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Gen Xers and Millennials share childhood memories that would 'destroy' today's kids

The '70s, '80s, and '90s were a different time.

Photo credit: Canva

Nobody wants to relive this.

When adults compare themselves to “kids today,” two somewhat opposing views tend to happen at once. There's both rose-colored nostalgia (“the '90s were a simpler time!” “let’s go back to before we had screens!”) and a sense of superiority when it comes to facing challenges (“kids today are soft!” “I had to walk to school uphill in the snow both ways!").

Regarding the latter, perhaps a lot of that can be attributed to a cultural shift that’s more child-centered. This has led to a quantifiable increase in the number of “sheltered” kids, according to a new Harris Poll. Kids who never walked along in a grocery aisle, talked with a neighbor without their parents, walked/biked somewhere (without a chaperone…certainly nothing like the childhood many of us '70s/'80s/'90s kids grew up in.

This sparked a conversation among Gen Xers and Millennials on TikTok when someone asked, “What’s something we survived as kids that would absolutely emotionally destroy today’s kids?” Woo boy, did folks deliver. Dodgeballs flying at their face, handwriting words in cursive for hours on end, waiting weeks to get back terrible pictures…no one today could handle that. And those are just some of the examples. Keep reading for more.

1. "Going all day at school without a water bottle. We might get a small drink of water from the water fountain at recess, that’s it. Take away a younger person’s water bottle today for five minutes, and they act like they’ve been in the desert for three days without a drop of water and will die of dehydration."

Summer Water Spongebob Squarepants GIFfrom Summer Water GIFs

2. "Having to talk to people to get your questions answered. For everything." — meanwhile, I've seen today's kids have full-blown panic attacks simply about having to ask a waiter, "May I please get a cheeseburger?"

3. "No binge mode. If you wanted to watch The X-Files, you had to be in the house every Friday night while everyone partied. For four years."

"If you missed your episode, you might never see it."

3. "Having to encounter everything 'by chance.' Favorite song on the radio, favorite movie on TV… made it so much more rewarding, but we’ll never experience that emotion again. Like running into a friend out in the wild."

4. "Munching on snacks at 1 am watching Faces of Death."

For those unfamiliar, Faces of Death is a 1978 American horror film that shows scenes of gruesome deaths from around the world, both real and re-enacted. Fun, right?

gen x, millennials, gen z, gen alpha, boomers generational humor, tiktok, generational differences This movie earned 45% on Rotten Tomatoes. Amazon.com

5. "Dodgeball. I just played gaga ball with a bunch of Generation Alphas and omg, these kids are not gonna be okay."

What is gaga ball, you ask? A variation that's gentler, faster-paced, and more accessible. It’s Dodgeball Lite, essentially. And honestly, it's a legitimate improvement from the needlessly savage original.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

6. "Having to write everything in cursive from third grade on in pen. Writing by hand the rough draft, then the 2nd rough draft, then the final draft."

Man, lots of thoughts about handwriting, actually…

"Having to write a research paper while properly citing sources in the required format using only books, newspapers or microfiche from the library. And having to find all that by using the Dewey Decimal System. Also, no spell or grammar check to find our mistakes for us."

"Having to write a rough draft, having a classmate mark it up with errors, re-write it for the teacher to review with more mark-ups, and then having to write the final draft in pen, sometimes in cursive lol."

"That bump on the side of your middle finger from handwriting everything."

7. "Being bored. Kids today don’t know what real boredom is."

More specifically…

8. "Driving with your parent with NO FORM of entertainment. Just look out the window."

Even worse…

9. "Being trapped in the car with your smoker parents… with windows up. And of course, zero functioning seat belts."

10. "Babysitting infants and other small children when you yourself were only 12."

11. "Not being able to see the photographs before they get developed when using disposable cameras/rolls of film in the little black tubes."

12. "Dial-up internet and how it disconnected when someone else made a phone call."

Internet Internet Down GIFfrom Internet GIFs

13. "Driving without using GPS."

"Or when MapQuest was a thing and we had to print out directions to follow! I drove cross country with twenty pages of directions hahahaha."

14. "Trying to follow makeup tutorials that were just blocks of text in Cosmo magazine. No visuals. 🤣"

15. "Forgetting your key and having to wait from 3:45 pm until 6:00 pm when your mom finally gets home. No snacks, no water."

16. "Eating whatever is served, regardless of whether you like it or hate it. There was no asking what we wanted to eat for dinner or what sounded good to us. Nasty pot pie with peas? Eat it. Liver and onions that smell like absolute death? Eat it. And you ain't getting down from the table until your plate is clean — and they meant it. It could be all the way until bedtime. You not getting down. Period. My sister fell asleep face-first into her plate once."

17. "Having to find a library book through the card catalog to know its location."

18. "Calling your friend’s house and talking to their parents first when they pick up the phone. Small talk and communication skills in general have taken a huge hit."

19. "Pooping without a phone."

20. "The TV used to cut to nothing at night. literally the TV would just show the flag 'til the next day… Good night, America."

21. "You only got three lives in a video game, and when you died, you had to start from the very beginning!!"

22. "Blowing and smacking Nintendo games to make them work or not glitch."

23. "Having homework from all classes due the next day! 😂"

24. "Having to rewind a cassette tape with a pencil after being unraveled inside the cassette player, hoping it doesn’t twist while rewinding."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

25. “Those metal pedals on our bikes, hitting your shin cause you missed the pedal or riding with no shoes on."

26. "Having to cover all textbooks with paper bags from the local grocery store. The paper bags had outlines on how to cover your textbooks. Hated this for years. It eventually stopped in high school, possibly 11th grade."

27. "Actually going to a potential employer to ask if they’re hiring and for an application."

28. "The loud ticking of the massive analog clock on the wall during a test. The whole room silent. But the ticking of clock as loud as a rock concert. Every second click click click. I can still hear it in my nightmares. You know y’all younginz can’t tell time unless it’s digital."

29. "When I was in elementary school, lunch was still paid for with cash UNLESS you were a poor kid with free lunch. Then, they gave you a bright yellow laminated card and everyone in your class knew you were poor. 😏"

30. "Blackouts. They will NEVER survive blackouts the way we did back then."

31. "Chickenpox!"

32. "Not knowing if The Blair Witch Project was real or not."

Abell46s GIFfrom Abell46s GIFs

33. "Roman candle fights."

Ah yes, pointing fireworks at each other. What could possibly go wrong?

- YouTube www.youtube.com

34. “Climbing and falling off six-foot monkey bars onto plain concrete."

35. "The merry-go-round...pure steel in the summer."

36. "The threat of pulling 20 to life for my LimeWire bootlegs. The media had me feeling like young Capone."

37. "Thinking the world will end when Y2K comes."

38. "Computer crashing while just putting the finishing touches on your school report and you didn’t hit save."

39. "Having to manually change the channel on the TV and if the knob broke looking frantically for pliers!!! Don’t get me started on the aluminum foil on the TV antennas!"

40. "I was home alone in the morning and got myself fed, dressed and walked myself to afternoon Kindergarten."

41. "Non-stop bullying was normal. 😩"

Respeto GIFfrom Bully GIFs


42. "Riding in the back of a pickup truck down the highway."

43. "A dentist that doesn’t numb your gums before jabbing you with a needle."

44. "Having that ONE copy of the video you and your friends made, greatest memories ever, and then your dad tapes over it for a 90-second Tyson fight."

…and lastly…

45. "The Challenger Explosion, and no trauma counseling after. We were expected to just move on to the next class and go about our day."

That said, we can probably all agree that in reality, kids today endure plenty—we didn't exactly have to contend with active shooter drills, cyberbullying, etc.—and are incredibly resilient in their own way. This was more lighthearted than anything else. Or, at the very least, a fun and traumatic romp down memory lane for us olds.

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My Gen Z kids say periods in my texts are 'aggressive.' I'm not stopping anytime soon.

I was texting before they were even born, why should they get to make the rules?

Photo credit: Canva, Screenshot via Annie Reneau

If you want to freak out a Gen Zer, put a period at the end of a text message.

"Hi." ... "Omg, are you mad at me?"

As a Gen X mom of three Gen Z kids in their teens and 20s, there's a lot that I'm willing to concede and even celebrate when it comes to the gap between our generations. I love Gen Z's global consciousness, their openness about mental health, their focus on inclusivity, and their insistence on wearing comfortable shoes with formal wear. But there's one Gen Z feature that I simply cannot abide, and that is the weaponization of basic punctuation.

"It freaks me out when you say 'yes period' in a text," my high schooler told me one day. "It feels so aggressive, like I feel like I'm in trouble or something." I stared at him incredulously as his 20-year-old sister laughed but then agreed with him. "It does! The period makes it feel like you're mad," she said.

texting conversation, periods in texts Misunderstandings happen when people start changing what punctuation means.Screenshot via Annie Reneau

Ah yes, the period, the most benign punctuation mark of them all, is "aggressive." Far from being a mere generational quirk, this misinterpreting of normal punctuation in text messages as aggressive or angry could result in serious communication breakdowns. Talking by text is already hard enough, and now we're adding a layer of meaning that older folks don't have a clue about?

The kids are serious about this, though. According to Gen Zers, pretty much any time someone puts a period at the end of a text, it means they're mad or irritated, as if the period is being emphasized.

period, punctuation, texting, text punctuation Unless you literally say, "period," a period doesn't mean anything but the end of a thought. Giphy GIF by Sony Pictures Television

At the risk of sounding like a dinosaur, I'd like to point out that reading into periods in texts like this is just silly. It seems silly when the young folks do it with each other, but it's extra silly when they do it with adults who didn't grow up with texting and have ingrained grammatical habits that aren't easy to shake. (And frankly, some of us don't want to shake—I'm a former English teacher, for crying out loud. Might as well ask me to start misspelling words on purpose.)

In no reasonable world can "Yes." be automatically viewed as aggressive. It's just not. Neither is "Time to get off the computer." Neither is "Got it." Or "OK." or "Sure." I understand that texting conventions have evolved such that end punctuation isn't viewed as necessary, but when did we start assigning negative intentions to very basic punctuation? A period should not be read as anything more than a matter-of-fact, neutral-toned statement, since we have other tools for conveying tone in writing—capital letters, italics, bold, exclamation points. I mean, if I wanted to be aggressive, I'd text, "HEY—it's time to GET OFF the COMPUTER!" We also have a slew of emojis to convey tone. A period is and has always been neutral. That's literally the entire point of a period.

I'm even willing to give Gen Z an inch on the thumbs-up emoji—they think that's aggressive, too—only because emojis are new and their meanings are up for interpretation. But a period? Not budging. That little dot has been signaling the end of people's thoughts for centuries. Periods can and do sometimes affect tone in subtle ways—"No, I didn't," hits slightly differently than "No. I didn't."—but their basic inclusion at the end of a thought in no way signals aggression or anger, by text or otherwise. Not on Gen X's watch, at least. This is one generational hill I am willing to die on.

mic drop, making a point This Gen Xer will not be swayed. Giphy Parks And Recreation Mic Drop GIF

These unwritten rules of texting seem to have been concocted by Gen Z, but when? And how? Who decides these things? Is there a group of super powerful and influential young adults who put out a bat signal at some point saying that periods are symbols of aggression? If the young folks want to play the reading-into-basic-punctuation game amongst themselves, making communication much more complicated for themselves, have at it. But please don't ascribe intent to us old fogies who've had "declarative statements end in periods" ingrained in us since elementary school.

Texting wasn't always like this. When texting first became a thing, using periods in them was pretty normal. As more and more people started dropping them (and capitalization—another deep English teacher wound), I held firm to their usage, mostly out of habit and feeling like my texts were incomplete without them. As my kids got old enough to text and informed me that periods are viewed by their age group as aggressive, I reconsidered. Should I stop using them, giving in to the tyranny of Gen Z's overthinking? Should I keep using them, embracing the fact that I'm old and set in my ways?

texting, text punctuation, aggressive punctuation, periods in texts Periods are just periods.Photo credit: Canva

Ultimately, I landed on sometimes using periods in texts and sometimes not—a compromise between my own rigid grammar rules and Gen Z's seemingly senseless texting rules. Except only using periods sometimes just confuses my kids even more, which is hilarious. Is Mom mad? Is she not? My daughter said she just has to remind herself who is texting, knowing that I—and most of my generation—simply don't use periods aggressively.

Seriously, it's not happening. Not now. Not ever. Period.

This article originally appeared in February. It has been updated.

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Therapist praised for his empathetic assessment on why Gen-Z seems so apathetic

Perhaps the Gen Z stare deserves a lot more compassion than we're giving it.

@austincalo/TikTok

Therapist Austin Calo offers an empathetic take of the generation known for it's vacant stare.

We’ve all heard jokes about the “Gen Z stare,” and perhaps have even made a few jabs ourselves. But after hearing Texas-based therapist Austin Calo’s nuanced, empathetic take on why this generation often seems so apathetic, we might be moved to hold off on the wisecracks.

Calo, who regularly posts therapy content on his TikTok, recently went viral for sharing his observations about his Gen Z clients. The first thing he discussed was the collective “external locus of control.”

Calo explained this as a mindset of thinking “something is happening to you rather than you impacting it." He mainly attributed this to Gen Z entering adulthood during a global pandemic, which was obviously so disruptive and debilitating that many of us, Gen z or not, began to develop a nihilistic point of view.

@austincalo Empathizing with gen z #genz #mentalhealth #therapy ♬ original sound - austincalo

“Naturally, you would detach from the result and view yourself as relatively powerless,” he said.

Next, he brought up social media. Which, yes, we’ve talked at length about the negative impact social media’s mainstream presence has had on young adults especially, but Calo nonetheless offered some different insight.

He noted that the Internet, an omnipresent “faceless” place where one can easily be publicly humiliated, has not only exacerbated a “fear of being cringe,” but "shattered" a sense of real community. However, since we are still naturally hardwired to seek community, we do it digitally.

This is why Calo has seen so many Gen Zers “hyper-pathologizing” mental illness or clinging to a sexual identity online, because at least being “boxed” into a group provides some sense of belonging, however artificial. This of course adds unnecessary pressure to immediately carve out a brand of sorts rather than simply exist and explore.

@justpeers logging off (metaphorically I’m always logged in so more like “closing the app”) for the day #genz ♬ original sound - joan


“There's not a sense of openness to figure something out or that it'll come in time or later, there's this pressure to identify with something right now."

And yet, the possibly positive consequence of being chronically online, Calo noted, is that Gen Zers generally have higher media literacy. “They know what you're trying to do, they know you're trying to manipulate them, so there's a sense of, um, kind of collective resistance to, like, pandering, you know?"

Still, this higher media literacy doesn't necessarily protect Gen Z from being manipulated or marketed to, Calo argues. In fact, he says the odds are even higher of it happening, because being exposed to a catered ‘For You' page “wears you down over the course of time.”

@_thecurlycounselor #greenscreen gen-z characteristics explained in 60 sec 🤝 #genz #genzhumor #genzlife #genzvsmillenial #genzforchange #genztherapy #genzmentalhealth ♬ original sound - Miami Z | Therapist 🛋️

In essence, Gen Z’s detachment is mostly a trauma response, “[Be]cause it feels like something's asked of them all the time,” according to Calo.

Calo concluded, “I see these takes online of trashing Gen Z or, like, the Gen Z staring stuff. This is to help understand and empathize with a generation that feels totally powerless in the face of a polarizing political climate and being marketed to and politicized on social media, meaning being manipulated on social media through politics...and so I think it's helpful to have a sense of empathy rather than 'Oh, these kids...'"

Calo’s video, which garnered 2.7 millions views, clearly struck a chord with Gen Zers, who flooded the comments with thank you’s and shared how other factors, like climate change, politics, and the economy have impacted their mindset.

“Gen Z and I definitely feel like I don’t actually ‘exist’ in the world. I often feel like I’m observing life and not actively participating in it…I don’t really have any expectations for my future and have adopted a mentality of whatever happens, happens.”

“Also the environment! We grew up being told that we wouldn’t see our children grow up unless people made changes and then we had to watch those things just…not happen.”

“We are pretty powerless: failing economy, dying plenty, no no hope.”

“So many of us try to make a career like we were told but unless you were born with money it seems like a losing game. I have a degree and I don’t feel further along than I did four years ago.”

“Another thing I think is that a lot of Gen Z has found out about the human condition and how utterly disappointing life can be through political agendas and manipulation through media.”

And yet, Calo upholds his belief that, despite these warranted coping mechanisms, Gen Zers are "incredibly resilient and courageous.” They just have trouble seeing that strength within themselves. For that, Calo has a bit of advice, which he shared with Buzzfeed.

"Boldly challenge the voices in your head and incessantly trace them until you’ve found the source. All ideas have an origin,” he said. “We wear others’ ideas all the time…You might find your actual voice is far more encouraging, hopeful, self-assuring, and kind than you may believe."

He added, "Think of who has positively impacted your life and treat yourself the way they’ve treated you. You might find that you are worth that love and adoration after all."

Additionally, Calo told Upworthy that while he sees Gen Z nihilism as a perfectly valid form of self preservation, he encourages them to reframe how they see hope, so that it feels like a potential trap for pain.

"Hope does not cause tragedy, nor does it foresee an outcome. Its purpose is to make our present more tolerable. Many believe that when we hope and subsequently fail, we ought to feel humiliated and ashamed of ourselves for believing a positive result was possible. However, that outcome was in the cards whether we felt hopeful or not. Hope just made the experience better than it would have been otherwise. Hope doesn’t yield deeper failure; it mitigates it."

Lastly, though Calo recognizes economic security as necessary to contentment (making it disheartening that it's out of reach for so many) community is just as valuable, and far more "controllable." So, when in doubt— "create community. You won’t regret it."

Honestly, that sounds likes pretty good advice, no matter what age you are.

Keep up with Calo (including updates on his music!) on TikTok

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For Gen Z, the Oasis reunion tour is creating a rare emotional bond with older generations

How the Gallagher brothers became an unlikely symbol of hope and joy.

Courtesy Big Brother Recordings

Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher wrap the U.S. leg of their reunion tour with two concerts at the Rose Bowl.

Something happened while Oasis was broken up. In the 16 years since the British rock icons famously imploded during a backstage fight in Paris, their fanbase quietly grew — or, in this case, grew up. At the Oasis Live ‘25 reunion tour, which has sold out stadiums in both the United Kingdom and North America, the crowd has been a surprising mix of equally enthusiastic older and younger fans.

Jack Dione, 24, was eight years old when Oasis broke up in 2009. “I was just a little kid, but I listened to them all the time,” he told Upworthy. “I was not going to miss seeing them when they came to the Rose Bowl, to L.A.”

“They’re like our Beatles,” added a teary-eyed Emma Mackenzie, who was 13 when the Gallagher brothers called it quits. “For us, this is like the Beatles getting back together.”

Oasis, fans, Gen Z, Millennial, Rose Bowl, Los Angeles, Pasadena Best friends Emma Mackenzie and Alena Brophy share an emotional moment during Oasis concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.Photo by Denise Quan

Ironically, Noel Gallagher was soundly lambasted for daring to proclaim that his band was “bigger than the Beatles” in 1996, following the worldwide success of Oasis’ first two albums, Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory. Nearly three decades later, their Manchester-bred brashness and unapologetic swagger is still polarizing.

“Liam thinks he’s a gift from God. They are cocky sons of bitches, and I love that about them,” says Tim Plumley, a music industry executive who has not worked with Oasis, but has worked with members of the Beatles — who were also known for complicated interpersonal dynamics.

When tickets for Oasis Live ‘25 went on sale last year, Las Vegas oddsmakers gave the Gallagher brothers a 4/1 chance of making it through the end of their scheduled dates. Fans were more than willing to take the gamble. The North American leg of their tour reportedly sold out in less than one hour.

Oasismania exploded on social media and spilled onto the streets, with branded bucket hats, T-shirts and soccer jerseys spotted with increasing frequency on people from 17 to 70. Oasis pop-up shops appeared overnight in select cities. The Hollywood location alone drew 600 customers per day, according to a security guard. Among the merch offerings: Oasis baby onesies, replicas of Liam’s signature parka, and a retro Adidas tracksuit that hits a sweet spot between “then” and “now,” just like the band has managed to do. Liam was even spotted on an L.A. hiking trail wearing shorts and posing with fans — one of whom was clad, of course, in Oasis gear.

When all is said and done, the Live ‘25 tour is expected to bring in upwards of $1 billion in revenue at the completion of its 41 dates — more, if the reunion is extended.

“In terms of marketing, it was a blow-out,” says Plumley. “There’s a whole generation that never got to see them, and they’ve achieved this mythical-like status, so it’s a much bigger audience than they could ever play previously.”

Todd Nakamine, a fan since the ‘90s, traveled to London to see a pair of reunion shows (one on his birthday) before seeing them two more times in his L.A. hometown. He believes Oasis was the right band, at the right moment, to engineer a comeback for guitar-driven music. “Everybody’s been saying rock and roll has kind of died, and we need a rock and roll band, and we need rock stars. And they are rock stars,” he told Upworthy. “For our age, it’s very nostalgic.”

Melissa Dragich was one of the band’s publicists at Epic Records from 1996-2002. She attended one of the L.A. shows at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena with her 19-year-old son, Jack Cordero. Conditions couldn’t have been more perfect. The stage was illuminated by a brilliant full moon, and the night was balmy. At least a dozen friends were dotted around the stadium. “It brings us back to that happy time, when we were all in our 20s and just starting our lives,” Dragich says. “I played Oasis for my kids because I worked with them, but they’re also a band I really enjoy. And once my son knew he was going, he immersed himself in the albums, and he fell in love with them.”

“I think it was the best concert I’ve been to,” says Cordero. “Even better than Green Day.”

Oasis, family, tour, Rose Bowl, Los Angeles, son, daughter 'Oasis Live '25' is a family affair for Jack Cordero, Melissa Dragich, Jamie Jones and Joie Jones.Courtesy Melissa Dragich

One young girl named Sam sobbed her way through the show in the front row. Noel dedicated “Don’t Look Back in Anger” to her, which made her sob even more.

A number of celebrities attended the concerts in L.A., including Leonardo DiCaprio, Kristen Stewart, Sofia Vergara, Noah Cyrus, Mark Zuckerberg and Paul McCartney — the latter caught shooting video on his phone in the audience, and responding “Fabulous!” when paparazzi asked him about the show as he left the venue.

122K views · 5.7K reactions | Paul McCartney filming Oasis. The biggest bands you can think of are Oasis fans. 🇺🇸#oasis #liamgallagher #noelgallagher #oasislive25 #oasislive | Realty Rocker www.facebook.com

It’s been a cruel summer in Los Angeles, with the city on edge due to ICE raids, protests, and the rising cost of life in an urban area. The Rose Bowl itself lies a scant mile from the Altadena neighborhood where 7,500 structures burned to the ground and 19 people lost their lives in January’s Eaton fire.

But for two glorious nights at the Rose Bowl, people put aside their worries and their differences, and joined in a multi-generational sing-along led by two brothers who finally learned how to get along — and, as a bonus, were endorsed by a Beatle.

Yes, it was about nostalgia.

“Oasis brings us back to how we felt in the ‘90s, which was so different from how the world is now,” says Dragich.

For Cordero, it was also about the joy of community and shared experience, even if — or especially if — you’re a teenager who attended the Oasis concert with your mom.

“It’s probably best summed up by one of the songs they performed called ‘Some Might Say,’” he concludes. “We need to listen to the lyrics: ‘Some might say we will find a brighter day.’”

Oasis just might be the reunion we never knew we needed — but we’re sure glad it happened.

Even Liam Gallagher seemed moved, telling the crowd in his own irascible way, "I wanna thank you, man...for sticking with us over the years. We must be be a f****** nightmare to support and follow, and we appreciate it, gettin' to play these beautiful stadiums in front of all you beautiful people. Champagne Supernova. Look after yourselves. Take care."

And with that, they were on their way to their next destination, Mexico City, for their final tour stop. Or is it? Maybe they, like us, don't want the feeling to end.

Oasis, concert, tour, generations, Los Angeles, Rose Bowl, fireworks Oasis caps a triumphant U.S. reunion tour with fireworks at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CACourtesy Big Brother Recordings

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