Yeah, 25 years ago is 1999. Yes, I understand that many of you, dear readers, were not even born at that time, but for me personally, it was so recently, it seems like, no, not yesterday, but at least like last week. But it turns out that two and a half decades have passed, and people in nostalgic online threads like this one remember all the good things that happened then. Let’s remember too…
Being able to not be reachable and people being ok with it.
Folded paper maps in the glove box. Bonus points for the spiral map books!
Still a good idea. Google maps is frequent wrong.
AN ABSOLUTELY BONKERS YEAR FOR MOVIES.
The Matrix
Dogma
Fight Club
American Beauty
American Pie
Green Mile
The Mummy
The Sixth Sense
Office Space
Boondock Saints
Varsity Blues
Blair Witch Project
A few reboots, remakes, and sequels, but still a good year for movies. It also gave us Galaxy Quest and The Iron Giant.
So, year 1999: the last year of Bill Clinton’s presidency, in the UK folks are seriously thinking about what life will be like for the country after Queen Elizabeth (naive peeps, ha ha…), Michael Jordan has just retired for the second time, and Steve Jobs has just recently returned to his office at Apple headquarters, and is already hatching grandiose plans.
The music world is captivated by Cher’s triumphant return, and Steven Spielberg recently received his second director’s Oscar for Saving Private Ryan. Just recently Windows 98 was released, and millions of users around the world are cautiously opening a new internet search product called Google – through Internet Explorer, of course…
All their friends’ phone numbers memorized.
Memorized some, had a Rolodex for the rest.
Pluto as the ninth planet.
It’s a planet to me and no one will convince me otherwise XD
A “stereo system” in the living room.
Edit: Look man, if yours doesn’t have a squeaky-a*s turntable, tape-to-tape deck and a shiny “metal-style” plastic carapace, we’re not talking about the same thing.
Get out of here with your Bose, you hipster muso snobs. Shoo! Shoo! 🧹🧹.
Shiny metal style? Newbie. In my times we had fake wood plastic carapace
Do you want more? Okay, Jeff Bezos becomes Time’s Person of the Year, Albert Einstein is recognized as the Person of the Century, and the whole world is afraid of the terrible upcoming “Error 2000″, which will allegedly render millions of computers around the world unusable. Britney Spears releases her debut album Baby One More Time, and John Elway wins the Super Bowl for the second time in a row, going from greatest loser to two-time champion in just two years.
Sony announces the start of development of the PlayStation 2, with the new Walkman model trying to spread the minidisc format throughout the world. Among the new video games, Silent Hill, Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena stand out. Humanity sees off the penultimate year of the 20th century with nostalgia and looks forward to the new millennium with optimism…
The ability to drop off/greet people at the boarding gates at the airport.
AND…. Not having to remove your shoes to go through security Food and drink were way cheaper Airplane seats were wider and more comfortable
A whole shelf full of WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIAS.
Concert tickets that you could afford.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if consumers stop utilizing the over priced services they’re upset about, things will change. For instance, some entertainers give lip service to the folks who attend their events decrying the fact that Ticketmaster (et al) have a monopoly on event tickets, but they still perform. If people went one season without purchasing the overpriced tickets and let the entertainers (or their fan club) know WHY they aren’t purchasing tickets, things would change. The loudest voice you have is your $$$.
“The real question is actually not how good it was 25 years ago compared to now,” says Valery Bolgan, a historian and editor-in-chief of Intent News Agency from Ukraine, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment here. “People in general tend to be nostalgic about the past, and the years that have passed since then only smooth out all the negativity that took place then, leaving only warmest memories. This is the specificity of human memory.”
“Yes, in 1999, and I remember it quite well, there were many wonderful things and phenomena left, but at the same time I am almost sure that when in another quarter of a century you and I remember the year 2024, we will also talk about it with extraordinary warmth and nostalgia: about TikTok, Reddit and Taylor Swift. Simply because this is also part of our life and our memory,” Valery summarizes.
The *need* to be home at a certain time on a certain day to watch the next episode of your favorite show.
Unapologetic suntans. (Edit: haven’t you guys ever heard of slathering yourself in baby oil before going to lie in the sun? We all did it back then.)
A cassette deck in their new car.
My aunt used to use vegetable oil. She switched to olive oil, because it’s healthier. Yup, she looks like a well worn saddle.
A binder of cd’s under the driver’s seat.
Still do.
A video rental store.
Loved coming here because I could rent video games, too.
In this collection you will find both wonderful old-school things, which, however, today have been replaced by much more convenient ones, as well as simple human feelings and people who, alas, have left us. So just feel free to scroll this list to the end, put your likes under the best submissions, and once again either remember 1999 yourself or simply discover the past. After all, as old good Frank Sinatra used to sing, “it was a very good year!”
My dad who passed away on June 18, 1999, at the age of 71, the same age I am now. “Everyone” didn’t know him, but I sure as hell did. I held his hand until he let go. **Miss ya big time dad**. Till we meet again.
My Dad passed last August. I miss him too.
A Walkman.
Loved these.
Affordable housing.
How can this apply to the title???? 34 Things That Were Considered Necessities In 1999, But Are Practically Extinct Now. It is still a necessity to have affordable housing!!! Practically extinct but necessary.
A phone book.
Okay but that book is so cool.
A reasonable expectation of privacy.
RIP Privacy. You are missed
Land lines. Mom still has hers, but all the phones are cordless. The days of a handset connected to the receiver with a 25 foot cord are long gone. Scrolling through comments, yup Mom has an Answering machine connected to her landline. Edit #1: Mom is in her middle 70’s. Edit #2: Supporting documentation
I miss having my corded phones. They worked during black outs to make emergency calls. Now when your in a black out you have to make sure your cellphone is not dead.
A VHS tape rewinder. “Be kind, rewind!”.
I remember the DVD rewinder…
Cameras with film, posh people had digital ones
Dial up Internet
Discmans
Minidisc players
Floppy discs.
Now, posh people have the latest film cameras because they are being made again. I still have my 80s one
A local newspaper subscription.
This one is so culturally shattering. It is basically impossible to create new networks of people in a community without a shared vehicle of communication. This means that there is a lot of social stagnation even though there is this appearance of rapid progress on an individual technological level.
Fear of Y2K.
The problem was real, but it was discovered early enough that it was fixed before it became a disaster.
Smoking section in a bar.
One of those things I’m glad is gone. The smoke never stayed in its own section.
Antennas on the outside of their cellphones.
I knew battery outside the phone. For his job, my father had a big Alcatel phone, heavy as a wallet, working only inside Paris and close surburbs, and highways. One minute call fee was crazy, the phone itself cost the equivalent of 7500€ in FF
Dial up modems.
*beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep*…………… DEEE DEEE DEEE DEEE VREEEEEEEEEEE KADOOOONG KADOOOOOONG KRSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (When I was a kid in the 90s, I used to sneak onto AOL/the internet at night when everyone was asleep and I would pile pillows and couch cushions around the PC in the desperate hope of muffling the dial-up sound…)
Multiple disc cd player.
I still have mine and I still use it.
AOL free trials.
Another disc in the mail every week! A dozen different email addresses to utilize the freebie.
The ability to get on an airplane without spending 20 minutes going through TSA.
The ability to navigate around town without a GPS or phone.
People should still learn to navigate their own towns without GPS.
Windows 95 or 98.
That looks like a MATE desktop under Linux (Kylin, perhaps?) with Windows running in a QEMU virtual machine.
CRT televisions.
Did anyone else have a newer TV, on top of one of these?
Wallets with picture holders.
I have one and it’s new.
Ash Trays.
Inflatable furniture
Mudd brand clothes/accessories.
Inflatable furniture is very much alive and well. It’s just branded as “travel” now. I use an inflatable ottoman under my desk
A preferred 800 number for collect calls.
Just turn the phone off.