It may only be a decade, but it seems like the 90s happened a lifetime ago. It was a time when nobody cared about the latest updates on celebrities, gadgets, or phones. This decade was a much humbler time, when kids played outside and dug holes to try and find the center of the Earth. The time when playgrounds were filled with kids building their own fortresses to fight imaginary monsters. Boomboxes blaring in random places as you’re walking by. No stress. The beauty of the 90s rests in the memories of people who lived it. Now that we’re all looking back, how would you have grown up as a true 90s kid?


1. Buying CDs and Tapes because you couldn’t even download music til the early 2000s.


CDs, cassette tapes, and radios would’ve been your best friends. Online music pirating didn’t exist until Napster started in 1999. The music industry was incredibly different. The legendary music artists that you reference in Vine compilations date all the way back to the 90s. This was the time when R&B, hip hop and boy bands were all on the rise. Massive artists we know today like Ice Cube, OutKast, Wu Tang and Eminem were just getting started. In ’97, Notorious B.I.G. hit Billboard’s Hot 100 with HypnotizeBoy/girl bands rose as Backstreet Boys, NSYNC and The Spice Girls became more and more popular across the globe. One hit wonders such as the Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony and Oasis’ Wonderwall took the radios by storm. The electronic dance club genre started to kick off with songs like Jamiroquai’s Canned Heat. Forget downloads, you would have owned multiple CD’s just to be able to hear these songs over and over again!


2. Memorizing your friends’ telephone numbers because SMS didn’t commercially exist ’til 1999.


You read it right! SMS didn’t hit off until 2000 when the average American started sending 35 texts a month. Back then, you were stuck looking at Yellow Page directories to find other telephone numbers. If your household owned a caller ID or answering machine, you were definitely living in the future during that decade.


3. Playing video games


Arcades were still very popular for the average 90s kid but video games were starting to get better. The most favored games of the time were Tekken, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Crash Bandicoot, Pokemon Red & Blue, Sonic the Hedgehog, Doom and so much more. Gaming consoles astounded portable console users when they saw the very first PlayStation release in ’94. Games did not stop there, collecting Pokemon cards, taking care of your Tamagotchi and playing with Pogs were also highlights of this decade.


4. Using bulky desktop computers for research and emails


It seemed boring at first, but homes with desktop computers used them purely to send emails and verify research. This was a time when you had to buy a joystick if you even had a chance to play one game. Some fun things you could’ve done were creating sick word art or using MS paint. Floppy disks were used to store data since USBs weren’t invented til the late 90s. Now this old storage device is being described as a “3D-printed save button.” Search engine development was in its’ early stages. Though the Google search engine began in ’95, the way we use it now is a dream compared to what the average user went through during that time. To be able to use the internet, you would have to connect to a landline and dial a number on a telephone to begin surfing. Nobody could ever forget the sound of a dial up computer, mainly because it would take a minute to even boot up!


5.   Inviting your friends for a sleepover to watch movies on a DVD player


The best way to spend more time with your friends was to go to someone’s house for a sleepover. Sure, phones were there so you could call them but your parents might have been upset about your phone bills. It would’ve been great if you had Walkie-Talkies but sleepovers did the job! Watch the creepiest movies such as Mirror Mirror, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or even the Bride of Chucky. Watch the all-time favorite shows such as South Park, Family Guy, Star Trek, and Friends. Every 90s kid definitely remembers Dexter’s Laboratory, Dragon Ball Z, Rugrats, and Beavis and Butthead. This was the time when movies like Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Home Alone were treasures to have in your DVD drawer!


There are so many things that you totally missed out on not being a 90s kid. If there is anything that you loved but didn’t find here, tell us in the comments! If you enjoyed this blog, make sure you check out more blogs like this one in our life category.