‘What will the current generation never get to experience that was actually pretty cool?’ – 21 old-school joys

It’s easy to look down on Gen-Z, what with their affection for vaping, mullets and impenetrable slang, but on the whole they’re not a bad bunch.

However, while they live in a world full of endless entertainment and instant gratification, there are some thing that don’t exist anymore which they are really missing out on.

Over on r/AskUK, jimbeeer asked: ‘What will the current generation never get to experience that was actually pretty cool?’ and followed the question up with this:

‘I was talking to my 17-year-old son about music and it occurred to me that he will never experience the enjoyment of watching the charts each week and finding out what song has worked it’s way up to No.1 (not bloody Bryan Adams again!).

‘With everyone streaming from loads of different places no-one really cares about the charts anywhere near as much as they used to do pre-2000. So with that in mind what else is the current generation never going to experience that actually was good fun?’

And the answers will get you all misty-eyed with nostalgia.

1.

‘Knocking on your mates door to see if they were “playing out”. And not knowing until you got that answer how you’re day was going to go. And that feeling of having a mate knock your door to play out.’
–CobaltBlue389

2.

‘Toys in cereal boxes.’
–Icy_Examination_7783

3.

‘The excitement of waiting for your holiday photos to be processed. Would they bring back good memories or be blurry nonsense…’
–snapjokersmainframe

4.

‘Being able to go home and turn off from the world. Being unreachable if you were away from a landline. Everyone expects you to be available 24/7. My mum goes crazy if she texts me and I don’t reply.’
–becoming_a_crone

5.

‘It’s Friday. Your dad takes you and your siblings to Blockbuster. You get two movies for £1 for the weekend. Life is good.’
–Nyx_Necrodragon101

6.

‘The rave era. No phones, meeting at a service station and travelling the whole of the uk to meet your rave mates. Happy hardcore.’
–LuLutink1

7.

‘Enjoying a gig without a sea of mobile phones.’
–No-K-Reddit

8.

‘Special FX in films. Now, there’s nothing they can’t do so it’s kinda expected. I remember the trench run in Star Wars, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, even Roger Rabbit was a marvel, but now… are there any recent effects where we just go: wow!’
–Rockfords-Foot

9.

‘Being invited up to the cockpit in a plane by the pilot to have a look around.’
–ComfortableStory4085

10.

‘Not having videos or photos of yourself every time you go out. You could go out, get absolutely wasted and make an arse of yourself, and that was it. Nothing being circulated on Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, whatever. What a freedom that was.’
–fike88

11.

‘Boredom. I believe when we’re bored is the perfect opportunity to think or create something meaningful. If we’re bored nowadays it lasts about a minute cos we’ll find instant distractions for dopamine hits.’
–Dannn88

12.

‘Waiting years to see a film that you had watched in the cinema to be shown on telly.’
–Roper1537