Emily Flores
For the younger generation, the everyday routines of Gen X can feel less like normal life and more like artifacts from another timeline. What once seemed ordinary now comes across as quirky or downright unimaginable in today’s digital-first world. Want to see which habits would leave the new generation’s jaws on the floor? Keep reading.
Using Payphones To Connect
Before smartphones, payphones were the lifeline. It was an experience today’s teens would find frustrating because privacy was nowhere to be found and ALL phone numbers had to be memorized. Even your mother’s uncle’s. Compared to instant messaging and digital contact lists, whispering personal conversations in public while juggling spare change feels almost unimaginable.
Making Mixtapes By Recording From The Radio Onto Cassette
While today’s streaming services allow us to play music at our fingertips, Gen X youth once practiced a more deliberate art of music curation. The ritual of mixtape creation involved camping out beside the radio with blank cassettes, exercising precise timing and endless patience to capture cherished songs while skillfully avoiding commercials.
Renting VHS tapes From A Video Store
A trip to the video store was all about timing. New releases disappeared quickly, and rented tapes often returned damaged or unrewound. Courtesy reminders, like “be kind, rewind” became cultural rules at the physical stores that are practically non-existent today. Plus, with limited choices, kids often discovered hidden cinematic gems by chance.
Handling Emergencies Without Internet
Google-ing “what to do if your friend breaks their arm in the backyard,” was not an option back then. Emergencies meant you either knocked on a neighbor’s door—out of breath and mildly panicked—or you relied on whatever half-remembered tip you picked up from a movie or a friend’s older sibling.
Navigating With Paper Maps And Asking For Directions
Navigation once required patience and creativity. The Gen X used massive printed maps sprawled across car seats, refolded into awkward shapes after every stop. If you veered off course, the solution wasn’t a screen but a stranger’s directions that you have to place your trust in.
Waiting For Saturday Morning TV schedules
While today’s kids watch their favorite shows on demand on OTT platforms, Generation X experienced a vastly different reality: the ritual of Saturday morning cartoons required careful planning around TV schedules. Missing a program meant a week-long wait for another chance.
Calling The Cinema For Showtimes
Long before apps made tickets a tap away, the process was clunky but routine: call the theater, jot down times, and line up at the box office. Popular films sold out quickly, making every trip a gamble. Today’s instant booking apps make that ritual seem almost unthinkable.
Relying On Physical Encyclopedias Or Library Visits For Research
The door-to-door encyclopedia salesperson brought bound volumes of knowledge, representing both educational aspiration and social status in Gen X homes. This pre-digital reality shaped an entire research ecosystem, where students walked with physical card catalogs and library aisles until ChatGPT started writing entire thesis in minutes.
Playing Outside Until Streetlights Came On
Streetlights doubled as clocks for an entire generation. Kids played freely until dusk, when that first glow meant it was time to head home. Parents had just one clear rule: be back when the lights came on. It was parenting by community signal, and it worked.
Using Film Cameras And Waiting For Developed Photos
The thrill of snapping photos with a manually-loaded film camera has now given way to days of anxious waiting for Gen X kids. Loading each precious roll meant committing to an unseen outcome, followed by the suspenseful trip to pick up developed prints that turned out to be blurry sometimes.