15 Fun, Simple, and Wholesome Things From the 90s Missing in Today’s Generation
The 90s were a great time to be a child. No one panicked if you didn’t answer your phone right away. Being present was everything and not thought of as a “must-do.” You lived in the moment.
Today, we can appreciate the benefits of technology, but I think we’ve also lost sight of some basic human skills to keep life fun, simple, and wholesome.
Here are 15 things we miss about the 90s that weren’t so bad. Maybe you can relate to some of these!
1. Being Outdoors and Active
I remember playing in my neighborhood and not being allowed inside my house until either I heard my mother calling my name in the neighborhood or the streetlights came on. These cues told me I needed to be inside, not in 5 minutes, but now.
As kids, we were always outdoors playing freeze-tag, hide-n-seek, manhunt, etc. Today, games are indoors on computers or phones. The extent of interaction between most kids today is via a game on their computer or phone and texting their next moves.
2. Blockbuster and Pizza Nights
It was a Friday theme, every Friday! We would go as a family to the nearest Blockbuster and see what movies were available to rent for our movie and pizza night. We always hurried to make it to Blockbuster when we heard of a new movie release to rent it for the evening.
Today, Blockbuster is long gone! You’re either streaming movies from your smart TV or spending $100 to sit with your friends or family at the movie theater to enjoy the new movie release.
3. Bike Rides
It was common to meet up with your friends for a bike ride. I remember going for hours on end! We would take our bikes through off-routes and explore new places in our neighborhood or neighboring areas.
It was also fun to have a banana-seat bike and let your friend ride in the back as a passenger. The driver would steer, and the backseat rider would pedal.
These days, this is nearly non-existent! Electronics seem to trump the bike rides.
4. Family Dinners
Every evening families gathered with their loved ones and shared their day. It was a common theme to have dinner with your family and have person-to-person conversations with your family.
This was a beautiful time for families to be present together. This isn’t completely lost, but these days, most family dinners include interruptions with electronics (cell phones, laptops, handheld gaming systems).
5. In-Person Conversations
It was not even a second thought. If you wanted to talk or hang out with your friend, you just ran to their house to see if they could hang out. There was no planning, calling, or texting in advance to say, “Hey, can you hang out?”
Communication was always in person. This is such a lost human social skill these days.
Today, so many rely on their electronics to share how they feel and what they think or allow an AI-based program to say it for them.
6. Road Trip Games
I remember every summer we would head to Greenville, NC to visit my aunt, my sister and I created games to play in the car to bypass the 4-hour drive. Anywhere from eye-spy to counting how many red cars you could find, or watching our eyes ridiculously go back and forth super fast while you stared out the window as you passed by the trees.
Today, most people in the car on a road trip are on their phones. Conversations are limited and if words are shared, it’s probably, “Are we there yet?,” or “I’m hungry.”
7. Concerts
Concerts were always fun to attend. You were in the moment with your friends or family to see your favorite band or artist and rock out to the live music.
This still exists today, but now it’s you, a crowd of other people, and a light show cast on by hundreds of phones recording the concert. Being fully present is missing in today’s concerts.
8. Quality Time and Being Present
Looking back, one favorite thing I miss most about the 90s is that people were more present, and quality time was real. There were no phones to bring along with you for distraction.
It didn’t matter what you were doing, you were always present, and quality time with your friends and family was real. You were in the moment.
Whether it was laughing until your stomach hurt, saving your friend from falling off the highest tree branch they could climb, or watching your friend walk across the log so they didn’t fall into the nasty water beneath.
9. Saturday Morning Cartoons
This was a real thing. Every Saturday morning before you considered going outside, you were sitting dead smack in the middle on the floor right in front of the TV to watch the Saturday morning cartoons.
This was your time to “wake up” for the day and relax before figuring out what you were doing that day.
Today, a large percentage of the population is checking their phones before they even roll out of bed.
10. Taking Pictures
You either had a Polaroid camera or a disposable camera. This is how you captured pictures and didn’t get a second chance if the first picture didn’t turn out how you wanted. You knew no different, so you always hoped for the best when trying to capture a special moment.
The fun part was taking your film (disposable cameras) to the store to get it developed and waiting to see the results of your photographic skills. Today, people take photos 1, 2, 3…10 times before being satisfied.
11. Privacy
In the 90s, whatever you said, did, or wherever you went was your business. You lived for the moment and didn’t worry about who you could share it with outside of those present with you.
Everything you did or said was not recorded or photographed. These days, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, but someone likely has a picture with you in the background or a video of you acting completely goofy. Privacy is limited.
12. Relationships
In the 90s, if you were friends with someone, you knew their parents, where they lived, who their friends were, and so on. The friendships seemed more genuine and authentic than what you may find today.
For today’s generation, it seems like everyone has 1,000+ friends on social media outside their in-person friends. While social media has pros if used properly, it creates facade friendships, and the authenticity of those relationships seems to always be in question.
13. Arcades
It was always fun to go to the arcade with friends, hang out, have your coins in hand, and play all the games. Pac-Man was my absolute all-time favorite arcade game!
When you ran out of coins, you left the arcade or asked your parents for more money to play more games.
Nowadays, they have everything from skeeball to air hockey (I do love air hockey!) to basketball. While fun to play, you don’t get coins anymore. It is so easy to spend money on your game card only to continuously refill and walk away from the game centers today spending an easy $60+.
14. Being Unavailable
In the 90s, if I called a friend and she didn’t answer her phone, it was, “Oh well. She’s not home. Mom, I’m going to play outside.”
When you were unavailable because you were playing with another friend, visiting family, or just at home busy doing family things, this was ok. There wasn’t a cellphone to track your location, to see if the person read your text message, or text your friend to see if they’d answer since they didn’t pick up the phone.
When you were unavailable, you were unavailable. No one saw anything wrong with this.
15. Outdoor Neighborhood Games
I remember summer evenings we would round up all our friends in the neighborhood and play freeze-tag, hide-n-seek, kickball, dodgeball, baseball, or softball together. It was so much fun! Everyone just got along and had a blast.
There weren’t competitive kids threatening one another or parents yelling on the sidelines that their kid should have that run counted as a homerun. We were creative with our games and played until the sun went down.
That’s how we knew it was time to go home for the night, and we’d see each other the next day – outside.
What is One Thing You Miss Most About the 90s?
I would love to see more people active with one another in person and spending more quality time together.
Editors note: I miss these windbreaker tracksuits, I had so many colors! 🤣
Comment what you miss most about the 90s. We’d love to hear from you!
