‘What do you refuse to accept happened 20 years ago?’ – 23 events from two decades ago that will make you feel ancient

The word ‘chronotachysis’ describes the idea that time moves faster as we age, as anyone over the age of 40 will tell you. As you get older, time flies whether you’re having fun or not.

They’ve been chatting about this slightly distressing phenomenon on the AskUK subreddit after OpenCantaloupe4790 posted this:

What do you refuse to accept happened 20 years ago? I read an interview with Mackenzie Crook in which he said one day you blink and suddenly everything happened 20 years ago and I’ve never felt anything more.

Today for me it’s watching Masterchef and realising that what I call ‘new’ Masterchef is 21 years old. What about you?

Lots of people were prompted to share the things they were sure happened pretty recently, but actually didn’t, like these…

1.

‘In two years it will be two decades since the financial crisis. Isn’t that fun to think about.’
–bahumat42

2.

‘1999 was 10 years ago and I’ll fight you if you disagree.’
–Desperate_Image_9505

3.

‘I went to the 20th anniversary gig of the Razorlight Up All Night album. No.’
–jambo_1983

4.

‘Steve Irwin dying, that was 20 years ago, winking Ronaldo after Rooney got sent off, that was 20 years ago. And Ronaldo is still playing professional football.’
–InternetofTings

5.

‘Leona Lewis winning X-Factor.’
–Party-Dig2309

6.

’20 years this year since Kinga loved a wine bottle a bit too much.’
–MintyMarlfox

7.

‘I made a Hot Fuzz reference yesterday to a friend who hadn’t seen it and I said how the fuck haven’t you seen Hot Fuzz then I saw that it’s almost 20 years old and she’d have been 8 when it came out. That shit hurt.’
–callmeepee

8.

‘I’m still coming to terms with the fact that Groove Is In The Heart came out 36 years ago.’
–Rubberfootman

9.

‘Richard Hammond crashes the drag racer. Daniel Craig becomes Bond. Litvenenko drinks polonium tea and dies. I ace my GCSEs and then go to college and fail everything.’
–xerker

10.

‘9/11 (technically nearly 25 years!). I still remember coming home from primary school and seeing it on the TV knowing it was big but not realising the magnitude of it.’
–Hot_Student815

11.

‘My son literally laughs when anyone is asked for their date of birth and the year starts with 19.’
–DrainpipeDreams

12.

‘Unbelievably the Nintendo Wii came out in 2006, really doesn’t feel that long ago that we were crowded round the TV playing Wii Sports and marvelling at the motion controls.’
–LegolasleChat