50 Gen X Who Are Tired Of Modern Life Share What They Miss: "Skinny-Dipping"

UNorganized sports.

Used to be we played wiffle ball, threw nerf footballs, fumble rumble, throwing frisbees, riding a bike or walking to the school grounds after hours or on weekends and finding a bunch of kids playing team ditch, playing “butts up” against a wall or making a dirt bike trail with a jump.

Head to the local YMCA to play shuffleboard, carroms, pool, ping pong…

Everywhere you went kids just playing UNorganized sports.

Now by 8th grade if you’re not competitive in a league you simply don’t play sports or games anymore. Even worse kids now practice and play a single sport all year. See so many kids with serious soft tissue injuries by the time they’re 15 from over training a single event. We used to twist ankles, now they tear rotator cuffs.

I remember we used to have the more talented kids have to play dodge ball on their knees so everyone could have fun. What a crazy idea for the better kids to make it fun for the less capable kids because… sports are supposed to be fun!

Having to be the best at sports has really been a huge change.

I miss 24 hour diners that didn’t serve the same corporate b/s food available everywhere else.

Sears catalog at Christmas time.

Hope.

I miss a time when the internet and smart phones didn't exist. Life was, just, simpler and less stressful.

Cost of living. My family was poor back then, I can't imagine having to factor in internet, phone, subscription services.

Owning things, vs digital copies. Making mix tapes. Affordable movies ($2 Tuesdays, anyone?). Non franchise movies. More independent stores, fewer chains.

Civility, common sense, friendly neighbors.

Television specials that everyone watched at the same time. You'd get all keyed up because some movie or made-for-TV thing would be aired on a certain day at a certain time. Then there was a special intro graphic, maybe even a song, to let you know it was time to gather 'round. Not just stuff like Rudolph or Charlie Brown but also "the network television premiere of ___" or the yearly airing of The Wizard of Oz.

Arcades. Real independent arcades with cabinet video games, pinball, foosball, and pool tables. A place where you could safely hang out with your friends (or by yourself) and keep yourself entertained (and fed with a snack) for $2-4. I miss those places.

Paper maps.

Loves Baby Soft

Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific

Encyclopedias

Phone books

MTV with only music

School House Rock, even though you can still get it I’m sure it could use a lot more episodes

After School Specials

Edit; Adding malls. Big malls with multiple levels, Hot Dog on a Stick in the food court.

Hyperpartisanism makes me crazy. Nobody is accepting of different opinions anymore and are actively attacking others who don’t think like them. It’s so stressful. Where did the middle go?

Roller skating rinks.

I miss no one talking about or giving a f**k about politics.

Anticipation: The instantaneous world of streaming, on-demand media means we rarely have to “wait” for the next show or song etc. My kids have no idea HOW EXCITING Saturday morning cartoons were because that was the ONLY time we could watch them.

Radio programs like King Biscuit Power Hour or the individual DJs, who played a wide variety of music.

The word of mouth for parties. Like, we somehow just knew where to be when we were supposed to be there without cell phones or social media. I feel like we were more responsible because we didn’t have the option of texting someone five minutes before an event and canceling on them.

My dad giving me $5 at the pool hall to buy two beers for him and my godfather, a pack of smokes from the machine and still having change left to play space invaders

Hell, just being allowed to buy two beers at the bar and the tender trusting that I would bring them to my dad and not sue them is a bygone era.

I miss reading the newspaper.

Neighbor kids knocking on the front door to see if I could play. I almost always could, as long as I was home when the street lights came on.

My kids have never had this experience. These days, the norm is for pre-arranged play dates set up by the parents. Spontaneity and independence are so absent from childhood these days. It makes me sad.

I miss being disconnected. Having the world's collected information at my fingertips is nice, but f**k- there is a camera and a recording device and a performing g*****n monkey EVERYWHERE these days. Used to be you could sometimes just go somewhere and be cool. Now everything is on the internet.

Most of all I miss that we all had great hope in the future. Hope that we could make things better for everyone. Before being hit with the reality of just how outnumbered we are and how nobody wanted anything to change.

I miss the library and how you would need to work for knowledge. You would wonder something and it would take time and work to find the answer. I love google but before google I was google. And people respected me for it.