Lucky Them: 15 Things That Today’s Teens Will Never Understand
Remember encyclopedias?
Our teens and tweens don’t know how good they’ve got it. While they’re spending their days with their noses buried in their Twitter and Crunchyroll, we spent most of our teenage years with our ears glued to our cordless phones or waiting for our crushes to message us on our beepers (cringe). We had to use actual maps to get to places, and use BOOKS to research for assignments.
Don’t even get us started on the pains of having to wait for our fave song just so we could press record and make mixtapes…
They’re just so darn lucky, they don’t even know it…
What today’s teens will never understand:
1. The cringe-worthiness of having to ask your parents for a ride home from a party
Remember those times you and your friends would have to pile in your mom’s backseat because she was the only way home? And desperately trying to avoid the small talk because she’d find out you were hanging out all night with your crush? Yup, lucky teens today have the convenience of apps like Grab to get them places. Ugh.
2. Having parents “accidentally” listen in on your conversations
You’re in the middle of telling your best friend your deepest, darkest secret…then all of a sudden, you hear that all-too-familiar click. How did we ever get any kind of privacy back then?
3. The pain of losing your floppy disk
Today’s lucky teens have the luxury of saving everything on a cloud. But once upon a time, clouds weren’t just fluffy things you found in the sky — they were actual storage devices where we kept files. And once they disappeared, so did everything you saved…
4. The disappointment of not being able to find your dream dress in your size
You found the dress of your dreams (in a magazine), searched for it frantically at your fave department store, tried it on… and it didn’t fit. Goodbye dress. Now, you can just order everything online or check a store’s inventory online.
5. Having to sit through a commercial
High five if you were the type of person to schedule your pee breaks with annoying commercials. Today’s lucky teens can just watch whatever they want on Netflix or HBOGo and skip the commercial break.
6. The agonizing wait before your film developed
Back then, we had to drop our film at the photo store, fill up pesky forms and wait… only to find out that all our photos have our eyes closed in them. Yay.
7. Having to use a payphone (and not having the money to use one)
Remember those times you HAD to use a payphone because you forgot something for school or needed to get picked up (see #1)? Today’s lucky teens have cellphones for that… and an app for everything else.
8. Fighting over the TV
Now, everyone has their own devices to watch whatever they want. Remember when TV time used to be family time? Not anymore…
9. Not being able to settle an argument right away
Lucky teens today have Google to thank whenever they’re making a bet about anything. Meanwhile, we had to do actual research.
10. Renting movies from a store
Whether you were renting Laserdiscs, VHS or Betamax tapes, you were always at the mercy of the store’s stock. Tough luck if you came in late on a Friday night.
11. Having to look through the Yellow Pages
Today’s lucky teens have never had to look in the Yellow Pages for a friend’s phone number. Even worse? Finding out that their last name was dela Cruz…
12. Getting prank called
They’ll never know what it’s like to have someone call you repeatedly and hang up… or worse, have someone breathe heavily on the phone — and then hang up. Because, caller ID. Also, who uses a landline anymore?
13. Risking their lives at a dodgy carnival
Remember all those rides we used to take back when Big Bang sa Alabang, Star City and Glicos were the places to be? They were so fun — and looking back — so, so dangerous.
14. The pain of having your “snake” die
After spending a good thirty minutes playing “Snake” on your unbreakable Nokia phone, you lose focus and your “snake” — gasp — dies. Lucky teens today will never, ever know what it’s like. Unless they download the app of course.
15. How awesome having internet is
Remember how everyone just had that one, big, clunky family computer that they all had to share? And how everyone hogged it even more once they had Internet? Kids today will never know how much fun and how many hours we spent surfing the Internet after school.
Today’s lucky teens will never know what it’s like to have a life without emails, touch screens and laptops. But after making this list, we all got a little bit nostalgic about the good old days.
Speaking of which, Mati, anybody?
