upworthy

1980s

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1989 video brings back strong memories for Gen Xers who came of age in the '80s.

In the immortal words of SNL's Goat Boy: Hey, remember the eighties?! Specifically, 1989, a year that some say was among the best, or at least the most memorable, ever: It was the year we saw violence in Tiananmen Square but also the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. The year we got Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally" and Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's "Batman." The year "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons" debuted on TV, with no clue as to how successful they would become. The year that gave us New Kids on the Block and Paula Abdul while Madonna and Janet Jackson were enjoying their heyday. It, coincidentally, is also the year the great Taylor Swift was born.

The jeans were pegged, the shoulders were padded and the hair was feathered and huge. It was 1989—the peak of Gen X youth coming of age. A viral video of a group of high school students sitting at their desks in 1989—undoubtedly filmed by some geeky kid in the AV club who probably went on to found an internet startup—has gone viral across social media, tapping straight into Gen X's memory banks. For those of us who were in high school at the time, it's like hopping into a time machine.

It's so wild to think that the kids in this video are in their fifties today.

The show "Stranger Things" has given young folks of today a pretty good glimpse of that era, but if you want to see exactly what the late '80s looked like for real, here it is:

Oh so many mullets. And the Skid Row soundtrack is just the icing on this nostalgia cake. (Hair band power ballads were ubiquitous, kids.)

I swear I went to high school with every person in this video. Like, I couldn't have scripted a more perfect representation of my classmates (which is funny considering that this video came from Paramus High School in New Jersey and I went to high school on the opposite side of the country).

Comments have poured in on Reddit from both Gen Xers who lived through this era and those who have questions.

high school, 1980s, eighties, 1989, gen x, nostalgia The hair!Giphy

First, the confirmations:

"Can confirm. I was a freshman that year, and not only did everyone look exactly like this (Metallica shirt included), I also looked like this. 😱😅"

"I graduated in ‘89, and while I didn’t go to this school, I know every person in this room."

"It's like I can virtually smell the AquaNet and WhiteRain hairspray from here...."

"I remember every time you went to the bathroom you were hit with a wall of hairspray and when the wind blew you looked like you had wings."

These were not isolated trends. A video yearbook from Jericho High School in New York confirms it — the eighties were everywhere!


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Then the observations about how differently we responded to cameras back then.

"Also look how uncomfortable our generation was in front of the camera! I mean I still am! To see kids now immediately pose as soon as a phone is pointed at them is insanity to me 🤣"

"Born in 84 and growing up in the late 80’s and 90’s, it’s hard to explain to younger people that video cameras weren’t everywhere and you didn’t count on seeing yourself in what was being filmed. You just smiled and went on with your life."

Which, of course, led to some inevitable "ah the good old days" laments. When this video was captured, we were still a good decade or so away from mass popularity of cell phones, cable television, and every house having the Internet. Can you believe it? What did these kids do all day?!

"Life was better before the Internet. There, I said it."

"Not a single cell phone to be seen. Oh the freedom."

"It's so nice to be reminded what life was like before cell phones absorbed and isolated social gatherings."

It was a different time, alright. And not everything was 100% for the better:

"My freshman year of high school there was a huge uproar when, on the first day's assembly, admin informed everyone that the smoking lounge for students would indeed be closed permanently."

Probably for the best that we left things like smoking lounges for students or playing real fast and loose with seatbelts in the past.


nintendo, 1980s, eighties, 1983, 1989, kids, nostalgia The Nintendo Entertainment System came out in 1983 Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

But perhaps the most common response was how old those teens looked.

"Why do they all look like they're in their 30's?"

"Everyone in this video is simultaneously 17 and 49 years old."

"Now we know why they always use 30 y/o actors in high school movies."

As some people pointed out, there is an explanation for why they look old to us. It has more to do with how we interpret the fashion than how old they actually look. Outdated styles and aesthetics trick our psychology into dating photos and people, making them appear older than they are.

Ah, what a fun little trip down memory lane for those of us who lived it. Was it a better time, or a time we'd rather forget? It all depends on what your own experience was, but in any case, it's hard not to look back and smile at what was certainly a simpler era. (Let's just all agree to never bring back those hairstyles, though, k?)

This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.

Culture

Adults who lived through the 80s share 15 things pop culture gets wrong about that time

"Pop culture acts like the '80s were just a sea of nothing but neon for 10 years."

Image via Canva

A woman dressed in 80's styled workout clothes

Judging by Gen Z’s Y2K-inspired fashion trends, you’d think the 2000s were nothing but people walking around the mall in pleated miniskirts and bucket hats. We can mostly chalk this up to the depiction of the era in movies like “Clueless” and “13 Going on 30.” Anyone born before the 90s can tell you that life was definitely not like that. But hey, sometimes fantasy is more fun.

Same goes for other time periods as well. For those of us without a degree in history, much of how we picture other eras is influenced by pop culture. Like how we think of Victorian women being obsessed with waist cinching thanks to almost every Hollywood movie showing a woman getting bound by an excruciating tight corset. Yep, that was previously debunked.

And sure, some movies and TV series, like “Mad Men” or “Schindler’s List,” make painstaking efforts to achieve historical accuracy. But often, they are works of fiction, and creative liberties are taken. And those liberties create the world for those who did not live in it.

That can even be said of the 80s, rife with Cold War threats and colorful leggings. Or…was it? Recently, user Jerswar asked Reddit: "People who were adults in the 1980s: What does pop culture tend to leave out?" Here are the raddest, gnarliest, most tubular response people gave.


smoking, cigarettes, 1980s, 80s, health A man smokes while sitting on a boatImage via Canva

1."The insane amounts of smoking inside. Especially in restaurants."

"When I worked in a restaurant, the smokers (backroom dishwashers/cooks) got more chances to sit around and take breaks to smoke. Then, when I got an office job, people had ashtrays at their desks. Often, the ashtrays were hand-made by a young relative in an elementary school class."


- YouTube www.youtube.com

2." Anything we wore that wasn't neon. Pop culture acts like the '80s were just a sea of nothing but neon for 10 years."

“And as if every girl and woman was dressed up in tulle tutus with off-the-shoulder lace shirts and a giant bow tied atop our heads.Not all of us were lucky enough to have our parents buy us new outfits like that. My wardrobe was full of old hand-me-downs. No neon, lace or tulle in the bunch."

"I graduated high school in 1984, and never dressed like Madonna or wore neon anything. We were poor, so it was crappy jeans that never got soft and T-shirts until I got a job. Even after that, I wore cords and overalls and sweaters from Chess King."

1970s, 70s, 80s, 1980s, fashion, 70s style, 70s decor A woman lounges in a room full of 1970's decorImage via Canva

3. "How much decor from the '70s and '60s were still in houses and offices throughout the decade."

"This is something that I thought 'Stranger Things' REALLY got right. All the kids' houses look like they were built and decorated in the 1960s–'70s, which is how it really was. Nobody was living in fancy candy-colored Memphis-style apartments except California yuppies."

handicap, parking, 80s, 1980s, accessibility, disability A handicap parking spaceImage via Canva

4. "I was born in the early '80s. I've been totally blind since birth. In the '80s, accessibility was virtually non-existent.That new Nintendo that the kids had? Good luck. Scholastic Book Club? Not in braille or audio. Everything is in print. Nothing to see here for me or mine. Then computers finally got accessible and Windows came out and they had to start all over again. I wouldn't want to go back to the '80s. I now have my phone that I can use to access the world, read what is on my grocery labels, have pictures described to me, and basically know what's going on in the world. In the '80s, so much went by without any context, and that was in the formative years of my childhood."


cereal, cereal box, grocery shopping, groceries, grocery store, 80s, 1980s A woman reads a cereal box inside a grocery storeImage via Canva

5. "Reading everything — literally everything — I could get my hands on. Cereal boxes, newspapers, magazines. Luckily, my library was a bike ride away but carrying those back on my bike was fun."

"OMG, you are so right. That reminds me of things I hadn't thought about in ages.I used to feel so very bored that I'd read anything that had text on it, from cans of food to cereal boxes to whatever books (however insipid) I could lay my hands on. Even the obituary notices in the newspaper were worth a read. The internet really did away with the boredom, didn't it?!"

Speaking of reading…

toilet, bathroom reading, 80s, 1980s A frustrated man sits on the toiletImage via Canva

6. "Trying to find something to read in the bathroom to pass the time. I remember shampoo bottles and the contents of my wallet were my go-to's when a magazine or book was unavailable." "Yes! Shampoo bottles for desperate moments of boredom."

7. "Might be my own bias but being a kid in the '80s there was a lot of casual bullying and conformism. Not that bullying and conformism ever went away, but the '90s was more about counter-culture a bit."


Cyndi Lauper Party GIF Giphy

8. "I was a child in the '80s, but something that I don't think I've ever seen in modern pop culture retellings of '80s life, which I recall witnessing, is this: people think of the weird, wacky, fun colors and hair, etc., of the 1980s — like Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Boy George styles. BUT for many people and mainstream communities, that was considered a 'weird' or 'rock and roll character' kind of presentation. People would often openly stare, laugh at, or disparage people who looked openly unique. It took a lot of courage to go out styled like that. It was acceptable to have a more 'subtle' take on the fun color trends."

"I believe the best real-time representation/evidence of this is in Cyndi Lauper's 'Time After Time' music video, there’s a scene where she sits down in a diner with her boyfriend and his friends. She pulls off her cap to reveal her new hairstyle - half-shaved and dyed bright colors. Her boyfriend's friends start hysterically laughing, the boyfriend is quietly embarrassed, and she runs out of the diner in tears."

tv, 1980s, 80's, 80's TV, sitcoms A retro family watches TV in their living roomImage via Canva

9. "TV was just adult shows for most of the week, especially during summer break. Just soap operas and other boring things." "Staying home sick from school and all there was to watch were game shows and soap operas until the Gilligan's Island reruns came on."


savage reagan GIF Giphy

10. "The sheer sense of doom and pervasive low-key terror of nuclear war. The Soviets' nuclear arsenal pointing at us, and their nihilistic posturing in some ways remind me of the climate change dread we now have. Living with an existential threat is not something new."

"This is so completely underestimated or misunderstood. All through high school, I was convinced that the world would just end one day, and I'd have to figure out how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world afterwards. Yeah, we thought that people would survive an all-out nuclear war."


11. "The homophobia."

"It was casual, rampant, and virtually unquestioned. If you were gay or lesbian, and not living in a major city like New York or San Francisco, you were probably in the closet, at least to everyone but some close friends and (maybe) family. If you were trans, forget about it. Enjoy your life of dysphoria and misery. You don't really see that depicted so much in pop culture now."

"AIDS and '80s homophobia went hand in hand, and it's hard to overstate how much AIDS destroyed the gay community and how the dominant culture thought that was a good thing."

latchkey kids, 80s, 1980s, children, child safety A child opens a door to their homeImage via Canva

12. "Being a latchkey kid it was no frequent communication with your parents. I can't tell you how many times I stayed out all night as an 18-year-old and no one but who I was with knew where I was or what I was doing. My parents didn't know what I was doing all day as a 12–17-year-old, either! You only called your parents at work only if it was an emergency."

"Yes. It's almost like a 'parents didn't care' attitude that would be ascribed to that behavior now (but that wasn't right). Ma needed to work and that she didn't get home until 7 p.m. was just a reality. Oftentimes, she was gone when I got up and we had zero communication until she got home. I was just responsible for the whole shpiel of keeping myself alive."

1950s, 1980s, 80s, 50s, nostalgia A 1950s familyImage via Canva

13.The obsession people/media had about the '50s and '60s.”

“Part of it was stuff like 'Back to the Future,' '50s-themed diners and baseball jackets being popular, then there was the 20th anniversary of things, like various Beatles albums. I think the boomers at that point were in positions of influence and were looking back on their teens and twenties with rose-tinted glasses, so the rest of us had to suffer these cultural echoes from the generation before."

14."Cruising. Before social media, we would drive up and down the street, see and be seen. Stop at different businesses, the cool kids hung out at the Walgreens parking lot, the jocks at the McDonald's. But it was a small town so we would stop at all of them during the evening. That was our social world along with keggers in the desert all through high school and for folks that stayed in town for years after high school.

"It was like a social network but with your car."

And lastly…

15. "What a mess it was to get cleaned up!”

“That sparkle-blue eye shadow didn't come off easily and if it got in your eyes it was torture! That red lip gloss ran all over. And shampooing your hair three times to get out all the hairspray and the mousse. I loved the '80s and I had a marvelous time. But it was messy... but way worth it!"

This article originally appeared last year.

Images via Canva

Boomers and Gen Jonesers share worst things about the 1970s and 1980s.

Baby Boomers (those born from 1946 to 1964) and Generations Jones (those born specifically from 1954 to 1964) are two generations who remember what it was really like to live through the 1970s and 1980s. Nostalgia can put a rose-colored tint on the times. And for a lot of people, living through these two decades weren't all sunshine and rainbows.

In an online forum of people born after 1980, member Mundane_Bad_2437 posed the question: "For those who didn't like the 70s or 80s, why?" They continued, "I know that most people look back at the 70s and 80s as the good old days. But for anyone who actually lived during those decades and didn’t enjoy them, I’m really curious, why? What was it about that time that didn’t sit right with you? Just wondering what it was really like from the other side."

And Boomers, Gen Jonesers (and some Gen Xers) chimed in with their honest thoughts about some of the negatives about living through the two decades. These are some of the most interesting takes on why people didn't like the 1970s and 1980s.

1970s, 70s, life in the 11970s, 1970s picture, 1970s nostalgia Historical Studies, Reports, & Plans (U.S. National Park Service) www.nps.gov

"We always thought nuclear war with Russia as just a day away." - Evelyn-Bankhead

"Don’t forget those god awful leg warmers we thought were cute. Ugh." - kisskismet

"The cigarette smoke. We're all going to die of lung cancer." - valley_lemon

"Aids was a drag...." - PedalSteelBill2

"All but one of my gay friends died of AIDS. My best friend died in my arms. It was an epidemic." - wild-fury

"Shoulder pads. Have you seen the ugly cars from that decade? Chernobyl. Columbia Space Shuttle - and the empty promises of flying cars and trips to the moon and Jetpacks in our future." -Old-Bug-2197

chernobyl, chernobyl photo, chernobyl accident, chernobyl pic, chernobyl history 02790015 | Historical collections of the Chernobyl accident … | Flickr www.flickr.com

"I was a child in the 70s a teen in the 80s and I find all the 'good old days' comments coming from people who weren’t there or they were wealthy. The 70s had a lot of anger about Vietnam and Nixon, and fear about gas prices and inflation. Women were marching for equal rights and the men who came back from the war were pissed off. It wasn’t like the 70s show. The 80s were better economically but Reagan really messed things up and played up fear. As teens we could see this trend being bad and fearing for our future as so many adults were taken in by his charisma. It wasn’t the good old anything. There was more hope that technology might somehow make things better but there was fear too. It wasn’t perfect. We were not all about concerts and big hair. We were worried for our futures because the advice our parents gave us sounded too good and easy to be true, 'just go to college and your life will be great' and here I’m 54 and still up to my ears in college debt because my parents never helped pay for it even though they promised me they would. My job under pays me and all of their advice on how to adult was based on different times." - ArsenalSpider

"Sexism, so much sexism. The whole emancipated working woman was a scam, we were nothing but dolls meant to prop up a company. The hair maintenance alone took a fifth of your income…Watch Dolly Parton’s movie 9 to 5, and imagine that without the fun parts. Just working harder than any man, and still getting paid less. Just having to laugh at those sexual innuendos, and trying to 'politely' tell a man three times your age that you don’t want to 'stay for another drink'." - EnvironmentalEbb628

- YouTube Check out the official 9 to 5 (1980) Trailer starring Dolly Parton! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ▻ Watch on ...

"Women were consistently paid less for the same jobs." - SusanBHa

"I grew up in NYC in the '70s and '80s. As much people miss that version of the city it was kind of rough. Budget cuts. Dirty streets and subways with reduced service. Crime. The Great Lawn in Central Park was practically a dust bowl. Graffiti. Abandoned buildings. Lost jobs. Schools in decline. I was a kid in Queens and didn't really notice, aside from the gas shortages. But I can see people who grew up in the 50s and 60s not looking back on that period fondly." - damageddude

"I think people really don't remember or understand the high inflation rate and high unemployment of the era. When inflation went over 9% in 2022, people freaked out. I understand it was the shock, after prices being stable for so many years, but the inflation rate soon moderated after a year or two. Prices didn't go back down, but they aren't going up as quickly as they were in 2022. Now, imagine that inflation happening every year for several years in a row. That was the latter part of the 70's and early 80's. Then, when Reagan took office, his federal reserve chairman jacked up interest rates to kill inflation, which it eventually did, but it drove the unemployment rate over 10%. It was awful. As a high schooler, it was hard to get a job at a fast food place, as they were hiring adults for many of those jobs (the adults taking those jobs were unable to get jobs elsewhere...)." - SpiceEarl

"Nostalgia filters out the crap. But the 70s and 80s weren’t some golden era for everyone. Tons of people felt stuck—bad economy, sky-high inflation, racism and sexism baked into every system, cold war paranoia, no internet to escape into. Mental health? Not even a real conversation. Therapy = 'you’re broken'. Queer? Good luck. Different? Get bullied. Yeah, music slapped and the aesthetics were cool. But life for a lot of folks was survival wrapped in disco lights." - Thin_Rip8995

1980s, 9180s work, 1980s office, working 1980s, 1980s nostalgia Office workers in the early 1980's | This is a photograph of… | Flickr www.flickr.com

"Handling the details of life was much harder & took much more effort. I wouldn't trade the technology we have now for the best we had then." - PearlsRUs

"I enjoyed the 70s and 80s, largely because I was a teenager and a twenty something. My biggest complaint about that time was all the tobacco smoke in restaurants and bars and pretty much everywhere." - dweaver987

"I was very young during the 60s, and I loved all the peace, love, and creativity I saw happening. I was going to be a hippy when I grew up. Then they disappeared sometime between 70 and 80. I blame platform shoes and shoulder pads. What good hippie would hang around for that???" - Ok-Half7574

"The 80s f*cking sucked. Everyone was materialistic and shallow as hell and that's literally what was cool -- see Madonna's 'Material Girl.'" Yummy_Castoreum

- YouTube You're watching the HD Remastered music video for Madonna's "Material Girl", directed by Mary Lambert. Original song taken ...

"At the time? Vietnam, Watergate, gas shortages, stagflation, student loans with 18-20% interest, and the existential dread of the Cold War. But the music was amazing." - JustAnotherDay1977

"Loved the 80’s. 70’s were kind of depressing. Ugly colored clothes, browns, avocado greens, and harvest gold. Also for appliances. Not all music was bad, not enough regular rock, a lot of sleepy drug music (Jim Morrison)." - CanadianNana

Culture

Boomers and Gen Xers share 30 things they don't miss from the 80s and 90s

"Using those Noxzema pads to burn and dry out my pimply face. It had a smell, too."

Images via Canva

Boomers and Gen Xers discuss the things they don't miss from the 1980s and 1990s.

Nostalgia is all about remembering how things were in the "gold old days." But sometimes, upon further reflection, some things really sucked in the past despite how rosy our colored glasses made them look. Boomers and Gen Xers are reminiscing on the things they really don't miss from the 1980s and 1990s.

Over on Reddit, member pizzagamer35 posed the question to Boomers and Gen Xers: "What is something you do NOT miss from the 80s-90s?"

Boomers and Gen Xers had plenty of throwback experiences and products they are happy to never come across again. These are 30 of the most nostalgic responses from Boomers and Gen Xers about things they don't miss about the 80s and 90s.

landline, landline phone, 90s phone, phone call, retro phone Saved By The Bell Laughing GIF Giphy

"Long distance phone bill." —gohdnuorg

"Having to wait until after 7pm or whatever so you could call your long distance friends because it was free after that." —raz0rbl4d3

"Answering the landline and having no idea who's calling. Just raw, unfiltered anxiety." —Fit-Interview-3886

"Not having GPS." —recrysis

"Smoking or non smoking and still be in the smoking section." —Less-Lengthiness4863

smoking, smoke, cigarettes, smoking section, smoking 90s mothers day smoking GIF Giphy

"Using those Noxzema pads to burn and dry out my pimply face. It had a smell, too." —poizon_elff

"Waiting for JPGs to load one line at a time." —timmayd

"Those hair ties with the two giant plastic beads on them that EVERY mom used to tie up their daughter's hair in pigtails. God forbid she lose her grip on one while she was already ripping your soul out through your scalp." —Honey-Badger-90

"Third degree burns from metallic seat belt fasteners." —JLMTIK88

"Not being able to use the internet if someone needed the phone line to be free." —Joshawott27

internet, internet 90s, dial up internet, old internet, slow internet Girl 90S GIF Giphy

"Satanic panic." —Historical_Spot_4051

"Buying a CD and realizing all the songs suck, except for one, maybe two." —11B-E5

"Batteries and flashlight bulbs. Holy crap they were crap. I still remember seeing the little LED light on our shitty car radio and asking dad what kind of light that tiny dot was. He told me it was a diode and diodes kinda 'last forever'. I immediately wondered why the hell we weren't developing that tech." —snoozieboi

"Shoulder pads." —Thin_Apartment_8076

shoulder pads, shoulder pad, 80s shoulder pads, 90s shoulder pads, vintage style Mc Hammer Dancing GIF by Jukebox Saints Giphy

"Ordering pizza by calling the restaurant and yelling your order to a guy in a noisy kitchen. Missing an episode of your favorite TV show (or forgetting to tape it if you had a VCR) and not being able to see it until summer reruns, or maybe never." —Imaginary-List-4945

"Terrible contact lenses." —MandatoryMatchmaker

"To contribute something small: manual computer defragmentation. It took several hours and you couldn't do anything else." —rena-vee

"Pay Phones that gave you limited talk time." —Aggravating-Iron9804

pay phone, payphone, payphones, payphone, 90s phone Season 3 Marge GIF by The Simpsons Giphy

"Gym class. Boys were expected to know how to play sports. My dad taught me how to fix tractors and cut firewood, but he didn't teach me sports because no one ever taught him. The gym teacher didn't teach us sh*t. When we f*cked up or didn't know what to do, the jocks would laugh and the teacher would join in the fun." —Fluffy-Cupcake9943

"The 'heroin chic' body type." —Heartbreak_Star

"Panty hose." —Kitty-haha

"Aqua net=hair that absolutely did not move! And you could see little hairspray bubbles 😔🫠😂😂." — IAmTheBlackStar1979

"Having to rewind VHS tapes like it was a part-time job." -—Repulsive_Corgi_6187

vhs, vhs tape, vhs rewind, rewinding vhs, vhs rewinding Animated GIF Giphy

"Waiting by the radio for your song to play so you can record it on tape." —mycrml

"Serial killers. They just can't exist at the same level anymore. Plus we got all the lead out of stuff. So now people are 100% normal. 100%." —PrimeNumbersby2

"Manual roll up/down windows in cars." —Human-Average-2222

"Carpeted bathrooms. someone shared a bunch of pictures of them on some nostalgia account and i could smell the pictures through my phone 🤢." —GoblinHeart1334

"Busy signal on the phone." —crjconsulting