Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread
There are no objective criteria that separate normal and abnormal. I mean, for some, eating dinner past 10 pm is totally fine, while for others, it’s all about putting cereal before adding the milk. Are you about to say that’s totally not okay? There you go. There is a yin and yang to any normalcy, and as long as we have people whose experiences are fully subjective, we will have both sides.
Except we’re talking the year 2000. When someone asked on r/AskReddit “What was normal in 2000, but strange in 2020?” it surely hit close to home for many. 41.1k upvotes later, the illuminating answers are in.
And on this one, we may once and for all come to an agreement on millennium things that look really heckin' odd today. Like saying dot com out loud ‘cause it felt like the cool thing to do, or burning a bunch of CDs, we've already started...
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
2000: Your parents telling you not to believe everything you read on the internet.
2020: Your parents believing every post they see on Facebook.
chi-wei shen 6 years ago
Good parents are still telling to not believe everything you see on the internet.
RELATED:
#2
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
#3
Buying a stack of blank Cd’s so you can make your own custom mixes
Foxxy (The Original) 6 years ago
I have about 20-30 blank CD’s from over 5 years ago because USB’s came in and hold more memory. I don’t know what I should do with them coz I don’t know anyone who uses them these days.
2000, which feels like a whole eternity away, was one hell of a year. Do you remember the millennium bug, for example? It was supposedly going to cause global chaos, like planes falling out of the sky, missiles firing by accident, all simply because the dates on computers had to be reset at midnight on January 1, 2000.
Nothing happened and we’re still rolling in 2020. However, from how the world has been doing so far, it seems this time, we're gonna need some more luck.
#4
Watching a show weekly at the same time to catch new episodes
#5
MTV music videos actually had videos
#6
Memorizing a phone number.
The same year was a golden age for retro mobile phones and marked the rise of the legendary Nokia 3310. Everyone at the time was either playing Snake on their phone, or Solitaire on the computer. We lived in the world of phone calls and SMS messages, and no one was frightened to death by a random call like we are now.
2000 was also the time when reality TV changed television for good. It was the year when Big Brother aired on screens, gaining worldwide popularity. According to Esquire, the allure of it was that “it could 'turn your life around.'” You could win £100,000 and leave your life behind while 10 million people would watch their idols on eviction nights.
#7
Pay phones. If you see one now it’s like spotting a leprechaun, genie or unicorn and you ask it if it grants wishes
#8
Rewinding movies when you’re done watching them
#9
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.
#10
Printing out your route from Mapquest before leaving the house
chi-wei shen 6 years ago
My parents still prefer to have print-outs in case the phone doesn't work properly. However, nowadays they get them from Google.
#11
Telling people to call you back after 9pm bc that's when minutes are free
Kombat Kitten 6 years ago
If it wasn't after 9 or on the weekend then it better have been an emergency. Amazing the day the started free mobile to mobile minutes if your friends had the same phone company.
#12
Not freaking out when someone calls you out of nowhere
#13
Going to Blockbuster on Friday nights
#14
Writing down an address or telephone number to store the information for later.
#16
Smoking in bars. Hell, even going to bars
Kombat Kitten 6 years ago
I remember the smoking sections in restaurants being a thing too. My uncle would do this take a puff, take a bite, then exhale the smoke from his nose while chewing. Usually with just a slide divider that could be rolled around to make the smoking or non smoking sections bigger depending on what their customers were mostly.
#17
T9 texting
Kombat Kitten 6 years ago
Every number had 3 or 4 letters for them. 4 letters for less used letters like 7 (pqrs) and 9 (wxyz). Space and # (pound sign) were on a button beside 0 and ?.! were normally on the other side of 0. 0 was often backspace. 1 (held down) was normally voicemail. Once you know what number the letter you want is assigned to, you press that number 1,2,3, or 4 times to pick the letter. So, "Hi Foxxy" would be 4 pressed twice, 4 pressed once, space, 3 pressed thrice, 6 pressed thrice, 9 pressed twice, 9 pressed twice, 9 pressed thrice. Waiting too long between pressing would automatically choose whatever letter you last were at before. Example if you want L and press 5 twice but not fast enough to get the last press in than it would pick K. If you wanted a new letter on a number you just used for a letter than you had to wait a second for it to register before pressing for a new letter or it may think you were still entering the last letter and then you accidentally go past your letter.
#18
Saying that technology is useless. Or that you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket
Tara Brooks 6 years ago
No one could have imagined we would all have mini computers in our pocket
#20
Smoking or non-smoking” was the first question you were asked when entering a sit-down restaurant.
#22
Switching to channel 3 to play video games
Foxxy (The Original) 6 years ago
Is this an American thing? We had to change the channel to AV to play video games.
#23
Teen magazines (Tiger Beat, M, Mad…) that you could take posters out of and hang in your room
Tara Brooks 6 years ago (edited)
I was obsessed. I can still smell the smell of the grocery store isle, and fresh printed magazines as I ripped out the pages starring my crush.
#25
Television in 4:3
#26
Pretending the internet was not gonna be much. Saying "Oh yeah, when the internet runs the world?" Or something dismissive like that.
At one point if it was on social media, people said "But it's on social media, so it doesn't really matter."
People in 2020 lose careers over their posts on social media.
#27
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.
Steve Barnett 6 years ago
di do di do do dit dooo.... ke ching CHING CHING Ching... crackle.... kre kre kre ......
#28
I used paper maps to deliver pizza in 2001. I paid like $30 for a map book of my city so I can deliver fast and efficient plus not get lost.
Martha Meyer 6 years ago
When the apocalypse comes and there is no internet anymore, these will be worth gold.
#29
Saying dot com at the end of everything because it was cool to do.
#30
Frosted tips.
#31
Worrying about someone listening in on another land line phone in the house..
#33
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.
Nagawa (Cofa) Kishiki 6 years ago
Yeah, nowadays, just follow the path or arrow. Both in-game and in real world.
#34
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.
#36
Buying a new Pc every 1-2 years because the old one can barely keep up now. 10 year old pcs are still alright for most tasks nowadays.
#37
CRT monitors
What do you think ?
Torchicachu 6 years ago
it was kinda funny because a lot of them i still did and im only in high school
David K 6 years ago
Me too. Born in 1986 and I can relate to everything on the list.
Load More Replies...
Robin Childers 6 years ago
It's faster to dial a number than to go through my contacts to find it.
Torchicachu 6 years ago
it was kinda funny because a lot of them i still did and im only in high school
David K 6 years ago
Me too. Born in 1986 and I can relate to everything on the list.
Load More Replies... Robin Childers 6 years ago
It's faster to dial a number than to go through my contacts to find it.
Related on Bored Panda
