6 Nostalgic Things Kids Today Will Never Experience Because Of Technology

by N/A, 8 years ago | 1 min read

Some of life's most satisfying simple pleasures can't be experienced on a screen.

nerd Kids nostalgia growing up throwback

Remember being a kid and having to recharge your batteries after a long day playing outside?

Only recharging your batteries back then entailed coming inside and eating some Totino's pizza rolls and Hi-C at Jack's house. Today, recharging your batteries as a kid quite literally means recharging the batteries on your iPhone, iPad, Hoverboard, or any other technological device that removes kids from the pure simplistic joys of youth.

While we admit that technology does make a lot of things in our lives easier, it also takes away from some of those genuine, organic happy times we never would've experienced had it been part of our younger years. The differences between today's youth and yesterday's are stark and sad, but those of us a bit older and wiser know that kids today are missing out on some of the best times of their childhood because of technology

Then: Passing notes in class.

Now: Texting.

I still pick up a box full of notes from my best friends when I'm feeling nostalgic. These notes contain scrawling handwriting with hearts, doodles, and code names for boys we liked. They're genuine pieces of my past that embody the special aspects of friendship in the form of a hand-written note.

Today, kids are replacing emotions with emojis. They're typing away in the most generic form of communication rather than spending time and creating something personal for someone else. Glittery pen to paper is not the same as thumb to digital keyboard, and the magic of creativity is lost in the folds of an iMessage.

Now: Hoverboarding.

Then: Bike riding.

How do you spot the laziest kid on the block? They're the ones gliding along on their battery-powered hoverboards, of course.

Getting around used to mean getting on a bike and working towards getting those training wheels off so you could roll with the big kids.

Then: Mixed CD's.

Now: Spotify Playlists.

There's something special about a friend making a bomb burned CD and slipping it into your locker before third period so you could sneak out of school at lunch and blast it in your Chevy Tracker. Marker-streaked song titles and a cracked jewel case were the perfect medium for the playlist.

Today, Spotify playlists are the new mixtape, forever replacing the burned CD. With the click of a mouse you can send someone a playlist—the digital copy replacing the physical—taking away the sentimentality of holding onto a physical copy of the best pop music 2007 had to offer.

Now: Playing sports with video games.

Then: Playing sports with our bodies.

Today, kids are trying to emulate their favorite sports players from their air-conditioned family rooms, complete with a chunky television set and every gaming system known to man.

Sports used to be all about scraped knees and grass stains, fresh air and exercise. Trying to be the next Lebron meant shooting hoops in the driveways until dark—not choosing him as your player on Nintendo.

Then: Disposable/digital cameras.

Now: iPhone cameras.

The beauty of the disposable camera was the spontaneity of snapping photos without the instant gratification of seeing how they turned out. They could be Ford Model-worthy pictures, or they could be blurry images with strange inexplicable orbs where heads should be. Even the chunky, clunky digital camera was a gamble. You didn't know what those junior high dance photos actually looked like until your mom picked up the hard copies from Walgreens.

Nowadays, all cell phones have built in cameras ready to snap a photo at a moment's notice. Don't like what you see? Don't worry. There's room for 3,000 more selfies, group photos and candid shots on your phone. And if you really don't like what you see, throw a filter on it to make yourself look just unrecognizable enough to look good.

Then: Memory/Scrapbooks.

Now: Instagram galleries.

After you developed your disposable camera film or digital camera pictures, you had to put them somewhere special. Back when scrapbooking wasn't just for moms and memory books weren't digital, photos were kept in physical books and albums that you cringingly look back on every so often.

Now there's perfectly curated Instagram galleries filled with flawless, filtered photos. Dorky haircut? Delete it. Bad outfit choice? Delete it. No longer friends with the person in your picture? Delete it (and unfollow them from Insta, duh). Memories are now hand-picked and tailored to perfection. Let's just hope one day these digital memory albums don't crash and burn if their app of choice goes under so kids today have actual photos to look back at.