r/AskReddit • u/The-LeftWingedNeoCon • 8h ago
What’s something kids could do 20 years ago, but can’t do now?
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u/CMarlowe 7h ago
Not having to worry about all the dumb shit you said as a teenager being recorded (sometimes by you) for posterity, and potentially used against you for the rest of your life.
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u/Scribe625 7h ago
Exactly! I'm so glad I had a flip phone in college because I cringe to think of the stupid shit I'd have done/recorded while drunk if smart phones had existed then. Thank God there's no video of me being stuck inside playground equipment that my friends could then post online or hold over me for decades. Instead, it's just a funny story/memory between friends which is way better imo.
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u/Gramage 4h ago
Yeah I feel like I grew up at the perfect time for technology. Start of high school I had a computer and dialup internet, no cell phone. By midway through high school I had cable internet (three megabytes per second!!) and a flip phone. I didn’t get a smartphone until after high school.
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u/UrsulaAthena 7h ago
THIS! I was 16/17 in 2005. If recording had been as big then as it is now, I can’t imagine what my life would’ve been like. I was at the mall over the last weekend when a fight broke out. Hordes of teens were chasing after the security guard with cell phone cameras up.
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u/GoodAlicia 8h ago
Go anywhere without worrying they are being recorded for tiktok.
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u/wigsgo_2019 5h ago
YouTube shorts, Facebook reels, etc. that type of content is here to stay, everyone will just migrate to the other platforms
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u/GoodAlicia 5h ago
sure, but tiktoks are the worst
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u/wigsgo_2019 5h ago
They’re all the same stuff, most TikTok creators just put the same stuff on every platform
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u/JanMichaelVincent_ 7h ago
Won’t be a problem in a few days
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u/Iamhippyd 7h ago
You do realise the app is not gonna magically stop working. It's just us entities can't support it.
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u/Code2008 4h ago
Yes and no. Storefronts will be required to pull it. ByteDance (or whatever the company name is) will very likely do a required update almost immediately as a way to block the US users and get them to cause backlash at the US government.
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u/Magegaard 4h ago
I work in a school and a kid the other day got told off for not paying attention and he said “I have a bad attention span, don’t blame me blame TikTok”. It’s horrible
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u/Kallens303 7h ago
Roam around Blockbuster for 30 minutes on a Friday trying to find the right video to watch that isn’t all rented out.
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u/pj2d2 4h ago
Now i roam around whatever streaming service for half an hour trying to find something interesting to watch.
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u/BloodReyvyn 3h ago
Yeah right. More like roam around the streaming service for 2 hours, with small breaks to check your phone. Then, still can't decide, so you throw on something you've already seen, so you can do something on your phone instead.
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u/NoCoat3946 8h ago
Watching a TV show you don't even really like because it's the only kid's show on in that time slot.
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u/idratherchangemyold1 7h ago
Getting home from school, I remember I liked watching Arthur and Dragontales, I think Zoom was in between those shows, at least for a while. I liked the first season of it but each season after that I liked it less and less. Sometimes I'd watch it anyway just so I wouldn't miss Dragontales.
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u/Teadrunkest 6h ago
The stress of turning on the TV at the right time so you wouldn’t miss the first couple minutes lol.
Always ended up watching the back half of whatever show was in front of it.
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u/LuciferFalls 7h ago
Be awkward, annoying, cringey without the whole world knowing. There were definitely kids back then that would be publicizing their awkward kid/teen years the way kids do today.
Granted, MySpace was super popular in 2005, so I guess it was still a thing. But it (social media) has definitely gotten so much bigger in the last 20 years.
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u/radiantpenguin991 4h ago
Yeah, but like, 20 years ago the average person still believed in the mantra of not spilling every detail about yourself and your life onto the internet for all to see. Now the average person does the exact opposite.
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u/Dost_is_a_word 7h ago
Remember a phone number, when I was in my mid twenties I had a phone number rattling in my head so I called it and it was one of my friends when I was little parents and they were unreasonably happy to hear from me.
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u/HumanBeing7396 5h ago
I think the phone number part of our brains has now been re-tasked with remembering passwords.
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u/anyansweriscorrect 7h ago
This is a real one. I have exactly three phone numbers memorized these days: mine, my husband's, and my long disconnected childhood house phone.
The other day I was with a friend and someone had accidentally taken her phone. I wasn't at all surprised that she didn't have that person's number, but I suggested that I call her husband to have him check her contacts from her computer. She didn't know her husband's phone number!
Folks these days, who is their one phone call if they get arrested??
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u/Candid_Philosopher99 4h ago
My best friend whom I have not even seen in a few years. She's had the same cell phone number since highschool, a time when I did not have a cell phone. Everyone else I know has changed numbers at least once. I don't know either of my parents numbers or my boyfriend's number by heart.
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u/goblinmarketeer 6h ago
I had a friend get arrested, she was given her phone call but not allowed to have her phone. She had no numbers memorized so she stay in jail all weekend.
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u/yourpseudonymsucks 3h ago
Even if she had a number memorised, no one would answer the call from an unknown number.
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u/Dyrogitory 7h ago
Walk a mile to a friend’s house without the parents getting arrested for child neglect.
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u/Acceptable-Comb2160 8h ago edited 7h ago
Having a conversation face to face without having their nose down their phone.
Applies sadly enough to adults too these days.
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u/krukson 6h ago
Applies sadly enough to adults too these days.
Yeah. I visited my parents on Christmas, and they were more interested in their phones than in playing with their granddaughter whom they had not seen in half a year.
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u/Acceptable-Comb2160 6h ago
That’s just sad to hear…I’m sorry.
It’s one thing if you meet often, do activities together and then sit down and look at your phone afterwards.
But the few times we see each other, if you rather sit with your phone and text with people who are not even in the same room as you, why even bother to see me? And this is the reason I had a no phone policy on one of my birthdays party’s many years back. And damn, we had fun!
First I was afraid of that people wouldn’t come or complain about it. But afterwards people came up to me and said it was a good decision.
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u/Pijlie1965 6h ago
Do stupid things in front of their friends without getting filmed or photographed.
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u/PhatShadow 6h ago
Memorize like 10+ phone numbers of friends and family's houses. I still know my friends old house number from 20+ years ago.
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u/animalfath3r 6h ago
Go to action park
Edit: correction, that was more like 30 or 40 years ago. Dang, time flies.
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u/msspider66 6h ago
“Action Park, where you are the center of the action!”
Many battle scars from that place from my youth.
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u/Disastrous-Mousse 8h ago
Vandalize pay phone booths…
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u/blakelyusa 7h ago
I remember walking in nyc late one night. Kid w backpack casually walks up to a payphone. Pops off cover w a crowbar and the money flows into his backpack like a casino. I did not look up and kept walking.
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u/Disastrous-Mousse 7h ago
“Please deposit an additional 25 cents for the next 3 minutes.” Out comes the crowbar…
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u/Future-Lychee-6168 8h ago
Tell time on an analog watch..
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u/kateuptonsvibrator 7h ago
This is what I was looking for. We're learning now, but when I realized my 12 year old kid couldn't, I was disappointed in myself more than them. It's like cursive writing.
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u/anormalgeek 5h ago
My kids public school still teaches that. Especially since all of their wall clocks are still analog.
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u/Cristinky420 7h ago
Buy canned whipped cream without a parent or ID in New York state.
https://www.today.com/food/news/why-you-need-id-to-buy-canned-whipped-cream-in-new-york-rcna45419
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u/clbeut 5h ago
Read and write in cursive. When I learned they don't teach this in school anymore, I asked a 19 year old to read something in cursive. He laughed and said he didn't know how.
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u/Resident-Detective42 6h ago
Leave the house at 9am, ride your bike across town. Meet up with friends somewhere in the middle. Get into all kinds of mischief. Eat some food, smoke some smokes. Come back home by dinner time. No questions asked and all with just a couple bucks in your pocket and no cell phone
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u/InternationalArm3149 8h ago
yo, 2005 was 20 years ago. You all are acting like it was 1985.
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u/psyclopsus 6h ago
Skip individual classes at school. I had to go back to my HS for paperwork or something years after I graduated (long after Columbine and many others) and every exterior door was locked. No way for a student to sneak back in after ditching 5th period study hall. Before all the shootings, teachers would prop exterior doors open for the breeze, now the whole building is locked down like a jail
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u/graveyardspin 6h ago
Go outside unsupervised without their parents being arrested for child endangerment.
Also, why do kids spend all day inside playing video games and watching YouTube instead of going outside?
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u/sad-persimmon-24 5h ago
Because if they go outside, no other kids are out there. They have to sit by themselves because their friends aren’t allowed to leave their yards. So every kid is just alone in their little grass patch surrounded by cars that drive fast enough to kill them on impact and neighbors who will call the police if they’re spotted without an adult.
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u/CordialTrekkie 6h ago
This. How many times I've been bitched at that my kids are "too loud" in thier own backyard... Well no fucking wonder they'd rather be inside playing Playstation that I'm also acused of "spoiling" them with. Make up your fucking minds, people! Are they just supposed to stand in a Borg alcove regenerating all day?!
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u/BeefyJane 8h ago
Riding your bike to the mall, hanging out with friends, playing arcade games, and just enjoying life... People don’t do that as much these days...
Now, it’s just not as safe to do the things we used to do back then...
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u/Broccoliholic 7h ago
It’s probably safer now than it was then. People are just more easily scared by media hysteria
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u/HeadBoy 7h ago
It's the lack of public 3rd spaces. Malls acted as that for a long time. A lot of cities don't recognize the importance of public space to just be.
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u/Cristinky420 6h ago
Even private ones. We had an arcade, roller skating rink, the mall and a bowling alley all within a reasonable distance from home. Kids are bored. I'm bored. No roller skating, our local Penny arcade burned down, the malls are desolate... Where do the kids go?
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u/ShoddyClimate6265 4h ago
In my country, crime is at a low point right now. It's just that you hear about every terrible thing that happens within 1000 miles nowadays.
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u/Cristinky420 7h ago
Kids have changed. Lots still do stuff like what you described but most are now glued to screens so we see less kids out and about.
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u/PersonMcNugget 7h ago
My neighborhood is always full of kids playing outside, riding bikes, making teams, screaming their faces off. What you don't see, is any adults. Because they are all on their phones lol.
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u/Teadrunkest 6h ago
I definitely see a lot of kids in my neighborhood outside (lots of young families) but way less than when I was a kid in a neighborhood with less young families than my current one.
Part of that is because I grew up in an area that actively encouraged outdoor play (lots of open space, hippy af families, etc) but part of that is just a shift in play styles because there’s more to do indoors.
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u/There_5oh 8h ago
Leave the house to play without phones or contact with parents and come home for supper when your mom whistles so loud you can hear it all over the neighborhood.
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u/craigmontHunter 7h ago
Yup - I remember that 2005ish, we’d go play with friends, when their mom called them in (by yelling out the back door) we’d all head home.
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u/Tswiftswetpantys 8h ago
Go outside without contact from their parents. I swear times were simpler then, as a kid you just go outside to play and come back home by sunset.
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u/GokusSparringPartner 7h ago
Sit in the car with your gameboy while your parent went inside to pay for gas 20’ away.
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u/Any-Investigator-914 8h ago
Count back change or tell time on an analog clock.
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u/Cristinky420 7h ago
I work in maintenance at schools and I had a teacher ask for a digital clock because the kids can't read the analog. I looked at the teacher and said "well you could teach them...?" It was a very bizarre moment. They now have both a digital and analog clock in the classroom.
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u/PersonMcNugget 7h ago
My generation prefers to just criticize kids for not knowing things, rather than actually teaching them things they should know.
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u/Cristinky420 6h ago
Copy paste my other comment:
I'll try to give some insight on this. I work in elementary schools. There's analog clocks everywhere... Walls, toys, games and it's even taught to the kids. The problem is that the schools are severely underfunded so half of the clocks don't even work right!
The worst part is that teachers aren't given an opportunity to teach the kids. There are 35 6/7 year olds stuffed in a classroom. 3/35 are on the spectrum and are running around the classroom distracting the whole class all day, 5/35 haven't eaten a meal since the free snacks at school yesterday. 2/35 were up all night because their parents struggle at adulting responsibly. 5/35 miss 2-3 days a week and the teacher has to try to find time to catch them up because they don't have home supports.
I don't blame the other 20 kids for not being able to retain the things taught to them... They're set up for failure.
I've cleaned classrooms with 2 teachers and 56 kids... 56 6/7 year olds!?! That's insanity.
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u/PersonMcNugget 6h ago
Classes were that size when boomers were in school too though. My moms first grade photo has like forty kids in it. And somehow teachers managed. I will grant that back then, kids with issues weren't mainstreamed into regular classes. Even in the 80s, my ex was put in the 'special class' just for having ADHD. I have never really been supportive of the idea of throwing every kid in the same class. Some kids need more help and it's easier to do that if they have their own class.
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u/BoysenberryEvent 7h ago
can kids actually NOT tell time on a clock? is that really a widespread thing? wow.
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u/Any-Investigator-914 7h ago
I'll tell my 17 year old its quarter (or 10 or 20 minutes) to 8 and she looks at me like I'm on glue.
She only understands 7:45
And they have analog clocks in every classroom 🙄
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u/idratherchangemyold1 7h ago
Dude... this baffles me. Like I get a lot of stuff uses a digital clock these days but still. I remember back in kindergarten we had a toy clock with arms we could move around and we used that to learn how to tell time. It shouldn't be that hard to learn?!
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u/Cristinky420 7h ago
I'll try to give some insight on this. I work in elementary schools. There's analog clocks everywhere... Walls, toys, games and it's even taught to the kids. The problem is that the schools are severely underfunded so half of the clocks don't even work right!
The worst part is that teachers aren't given an opportunity to teach the kids. There are 35 6/7 year olds stuffed in a classroom. 3/35 are on the spectrum and are running around the classroom distracting the whole class all day, 5/35 haven't eaten a meal since the free snacks at school yesterday. 2/35 were up all night because their parents struggle at adulting responsibly. 5/35 miss 2-3 days a week and the teacher has to try to find time to catch them up because they don't have home supports.
I don't blame the other 20 kids for not being able to retain the things taught to them... They're set up for failure.
I've cleaned classrooms with 2 teachers and 56 kids... 56 6/7 year olds!?! That's insanity.
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u/Any-Investigator-914 7h ago
When I found out they weren't teaching how to tell time, I was told it was no longer a part of the curriculum. I tried teaching my girls but they had no interest. Sort of like learning how to drive a manual transmission when they can just drive an automatic. My youngest can drive a manual though (she's 17) but tried teaching her older sister and they could not care less. We also tried and failed. When I learned to drive I had no choice lol
That was early 90s. Yet they still have analog clocks in the classrooms.
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u/askurselfY 7h ago
Go outside and indulge in reality.Think. Read. Count. Balance a checkbook. Accept themselves. I don't have all day to keep going with this list. It's just waaaayyy too long.
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u/e4smotheredmate 5h ago
Walk miles away from home without the cops being called. I'm glad I'm not a kid these days. We used to enjoy a lot of freedom.
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u/catslay_4 3h ago
Egg and teepee houses. 😂. Someone would get sued now. And you would get busted by ring
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u/ardbn 8h ago
Have patience!
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u/Cristinky420 7h ago
This I totally agree with. I think the instant gratification that tech has given us, like shopping, gambling and gaming, has really made us less patient in the outside world because it doesn't move as fast...
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u/qq669 7h ago
Play computer games for what they were, without any info... Internet ruined gaming with all the meta this, meta that
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u/idratherchangemyold1 6h ago
And computers, consoles, or video games themselves need to download updates all the time. With the old ones you never had to do updates, or even have internet connection. You could just turn it on and play the game.
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u/ayatollahofdietcola_ 6h ago
Walk home.
Two things:
A concerning number of elementary school kids in the US do not know their home address, or how to get home. They need a GPS to get home. Think about how vulnerable a kid is in that situation. Ideally, you would want a kid to know their phone number, address, etc by the time they are 4 years old. But you have kids in 3rd/4th/5th grade who can't tell you these things because their parents are not teaching them.
If a kid does know how to get home, people get concerned if they see a 9-10 year old walking home by themselves, which is in contrast to what you would have seen 20-30 years ago or more.
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u/ChemicalEuphoric1081 8h ago
Pay attention for more than 20 seconds. Our attention span, at least mine and people's around me, has dropped to the length of a tiktok reel.
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u/TheDealMaster 7h ago
Hey speak for yourself, I've had ADHD my entire life, I couldn't pay attention for more than 20 seconds back then either! 😂
On a serious note though, it has been weird watching the rest of the world ruin their attention span around me.
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u/Altruistic_Dust2443 7h ago
Read a clock. I turned 18 and just learned how to read one
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u/idratherchangemyold1 6h ago
I had a hard time figuring out what it meant when my parents would say something like, "It's 20 to 2." for a long time. Like, it just wouldn't register in my head for some reason. Might be cause I just didn't like it said that way or something... like why can't people just say it's 1:40?! I still think it's kinda weird people say, "It's 20 to 2.".
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u/Altruistic_Dust2443 6h ago
Yeah honestly that’s sooo odd. I usually hear things like “a quarter from 3.” Just say 2:45. It’s quicker too XD
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u/PersonMcNugget 7h ago
I'm 53 and I couldn't tell time until I was probably 17. It's just harder for some people.
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u/PrideofPicktown 8h ago
Respect the Office of the President.
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u/BoysenberryEvent 7h ago
oh, i dont know. i clearly remember the Carter years, and the humiliation and ridicule he'd receive, on Saturday Night Live, by comedians, by the common person who was struggling with inflation and whatnot.
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u/PrideofPicktown 7h ago
That wasn’t twenty years ago.
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u/BoysenberryEvent 7h ago
i understand, but i was suggesting that NOT having respect for the Office goes back that far.
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u/Churba 6h ago edited 6h ago
Nor are half the responses here. Turns out something kids today can reliably still do is hear the same kinda shit boomers were saying about kids these days 20 years ago.
Like, the "kids playing outside" one that is all over the thread, I remember my father getting that one by Fax from friends 20+ years ago, because "all kids do these days is play Nintendo and watch tv, nobody goes outside anymore."
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u/kateuptonsvibrator 7h ago
President's need to act presidential, and lead by example. That respect is earned.
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u/Rodonite 7h ago
Isn't this like peak Iraq war, war of terror times when tens of millions globally were protesting against the actions of the American president amongst other?
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u/AkKik-Maujaq 7h ago
When I was 8 (in 2005), myself and my friend had a juice stand/mini garage sale for our toys at the park. We set everything up on the grass by the play equipment and made a decent amount of money for 8 year olds, she sold the toys and I gave out the juice
A few weeks ago, I read an article about how a little kid (he seemed to be no older than 10) in my city had a lemonade stand in the summer time. He’d set it up with his parents at the public beach and someone reported him. Now the parents are fighting the fine/charge they received for endangering the public (because you never know what’s in the drink) and for selling foodstuffs without a license
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u/free-toe-pie 4h ago
I see kids with drink stands all summer long. The kids never get in trouble for it. I’m guessing what you read was an extremely rare occurrence and that’s why it’s news. Because it almost never happens.
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u/2020mademejoinreddit 7h ago
I was 15 back then, so, I can say that I was able to live without social media, because it didn't exist the way it does now.
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u/MissSara101 6h ago
I graduated from high school in 2005. Well going up to the college you considered to check out see what major would suit you since it came prepared to damages that living in the public school system might have done.
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u/Operation-SOS_User42 5h ago
A cartwheel... last time I attempted one I was benched for well over a week for recovery XD
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u/riffraffbri 5h ago
A bit older than 20 years, but when I was a kid back in the sixties, every house on my block had at least one kid living in it, and on summer evenings all of the kids in the neighborhood (20+) played outside together. There were football games, ringolevio (google it), hide and seek, etc. The younger kids had to go home when the street lights went on, but the older ones stayed and played all night.
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u/free-toe-pie 5h ago
Hey everyone. Kids still play outside without supervision. Walk to school and bike to school. You may think parents are getting arrested left and right for this type of thing but they aren’t. Kids who live in the middle of nowhere don’t walk or bike to school of course. The biggest problem is how far schools are from homes. There are way less small schools dotted all around and now they are giant complexes on the outskirts of town where no one can walk to because it’s too far.
But if kids live close enough to their schools and they aren’t in a neighborhood with extremely high gang activity, then the kids can and do walk to school. Kids play outside. The media pretends like it’s common for people to get arrested for this stuff. But it’s just the media latching onto one story and freaking out.
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u/NewVenari 5h ago
Take apart a PC, and mess about with the settings and such. These days, if it doesn't have a big friendly button, it can't be done.
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u/bupapunewu 4h ago
Go home to escape their bullies. The always on, social media lifestyle leaves no safe space.
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u/tacoslave420 4h ago
Call "adult lines" and appreciate those 30 seconds before it asks for a credit card.
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u/Birdo3129 4h ago
Make polite small talk over the phone with your friend’s parents while you waited for your friend to come to the phone.
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u/Fit_Pirate_3139 3h ago
Laugh at the personal adds on Craig’s list without an account to login to the site.
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u/Flashy_Sail_4458 3h ago
Go to toys r us
Edit to add: I mean the giant warehouse toy store. Not the small area in a Macy’s store or whatever the store is
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u/Skinnypuppy81 3h ago
Watch a music video on MTV, go to the mall, buy a CD, wait til they got home to listen to it.
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u/morga2jj 3h ago
Finding new music by illegally torrenting random songs from (pick your poison Kazaa, lime wire, share bear, Napster, etc). Sometimes getting yourself some nice malware in the process.
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u/wrexmason 3h ago
Walk less than a mile to the store and back
https://abcnews.go.com/US/georgia-moms-arrest-puts-free-range-parenting-back/story?id=116004039
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u/Majestic-Drive8226 2h ago
Play outside without the cops being called for making noise
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u/LooseZookeepergame62 2h ago
Ride our bikes as far as we could go with no parental supervision. Gone all day and no one was worried.
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u/Thunder_Cunt_Punch 2h ago
When I was in middle and high school I lived in a neighborhood where everyone was on 2-10 acres of land. 3 streets of houses like that with a river off of one load. We would just go through anyone’s yards, play flash light tag on multiple streets, etc. Neighbor’s didn’t care as long as you were respectful. Would never attempt that now.
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u/HehroMaraFara 2h ago
Use a vacation to truly get away from their lives. Same with adults. Now that mini computer makes that impossible
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u/LongjumpingNews8183 2h ago
3-9:30 pm the park nearest to school would be busy, you could always meet someone. Then slowly, year by year, we stopped going to the park because we just hung out on Skype or team speak while gaming.
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u/DoktorKnope 1h ago
Pay attention. The attention spans of kids between ages 5-15 is super short (I’ve heard 8 seconds) due to social media/cellphones/etc. 20 years ago it was different, none of that stuff was around.
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u/Ckn-bns-jns 1h ago
Maybe more like 30+ years ago but I used to buy cigarettes for my parents with a note, I got to buy candy for the trip.
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u/Objective-Lab5179 8h ago
I'm still trying to come to grips that 2005 was 20 years ago.