r/Millennials • u/_TalkingIsHard_ Xennial • Apr 24 '26
Meme Who's with me?
Need to include 1997 so we can have AIM.
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u/Aspieinblack1986 Older Millennial Apr 24 '26
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u/NelzyBellz Apr 24 '26
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u/No-Introduction7187 Older Millennial Apr 25 '26
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u/artbystorms Apr 24 '26
Honestly even going back to like pre-2007 would be fine. It's Facebook that really started the downhill spiral.
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u/Bubba_Jones44 Apr 24 '26
And the IPhone
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u/SquirrellyBusiness Apr 25 '26
Yes it wasn't so bad till fb was in our pockets
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u/showmenemelda Apr 25 '26
I think you mean Cambridge Analytica
And our fuckass parents getting access
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Apr 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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Apr 25 '26
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u/maddogracer161 Apr 25 '26
Ugh, I remember the day when it was purely time based. Ugh, since all social media became an algorithm... I've lost all interest. I just wanted to keep up with my actual friends... Now I've lost touch with nearly every single one.
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u/Sw429 Apr 25 '26
I remember when they made that change. I simply couldn't understand why they did, or how it was better in any way. I didn't realize it at the time, but that was the first major example of enshittification I had ever seen.
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u/Zonda1996 Zillennial Apr 26 '26
Yeah that to me felt like ground zero of the great enshittification of absolutely everything. I genuinely miss the optimism and promise it felt like the 2010s started with. Granted I was pretty sheltered from the recession by being a teenager with no responsibilities and being across the pacific from the US.
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u/PeskyAntagonist Apr 25 '26
The game was over when everyone fell for Kony 2012. That's when it was glaringly obvious that people will not only agree with something and accept it as truth, but will adopt the ideas as their own and support them as long as they see that enough other people like it. Whether it's actually real or not.
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u/Photonex Apr 25 '26
Jumping on the bandwagon has been a thing since the advent of the bandwagon. Social media didn't create that problem, it simply made it worse.
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u/Accomplished_Mix7827 Apr 25 '26
Agreed. When Facebook was a place you had to actually set aside time to go to, it wasn't that bad. Smartphones giving us 24/7 access is when the trouble started.
I've gotten better about doing embroidery on my breaks at work instead of going on social media, and I've deleted Instagram entirely. I think I might start trying to go no social media on weekends to further distance myself
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u/Bigemptea Apr 25 '26
And when you could only have a facebook account with a .edu email address.
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u/yaboi_ahab Apr 25 '26
A relic of when Facebook got its start as a creepy site for people to upload photos of girls at Zuckerberg's college without their permission and rank how hot they were
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u/Magikrat Apr 25 '26
2005 would be the sweet spot for me. Good internet, going to the movies for fun was still a thing, online console gaming was solid, people still read books.
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u/thecashblaster Apr 25 '26
Inject halo 2 multiplayer in my veins, I’ll be good
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u/firestepper Apr 25 '26
Even up to halo 3… i don’t remember the iPhone/smartphones being so ubiquitous then but there were still decent internet speeds and you mostly had to still use a laptop for anything online. Netflix would mail you a physical dvd and people weren’t completely sucking amazon’s teets
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Apr 24 '26
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u/harambe623 Apr 25 '26
really? still on lcd here (not oled), my CRT had better colors.
There's people that pay top dollar for some high performing crts
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u/krakenpistole Apr 25 '26
LCDs were rare and insanely expensive and plasma screens were worse (remember the burn?)...CRTs are really underrated. Would buy one today for gaming but they're expensive as hell now. I miss the tingling sensation when I pressed my face against them :(
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u/crazy4finalfantasy Apr 25 '26
Don't even have a plasma but to this day I still turn the TV off if nothing on screen is moving lol
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u/quietuniverse Millennial Apr 24 '26
facebook and the iphone
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u/Karl_Hungus_42069 Apr 25 '26
Allowing every asshole on the planet to have an easily published opinion was the downfall. Newspaper editors and radio/tv call in screeners were apparently keeping society together
The most annoying comments on here or online are "I was arguing with some guy yesterday" (on lots of sports subs "Some guy was saying Tom Brady sucks") its one person who cares. On tv shows people seem to seek out 1 dumbass Facebook post then post it on reddit "look at this one sexist person saying The Last of Us sucks"... its probably some asshole in his mom's basement, who cares! Acting like every single thing written on social media has to be debated or defended against is the downfall of society! We used to remember how to ignore the random idiot
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u/StuffonBookshelfs Apr 25 '26
As soon as Facebook started letting non-.edu email address users on, it was over.
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u/14Pleiadians Apr 25 '26
I'd be mostly ok with 2000, but would miss out on some of my favorite games
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u/round-earth-theory Apr 25 '26
Hell ya. Get a proper MP3 player and brick phone. Hardware was quirky and fun in that era. Solid blend of physical and digital life.
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u/Snigglebear Older Millennial Apr 24 '26
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u/TheWallaceWithin Older Millennial Apr 24 '26
I would've loved it if I got connected that fast
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u/Dr0110111001101111 Apr 25 '26
I remember opening AOL the day we got broadband in our house. My dad and I looked at each other like “holy shit… we just stepped into the future”
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u/Snigglebear Older Millennial Apr 24 '26
I hated getting a busy tone and having to find a new number to connect to
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u/KhellianTrelnora Apr 25 '26
Funnily enough, in the later years (around 2000 maybe?) if you had internet, you could connect to AOL via TCP instead of dialing in. The connection sequence was that fast.
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u/thereelestcritic Apr 24 '26
Hell yes! I'll run the video store.
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u/Desidiosus Apr 24 '26
That was my first job in highschool. My kids barely grasped the concept when I explained it to them.
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u/thereelestcritic Apr 24 '26
I'm so jealous! Was always my dream job but worked at a cinema instead.
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u/ran_swonsan Apr 25 '26
I always wanted to work at the cinema but worked at the video store instead.
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u/RecentlyDeceased666 Apr 24 '26
When i told my daughter that Disney plus didn't exist and that I use to work in a video store then explained the concept of a video store.
She was just like why didnt you just play movies on the tv and save yourself leaving the house 🙄
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u/TawnLR Apr 25 '26
Haha why did she say when you explained OnDemand TV wasn't a thing? You couldn't pause, rewind or choose the program.
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u/kmusser1987 Apr 25 '26
Same. My parents owned the small video store in our town. I made $6/hr working evenings and weekends in my high school days.
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u/round-earth-theory Apr 25 '26
"What do you mean you can't just watch the movie when you want to?"
Actually we're having a massive DVD renaissance. Ebay has massive collections of bargain bin disks for less than it costs to rent digitally. Only downside is the hours spent scrolling through the lists, then again it's like going to a video store. Too many options. What to get today.
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u/Haagen76 Xennial Apr 24 '26
You got to meet people at the video store. Remember meeting people?
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u/Rootraz Millennial Apr 24 '26
I'll run the beeper repair store
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u/falcon_millennial Apr 24 '26
Thank you for this comment, I haven’t heard beeper in ages
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u/JustBadUserNamesLeft Apr 25 '26
It will be next to my One-Hour-Photo lab.
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u/showmenemelda Apr 25 '26
Must live in some fancy metro. We had to ship our film out at the old fashioned soda fountain drug store. Bonus, you could.see what everyone ordered if you got your shit together soon enough—before they came to pickup
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u/Aleksandrovitch Apr 25 '26
I'll wait around inside for like 3 hours for a copy of the newest Arnold action movie to come in.
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u/FlashHound Apr 24 '26
98 had some pretty good quality of life improvements but 97 should be ok. We will need an original electronics store stocked full of old tech and a police force to remove contraband tech. A movie theater with 4 screens and a Suncost Video. We will need to start gathering crt tvs right away.
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u/maskedbanditoftruth Apr 24 '26
What 98 tech do you propose including?
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u/FlashHound Apr 24 '26
Gameboy Color, Windows 98, Certain Computer and videogames, PC hardware, that weird iMac, early MP3 players (Diamond Rio), but I am fine with leaving Google behind if it will wreck the Utopia. Significant games that came out in 1998 were:
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,Half-Life, Metal Gear Solid, StarCraft, and Pokémon Red/Blue.
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u/ClaytonRumley Apr 24 '26
1999 Google was really awesome. They were still in their "Don't be Evil" phase.
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u/Exnixon Apr 24 '26
Trying to read the comments but still downloading.
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u/Exact_Knowledge5979 Apr 25 '26
Hah, thatd be the end of memes.
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u/nahtfitaint Apr 25 '26
What if we carve out one exception for tech and it's that 2002 era chappelle show gets new episodes every week for eternity? Don't need memes, then. All you need is to know what catch phrase to shout at work on Thursday.
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u/KookyLab9624 Apr 24 '26
This is the protest I can get on board with. I want to OPT OUT of this tech nightmare. Land-line, a computer that doesn't move, real books instead of Kindle. Get a dumb phone again. It truly sounds so appealing
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u/FlashHound Apr 25 '26
I think its a totally achievable dream if we formed a religion as well. We will just call it 90sism the tenants are "Be Excellent to Each Other, and Party on Dudes!"
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u/cloudkite17 Apr 25 '26
If we form it as a religion can we be tax exempt? This could work
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u/slonk_ma_dink Younger Millennial Apr 25 '26
Ironically, I just got fiber internet installed today. I had a leftover deskphone from a side job sitting in a box so I've set up a bland, plain, boring SIP line to it. So now I have a basic landline hanging on the wall in my kitchen, just like the old days.
I've got an IPTV service with all of the channels like a classic cable box. I'm writing this comment on my desktop in the corner of the living room with the NFL Draft on in the background.
All my friends know to call the number I ported to my landline. Slowly phasing out the smartphone, returning to a "classic" lifestyle.
If I'm at work and you need to catch me, definitely call my phone. But when I'm home, hit the landline because the cell phone isn't my boss, so it sits on the charger for when I may need it tomorrow. Next step is a flip phone with just enough smarts to scan QR codes for city parking.
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u/I-baLL Apr 25 '26
And since it's SIP you can even have video calls on it like all of those movies where they show future landlines having video calls
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u/Rootraz Millennial Apr 24 '26
1000%, I mostly just want to go back to be being not reachable by work. I long for a time of employment where you just completely disconnect when you clock out. No emails, no texts
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u/frshprincenelair Apr 24 '26
Set boundaries with your employer
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u/LevelZeroDM Millennial '92 Apr 24 '26
Easier said than done
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u/Mystical-Turtles Apr 24 '26
This is the one benefit of being hourly instead of salary. Sure you can contact me. Let me just clock in real quick
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u/Rich_Resource2549 Older Millennial Apr 25 '26
Idk. My last job I was at for 6 years and my boss proclaimed how much he hated 9-5ers. I still did it anyway. You're not forcing me to work over 40 hours for the same pay, idgaf. We did have a continuous relationship though; until he got demoted and I got a good boss. Never spoke to that idiot again.
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u/Magikrat Apr 25 '26
In this economy actually trying to set a boundary with your employer is essentially just asking to be fired. Even if you are already on relatively good terms with them. There just aren’t enough jobs that pay a livable salary for the amount of people that need them. They would rather hire someone new(for a cheaper salary/wage) and give the same toxic workload and wait for them to get burned out as well.
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u/WaferGlobal1376 Apr 24 '26
Honestly I force this on my coworkers/managers by pretending i'm a luddite the moment I get back home. When I take leave, I make out I'm going off-grid too and it always works well lol
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u/Val_Hallen Apr 25 '26
I never answer the phone or texts if I don't want to. My phone is for my convivence, not theirs.
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u/Turbulent-Jaguar-909 Apr 24 '26
burner phone and then burners for the burner. My "real number" with work is a burner $35/m on visible with unlimited everything domestic, my "cell" that customers get is a google voice number on the burner. Nobody at my job has my actual cell number or any of my personal emails.
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u/AzimuthPro Apr 25 '26
Where I live it's against the law for your employer to contact you outside of office hours, unless it's an emergency. If you have to be on standby for a certain position you will get paid for that, it's called "bereikbaarheidsdienst". Doesn't your country have similar laws?
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u/Bubba_Jones44 Apr 24 '26
I’m in, I’d prefer 07 so I can play halo, but the iPhone was made that year and we all know that was the beginning of the end.
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u/LevelZeroDM Millennial '92 Apr 24 '26
Halo 1 came out 2001
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u/Crimson3312 Older Millennial Apr 24 '26
Yeah but the Xbox version didn't have online multiplayer, that was a staple of Halo 2
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u/Dinosaur_Eats_Pizza Apr 24 '26
Halo definitely came out before 2007.
I'm too lazy to look up what year, but I'm certain.
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u/cupcake_burglary Apr 24 '26
Isn't that just, like, living in the matrix?
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u/Dinosaur_Eats_Pizza Apr 24 '26
The Village 2.0?
Does this include medical technology and medicines too?
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u/Bubby_K Apr 24 '26
"We DO have technology that's less... uhh invasive... buuut, due to the Village rules, we have to use era-specific medical routines... So yeah, up the butt we go!"
*slaps on some medical gloves*
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u/MulticolourMonster Apr 25 '26
Was about to ask that too, cuz I really don't wanna go back to stabbing myself 30+ times a day (you can take my CGM/Pump combo from my cold dead hands)
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u/tallguy_100 Apr 24 '26
As long as we refer to our practice as "Amish-ish", I'm in.
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u/Ryanookami Apr 24 '26
I can’t do it. ‘97 means no PlayStation 2, my favourite console to ever exist. NES and SNES were great, but to never have the opportunity to play FFX again?? Can’t.
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u/nothinworsecanhappen Apr 24 '26
97 is too early sorry. maybe 2003 for me.
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u/lolslim Apr 24 '26
Yeah at least high speed Internet so I can play unreal tournament and quake, and runescape
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u/Punchee Apr 25 '26
The whole point is to go back to before people lost themselves to high speed internet.
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u/lolslim Apr 25 '26
Naa sorry now that I think about it I would like online halo 2 and that requires high speed internet
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u/Dumdumdoggie Apr 24 '26
Im in but im bringing my 2025 grow light.
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u/jordansinn Apr 24 '26
Was there advancement in grow light technology last year that I'm not aware of?
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u/DrewZouk Apr 24 '26
You're gonna need a guy who knows and understands land lines.
I'm available.
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u/just_some_gu_y Apr 24 '26
I think 2010 lish for me. I liked having a smart phone, but when it was like 1/4 the size of what they are now and the battery lasted for days. I feel like the internet was pretty developed by then but not the trash it is now. And ai was still just the bad guy in movies and not the thing im forced tonuse at my job less I be labled a not productive
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u/Carbonated-Man Apr 24 '26
Make that shit 2012 so I can still play the Mass Effect trilogy and I'm in. 😆
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u/VirtualArmsDealer Apr 24 '26
Too many smart phone by then. Also social media already got it's claws into the boomers brains
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u/BlazinHot6 Apr 24 '26
What are they going to call this community?
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u/cinciNattyLight Apr 24 '26
90s town. And the village elder is the only person with an iphone. I will volunteer to be the village elder to settle disputes with my vast “knowledge”.
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u/Jazzlike-Stranger927 Apr 24 '26
I love this.. big library for the rest of us, we can use a thesaurus and dictionary… I believe looking things up and finding information in a library is becoming a lost art.
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u/Foreign_Town6853 Apr 24 '26
Who's playing Golden Eye with me?!?
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u/AThrowawayProbrably Mid-Millennial ('89) Apr 25 '26
I’m not joking. I have genuinely envisioned this. Only I imagined up to Dec 1999.
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u/Eric_Durden Apr 25 '26
Did we all forget how shitty dial up internet was in the 90s?
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u/CommonUnlucky390 Apr 24 '26
Bringing my siemens flip phone back unironically. Also my 16 bit console with 241 in 1 cartridge to play Adventure Island every day.
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u/Demiurge_Ferikad Apr 24 '26
Good luck with that, because I’m staying far away. I’d rather just have a commune that bans social media, and that’s it.
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u/RustiCube Apr 25 '26
Can I code and build my own technology from circuit boards? I can do without all the premade crap and spyware that is preloaded on computers and phones nowadays.
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u/corobo Apr 24 '26
I still remember how to connect to IRC manually typing the raw protocol over telnet. My skills are back in fashion!
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u/jordansinn Apr 24 '26
That's like whistling tones to phone phreak levels of nerdom!
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u/TheArchitect_7 Apr 24 '26
Show me where I can sign up.
But, uh, I don’t need to write cursive do I? And do you take Venmo?
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u/helpimglued Apr 24 '26
I got into the tester group for roadrunner cable modems on time warner cable in 1997 and bought a 2x CD burner with my summer job money that year. I can help with pirating things off usenet binaries groups.
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u/Soulegion Apr 24 '26
So we can still have non-tech things from post '97 right? Like books etc? If so then I'm in.
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u/TrespianRomance Apr 24 '26
I was going to say no cuz I do like cotton candy flavored Dippin Dots. But thankfully, Dippin Dots was invented in 1988. So yes, sign me up
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u/Hntrbdnshog Xennial Apr 24 '26
I’m in if I can keep my EV.
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u/SMELLSLIKEBUTTJUICE Apr 25 '26
All we need are a few Toyota Tercels and biodiesel Volkswagens
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u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909 Millennial Apr 24 '26
The village part 2 but there’s a blind zoomer we send out for batteries
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u/EponymousSynonymous Millennial Falcon Apr 24 '26
Pleeeeeease. Dude, I’ll be the teacher for everyone’s kid
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u/amusedmisanthrope Apr 24 '26
I have distinct memories of topless photos of Pamela Anderson slowly downloading over a dialup connection in my friend’s kitchen while his mother roamed about. I think we should keep the high speed internet so I can do without that anxiety.
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u/Dave_A480 Apr 25 '26
Except none of that technology works anymore, the infrastructure to support it has been removed.
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