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The 19th century brought people the industrial revolution and a new way of life. The railways, for example, completely transformed travel and those born towards the end of the Napoleonic wars (in another kind of baby boom) grew up to be much more reform-minded.

But these changes were much harder for the older generation. However, they just kept coming.

There's an obvious parallel with today: technology is reshaping the world, forcing us to constantly keep up, adapt, and leave the past for the history books.

Interested in the gaps formed by the latest developments, Redditor u/Bagolyvagymi asked this question: "What's something that newer generations will never understand?" And users flooded the post with answers. As of this article, it has 4.9K comments. Here are some of the most upvoted ones.

#1

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Being able to be an idiot in your formative years and not worry about it being filmed and/or put on the internet forever

DenzelEd12 , Stock Catalog Report

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chi-wei shen
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's the biggest advantage of the 20th century. People nowadays are not dumber than 50 years ago but today everyone can see it.

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#2

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On There was a time when we felt the world was getting better, not worse.

MrEngin33r , Eric Brehm Report

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Trillian
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This should be way higher up. Remember when the future held promise? I feel sorry and guilty when I think about my kids.

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u/Bagolyvagymi makes all sorts of posts on Reddit, but this was the one that has gained the most attraction yet. "The day I posted the question, I came across some old books and stuff from 30-40 years ago, like VHS tapes and old computer guides, and the question just popped into my head," they told Bored Panda.

"The funny thing is that I'm actually a part of the described 'newer generations', being 17. It always fascinated me to think about technology back in the day when it was a pretty big deal and most people had to accommodate these new innovations into their lives. For me, it came so easily because I grew up with phones and computers, although I only started using them later on in my life at like 10 years of age."

#3

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Slamming down the receiver on a landline telephone. Pushing the red button is not nearly as satisfying.

iamwalldoh , Tom Page Report

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Premislaus de Colo
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh yes, that one I miss dearly. The difference is like slamming the door in someone's face vs. pushing the elevator button really hard

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#4

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On The beauty of being unreachable.

exioce , Abdulla Al Muhairi Report

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Katie Lutesinger
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I turn my phone off every night at ten, and it stays off until I get up in the morning. I don't care if aliens just nuked Parliament House; it can wait until tomorrow. After ten is Me Time.

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#5

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Saturday morning cartoons. I miss sitting in front of the TV and eating a bowl of cereal while Tale Spin, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or whatever Saturday morning cartoon series played. Then getting on my bike once they ended around 10 a.m. and riding over to my friend's house to play till sunset.

asportate , Farther Along Report

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A B C
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"riding over to my friend's house..." to ring the bell, ask if he's there and if he's allowed to come out and play. "I'm sorry, but Steven still has homework to do" - "okay, I'll go home again then". Oh boy, that's long gone.

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As Mary Meehan beautifully put it, teenagers are an invention of recent history, morphing over the years from chaperoned innocents to malt shop boppers, from hippy protesters to latchkey kids, all the way down to today's digital natives.

"Maybe it's because of their fresh perspective on the world and their sense of immortality, but teenagers serve as cultural mirrors," Meehan wrote in Forbes. "They reflect our shifting society in ways other life stages don't."

She also acknowledges the effect of technological innovations on social change, and agrees that the internet is what the television was for the boomer era, exposing a young generation to new ideas and the real world.

#6

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Taking pictures and then waiting for them to be developed to see if they turned out okay.

Cautious_Emotion9839 , Garry Knight Report

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AnnaBanana
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And because of that, you paid a lot more attention to what you were photographing. And you made actual albums of the best photos. I miss those days, so many photos are never even looked at more than once these days.

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#7

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On MTV played music videos, had music discussion shows, and had news about music 24 hours a day at one point.

senorchaos718 , wikimedia.commons Report

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Daria B
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And cartoons. In my time at least. Anime included. But that came later. It was still really good stuff, like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, Slam Dunk, Blue Submarine n.6, Escaflowne, Master Mosquiton, Excel Saga, and many other wonderful titles. With a bit of censorship, though, but still worth it. And MTV had competitors as well, which made it even better for us audiences.

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#8

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Having to buy the entire album to get one song you liked, or else wait for it to come on the radio and record it. Missing any part of the song was unacceptable, and you had to wait until it was played again.

hanginonwith2fingers , Martin Pettitt Report

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KJ
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Trying to beat the DJ when recording off the radio, one of lifes worst challenges as a kid.

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u/Bagolyvagymi said it was pretty hard to keep up with all the answers their post has received, but there are some things that were pretty common. "Obviously, everyone was watching TV back in the day, and it had the usual limitations like ad breaks or if you didn't catch your show, you never got the chance to see that episode again. I also noticed that using the internet was a whole other story," they explained what they learned.

At the end of the day, the Redditor believes that different generations can in fact speak the same language "because after all, there is a period when we live together in the same world." We just have to adapt to one another a bit better!

#9

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Parents not knowing where their kids are and trusting them not to get into trouble.

malamalinka , Jim Winstead Report

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Vorknkx
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Summers in my grandma's neighborhood - mobile phones were still many years into the future, so if I spent the whole day outside, no one knew where I was or what I was up to... good times :)

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#10

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On The street lamps means it’s time to go home.

These-State-6555 , Susanne Nilsson Report

#11

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Not being able to watch whatever you wanted whenever you wanted. We actually had to look up the shows schedule in a TV guide and be available when it came on.

togotfury1983 , GlamourCatNYC Report

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Karl Baxter
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In the UK in the 70s and 80s decent films were only shown at Xmas and the rest of the year was pretty much a film drought unless you count the 1940s b/w musicals shown on Saturday afternoons aimed at pensioners.

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#12

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Hows about not knowing who was calling... was it your crush? your grandma? a telemarketer??? It's like a game show every time the phone rings

andthrewaway1 , Nate Steiner Report

#13

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Having to rewind the tape before returning it to the video store or else incurring a fee.

slapsmcgee23 , JC Gellidon Report

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Wistiti
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Blockbuster never fined us. But you rewind it anyway because it's the decent thing to do.

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#14

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On How to use the card catalog in the library — the ones with the cards in the drawers.

pixel_ate_it , bookfinchFollow Report

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over it already
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I want one of these for my hardware in the garage. They are beautiful pieces of furniture.

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#15

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On “Can so-and-so come out to play?”

mewmewx2 , Donnie Ray Jones Report

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lenka
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That still happens here. We have kids in and out and knocking on the door daily.

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#16

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Having a three-ring binder of CDs for road trips.

DarthTrafford , zombieite Report

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NsG
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Uh, try a shoebox full of CASSETTE tapes for a road trip. Didn't get a built in CD player in the family car until I was in my late teens

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#17

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On That there used to be nine planets in the solar system.

Lilylivered_Flashman , Wikimedia.Commons Report

#18

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Circling pictures of toys in the Sears catalog as a Christmas list. My brother and my cousin would do this every year at my grandma's house. We also put our initials so our parents knew who wanted what toy.

fabes_ohoulihan , @nascarman_rr Report

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Pilot Chick
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Was just thinking how much easier Christmas shopping would be if my niece could circle things in the wishbook.

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#19

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Meeting up with a friend at the movies and having no way to communicate once you’ve left the house. Your friend doesn’t show. Is he coming? Should I continue to wait and stand at the precise spot we agreed on? Has he died? Did he forget? I’ll call home using a pay phone and hope my mom is there to tell me whether he left a message on the answering machine.

chihuahua-mama , Eelke Report

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Lav Oravaf
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am Gen X, had my first mobile phone at 26. Before that, met friends, travelled the world, drove to places I didnt know. I miss every single thing of not being online/virtually reachable. But hey every generation has its own thing, so I guess it's ok ;)

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#20

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On A thing called encyclopedias

safeword-is-harder , James Report

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Kat Rob
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ugh trying to write school papers and the only encyclopedias available are ancient and the information is no longer correct. Having to keep a list of topics for the one day every two weeks you can go to the library where their encyclopedias are marginally less out of date. I looooove that now I want to know something I can just look it up.

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#21

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Checking the pay phone change return for any forgotten coins.

FaberGrad , C WattsFollow Report

#23

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On The frustration of cassette tapes getting mangled.

BornToHulaToro , Falk Lademann Report

#24

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Having to properly time getting a drink and snack before the ad break on TV finished. I still sweat thinking about it.

heyitssunny_ , Erica Firment Report

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Premislaus de Colo
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Now you can safely go and get coffe while the ad lasts... From a gas station... In another state

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#25

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Maybe not universal. But how to entertain yourself with your mind and nothing else.

I've noticed something about my friends/people i know in parenting culture where it's now a crime for a child to be bored. When I was a kid my parents laughed and told me to go away when I said I was bored.

fourteendogs , Matthew Paul Argall Report

#26

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Why we say "hang up" the phone

RynoLasVegas , Eidantoei / kssk Report

#28

missing an episode of a show meant MISSING IT FOREVER. There's still an episode of "Battlestar Galactica" I never saw. I could go back and watch it now, but 10 year old me hurt like a gunshot wound for a long time after missing that thing.

The_Patriot Report

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A B C
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I just recently found a series (The Vision of Escaflowne) online that I used to watch almost every friday night somewhen in the early 2000s. I never saw the last 2-3 episodes back then, and now that I did, I wish I didn't. I remembered the series so fondly, but the end was just... shallow. I didn't like it, and now I wished I could unsee it and just remember the series from back then.

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#29

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Getting lost in your car and just having to figure it out

doot_doot , Saurabh Mishra Report

#30

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On The difficulty of not being able to instantly find the answer to questions.

McDunky , A4-Nieuws Report

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#31

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On "Insert Disk #3 and press Return to continue..."

everythingisajokeok , Rudolf Ammann Report

#32

As a kid I read my favorite books more than a hundred times.

Constant-Truth-5343 Report

#33

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On 'Let’s all meet back here at 6:00.' *Looks at watch.* 'I’ve got 4:35. What time do you have?'

mr_funnypuns , orwellianrob Report

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Brian Bennett
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am old and was a nurse - nurses in those days were never without a watch. they were also given as graduation presents. But I've come a long way baby my watch now has a battery no winding oh yes it also has the date - proud to be so modern! (sarcasm intended)

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#34

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Having to say BRB to all your friends on MSN because your mom wanted to make a call, and then having to disconnect from the internet and dial back up when she was done.

emzyyx , Christiaan Colen Report

#35

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On The glory of playing and enjoying snake on a brick phone.

FlappyDeFlapJack , FlappyDeFlapJack Report

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Veronica Popescu
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes .... That model 3310 was not the real brick. A few models before them were, like 5110.

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John Augsburger
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

D'you even fill the whole screen? I got close once or twice. There was a time when I spent a deal of time waiting for appointments. Didn't know about games before then. I still feel the intensity and focus of an almost full screen now!

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Brian Bennett
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Never had and never will have a cell phone -- much too invasive!

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John Augsburger
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I thought that way, organise a weeks work get on with it. Then people were shocked, then they started saying that they would not deal with me if they couldn't reach me.....

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#36

Having to wait until Monday at school to tell your friends about the crazy s**t that went down at the party over the weekend. I used to love that. There was nothing like saying “bro, guess what happened”!? Now everyone just instantly sees in it happening in real time on social media.

Rossi-5 Report

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Brian Bennett
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yep that was great - the judges daughter was arrested we got away!

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#37

Turning the dial on the TV to change the channel.

Rukawork Report

#38

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Not being able to binge a show unless you literally recorded a bunch of episodes from TV onto a bunch of VHS tapes.

TheRealOcsiban , Delaney Van Report

#39

Texting without looking at your phone because -> abc def ghi jkl mno pqrs tuv wxyz

shipwontsail Report

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Scagsy
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just me or was it a lot quicker to text back in those days? Smartphones have made it harder in my opinion.

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#40

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Making plans to meet friends and having to commit because you didn't have mobile phones to ask where they were, how far, and if they were still coming.

GiantMonkeyBall , hhm8 Report

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#41

Privacy.

LightlyStep Report

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Thorfin Wolfsbane
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

person gets social media apps. person posts on social media apps about every detail of their life. person complains "why don't I have privacy!?!?" There use to be a time we thought the government would spy on us, now we pay private companies to spy on us.

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#42

"Stay off the f**kin' phone, I'm on the internet!"

Poops_McClanahan Report

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jk nbt
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

dial-up internet had its problems, like 39 hours to download a big application... you can't use the phone during the entire download, or it will corrupt the files. Then you have to start the download all over.... Arrrgghhhh!

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#43

The perfect balance between playing outside and watching TV.

im_really_that_dumb Report

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Vorknkx
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Back then: "You are grounded, come in!" / Nowadays: "You're grounded, go out!"

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#44

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On Going to the arcade and playing games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. This is my childhood.

Ujou_Danjin_Ken , Joe Haupt Report

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Karl Baxter
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In my case it was going to the arcade to play this new hi-tech game called “Space Invaders”

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#45

45 Older People Are Sharing What Newer Generations Are Missing Out On How great Myspace was. It was a million times better than Facebook. You could choose top friends, music, cursors, backgrounds, and images. It was awesome until everyone transitioned over to FB.

mdsoccerx9 , [deleted] Report

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