Search “90's kids” on the Internet and you’ll find countless articles with things like, “Only 90's Kids Will Understand” and, “You Know You’re A 90's Kid When...” I’ll be honest, I’ve read so many articles like this and I've related to quite a few of them. The 90's were full of memorable toys, games, and TV shows that our generation will reminisce over for the rest of our lives.
However, when I think back to my childhood, the first thing that comes to mind is about how often I “played.” I remember calling my friends on their house phones or knocking on their front doors to see if they could “play outside.” So much of my childhood was built upon creativity. I played Barbies and “house” for hours on end, both by myself and with friends. My hours watching TV or playing games on my Gameboy were limited and monitored by my parents. They wanted nothing more for me than to learn and play on my own rather than to be entertained by staring at a screen, and I can’t thank them enough for that.
I had an amazing childhood, and I’m willing to bet that as 90's kids, we all did. As the years went by and we grew up as adolescents, we were slowly introduced to the new forms of technology that were evolving such as MySpace, AOL Instant Messenger, and eventually, cell phones. Our first flip phones had texting and Internet as optional features, and calls were only free after 9 p.m..
For this reason, the way that we used these websites and devices then were completely different from the way we use them today. All of this is so remarkable to me as I reflect on it; there’s something so significant about 90's kids that we tend to overlook.
It’s more than the articles reminding us of all the fun we had.
It’s more than reflecting on “simpler times.”
It’s the fact that as 90's kids, we’ve adapted to a complete lifestyle change.
We had a childhood very similar to our parents in that we were forced to entertain ourselves. We “played” for hours with very limited technology to entertain us. Even as adolescents, our technology usage was very scarce. And yet, here we are in 2015 completely immersed in the technology that the generations before us don’t entirely understand. We’ve adapted and completely embraced these technological advances to the point where we can’t even begin to imagine our lives without them, yet we had a childhood almost entirely free of them.
We’re a generation like no other -- 90's kids don’t get enough credit. There’s certainly no stopping us now. We’ve come so far in such a short amount of time, and we will only continue to grow alongside of the technological advances that the future holds.
