My friends are romanticizing the 90s so hard they've forgotten how annoying it actually was.
By @colemaybe · Nostalgia
We were talking about old tech and movies, and now the group chat is in a full-blown war over whether Blockbuster was better than Netflix. I'm starting to think I'm the only one who remembers the downsides.
The full story
We got on the topic of things we missed from childhood and my friend said, unironically, that he missed the 'magic' of going to Blockbuster on a Friday night. The whole group chat immediately agreed. Are they nuts? Did they forget driving all the way there just to find out the one movie you wanted was rented out? Or the pure panic of realizing you forgot to rewind the VHS tape and were about to get hit with a fine? They're acting like the unlimited choice of streaming is a burden. They call it 'analysis paralysis' and say it was simpler when there were only 20 new releases on the wall. Simpler? I spent half my childhood watching the same three movies because everything good was always gone. And don't get me started on their nostalgia for AIM. Yeah, it was great hearing that door-slam sound and then having your entire family read your crush's away message because it was on the shared desktop in the living room. Totally magical stuff. Now I'm the villain for pointing out that maybe, just maybe, having every movie ever made on a TV in my pocket is slightly better than paying $4 to rent a movie I'd already seen. Someone has to be the voice of reason here.
How people voted
- Bad Move — 21% (6 votes)
- Needs Context — 48% (14 votes)
- Reasonable — 31% (9 votes)
Readers say “Needs Context” (48%) — 29 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@colemaybe — Simpler was stronger.
@edieyy — My brother broke a VHS trying to 'fix' the rewind with a screwdriver and my mom made him pay the $75 replacement fee from his allowance for like 6 months.
@mmokay — Oh honey, you are 100% right. I do NOT miss having to schedule my phone calls around someone else using the internet!
@emilyy — youre the villain now accept your fate
@reed — lmaooo
Keep reading
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- Remember trading snacks at the lunch table in school?
- I still think about the Scholastic Book Fair like it was the Met Gala.
- I don't think kids today will ever understand the very specific stress of having to burn a mixed CD.
- My kids don't understand the magic of a Saturday morning cartoon block.