Life is what happens when you are making other plans~ John Lennon
An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind~Gandhi
The time is always right to do what is right~ Martin Luther King Jr.


Thursday, July 20, 2023

Memes that make Gen Y feel old pt. I

I'm in my 30s and already I feel old when I look at the youth of today. I honestly can't relate to the younger people of today or even people my own age. Here are some hilarious memes that put a little comedy in to not being able to relate to the youth of today

By the way, I might end up putting something on the ones I can relate to.

1. Feeling like a Grinch...

-Everyone knows the story of How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. Like the song says, he has all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile. As we age and get older, some people's view of Christmas tends to change...








2. Low tech classroom

-Back in the day, most kids knew what was going on when they seen the TV on a cart. Movie time!! Or when they saw the overhead projector, time to take notes! Kids nowadays are getting Chromebooks and laptops to use in class to do their school work. They have it made while kids from back then, in the 1990s and older, not so much.

-Oh, do I remember these. I was born and raised in the 1990s and definitely remember getting excited at the first one and annoyed by the second one.

3. What Zoom meetings remind me of...

-Zoom meetings have become every day nature since the outbreak of COVID-19. Even now, people are still working at home either on a full time basis or a hybrid basis, where they work in the office and at home. If you're old enough to remember a variety show with The Muppets, this will remind you of what Zoom meetings are like, only more fun with The Muppets. And there will probably be those one or two people who heckle everyone like Statler and Waldorf

-This is definitely before my time, at least The Muppets part. If I do meetings at work, I have to use Microsoft Teams and, now that I think about it, this picture looks all too much like what it looks like when we have multiple offices on the meeting too...It's going to be hard not to bust out laughing the next time I have a Teams meeting; this will be the first thing I think of

4. Modern music

-Nowadays, you can stream music straight to your phone and access online radio stations through companies like Sirius XM, Spotify and more. You can even listen through wireless earbuds that give you a slight Star Trek look. You can even use these earbuds to perform conversations with others. Stereos have changed radically in years past.

-Kids today don't know what a record or CD is. They don't know the heartbreak of putting a tape in a boombox radio and pulling it out along with the tape and basically surrendering to the fact the tape is no longer playable. You don't even have to put a CD into a CD player in a car, a personal CD player or a stereo to hear music. You can just access the internet to hear music

5. Finding that birth date...

-Anytime you have to fill out an online form asking for your birthdate, if you're any older than the last 5 years, you have to scroll down to find your year.

-Yup, that's me. I have to scroll down to find "1990".

6. Beat the clock

-In the days before Netflix and the ability to pause live TV, you had to play Beat the Clock. This means in the first few seconds of a commercial, getting whatever you needed and hightailing your back end back into the living room before the show returned. You basically become an Olympic sprinter or pole vaulter to get in the room in record time. Nowadays, with streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Roku and Amazon Prime, which all allow you to watch TV episodes, and DVRs, which allow you to record TV episodes on TV, you can pause it at commercials.

-Guilty on this one. I've missed a few minutes of TV show episodes thinking I could win Beat the Clock at either getting something to eat / drink or using a bathroom during a commercial. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. But, the episodes I miss will be on in re-run later on. So I still luck out.

7. Prepared to write

-Nowadays, kids want the latest iPhone. Good luck, since it costs close to $1000 and any parent in their right mind would NOT shell out that kind of $$$ for an expensive phone for a kid. Nowadays, kids want everything from their parents, at least until they're old enough that their parents tell them to get a job and then pay for it. Parents always instill that "if you work hard and buy it yourself, you'll appreciate it better" mantra in all of us kids. And you know, they're right. But it's also important to teach them to value items. If I was a kid now, and asked my mother or stepfather for an iPhone, they'd laugh themselves sick, thinking it was a joke.

-I still want this. And I'm 32!

8. One sure fire piece of evidence of your age

-One thing that usually proves you're 18 is a driver's license. If you have no driver's license yet, a state ID works just the same. Some people also had credit cards or store-related cards to places like Movie Gallery or Blockbuster, which some kids today are clueless about. Both places rented movies and video games and provided all the delicious junk food you needed for a good movie night, including cups and buckets to put popcorn in. Those businesses went out business with the creation of streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Roku and more.

-I've only been carded at the liquor store. I suppose, in some ways, I do look young. But, my driver's license states 1990 as my year of birth. That should tell someone that I'm over 21

9. Best of both worlds

-There always seems to be a war going on between Millennials, Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers. The Gen X crowd is overlooked because they understand the new technology better than Milennials and Baby Boomers. But the Gen X-ers also like complaining about the new technology like generations before

-I'm about 50/50 when it comes to technology. If I play around with it, I can usually figure it out. If I can't, I don't give up; I just stop thinking about it for a while and then I have an epiphany about it and then it works.

10. Old fashioned fun never goes out of style

-Today, all toys seem to have some sort of technology in it. Sadly, when I grew up in the 1990s, the big toy to have was LeapFrog, which was an educational toy. My parents never bought it because it was quite expensive, we never asked for it and they both worked at banks which, ironically, they didn't make much on salary. Nowadays, all kids play with toys that have a high percentage of technology. They don't use their imagination and find old toys without technology boring.

-I still enjoy the older toys. I love the little handheld games like 20 Questions. I love trying to see if it can read my mind. There are days when I miss my old Gameboy Advanced, where I could hook in Yoshi's Island, Galaxian / Galaga and more. Now, there's the Nintendo Switch, which is just a modernized Gameboy only with the arrow buttons and X, O, △, 𞸀

11. Dial Up / Low Speed Internet

-One commonly heard phrase throughout many homes in the past was "Get off the internet! I'm trying to use the phone!" That was a common phrase in my house when I was growing up. Internet back then was not as advanced as today. There was dial up internet, where you could hear the various noises of it trying to boot up on the phone and there was low speed internet because it was affordable and a lot couldn't afford high speed internet. Once upon a time, it could take hours to download images or music.

-While I've never downloaded music back then, I can understand the frustration of waiting for a song to download. There was a Windows computer program I forget the name of where it took quite a bit of time to download music

12. Retro computer games

-Back then, almost every computer came already pre-loaded with your basic computer games, such as Minesweeper, Solitaire, 3-D Space Pinball and Paint under Accessories. Kids could spend many hours playing these games.

-I never played Minesweeper much because I always lost. Me and my sister, however, could while away hours playing on Nickelodeon.com, where there was the SpongeBob Feeding Frenzy, where you had to feed hungry anchovies and the SpongeBob Boating Test, where you had to navigate obstacles to get SpongeBob his boating license. But I grew up with this starter pack

13. Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animals

-This is a line from a movie commonly shown in Home Alone. It's almost tradition for every kid in the 1990s to watch Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York around the Christmas holidays. Every kid probably created their own battle plan should robbers decide to make a move at your house. Everyone was amazed at how this little eight year old boy could outsmart two adult thieves.

-Almost every year around the holidays since I was a kid, I watched Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Also, me and my family also watched The Muppets A Christmas Carol and the Christmas episode of Mr. Bean, where he goes to Harrods and starts messing around with the nativity scene. Me and my sister last all of two seconds when putting up the nativity scene in our house before one of us starts recreating that episode. Our mom can't yell at us for it because she's too busy laughing.

14. You are about to be educated

-Being young and trying to explain older technology to those who were around to actually use it is really asking for an education to be handed to you from an adult. That adult is probably fighting the urge to tell you their mind. Isn't it funny how things from back then are making a comeback in a slightly different way. Bellbottoms are now called flare jeans. Peddle pushers are now called capris. Toys, gadgets, hairstyles and more are coming to popularity.

-I've had to show people how to use digital cameras when getting a photo with someone because all they know how to do is use their phone's camera. And these people I'm showing are older than me and don't know how to use a simple digital camera?!?!? [mind blown]

15. The classic computer speakers

-Back then, most if not all computers came with a set of off-white speakers. To turn them on, you had to turn the volume dial to the right. And you had to insert the headphones into the correct hole on the speakers. And for them to work, they had to be hooked into the back of your computer.

-In fact, the home computer I have still has one. It's the only way to hear music on the internet if I want to hear how a song sounds or watch an episode of TV on YouTube.

16. What year is it?

-Sometimes we all have little moments when our brain refuses to work. Time marches on, but your brain continues not getting the memo.

-My brain pretty much refuses to work properly for the first half of each day. I chalk that up to trying to wake up. And if I'm particularly busy at work, trying to do too many things at once, my brain turns to mush.

17. TVs have changed

-Back in the day, TVs didn't have remote controls. Oh wait, yes they did. They was called kids. You had kids flip through stations by turning a dial on the TV. They came in big, medium and small. Older TVs were also heavier and if, God forbid, you dropped it, it broke. They also had their quirks that people managed to work around.

-While I didn't have to put it on any specific channel growing up to play video games, another TV I played games on you DID have to put it on channel 3. Although the TV me and my sister used in later years had it listed as "Input 3".

18. That's all, folks

-Anyone who grew up watching the old Looney Tunes cartoons know this is the phrase uttered by the stuttering pig Porky Pig. He would often say this in the last few seconds after the famous tune played in the end credits. The best time to watch TV was Saturday morning. Every kid with a TV would be found parked on the floor in front of the TV with their bowl of cereal, waiting for the good cartoons to come on.

-I still watch the old Looney Tunes when they are on. I don't like the modernized version of Looney Tunes. Just not the same. I will admit I never watched the Wonderful World of Disney because, depending on what time it came on, as a kid me and my sister had to be in bed at 8:30 until we got older and then it was 9:00

19. My age is starting to show...

-Some days, we all feel old. Whether it's a new ache or pain or it's something from our past that is coming up, who knows. The 1990s were a great time for educational TV for kids. Thomas the Tank Engine, where years later, people found out it was Ringo Starr, the drummer from The Beatles, who did the narration. Or Teletubbies, where the sun had a baby's face in it.

-I looked at a newspaper that my mom and dad kept from the week I was born. I looked at it and suddenly I feel old. It mentioned George Harrison and immediately I felt old because he died when I was 11.

20. Another century gone

-It's shocking to realize that kids born in the early 2000s are now adults. While those born in the 1990s and earlier are older. The person who wrote this Tweet suddenly felt older

-I still get ID'ed when I buy liquor. That's why, no matter where I buy liquor, automatic habit has me pulling out my driver's license to prove I'm 21

21. Anyone know physics?

-It's a well known fact that buying a property now is much harder than it was back in the older days, like when our parents bought property. Back then, parents could afford a two story home or a split-level home with a pool out back and garden surrounding it on a single salary while the other person stayed at home to take care of the kids. Now, you can barely survive on a multi person salary. Property is far more expensive. The nice houses and apartments cost two arms, two legs, pretty much your whole body while the more affordable places are in the worst parts of cities, places where you feel like a gang war is going to break out any moment, there's going to be a shooting any moment or just a generally unsafe feeling, like you could robbed any moment.

-I would love to be able to find my own place. But, unfortunately, when I was in school, the Home Economics class didn't teach kids on how to find / apply for a mortgage or rental agreement, how to balance a checkbook, how to do basic but highly essential skills for life. They probably figured it was the responsibility of the parents to do that. All the home ec class taught was keep your legs together to avoid getting pregnant and what to do should you find yourself pregnant. To this day, I still don't know how to apply for a mortgage / rental agreement, I had to learn to cook at home since home ec barely taught it; I was always stuck doing dishes while the other students learned.

22. Hungry?

-Some baby boomers seem to think the millennials don't want the same level of comfort and security as them. If these millennials were raised by baby boomers, then these new generations are going to learn the values from their parents in treating everything as respectfully as possible. Back then, things cost less. A one person salary could get you a lot of food at the grocery. Nowadays, depending on how many groceries you buy, especially for one person, the cost can soar close to $100.

-I get paid okay, but I find myself baffled when I go to the store and spend almost $100+ on groceries. This is both food for lunch at work and other items I need, such as cleaning supplies, vitamins, etc. It's all down to inflation. Prices are going up while salaries are not. Salaries are going up just a small amount while inflation is making things more expensive

23. Heavy TVs

-Back in the day, TVs were ridiculously big and heavy. You practically had to be a weightlifter to move them. Now they are so thin they are like looking at a piece of paper from the side and practically feather light. But that doesn't mean you want to knock them over. They are still slightly expensive, but compared to back then, far cheaper. Prices for TVs have gone down in years past. And there are still those heavy TVs

-That kind of looks like the TV I had growing up. The one I had was heavy, with a large frame that you had to sit in front of it it a certain way to get a clear image because it had a curved screen. If you sat on the sides, the image was distorted

24. It can't get any better than this

-Video games have come a long way since the 1970s. When you see advertisements for games now, you have to do a double check to make sure it's for a video game because the graphics are so real you think you're looking at real people. It's mind blowing. Even in the 1990s, when video games were still popular, the graphics, compared to today, seem primitive, but were still good for the time period. The kids who grew up in the 1990s thought they had it made with the simplicity of video games and lack of technology. Kids today only know things like AirPods, TikTok, Instagram and doing EVERYTHING on their smart phones at age 10 or up.

-Even though I'm a 1990s kid through and through, and I've played games from the early 2000s and more, this is still pretty impressive for 90s-era technology. The graphics remind me a little of the Die Hard game, where you could choose which film you wanted to do missions in.

25. You know you're getting old when...

-Every now and then, we see or do something that reminds us of our age. Even though things are waterproof now, we still panic when liquids get anywhere near electronics. We still listen to CD players or MP3 players or streaming on to our phones.

-I still listen to my MP3 player and CDs. I don't do streaming to my phone because I refuse to be one of those phone zombies who do EVERYTHING on their phone. Anymore, people are so glued to their phone that they cause wrecks when driving, they run into you without looking and give you dirty looks as if YOU are the one who ran into them. It's because of so many people being on their phone while driving that there is a new state law here in Ohio in effect that if you are caught by the police being on your phone and driving, the first time you get a ticket and the next time jail time. It's all in the name of protecting drivers because innocent drivers have been killed by the recklessness / carelessness of people shopping on their phone, watching Netflix or other streaming services or texting, all while driving

26. Our heritage, our culture

-For some reason unknown to most of us, but known to some, Gen Z kids think they invented cool things. Trends start somewhere, and they most definitely didn't start with new kids. Old trends come back as something different. Bellbottoms are now flare jeans. Peddle pushers are now capris.

-I used to have my hair cut in such a way that I had bangs. But, I grew out of it as it looked like something a child would do. I simply started having my hair cut and styled in such a way that I have my hair parted on both sides of my face. Not much to style, but it works for me because it's simple and I can ponytail it in a flash

27. Things have changed...

-We all know things have changed since then. Everything has gone up in price due to inflation. Fashion trends have changed. Movie stars went from dressing in beautifully designed dresses and nicely cut suits to looking like something out of a sci-fi movie and calling that "high fashion". Movies have way more gore and sex in them, etc. Things have radically changed, some say for the better, some say for the worse

-I've only been to Chuck E. Cheese once when I was a kid. I didn't understand the concept of it costing a lot of $$$ from my parents to go there. Me and my sister were kids. We didn't understand that fun costs money. When we both started working and earning our own money, it dawned on us why our mom and stepdad didn't want to spend too much. I'm thankful me and my sister didn't ask for too much then at Chuck E. Cheese

28. Who you calling a Boomer?

-There is supposed to be a fine line between Baby Boomer and Millennial. But that line keeps getting blurred with each year that passes. But the new generations are taking over technology and making technology the fore front of everything, including toys. Toys now have technology included, turning these new kids into brainless tech zombies before the age of 10

-There are some days when I really want to tell these new teenagers how things rolled when I was growing up. I'm a 1990s kid; I didn't have all the technology that kids have today. I didn't throw a tantrum if I didn't get the latest iPhone or AirPods. In fact, I didn't know there was such a thing as iPhones in the 1990s. I thought I had the height of technology when I had a small portable radio that could play cassettes. Nowadays, most kids will never know who this character in the picture is. I know it's Samwise Gamgee because I've seen the Lord of the Rings films. Most kids now think stuff like that, Harry Potter, Dungeons & Dragons, etc., is all nerdy, that only losers like that stuff. Well, hate to break it to these new teens, but there's a whole lot more of us millennials, baby boomers and generations before that than there ever will be of you!!

29. Want to elaborate?

-With Gen Z and millennials, both think they're right. While there are perks to both generations, the humor from one generation is far different than the humor of other generations

-I can't say that I belong to any of the humor mentioned here. In terms of actual humor, give me The Carol Burnett Show, WKRP in Cincinnati anyday. Those TV shows are hilarious. I like that kind of silly humor. Also included there in silly humor is Monty Python and The Holy Grail. The kids nowadays think the most offensive stuff is funny; they think things like The Hangover, which is about a bunch of overly drunk guys, is funny or Pineapple Express, about drug use, is funny.

30. Boomer bosses

-Speaking with your boss has its challenges. First and foremost, you don't want to get written up or worse, fired. It can be overwhelming and sometimes intimidating speaking with management because you feel like you did something wrong, even though you wrack your brain trying to remember what you did.

-I've had management tell me things like "Cheer up" after bad news. A great example. Around 2015, I was working for US Bank. I worked in their tower in downtown Cincinnati. Upper management from the head offices in Minneapolis had been in town. Me and my coworkers all had our guard up; something fishy was on the horizon. Sure enough, we all had to be taken into a meeting, 1 or 2 at a time, to find out that they were shutting down the Cincinnati office. In other words, we were getting laid off. I had never been in that situation before, so naturally, I broke down. Of course, upper management said, with a smile, "Cheer up, you'll find something".

-And of course, HR was there to tell us about some sort of bridge payment thing that would cover you with pay until you find something and that if you found another position within the company in six months, you'd retain your seniority. Of course, on everyone's last day, she took people out to lunch and when it came time for me to leave (she told me on a Wednesday and my last day was that Friday of the same week), she took me to a restaurant across the street. I ordered food, but didn't feel like eating. When it came time to go back. I had not thought to bring bags to put my possessions in. As soon as she left me in the lobby of the tower, I walked to Dunkin' Donuts, got my coffee and threw away my food because I was afraid if I ate more, I'd be sick to my stomach. So I had to manage a fully loaded work bag and multiple bags of possessions including my DD coffee on the bus. Thankfully, I did find something three weeks later in US Bank, only to work there six months and find out the department was closing

31. Save me

-Almost every program on the computer represents the action Save by a floppy disc. It looks like a small vending machine with a drink at the bottom. Now if you look at it and think about this, you can never unsee it. You'll think of this every time. When computer designers designed their programs, they took real life features and make the icons for actions in programs based on those.

-Now I'm going to have to investigate this. I have MS Excel on my computer at work. Now I'll never unsee this. It's going to blow my mind

32. The American Dream

-It sounds almost like a fairy tale. "Once upon a time, there was a time when you could buy a lot of things for a little money...". But, in a lot of ways, it's true. Back in the older days, you could afford to work an average pay job, feed a family of four and retire comfortably on the salary you earned. And nowadays, unless you're a doctor, lawyer or in some other high paying career, the American Dream is not possible anymore.

-My "American Dream" is nothing more than paying off my car. I know I can do that. It just takes time. I don't dream of being a millionaire, and even if I did have tons of $$$, I'd invest it or take a little of it and do something with it. I would take my sister and me to Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida so she can have her face-to-beak encounter with flamingos. This experience allows you to feed flamingos and get up close with them.

33. Sorry!

-Some baby boomers blame millennials for everything. It also seems baby boomers are the actual ones to blame for a lot of things

-I still shop at department stores and I'm a 1990s kid. I just can't afford a lot of the stuff there unless it's on sale. Yeah, I know. I probably sound like an older person. But, in today's day age, money don't grow on trees. You have to save where you can. And if sales are the best way of getting good clothing, especially for work, you bet I'm saving some $$$ by buying on sale. The only department stores I go to are Kohl's and Macy's, and of course, the Clearance racks are where about 80% of my work clothing comes from.

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