecomepickmeup' in when it asks for your name so they don't have to pay for the call."
Now, on a similar note, tell me: what's something everyone did in the '90s that would totally get you cancelled today? Tell me in this anonymous form, or in the comments below!
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