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

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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:

135points

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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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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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#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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#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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#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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#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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#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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#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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#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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#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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#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

Final score:

58points

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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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“Ma’am I Live Here”: Woman Refuses To Back Out Of Driveway, Learns A Lesson The Hard Way

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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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#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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#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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#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

#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

itz kimora 4 years ago

isnt that still a thing in 2020 tho?!?!?

6points

Princess Procrastination 4 years ago

*cough* still do and I’m in high school (aus) *cough*

4points

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Tara Brooks 4 years ago

My dad collected every animal made of beans. His entire house was stuffed full, wall to wall, floor to ceiling. #mycollegefund

3points

Jeff Requier 4 years ago

People thought they were going to be worth a lot

1point

Torchicachu 4 years ago

i still do this lol - not beanie boos tho they kinda suck

1point

Kombat Kitten 4 years ago

I got em and the plastic tag protectors and plastic boxes for them. Still have my Michael the bull, Kiwi the kiwi, Wise the owl, and a bunch more that weren't involved in lawsuits. My favorites were normally the weird animals or the ones with outfits/hats of some kind like the birthday, 4th of July, and graduations.

1point

itz kimora 4 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

1point

Tacocat 4 years ago

omg I still do that. Have at least 13 of them on my bookshelf alone, with many others scattered throughout my house. That rainbow bear in the bottom right? Have it. The large caterpillar that you can see yellow and orange on it but it really is rainbow in the top left? Have it. The dog in the bottom left? Have it.

0points

Brandi VanSteenwyk 4 years ago

So many idiots lost their life savings investing in these "rare" things.

0points

malditobajista 4 years ago

So many pokémons \o/

0points

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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

#38

Using AOL.

fivefivesixfmj Report

Final score:

7points

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Liucija Adomaite

Liucija Adomaite is a creative mind with years of experience in copywriting. She has a dynamic set of experiences from advertising, academia, and journalism. This time, she has set out on a journey to investigate the ways in which we communicate ideas on a large scale. Her current mission is to find a magic formula for how to make ideas, news, and other such things spread like a virus.

Liucija Adomaite is a creative mind with years of experience in copywriting. She has a dynamic set of experiences from advertising, academia, and journalism. This time, she has set out on a journey to investigate the ways in which we communicate ideas on a large scale. Her current mission is to find a magic formula for how to make ideas, news, and other such things spread like a virus.

Justinas Keturka

I'm the Visual Editor at Bored Panda, responsible for ensuring that everything our audience sees is top-notch and well-researched. What I love most about my job? Discovering new things about the world and immersing myself in exceptional photography and art.

I'm the Visual Editor at Bored Panda, responsible for ensuring that everything our audience sees is top-notch and well-researched. What I love most about my job? Discovering new things about the world and immersing myself in exceptional photography and art.

What do you think ?

Torchicachu 4 years ago

it was kinda funny because a lot of them i still did and im only in high school

5points

ADHORTATOR 4 years ago

I can relate to almost all of them...seems I am old now

5points

David K 4 years ago

Me too. Born in 1986 and I can relate to everything on the list.

3points

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Robin Childers 4 years ago

It's faster to dial a number than to go through my contacts to find it.

3points

Arenite 4 years ago

Hell, I remember buying ALBUMS! You'd run home from the record store, put it on, and sit there reading every word on the album cover/inserts. Double albums! Spread the cover out and hold close to check out the art. And of course, album covers were the best for cleaning your herb and rolling a joint!

1point

Kelli Royal 4 years ago

Arenite ?

0points

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fuggnuggins 4 years ago

Adults not communicating in adolescent imagery.

0points

Torchicachu 4 years ago

it was kinda funny because a lot of them i still did and im only in high school

5points

ADHORTATOR 4 years ago

I can relate to almost all of them...seems I am old now

5points

David K 4 years ago

Me too. Born in 1986 and I can relate to everything on the list.

3points

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Robin Childers 4 years ago

It's faster to dial a number than to go through my contacts to find it.

3points

Arenite 4 years ago

Hell, I remember buying ALBUMS! You'd run home from the record store, put it on, and sit there reading every word on the album cover/inserts. Double albums! Spread the cover out and hold close to check out the art. And of course, album covers were the best for cleaning your herb and rolling a joint!

1point

Kelli Royal 4 years ago

Arenite ?

0points

Load More Replies...

fuggnuggins 4 years ago

Adults not communicating in adolescent imagery.

0points

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