The 19th century brought people the industrial revolution and a new way of life. The railways, for example, completely transformed travel and those born towards the end of the Napoleonic wars (in another kind of baby boom) grew up to be much more reform-minded.
But these changes were much harder for the older generation. However, they just kept coming.
There's an obvious parallel with today: technology is reshaping the world, forcing us to constantly keep up, adapt, and leave the past for the history books.
Interested in the gaps formed by the latest developments, Redditor u/Bagolyvagymi asked this question: "What's something that newer generations will never understand?" And users flooded the post with answers. As of this article, it has 4.9K comments. Here are some of the most upvoted ones.
#21
Checking the pay phone change return for any forgotten coins.
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159points
#24
Having to properly time getting a drink and snack before the ad break on TV finished. I still sweat thinking about it.
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141points
#25
Maybe not universal. But how to entertain yourself with your mind and nothing else.
I've noticed something about my friends/people i know in parenting culture where it's now a crime for a child to be bored. When I was a kid my parents laughed and told me to go away when I said I was bored.
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141points
#28
missing an episode of a show meant MISSING IT FOREVER. There's still an episode of "Battlestar Galactica" I never saw. I could go back and watch it now, but 10 year old me hurt like a gunshot wound for a long time after missing that thing.
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125points
#29
Getting lost in your car and just having to figure it out
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125points
#30
The difficulty of not being able to instantly find the answer to questions.
121points
#31
"Insert Disk #3 and press Return to continue..."
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116points
#33
'Let’s all meet back here at 6:00.' *Looks at watch.* 'I’ve got 4:35. What time do you have?'
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115points
#34
Having to say BRB to all your friends on MSN because your mom wanted to make a call, and then having to disconnect from the internet and dial back up when she was done.
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108points
#35
The glory of playing and enjoying snake on a brick phone.
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103points
#36
Having to wait until Monday at school to tell your friends about the crazy s**t that went down at the party over the weekend. I used to love that. There was nothing like saying “bro, guess what happened”!? Now everyone just instantly sees in it happening in real time on social media.
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100points
#38
Not being able to binge a show unless you literally recorded a bunch of episodes from TV onto a bunch of VHS tapes.
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88points
#39
Texting without looking at your phone because -> abc def ghi jkl mno pqrs tuv wxyz
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86points
#40
Making plans to meet friends and having to commit because you didn't have mobile phones to ask where they were, how far, and if they were still coming.
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82points
