Yes, we here at BuzzFeed are very guilty about writing about the '90s...A LOT. Heck, I've probably written 50% of the posts we've published about the decade. Now, even though it was a great decade to grow up in, there are also lots of things about it that just sucked (especially in retrospect).
The thread got hundreds of responses from millennials and Gen X'ers who appreciated that some things are much better left in the past. Below are the top and best comments:
1. "Having to choose between the phone or the internet."
2. "Calling a friend’s house and having to speak to their parent or sibling first."
3. "Having to screen phone calls through an answering machine."
4. "Portable CD players that skipped if you looked at it wrong."
5. "The process of buying tickets for pretty much anything, but I'll stick with movies. Remember having to sometimes go earlier in the day to buy tickets at the box office for a movie you will be going to later in that day so they don't sell out! And then still having to arrive to a movie early so that you have a better chance of sitting next to the person or people you came with! I love being able to buy those tickets online now and pick the seats and just walk in and sit down when it's time."
6. "Carrot Top's 1-800-CALL-ATT commercials or whatever they were. I thought those were annoying as hell and I am a retro commercial junkie."
7. "Smoking or non-smoking sections at restaurants."
8. "How hard it was to get a complete book series. The way it usually worked, was that the store had a few of the latest entries if you were lucky, and if the earlier ones were still in print then you could special order them and wait months."
9. "Having to buy a CD with fourteen 'filler songs' to get the one I want!"
10. "Getting lost. 'Take a left at the third light, then go past the big tree and take an immediate left, then the sixth driveway on the right after the red mailbox.' No thanks, so much time saved these days."
11. "Being forced to turn in reports done on a dot matrix printer when you can't line up the edges."
12. "Having to pay the majority of bills by check via the mail, so also always needing said checks and stamps."
13. "Those big-ass and heavy TVs."
14. "Having to go to the library to do a book report."
15. "Casual homophobia. I know it still exists now, but it’s much more frowned upon. I remember calling things 'gay' when I meant 'bad' and dropping the word f****t like it was no big deal. Now I, and a lot of people, know better and I’m happy that the stupid shit that comes out of my mouth no longer makes gay people feel ashamed or bad about themselves."
16. "Having your consumer choices dictated by what you could find at local brick and mortar stores, or ordering from a print catalog and waiting 'up to 4–6 weeks for delivery.'"
17. "No access to your bank account. Pre-debit cards, if you didn't have cash on you, you were screwed until you could get to a bank. Often, you'd have to break up your day to hit the bank or ATM in between errands. Or, if you went out of town, you always had to carry more than you needed because your bank may not have a branch in the place you were visiting."
18. "Lack of streaming services and TV in general. Missed an episode? You're f'd until reruns."
19. "Car stereos getting stolen!"
20. "Video stores. They were always too hot, too crowded, too bright and most of them smelled like butt. Not to mention, hard to find the newest releases."
21. And lastly: "Clothes smelling like cigarette smoke after a night out at bars/clubs."
You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.