Our childhood never ends. Yes, we get older but the core memories from that time, surrounding everything from the people we hung out with to the places we visited continue to live in our head rent-free, occasionally reminding us about themselves when we least expect them to.
However, not all of them are equally vivid, and some might need a bit more stimuli to come back. And the internet is excellent for this task. There are entire communities where people are actively reminding one another about the good old days. (We’ve already covered some, like the one dedicated to ’80s & ’90s memes.)
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
The Facebook group ‘2000s Y2K Childhood’ is one of them. It currently unites 74,600 members, and whether you grew up during that era too or are just interested in learning more about it, their posts perfectly illustrate it. Here are some of the most popular ones.
More info: Facebook
#1 I Loved Those Pens
Image credits: Lydia Holcomb
#2 Yes
Image credits: Kayla King
Aside from the few fearmongers threatening the end of the world, the dawn of the new millennium felt, at the time, like entering the future.
Humans marveled at how far technology had advanced in the 20th century. Just under half of all American homes had the internet and were able to Ask Jeeves for the location of the nearest RadioShack and create bad AOL screennames.
The mobile phone was becoming less of a brick, and you could even play ‘Snake’ on one.
#3 Grandparent’s Secret Handshake
Image credits: Nostalgia Video
#4 These Speakers
Image credits: Nostalgia Video
#5 Mentally I’m Here
Image credits: Nostalgia Video
There weren’t any social media apps to scroll through immediately after opening your eyes in the morning (and just before closing them at night).
Even Friendster, the often-mocked social network, didn’t exist until 2002, and Facebook wouldn’t appear until two years later.
So how was everyone spending their time?
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
#6 Dream 2000s Bedroom Starter Pack
Image credits: Aleks Agnieszka Wos
#7 New Fresh Play Doh
Image credits: Nostalgia Video
#8 Wow
Image credits: Collin Schoenfelder
#9 I Remember Coming Home From School Every Evening To Watch The Best Lineup
Image credits: Anonymous participant
As Allen Kim and Breeanna Hare pointed out for CNN, they waited patiently for the news.
If you weren’t reading the newspaper or sitting in front of the TV, you could go hours without knowing the latest crazy thing the president said.
In 2000, daily weekday circulation for newspapers in the US was estimated at nearly 56 million.
#10 We Had No Idea
Image credits: Makenzee Jade
#11 Fighting Over The TV
Image credits: Lydia Holcomb
#12 Out Rockin My Jeans From 2004 Today!
Image credits: Mark OM
#13 I Love Shrek Lol
Image credits: Jazmin Sutton
In order to document your life, you had to carry around an extra device: an actual camera; the concept of the cameraphone was still a few years away from becoming mainstream.
And Netflix was just getting started: it could recommend movies, give you three DVDs at a time, and let you keep them for as long as you wanted. “The dream 20 years from now,” CEO Reed Hastings said in 2002, “is to have a global entertainment distribution company that provides a unique channel for film producers and studios.”
#14 The Most Iconic Four-Way Call To Ever Exist, Prove Me Wrong
Image credits: Tracey Earlam Cook
#15 Nobody Knows
Image credits: Bebo Osorio
#16 I Use To Love This Game!
Image credits: Bebo Osorio
#17 Having Cell Phones In 2000s
Image credits: Silvia Marie
But why do we feel nostalgic for these things? Krystine Batcho, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at LeMoyne College and a licensed psychologist, thinks that this emotional experience allows us to get a better understanding of our own selves.
“It helps to unite our sense of who we are, our self, our identity over time,” Batcho said. “Because over time, we change constantly, we change in incredible ways. We’re not anywhere near the same as we were when we were three years old, for example. Nostalgia, by motivating us to remember the past in our own life, helps to unite us to that authentic self and remind us of who we have been and then compare that to who we feel we are today.”
This also gives us a sense of who we want to become in the future.
#18 Good Ol’ Triangle Club. Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Image credits: Nostalgia Video
#19 Petition To Bring This Mcdonalds Back
Image credits: Stephanie Nicole Jones
#20 Damn Not Even The Fast Charger
Image credits: Leon McJunkins
#21 The 2011 Mcdonald’s Happy Meals Were The Real Thing!
Image credits: Rebecca Ayers
“The other way that nostalgia serves an essential psychological function is that it is a highly social emotion. It connects us to other people,” Batcho added. “It does that [in] so many beautiful ways. In the beginning, when we’re very young, it’s part of what bonds us to the most important people in our life, our parents, our siblings, our friends. As we go through life, it can broaden out and extend to a wider sphere of the people we interact with. It’s a social connectedness phenomenon and nostalgia is in that sense a very healthy pro-social emotion.”
And online communities such as ‘2000s Y2K Childhood’ only back up these words.
#22 I Had One Of These I Was Sad When The Marker Dried Out Though
Image credits: Abi Marmolejo
#23 Ooooh Yikes
Image credits: Bailey Lalonde
#24 Yea To Take Her To The Mall To Get Some Food And Leave
Image credits: Nostalgia Video
#25 This Show
Image credits: Jazmin Sutton
#26 2000’s Spongebob TV
Image credits: Lea Elizabeth Ann
#27 Who Remembers These Growing Up In The 2000’s
Image credits: Derek Brown
#28 2000s
Image credits: Tyler Shaw
#29 Miss Those Days
Image credits: Jami Janai
#30 One Fine Day A Woof And A Purr A Baby Was Born And It Caused A Little Stir
Image credits: Raymond Black
#31 Do They Think Kids Don’t Use Paper ?
Image credits: Masøn Vautøur
#32 I Know This Ain’t Who I Think It Is
Image credits: Marlon Bellamy
#33 Bratz Nostalgia
Image credits: •???????•
#34 Miss This Show
Image credits: Jazmin Sutton
#35 Yasss
Image credits: Jazmin Sutton
#36 The Man Who Had A Piercing On His Thing And Got Electrocuted
Image credits: Silvia Marie
#37 Def Nostalgia As An Older Teen But Yes
Image credits: Jami Janai
#38 We Had A Nice Childhood
Image credits: Jazmin Sutton
#39 Halloween In The Early 2000s
Image credits: Jazmin Sutton
#40 If U Had One Of These In The Late 90s And Early 00s U Were A Cool Kid
Image credits: KP Evans
#41 I Miss These So Much!
Image credits: Nachelle Swift
#42 Now This Is What I’m Talking About
Image credits: John Rutkowski
#43 A New Aged Furby. I Had A Fijit Friend And I Was Convinced That It Was Possessed Because It Would Turn On By Itself In The Middle Of The Night
Image credits: Kylie Holderbaugh
#44 If U Don’t Get This Ur Too Young
Image credits: ????? ????????
#45 Kardashians With Myspace In 2006 & 2007
Image credits: Bebo Osorio
Source: boredpanda.com