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:

    A photo of two six hour Sony blank VHS tapes

    2. Record something off the TV using a VHS tape:

    A stock image of a VCR with two VHS tapes on the top of it.

    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):

    A photo two black and blue day planners.

    5. Page your friends and get a page:

    A photo of two Motorola pagers, one in baby blue and one in sea green.

    6. And wear your pager around like this (so everybody knew you had one):

    A close up of a teenage girl wearing her pager clipped to the lefthand side pocket of her jeans.

    7. Go in person to a Ticketmaster or box office to buy concert tickets and get a printed physical ticket back:

    A close-up of a paper ticket.

    8. Look up a phone number in the yellow or white pages:

    A stock photo of a someone circling a number in the phone book with a black marker.

    9. Join a random chat room and pretend to be someone else just to fit in:

    A screengrab of the AOL Chat Room Listings page.

    10. Call your BFF and know you had an at least 90% chance that their parents or sibling(s) would pick up the phone:

    A screengrab of Monica from the "Boy Is Mine" music video talking on a portable phone.

    11. Use a payphone:

    A stock photo of beat up pay phone.

    12. Think of the people in The Real World as older and cool:

    The Real World logo in black and white.

    13. Order CDs from Columbia House (that you never paid for):

    A order form for CDs for Columbia House.

    14. Order a bunch of magazines from Publishers Clearing House (that you never paid for):

    Stickers with magazine names on it that were used to order magazines from Publishers Clearing House.

    15. Receive a teen magazine you loved in the mail:

    A cropped photo of Kirsten Dunst holding up a Teen People with Jennifer Love Hewitt on the cover.

    16. Install an AOL CD so you could have free internet time:

    A close up of purple AOL CD-Roms.

    17. Watch a viral video on a VHS tape:

    A fuzzy image of the South Park "The Spirit of Christmas" viral video.

    18. Look at porn in a magazine or watch it on a VHS tape:

    A screengrab of Jason Biggs in American Pie holding a porn magazine.

    19. Or try to watch porn on the scrambled pay-per-view or adult channel:

    A scrambled TV image of a women's head.

    20. Receive a gift certificate* to a store you wanted for your birthday:

    A $15 gift certificate to Tower Records.

    21. Listen to an album on a portable CD player:

    A photo of a grey portable CD player.

    22. Buy an entire album for just one song:

    The album cover to "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too" by the New Radicals, which features a yellow star burst background and the lead singer Gregg Alexander sitting with a bucket covering his eyes and the bottom of his shoes facing closet to the camera.

    23. Buy a pricey imported CD single from artists you really liked just for the B-sides or remixes:

    An overview photo of a Tower Records in the '90s.

    24. Read magazines in the magazine section of Tower Records or Virgin Megastore:

    A fish-eyed lensed black and white photo of the magazine section at Tower Records in 1998.

    25. Pick up a local alt-weekly to see what concerts were happening or look up movie times:

    A blurry cropped photo of two LA Weeklys on a desk.

    26. Carry around your various discount and reward cards with you at all times:

    A close of a Coca-Cola Rewards card and the cardboard envelope for it.

    27. Order clothes from a catalog:

    28. Take photos with a disposable camera:

    A photo of a Kodak disposable camera.

    29. Have a skincare routine that involved these astringents:

    A screengrab of a Stridex box on an animated a computer screen and a photo of a bottle of Sea Breeze.

    30. And, finally, use dial-up: