‘What ‘thing’ from the 80s or 90s would the younger generation not believe?’ – 23 ways the world has massively changed

Karen Dickinson. Updated October 12th, 2026

The ‘post-internet’ age is defined as starting in the mid-2000s, when digital technology stopped being novel and became an ordinary and integral part of daily life.

For the people born after the beginning of this brave new epoch, the time before can seem as strange and fascinating as medieval times. And it was only 30 years ago.

User Workshymassiv shared their thoughts about this on the AskUK subreddit having tried to explain a retrospectively perplexing tradition from Ye Olden Days to a digital native…

‘What ‘thing’ from the 80s or 90s would the younger generation not believe?

‘I was talking to someone who is in their early 20s about wet t-shirt competitions in nightclubs back in the 1990s. But they thought I was making it up.

‘What seemed normal way back when but would be alien to the younger citizens of today?’

Lots of people had thoughts on the ways in which things have changed, for better or worse. Check these out…

‘Waiting until 6pm before being allowed to make a phone call. Calls were charged by length and were more expensive during the day. The tariff changed at 6pm.’
–AbleHospital7800

‘When you are out of house, nobody is able to reach/contact you.’
–Professional-Top7427

‘You just had to agree to meet at a certain place at a certain time. If they didn’t show you were screwed.’
–Goldensteve23

‘Don’t forget to take a 10p coin with you just in case you need to make a call from a phone box.’
–Howard1981

‘If it’s 80’s here’s one for you – my Grandmother bought her 3 bedroom house in 1981 based off of her own salary as a single parent of 4 after my Grandad buggered off with another woman… she worked as a PART TIME cleaner in a factory, 20hrs a week. ‘
–MonkeyBoy697

‘Phone X’s house: “Is X in?”

X’s mum: “You’ve just missed him. Y came round. I think they said they were going to Z’s house”

Phone Z’s house: “Is X or Y there?”

Z’s sister: “No, but I think Z was going to the park with them”

Go to park. Meet X, Y & Z. Top afternoon!’
–mr_michael_h

‘Page 3.’
–MathematicianSuch234

‘Chip pan fires. Was drummed into us as kids that if your parents absentmindedly wandered away from a massive vat of boiling hot fat on the stove and it caught fire, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES pour water over it.

‘There was a nasty house fire near here recently because a student went old school and cooked chips in a fryer. Having been born this millennium, they wouldn’t have seen any of the information films about how to put out a chip pan fire.’
–gummibear853

‘Smoking indoors, especially on planes or in restaurants. Even McDonald’s used to have an ashtray on every table til the early 90s.’
–Turbulent_Brief_2813

10.

‘Global Hypercolor t-shirts. Yes kids, we thought it was super cool to show exactly where you were sweating buckets.’
–Fine-State8014

11.

‘Building sites with absolutely no fencing around them. We used to run around half finished buildings and get up to all sorts. We even climbed up the cranes.

‘Absolutely mental thinking about it now.’
–Greybur

12.

‘Going clubbing when we were 14.’
–Strong_Roll5639

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