Geriatric Millennial Yells At Cloud
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The Millennials are generally defined as those born in the 1980s and 1990s. Precise years vary, but 1980-1996 seems to have fairly broad consensus despite quibbles over the fringes. These neat generational divides used by analysts and scholars don't really fit the lived experience of people, though. Those born in 1983 saw very different childhoods than those born just a decade later in 1993, for example. We Geriatric Millennials born during the Reagan administration have a lot of overlap with younger members of Gen X, and those of us who grew up in rural areas with less access to popular culture and media don't always share in stereotypical pop culture memories.
Shit I Don't Remember
- The Real Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man, and a lot of other network TV cartoons because my parents didn't let me watch a lot of TV, although I had friends with the toys.
- Anything related to cable and satellite TV. We didn't have that at all, and neither did my friends, so no Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, or Disney Channel nostalgia for me.
- The Challenger Disaster. I was too little for it to hit me, and we probably didn't know about it immediately or see it on repeat because 24/7/365 cable TV news wasn't really a thing yet, and we didn't have cable or dish TV.
- The (first) Gulf War, for the reasons stated above and childhood innocence relating to geopolitics.
- Ronald Reagan, for the same reason
- Captain Kangaroo, because it was before my time, aside from occasional re-runs during my childhood on PBS
Shit I Remember
- Calvin & Hobbes in the Sunday comics. I probably learned to read just so I could find out what that yellow-haired kid and his tiger were doing.
- Black & White TV. I think my parents still had one when I was starting to watch Sesame Street.
- PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX were the only channels, and they required an antenna.
- The dawn of Power Rangers and Pokemon, although I didn't really watch them for the reasons noted above.
- The Nintendo Entertainment System, albeit not at my house. Too expensive, and you should go play outside anyway!
- VCRs for recording TV and watching movies. We didn't get one until about 1992 or 1993, though.
- A computer meant the DOS prompt, 5-1/4" floppy disks, and a computer mouse with a ball in the bottom if you were lucky.
- Oregon Trail on an Apple II in a school computer lab.
- Dial-up internet access, Juno free e-mail, e-Bay before PayPal, pop-up hell, Netscape Navigator, the novelty of CD-ROM and encyclopedia CDs.
- POGs.
- Beanie Baby Mania.
- The first iteration of American Gladiators
- Star Trek: The Next Generation being broadcast and waiting each week for a new episode. Some TV was acceptable, after all.
- The 1992 Bush/Clinton campaigns as my first real awareness of national politics being a thing people got riled up about.
- Life before the PATRIOT Act and its ballooning of the surveillance state with security theater at airports and global war for 22 years.
My dad first bought a word processor and then an IBM clone PC, so It feels like I grew up in tandem with the emergence of home computers becoming the default, like how the baby millennials and early Zoomers grew up with cell phones, and now Generation Alpha is growing up with tablets in the cradle. Back in my day, LEGO was the ultimate toy, and a well-stocked bookshelf was entertainment enough! Harrumph!
If you were born during the 1980s, what odd stuff do you remember seeing change over the years, and what cultural landmarks did you see begin? For those outside the US, what was life like for you? What changes did you see just during your youth if you are part of Gen X or a Baby Boomer? Let's unite around complaining about kids these days and back in my day and so on!
Now there are fewer outdoor activities for the kids than back in my days. I spent most of my childhood days in the ricefield, catching fish, playing kite after the harvest season. Only watched cartoons on Saturday and Sunday when it is broadcasted in national tv. Now everything is available in a matter of swipe for the kids.
I don't know whether there are fewer activities, or parents helicopter too much for kids to have fun outside. My little town has parks and playgrounds, and kids use them. However, traffic has increased, and crossing the main road through town is now unnervingly dangerous.
My kids missed out on the phase where they should have been hooning around the neighbourhood on their bikes getting up to kid stuff because hoons exist and are monumentally stupid.
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One week done, hopefully a monthly award in a few more!
That's the spirit @jacobtothe! Keep up the great work, and we're sure you'll grab that monthly award.
What is a word processor, was it like a typewriter where you could see what you were typing on this pixelly tiny screen and then when you pressed enter or something it would transfer that to the paper instead of being an actual typewriter where each key would slam straight onto the paper? I remember using one in a "vocational education" class which seemed to involve a lot of typing and not much else. Sometimes we'd have stuff to copy down but I seem to remember just typing for the most part.
I remember DOS XD and having Windows 3.1 alongside it. And working really hard to convince my dad to upgrade to Win95. I remember dialup and how exciting it was when we got a new modem that increased speed from 33.6 to 56k XD and getting to a stage of recognising by the tones whether it was going to connect or not. And the annoyance of being booted off the internet just because someone was trying to call the house.
I don't remember a lot of the other stuff (I do remember a lot but I also have indexing issues so memories generally need to be triggered, they'll come effortlessly then, I can occasionally find some if I look hard enough) as I was (still am) a stupid child who was far more interested in what was going on inside my own head and occasionally in my immediate surroundings and also I grew up on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere and we got a lot of stuff a lot later than everywhere else.
A word processor was that awkward stage between typewriters and computers where you could do some rudimentary digital editing and often save files to an external 3-1/2" floppy before sending the file to the connected printer. It was basically an expensive typewriter with extra steps, and nowhere near a proper computer. There were still library stations with typewriters and word processors when I was a kid, because computers were expensive! I also remember the amazing digital card catalog systems (DOS-based) when my little town got one about the time Windows 95 dropped.
I was born in 1975 and have always considered myself Gen X (since that became a label anyway). I remember all of the things in both of your lists. Though I remember the Ghostbusters movie more than the Real Ghostbusters cartoon which I never really watched. I was in the 5th grade when the Challenger exploded. Most schools in Florida (mine included) were watching it live since it was carrying who would have been the first teacher in space. News coverage was pretty non-stop for almost a week as I recall even without the 24 hour news cycle.
I was born in 1989, so I remember a lot of the same things you did minus here and there.
The post 2000 (after Patriot Act) era is certainly something, eh?
It is something, all right. Something not to be uttered in polite society or on unsecured lines of communication.
I feel very old, I take that back, I am very old. 1956 was a day or two ago.
Yes, you and I remember party lines, outhouses, cars without seat belts, and a whole lot of other things today's kids can't imagine.
I had the radio on when the Challenger exploded, so then I turned on the TV to see what was happening. Mostly the news reporters talked about how much they didn't know. I suppose my 15-month old child saw it on TV as well, but had no idea what was going on.