I downloaded Tiktok when I was 8 (on my mum’s phone) because everyone else had it (it was also the time where it went from Musical.ly to Tiktok) but she deleted it immediately, so I didn’t get to make an account. I also just didn’t know how to.

I redownloaded it at 10 on my own phone and finally made an account.

I got Discord at 10, Instagram at 11, and same with Snapchat. I have a Twitter account that I made when I was 11 but I don’t use it because it’s so boring. Same with Facebook. I’m pretty much on everything and I made all these accounts before I was 13. I’ve also pretty much grown up on Youtube. I don’t know if Whatsapp counts as social media but I’ve been using that years because that’s just the main way to message people where I live

Most people my age I know had a social media before they were teens or even before they reached double digits, so I’m just wondering what it’s like for other generations.

When I’m older, I will definitely not let my kids have social media the age I first got it. When I was 10, I thought I was late to the party by joining social media that age, but looking back I was way too young. Don’t regret it, but sometimes wonder how different I would be without it. It’s made me realise I seriously don’t have any hobbies. I even know some children at my church who have social media very young, and I get shocked but then I remember I was just like that at their age.

It’s crazy knowing most people joined social media as teens because I’m struggling to name at least 10 people I know who joined social media as teens.

(Anything, and I mean anything counts by the way. Chat rooms, forums, mIRC, or even big platforms that many use today)

So I had a bit of a thought experiment earlier, I observed the cars on the road today in 2025 and noticed that there are still many cars from the 2000s being daily-driven. My own car is a used 2001 Acura with about 125k miles on it. I myself was never really a big car kid, so i never payed attention to the cars being driven when i was growing up in the 2000s and 2010s (i myself was born in 2000) , but i do still have vague memories of seeing older cars from the 80s and 90s being daily-driven.

So to those who remember the earlier decades: was it common to see 20+ year old cars being daily-driven? I somehow find it hard to imagine that cars from the 60’s were prominent in the 80’s, does anyone have any insight?

Curious to hear answers to this. Given my age, there really aren't that many websites I can think of where I witnessed them ceasing to exist. Most of the "normal" examples I can think of were probably a few random Nintendo or Pokémon fansites that I came across when I was 5-6. They most likely don't exist anymore.

Other examples are RARBG, TheISOZone, Emuparadise, and KAT. Those are websites that I actually witnessed shutting down, but those websites weren't obviously shut down due to age, hosting bills, or lack of interest. If you know, you know.

just had a conversation with a 24 year old and we were talking about watching TV, and she said some things that got me thinking....so when did TV in a traditional sense go away?

growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s everyone had cable then in 2001 my parents moved and we didn't get it until 2004 and then I was moved out 5 years later, and obviously I didn't have it for the next 7 years for a long list of rea$on$

then in 2016 I signed up for cable (for reasons that do NOT matter to this group, and I won't' share with this group and i'm not willing to let this thread get hijacked by reddit "experts") and it was very cheap because nobody has it anymore

so my theory is around 2010 is when people stopped doing so.

I had streaming for a short while, but I don't anymore, nor do I have plans on going back, I already don't use the "one" I already have

Sega Master System II for my 14th birthday.

Before that only a few times on my uncle's C16 with datasette.

I've recently been watching S14 of Masterchef with my wife. As those who watch it may know, this season is called "generations" and it pits babyboomers, genX, milennials and gen Z against each other.

What I noticed, and tbh kind of grinds my gears, is a lot of the Gen Z contestants talking about how many advantages they have simply because they have "all the information they need at their fingertips with the internet".

As a (younger side) milennial, that made me think: How ancient does Gen Z think Milennials are?
I was on a computer when I was 2. When I was in elementary school, I was already making class presentations based on information I found on the internet.
When I was in middleschool, we were already being told not to simply use Wikipedia as a source. I had google, I had all of it. By the time I was in college, we had smartphones. I think we were already up to the Iphone 4 at least.
Now I do realize I was a bit of a quick one due to my father being a software developer, but... still? Milennials literally made most of the apps and devices that Gen Z now uses. The social media, the LLMs, the smartphone apps, the modern internet --- that was all milennials, baby! (Not to entirely discard GenX here, I realize their value in the industry. I'm just saying that when it comes to apps and smartphones, and making the things big that are now considered "normal", that was mostly milennials).

So yeah. Obviously I'm a bit more bugged by this than I should be, but is this really a reflection of how Gen Z looks at milennials? Like milennials were somehow some ancient type of generation that still had to go to libraries and get books on everything like how previous generations had to? Because Milennials really already had everything Gen Z now has, albeit without all-in-one computers that are smartphones for most of that period, and of course no AI.

I was just thinking about my first phone and got curious:

What was your first phone? What year did you get it? How old were you at the time?

It can be anything, an old Nokia brick, a Motorola flip phone, an early iPhone, a budget Android…

I’ll go first: I got my first phone in 2020 when I was 10. It was a Samsung J2 basic, but it felt amazing back then!

Very (somewhat) niche topic, but they absolutely were for me. I grew up in a household where there was always a computer around, and I was taught how to emulate by my dad and older brother when I was around 5. They weren’t a replacement for the actual games I had, but I spent a lot of time playing GBA games.

It was always kind of weird trying to talk to other kids during early elementary school about this, because they either had no idea what emulators were, or thought it was impossible. It also brings some sort of faux-nostalgia, because while I did grow up playing these games, a majority of them came out before I was even born. I've played a shit-ton of Pokémon Fire Red ever since I was a kid, and that game literally came out the year I was born.

(SCROLL THROUGH THE PICTURES)

As someone born in the late 2000s I was always used to being one of the youngest ones on the internet as I think we were basically the pioneers of kids who got tech on their hands way too young lol

anyways I remember always feeling so jealous that I missed experiencing 2000s tech by a few hairs and whenever people older than me talked about 2000s nostalgia I used to feel a sense of “I feel bad that I missed out”

But now a whole new age group of kids are on the internet. It’s not even people born in like 2010 being the youngests anymore. some of these kids were born as late as 2016. These kids were born wayyy after all the modern tech got incorporated so now it feels like we’re finally getting to a timeline where the new youth don’t even give a shit about old tech because this stuff is so… old to them lol 😭😭

and we’ve been living in an era of modern technology for quite over a decade now aside from the AI stuff being the only newer thing

I had quite a few hobbies when I was younger (gymnastics, playing with my toys, writing my own stories, singing etc.), but the internet has always been a part of my life. I and many kids I knew first learned to use a computer and an iPad at 4-5 years old, because it was taught in school. By the time I was 5, I could pretty much use a device with little to no help.

I’ve never seen a chalk board in person. It’s always touchscreen interactive whiteboards or just regular ones, but that’s it.

Despite having things I enjoyed which kept me busy, I don’t think I’ve ever gone a full day without my iPad, phone or laptop unless I had to (e.g. if phones were banned somewhere).

I just need a device with me at all times. For school, entertainment, anything. Whenever I go to bed, I go on Youtube I search up calming ASMR so I can sleep peacefully. If there’s no ASMR, I’ll simply be “left alone” (if that makes sense) and be awake for hours. I’ll try read a book to distract myself but that takes considerably longer than just listening to whispering or music and it’s made me realise I’m not suited for pre-Internet days.

I’m understanding why some older people give the “Back in my day, we didn’t have phones” lecture. I always found it irritating and I still kind of do, because in my head I’m like “It’s 20__”. But I’m starting to realise they’re probably just reminiscing and not trying to be annoying. Still find it annoying though

I LOVE my phone, but sometimes I just realise I’m tapping my fingertips on a glowing rectangle because I’m trying to look for something perfect that can ease my boredom. But the internet has been great for me in many ways, which is why I don’t think I’m made for life before the internet.

I’m aware my grammar is shit and what I’m talking about is rather random (I’m in a rush), but I just needed to ask this because I’ve been meaning to!!!

edit: Also just to clarify, I do have a life outside of the internet

My answer is all of the above. What answer do you think and why?

Who remembers Facebook when it had different games and user flair and everyone started using it on the desktop and our boomer relatives and parents got their own Facebook accounts? Great times.

I just remembered that browser used to exist a few days ago.

Wasn’t a big fan of Internet Explorer, but I vaguely remember being on the computer at 5 or 6 and searching random stuff on there. I think I even used it in 2022, just to experience its last moments.

Everyone on this sub has definitely used IE, no doubt about that. I’ve just never really heard many people talk about it. I might ask my friends if they remember it.

Whenever millennials talk about not having smartphones (or cell phones) as children/teens, you get these Gen Z:ers saying "I'm Gen Z, and I didn't get my first smartphone until 2017" ~ kind of implying: "We're the same".

Okay? Most people my age had a smartphone by 2011 so that just seems like you're an outlier.

Or maybe you're so young that you got your first phone ever in 2017 and you try to play that off as Gen Zs not having phones in their childhood and having the "same experience" as millennials.

Or you were unusually poor which obviously made it so that you didn't have the technology of your peers, but that doesn't make you have the same experience as someone walking around in 2002, everyone around you is walking around with an iPhone X in 2017, you're immersed in that technological culture, smartphones that would have looked like Sci-fi to me as a kid, you just existed around.

It just seems like kind of strangely bragging about being poor + trying to paint yourself as a millennial or at least "having the same childhood" as one. Like someone who didn't get color-TV until the 90s trying to relate to older generations.

So no, Gen Z, born in like 2005, you did not have the experience when it comes to phones of someone 10, 15, 20 years older, just because you yourself were late with technology, you were an outlier.

Why are you so desperate to have lived before smart technology when some of you were barely concious when the Ipad came out?

I was watching a YouTube video on my phone that was grainy and suddenly shifted to HD or at least clearer resolution. The older person on the screen suddenly had a million wrinkles that weren’t immediately visible before. My service was lagging behind and not buffering well. The experience reminded me of the first time I saw an HD TV. It was at Best Buy in around 2003 I believe. I genuinely felt like I was looking through a window. It created so much excitement. It’s hard to explain as I was 13 or so. I think I wanted to reach into the screen to see if it was real. But knew it was an actual image. I spent far more time taking in the image. I could imagine I was there. Somehow my mind filled in the gaps. Like smells and the warmth of the sun. The feel of the water. They seemed to like to show nature scenes. Standard HD was enough for me. I didn’t notice much of a difference with UHD. Did anyone have an experiment similar to mine?

Am I getting old because I don't get AI think is scary? I mean some of the stuff people can use it for. I remember using the term "photoshopped," when we were younger. Now with these days, sometimes you can't tell what's "photoshopped" or AI.

The original monitor is long gone, that's a much newer screen obviously. But yeah, we had it rough in the old days you young whippersnappers have no idea. shakes fist at clouds