30 Extremely Specific Things Every Late-'90s Teen Did One Last Time Without Realizing It
Think about it, when was the exact last time you paged a friend?
1. Buy blank VHS tapes:
2. Record something off the TV using a VHS tape:
Ilya_starikov / Getty Images
3. Take mall photos with your friends and then trade the (wallet-size) pictures with other friends:
Mr. Yates SAYS there’s a story behind this very 90s pic. I prefer to think him and his friend were walking through the mall in their SICK Quicksilver clothes and thought: IMPROMPTU JC PENNEY PORTRAIT STUDIO PHOTO SHOOT TIME!
4. Write down everyone's phone number, address, and email address in a day planner (as well as carry around the wallet-size photos of your friends in it):
5. Page your friends and get a page:
James Keyser / The LIFE Images Collection via G
6. And wear your pager around like this (so everybody knew you had one):
Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag
7. Go in person to a Ticketmaster or box office to buy concert tickets and get a printed physical ticket back:
Michael Crabtree - Pa Images / Getty Images
8. Look up a phone number in the yellow or white pages:
Stevelenzphoto / Getty Images
9. Join a random chat room and pretend to be someone else just to fit in:
10. Call your BFF and know you had an at least 90% chance that their parents or sibling(s) would pick up the phone:
WMG/ youtube.com
11. Use a payphone:
Terrykelly / Getty Images
12. Think of the people in The Real World as older and cool:
MTV
13. Order CDs from Columbia House (that you never paid for):
14. Order a bunch of magazines from Publishers Clearing House (that you never paid for):
15. Receive a teen magazine you loved in the mail:
Steve Granitz / WireImage
16. Install an AOL CD so you could have free internet time:
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17. Watch a viral video on a VHS tape:
3monkeysandafootball
/ youtube.com
18. Look at porn in a magazine or watch it on a VHS tape:
Universal Pictures
19. Or try to watch porn on the scrambled pay-per-view or adult channel:
20. Receive a gift certificate* to a store you wanted for your birthday:
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*For those who might be too young to know, gift certificates were the precursor to gift cards — but, unlike gift cards, there was no way to trace them if you lost them and they couldn't keep a balance. So if you didn't spend the entire thing, the store would usually just give you the remaining balance back in cash.
21. Listen to an album on a portable CD player:
http://ttps://etsy.com
22. Buy an entire album for just one song:
UMG
23. Buy a pricey imported CD single from artists you really liked just for the B-sides or remixes:
South China Morning Post / South China Morning Post via Get
24. Read magazines in the magazine section of Tower Records or Virgin Megastore:
The Washington Post / The Washington Post via Getty Im
25. Pick up a local alt-weekly to see what concerts were happening or look up movie times:
Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag
26. Carry around your various discount and reward cards with you at all times:
27. Order clothes from a catalog:
28. Take photos with a disposable camera:
Science & Society Picture Librar / Getty Images
29. Have a skincare routine that involved these astringents:
Chris Hattings/ youtube.com walmart.com
30. And, finally, use dial-up:
AOL