People are sharing the things that felt totally normally in 2005 but would seem totally unhinged today

John Plunkett. Updated November 11th, 2026

Here’s a bit of a throwback to the times when Twitter was a place where its primary function was, you know, fun.

And this particular thread was an awful lot of fun after @GaryWinslett asked people what seemed normal back in 2005 but would look totally hatstand today.

Millennials, what was considered completely NORMAL in 2005 that would be absolutely unhinged today?

— ℯ (@AbakpaJob) November 6, 2026

And it prompted no end of very funny and entirely relatable replies and these 23 hit the bullseye.

Source @GaryWinslett

Leaving the house all day with no phone, no location sharing, and your parents having absolutely no idea where you were. 😭

— 𖣂 (@mannyyszn) November 6, 2026

The phone company would send this GIANT book to your house (I’m talking like 8 inches thick on super thin paper) and it doxxed everyone in your town. Their address, their phone number, etc.. And they sent it to everyone in town. For free. Just because. Wild. https://t.co/yiRdyV2OUa

— Gary Winslett 🌐🇺🇸 (@GaryWinslett) November 8, 2026

Waiting until after 9 pm to call someone because then your minutes were free.

— Brad Boyer (@MAGA_BB93) November 6, 2026

Printing out directions

— The Amazing Gengar (@amazinggengar) November 6, 2026

Burning a CD of 14 songs with a Sharpie label and handing it to someone as a love letter. Peak romance

— otto (@otto4jn) November 6, 2026

Owning your Microsoft software after paying one time.. https://t.co/2DHET43pQD

— mrs_crys.edwards215 (@mrs_edwards605) November 9, 2026

Treating those who disagree with you politically like human beings.

— TheADVERSARY (@TheADVERSARYx) November 6, 2026

When the last several Harry Potter books were released, we had midnight book launches attended by millions. Children, in some cases very young, finished these 700 & 800 page books in a single day. And now people are telling me I made it up, that this couldn’t ever have happened. https://t.co/rMvrj3jC8P

— Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ (@SketchesbyBoze) November 7, 2026

Companies used to make the same product for years at a time. Like, if there was a t shirt/cami/sock/underwear/etc. style you liked, you could go back and buy the same exact style five years later. Now everything is different every six fucking months https://t.co/Yp8qjurhzT

— mara’s body is a wonderland (derogatory) (@trauma_kitty) November 9, 2026

10.

Paying to send a text message to a TV channel so it could scroll across the bottom while a music video played.

— Art M. (@canefilms) November 7, 2026

11.

The internet was confined to a single room in your house, a kind of liminal physical space you had to enter and exit https://t.co/u6KRJHor0f

— Siddhant Adlakha (@SiddhantAdlakha) November 7, 2026

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