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1990s nostalgia

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Man shares the 'one sound in the entire world' that separates everyone born before and after 1998

You'll have a visceral reaction or feel nothing.

via TheGlassSniper/TikTok and 30pin Pictures/Flickr

The Glass Sniper is taking people back to 1998.

A popular TikToker known as The Glass Sniper is going viral with a video that struck a chord with people who remember the early days of the internet.

In the video, he teases a specific sound that was everywhere before it suddenly disappeared into the collective memory of those born before the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal hit the news.

“There is only one sound in this entire world that will forever separate the old generation from the new one,” Glass Sniper in the viral video. “'For when the new generation hears it, they'll have no idea what we're talking about. But when the old generation hears it… We cringe!”

The sound, of course, is the squeak of a dial-up modem connecting with an Internet service provider or ISP, as they were known back in the day.

New year. New Generation. What year is the line drawn? Lol

@theglasssniper

New year. New Generation. What year is the line drawn? Lol

One of the biggest problems with dial-up internet was that if you were online, no one in your home could use the phone, which caused some big domestic problems. Also, if you used a long-distance phone number for your dial-up number, you could be in for a hefty phone bill.

"I can hear my mom yelling 'IM ON THE PHONE!'" — MacksMom1990 wrote in the comments. "Followed by...You've got mail," DawnMichel added.

"I can already hear my sister yelling at me to get off the computer so she can call her friend," Uncle B wrote.

Although they’re uncommon, people still use dial-up modems in 2023. For some comparison, in 2002, 55 million people in the U.S. used dial-up internet but that number quickly dropped to 51 million in 2003. As of September 2023, 400,000 people in the U.S. still have dial-up internet.


This article originally appeared on 1.23.24

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the 1990s
Joy

Boyz II Men updated 'I'll Make Love to You’ for married couples and it's both funny and true

"I'll make love to you, or we can just watch YouTube.”

via The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/YouTube

Boyz II Men sing an updated version of "I'll Make Love to You."

Boyz II Men’s classic 1994 love song “I’ll Make Love to You” was one of the most popular make-out songs of the ‘90s. But now, the Gen Xers who got down to it back then are a bit older and have probably settled down.

Life in your 40s and 50s has more to do with handling household chores and parenting responsibilities than making love “all through the night,” as Boyz II Men originally sang nearly 30 years ago. Studies show that the average married couple in their 40s and 50s has sex around once a week, whereas those in their 20s and 30s have it twice as often.

The threesome had some fun with the passing of time on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Valentine’s Day when they debuted an updated version of “I’ll Make Love to You” that reframes the song for couples who’ve been married for the past 15 years. “I’ll Make Love to You (But We Don’t Have To)” features three members of the Philadelphia group’s classic lineup, Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman, Wanyá Morris and a cameo from Colbert himself.

Back in the group's heyday in the ‘90s, it had four members, but unfortunately, bass singer Michael McCary left the group in 2003 after being diagnosed with muscular sclerosis.

Here are the lyrics to “I’ll Make Love to You (But We Don’t Have To)”:

Close the door, wash this dish

I'll put all the forks away

It's our 15th Valentine's Day

We're gonna celebrate once this house is clean

Pour some wine in my favorite coffee mug

Are the kids finally asleep?

Said we'd do it once a week

But we don't have to, babe

Let's see what's on TV

I’ll make love to you if you want me to

Unless you’re too tired, because I’m tired, too

I’ll make love to you, or we can just watch YouTube and

I'll text you some memes while I'm next to you

Girl, relax; there's no rush

Let's just go to Puzzle-town

You need help with 19-down

Oh, a female sheep

Baby, you know that's ewe

Pick up clothes from the floor

I'll be sure to check Brooklyn's math

Then we'll both get in the bath

But not at the same time; it's very uncomfortable

I’ll make love to you in a day or two

How 'bout a raincheck

Last time I threw out my neck

Do you want me to paint the living room?

I keep saying I will, but I never do

I know your job got you stressed

And this whole house is a mess

Still, tonight, let's say yes

To doing it or we could watch "NCIS"

I’ll make love to you, coz my love is true

I'll make sure you know, ok, your eyes are closed

Alright, that's some drool, and you're snoring, too

Maybe let's try again in a week or two

Boyz II men are currently on a North American tour that runs through October.

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1990s nostalgia
Pop Culture

These AT&T commercials from 30 years ago perfectly predicted the future

How'd they know all this in '93?

via Mike Mozart/Flickr

A rainbow over the AT&T store.

Thirty years ago, AT&T launched its “You Will” ad campaign, which predicted future technological developments that seemed pretty far-fetched at the time. But, in hindsight, the ad was surprisingly accurate in anticipating technology that’s commonplace today.

"Have you ever borrowed a book from thousands of miles away?" the first ad asks. "Crossed the country without stopping for directions? Or sent someone a fax from the beach? You will. And the company that will bring it to you is AT&T."

OK, the fax prediction was a bit off because that technology fell by the wayside after email was developed. But the sentiment was correct.

The series of ads predicted grocery checkout machines that process an entire cart at a time, telemedicine, distance learning, smartwatches ("[Have you ever] gotten a phone call, on your wrist?") and video on demand, to name a few.

The ads were voiced by actor Tom Selleck, who was an A-list movie actor at the time. They were made by director David Fincher, who wasn’t a household name in ’93, but would go on to direct “Fight Club,” “The Social Network” and "Mank."

The “You Will” campaign did an incredible job of predicting the future but, as Vox points out, it wasn’t necessarily AT&T that made the advancements possible. “AT&T does provide some of the infrastructure on which the world's communications flow,” Timothy B. Lee wrote for Vox. “But the gadgets and software that brought these futuristic capabilities to consumers were created by a new generation of Silicon Valley companies that mostly didn't exist when these ads were made.”

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1990s nostalgia
Pop Culture

19 super-specific memories that are giving people instant childhood nostalgia

Certain sensations bring up incredible memories.

via Seattle Municipal Archives/Flickr

Memories of childhood get lodged in the brain, emerging when you least expect.

There are certain pleasurable sights, smells, sounds and tastes that fade into the rear-view mirror as we grow from being children to adults. But on a rare occasion, we’ll come across them again and it's like a portion of our brain that’s been hidden for years expresses itself, creating a huge jolt of joy.

It’s wonderful to experience this type of nostalgia but it often leaves a bittersweet feeling because we know there are countless more sensations that may never come into our consciousness again.

Nostalgia is fleeting and that's a good thing because it’s best not to live in the past. But it does remind us that the wonderful feeling of freedom, creativity and fun from our childhood can still be experienced as we age.

A Reddit user by the name of agentMICHAELscarnTLM posed a question to the online forum that dredged up countless memories and experiences that many had long forgotten. He asked a simple question, “What’s something you can bring up right now to unlock some childhood nostalgia for the rest of us?”

It was a call for people to tap into the collective subconscious and bond over the shared experiences of youth. The most popular responses were the specific sensory experiences of childhood as well as memories of pop culture and businesses that are long gone.

Ready to take a trip down memory lane? Don’t stay too long, but it’s great to consider why these experiences are so memorable and still muster up warm feelings to this day.

Here are 19 of the best responses.

1. 

"An eraser that looks and smells like a very fake strawberry." — zazzlekdazzle

2. 

"Remember the warm, fuzzy static left on your tv screen after it was on for a while. A lot of you crazy kids WEAPONIZED the static to shock your siblings!" — JK_NC

3. 

"Waking up super early on Saturday morning before the rest of the family to watch cartoons." — helltothenoyo

4. 

"When you'd watch a vhs and it would say 'and now your feature presentation.'" — Mickthemmouse

5. 

"Eating one of those plastic-wrapped ice pop things after a long day of playing outside in your backyard with your friends." — onyourleft___

6. 

"Scholastic book fairs." — zazzlekdazzle

"The distinctive newspaper-y feel of those catalogues, the smell of them. Heaven. I would agonize over what books to get, lying on my living room floor, circling my options in different colored gel pens, narrowing it down to 2-4 from a dozen in an intense battle royale between slightly blurry one-line summaries. I know my mom's secret now. She would've bought me the whole damn catalogue. But she made me make my choices so that I really valued the books. I'd read them all immediately, reading all night if I had to, hiding in a tent under my covers with a flashlight I stole from the kitchen. I thought I was getting away with something. As an adult, I notice, now, that the flashlight never ran out of batteries." — IAlbatross

7. 

"Watching 'The Price Is Right' when you were sick at home." — mayhemy11

8. 

"That feeling of limitless freedom on the first day of summer vacation. That feeling of dreaded anticipation on the last day of summer vacation." —_my_poor_brain_

9. 

"Blockbuster." — justabll71

10. 

"The noise when picking up the phone when someone was surfing the web." — OhAce

11. 

"The TV Guide channel. You had to sit through and watch as the channels slowly went by so we could see what was on. It blew getting distracted by the infomercial in the corner and then realizing you barely just missed what you were waiting for so had to wait for it to start all over." — GroundbreakingOil

12. 


"Light Bright. I barely remember it myself but you’d take a charcoal-black board and poke different colored pegs through it. You plug it in to the electrical outlet and all the pegs light up creating whatever shape you made in lights." — 90sTrapperKeeper

13. 

"You knew it was gonna be a good day when you walk into PE class and see that huge colorful parachute." — brunettemountainlion

14. 

"Ripping handfuls of grass at recess and putting them on your friend." — boo_boo_technician

15. 

"In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem if no one else can help, and if you can find them....maybe you can hire The A-Team." — Azuras_Star8

16. 

"Watching 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.' There was something so special about the intro where he would sing Won't You Be My Neighbor while he changed his jacket and shoes. I loved every second of it, and would watch in utter content and fascination each time as if I'd never before seen him zip his cardigan up and back down to the right spot and change his shoes with the little toss of a shoe from one hand to the other." — Avendashar

17. 

"Somewhere between blowing on some cartridges and pressing the cartridge down and up in the NES to get it to play." — autovices

18. 

"That feeling when you are going as high as you can go on the swings. Power? Freedom? Hard to describe." — zazzlekadazzle

19. 

"Cap guns. But smashing the entire roll of caps at once with a hammer." — SoulKahn90

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