Ah, the golden days of yesteryear, when life was a series of dial-up tones, scrunchies, and those magical moments when you’d leave the house without having to document it for the ‘gram. Remember when we had to wait months for a photo to be developed, only to find half of them were blurred or contained our friend’s thumb? What a trip down memory lane! Nowadays, it seems like every kid with a smartphone feels the need to broadcast every mundane moment—“Look, I’m eating a salad!” *Yawn*. Are we truly witnessing the end of spontaneity, or just the rise of #NoFilter, because let me tell you, sometimes those filters can’t hide the agony of a life lived vicariously through life hacks and TikTok dances.
Let’s take a moment to celebrate the profound sadness of actually having to live in the moment without any validation. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, our biggest dilemma was whether to record the latest episode of “Friends” on a VHS tape or risk having to wait for reruns on TBS after school. Oh, the sweet sounds of fast-forwarding through commercials while praying your mom didn’t accidentally stop the tape! Now, if you miss a moment, you just scroll through your feed while asking, “Why didn’t I think to film that?” Spoiler alert: because you were too busy having fun, you nostalgia addict!
Then there were the iconic solo hikes to the local arcade, where the scent of stale pizza and the sound of Pac-Man on repeat made us feel like kings and queens of a pixelated kingdom. Now, kids are trapped in their own homes, tethered to screens playing “Fortnite,” summoning “victory royales” between bites of organic avocado toast delivered by some app that’ll have you wondering why you’re paying $10 for a consultation over your lunch order. Back then, if you lost a game, at least you had the luxury of physically throwing a joystick or two—this idea of ‘getting a refund’ for a bad gaming experience is just too fancy for our leather jacket-wearing, cassette-tape-collecting souls.
Let’s face it: we’ve embraced the art of the irony, half-smiling as we watch a new generation “create” while hovering over their phones like they just discovered gold. Newsflash, kiddos—you don’t have to be an influencer to be interesting! You can actually have 40 free minutes of dorky adventures of your own without earning sponsorships or a TikTok following. Just think about it—when was the last time you rode your bike to the mall and complained about why they stopped selling “Pogs” while getting lost in the labyrinth of a CD store?
So, dear Gen-Xers, let’s not forget to reclaim our inner rebels by reminding the kids that you can survive without posting about how “lit” your Wednesday night is. There’s a wild world beyond Instagram filters, and it’s filled with fuzzy memories and the sweet taste of nostalgia. Next time you feel that burning need to snap a photo of your food, remember: it’s just a burger. And as Billy Idol once said, "It's a nice day to start again"—but maybe this time, leave the camera behind and just enjoy the messy moment.