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There are no objective criteria that separate normal and abnormal. I mean, for some, eating dinner past 10 pm is totally fine, while for others, it’s all about putting cereal before adding the milk. Are you about to say that’s totally not okay? There you go. There is a yin and yang to any normalcy, and as long as we have people whose experiences are fully subjective, we will have both sides.

Except we’re talking the year 2000. When someone asked on r/AskReddit “What was normal in 2000, but strange in 2020?” it surely hit close to home for many. 41.1k upvotes later, the illuminating answers are in.

And on this one, we may once and for all come to an agreement on millennium things that look really heckin' odd today. Like saying dot com out loud ‘cause it felt like the cool thing to do, or burning a bunch of CDs, we've already started...

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#1

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread 2000: Your parents telling you not to believe everything you read on the internet.

2020: Your parents believing every post they see on Facebook.

Dijiwolf1975 , priscilladupreez Report

Final score:
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chi-weishen avatar
chi-wei shen
chi-wei shen
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Good parents are still telling to not believe everything you see on the internet.

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#2

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Recording songs off the radio to make a personal mix tape. Always got annoyed at the DJ for talking over the end of the song

digitalchicken , snd63 Report

Final score:
123points
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#3

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Buying a stack of blank Cd’s so you can make your own custom mixes

LeftHandMorty9 , sashaatx Report

Final score:
118points
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Foxxy (The Original)
Foxxy (The Original)
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have about 20-30 blank CD’s from over 5 years ago because USB’s came in and hold more memory. I don’t know what I should do with them coz I don’t know anyone who uses them these days.

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2000, which feels like a whole eternity away, was one hell of a year. Do you remember the millennium bug, for example? It was supposedly going to cause global chaos, like planes falling out of the sky, missiles firing by accident, all simply because the dates on computers had to be reset at midnight on January 1, 2000.

Nothing happened and we’re still rolling in 2020. However, from how the world has been doing so far, it seems this time, we're gonna need some more luck.

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#4

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Watching a show weekly at the same time to catch new episodes

sib2972 , aleksdorohovich Report

Final score:
118points
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#5

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread MTV music videos actually had videos

theinkedmuneca , public domain Report

Final score:
116points
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#6

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Memorizing a phone number.

nofrigginway , PublicDomainPictures Report

Final score:
116points
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The same year was a golden age for retro mobile phones and marked the rise of the legendary Nokia 3310. Everyone at the time was either playing Snake on their phone, or Solitaire on the computer. We lived in the world of phone calls and SMS messages, and no one was frightened to death by a random call like we are now.

2000 was also the time when reality TV changed television for good. It was the year when Big Brother aired on screens, gaining worldwide popularity. According to Esquire, the allure of it was that “it could 'turn your life around.'” You could win £100,000 and leave your life behind while 10 million people would watch their idols on eviction nights.

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#7

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Pay phones. If you see one now it’s like spotting a leprechaun, genie or unicorn and you ask it if it grants wishes

JustAnother0utcast , MichaelGaida Report

Final score:
109points
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#8

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Rewinding movies when you’re done watching them

Raze321 , igpetry Report

Final score:
100points
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#9

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread I remember 25 years ago getting on a plane and realized I forgot some important paperwork in the car. The flight attendant let me get off the plane and I ran through the terminal and out to the parking lot to my car to retrieve it. Then quickly ran back in, zipped past the security screener, out onto the tarmac and climbed up the stairs to the plane. It was a rather small airport so it took less than 5 minutes. But I doubt I’d be allowed to do that today.

Rustyboyvermont , iwnph Report

Final score:
99points
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chi-weishen avatar
chi-wei shen
chi-wei shen
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Trying to run past security definitely would trigger an alarm.

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#10

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Printing out your route from Mapquest before leaving the house

Mason-Derulo , arttravelling Report

Final score:
87points
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chi-weishen avatar
chi-wei shen
chi-wei shen
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My parents still prefer to have print-outs in case the phone doesn't work properly. However, nowadays they get them from Google.

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#11

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Telling people to call you back after 9pm bc that's when minutes are free

HotelMoscow , igorovsyannykov Report

Final score:
82points
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Kombat Kitten
Kombat Kitten
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If it wasn't after 9 or on the weekend then it better have been an emergency. Amazing the day the started free mobile to mobile minutes if your friends had the same phone company.

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#12

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Not freaking out when someone calls you out of nowhere

ElectricGelato , Alexas_Fotos Report

Final score:
80points
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#13

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Going to Blockbuster on Friday nights

Gieder , Mtaylor848 Report

Final score:
79points
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#14

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Writing down an address or telephone number to store the information for later.

7imTim , Pexels Report

Final score:
79points
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Mimi777
Mimi777
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a little notebook of all my friends numbers and some classmates! I was born in 92. I miss those days sometimes..

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#15

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Blowing into video games to fix them

lholm0494 , Bryan Ochalla Report

Final score:
78points
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itz kimora
itz kimora
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

now its slamming the video game on social media to fix it 😂

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#16

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Smoking in bars. Hell, even going to bars

3mta3jvq , zafarrancho Report

Final score:
74points
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Kombat Kitten
Kombat Kitten
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I remember the smoking sections in restaurants being a thing too. My uncle would do this take a puff, take a bite, then exhale the smoke from his nose while chewing. Usually with just a slide divider that could be rolled around to make the smoking or non smoking sections bigger depending on what their customers were mostly.

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#17

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread T9 texting

h0sti1e17 , reddit Report

Final score:
72points
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Kombat Kitten
Kombat Kitten
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Every number had 3 or 4 letters for them. 4 letters for less used letters like 7 (pqrs) and 9 (wxyz). Space and # (pound sign) were on a button beside 0 and ?.! were normally on the other side of 0. 0 was often backspace. 1 (held down) was normally voicemail. Once you know what number the letter you want is assigned to, you press that number 1,2,3, or 4 times to pick the letter. So, "Hi Foxxy" would be 4 pressed twice, 4 pressed once, space, 3 pressed thrice, 6 pressed thrice, 9 pressed twice, 9 pressed twice, 9 pressed thrice. Waiting too long between pressing would automatically choose whatever letter you last were at before. Example if you want L and press 5 twice but not fast enough to get the last press in than it would pick K. If you wanted a new letter on a number you just used for a letter than you had to wait a second for it to register before pressing for a new letter or it may think you were still entering the last letter and then you accidentally go past your letter.

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#18

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Saying that technology is useless. Or that you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket

MagentaLeopord2018 , stevepb Report

Final score:
72points
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Tara Brooks
Tara Brooks
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No one could have imagined we would all have mini computers in our pocket

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#19

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Having a school project to do and busting out the Encarta disk.

ash894 , ms_brightside Report

Final score:
69points
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#20

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Smoking or non-smoking” was the first question you were asked when entering a sit-down restaurant.

MjrLeeStoned , couleur Report

Final score:
67points
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#21

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Being pleased your new car had a CD player AND a tape deck.

Substantial_Quote , AviKado Report

Final score:
60points
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#22

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Switching to channel 3 to play video games

eagleblue44 , albertrenn Report

Final score:
58points
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Foxxy (The Original)
Foxxy (The Original)
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is this an American thing? We had to change the channel to AV to play video games.

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#23

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Teen magazines (Tiger Beat, M, Mad…) that you could take posters out of and hang in your room

roo719 Report

Final score:
58points
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Tara Brooks
Tara Brooks
Community Member
4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was obsessed. I can still smell the smell of the grocery store isle, and fresh printed magazines as I ripped out the pages starring my crush.

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#24

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Getting excited about receiving an email.

somasmarti , hostreviews Report

Final score:
54points
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#25

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Television in 4:3

ThursdayIs7 , fran_ Report

Final score:
53points
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#26

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Pretending the internet was not gonna be much. Saying "Oh yeah, when the internet runs the world?" Or something dismissive like that.

At one point if it was on social media, people said "But it's on social media, so it doesn't really matter."

People in 2020 lose careers over their posts on social media.

s968339 , Pixelkult Report

Final score:
51points
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Ben Smith
Ben Smith
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People losing their career because of posting on social media is more a demonstration of how stupid people are.

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#27

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Waiting for the internet to connect. Yelling at someone in the house for being on the phone when you can’t connect.

I kept a folder of music lyrics that I ripped out of Dolly/Girlfriend magazines. Also loved reading the booklet inside the CD of all the lyrics.

Recording songs off the radio to make a personal mix tape. Always got annoyed at the DJ for talking over the end of the song.

digitalchicken , Orca Report

Final score:
50points
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Steve Barnett
Steve Barnett
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

di do di do do dit dooo.... ke ching CHING CHING Ching... crackle.... kre kre kre ......

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#28

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread I used paper maps to deliver pizza in 2001. I paid like $30 for a map book of my city so I can deliver fast and efficient plus not get lost.

JunkBondJunkie , gregroose Report

Final score:
47points
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Martha Meyer
Martha Meyer
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When the apocalypse comes and there is no internet anymore, these will be worth gold.

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#29

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Saying dot com at the end of everything because it was cool to do.

1HeyMattJ Report

Final score:
42points
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#30

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Frosted tips.

Laeif , Toglenn Report

Final score:
32points
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#31

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Worrying about someone listening in on another land line phone in the house..

dlenks , georgechandrinos Report

Final score:
17points
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Mimi777
Mimi777
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My mom would sometimes be nosy and listen in when I was talking to someone. I guess just to make sure it wasn’t a boy or we weren’t being inappropriate but I always knew when she picked up the other phone! She tried to be sneaky

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#32

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Renting or buying a game and playing it the very moment you get home.

woundupcanuck , RobinLe Report

Final score:
15points
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#33

Giving manual directions to someone.

Turn left at the McDonalds, then take your 3rd right, and if you get to the crooked tree you’ve gone too far kind of thing.

lxl_Linc_lxl Report

Final score:
13points
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Nagawa (Cofa) Kishiki
Nagawa (Cofa) Kishiki
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, nowadays, just follow the path or arrow. Both in-game and in real world.

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#34

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Using Yahoo to search for things. Or, repeatedly signing up for 15 free hours of AOL using a spoofed credit card number and a fake name.

m31td0wn , Josh Hallett Report

Final score:
10points
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#35

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Collecting Beanie Babies

StupidPointless , beaniebabies Report

Final score:
10points
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#36

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread Buying a new Pc every 1-2 years because the old one can barely keep up now. 10 year old pcs are still alright for most tasks nowadays.

StoneMasksEtsy , inesby Report

Final score:
10points
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#37

People Are Sharing What Things Look Strange Now, But Were Completely Normal 20 Years Ago In This Viral Thread CRT monitors

padlock2 , Barbrady84 Report

Final score:
9points
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Daria B
Daria B
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or LCD monitors that you HAD to look at only upfront, because angle view would make you see faded images.

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#38

Using AOL.

fivefivesixfmj Report

Final score:
7points
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