Back in My Day

I was just listening to the classic 80s song, If You Leave,  that played in Pretty in Pink and it made me think of Molly Ringwald which then made me think of teen movies and I just realized that the kids/teens of today don’t have a lot of fun options out. Unless you have cable and they are still kind of lame to me.  I mean there was Breakfast Club in the 80s then Clueless in the 90s. Those were epic teen movies of their time. I guess the early 2000s had High School Musical but that was only on the Disney Channel and it was still weak comparatively. It made me think of other things late Gen Xers/ early Millennials  had that I don’t think kids/teens fully have now:

1)     TRL- I’d come home in the afternoon and see the latest videos and interviews with stars, before that there was Dick Clark, Soul Train, now what?If you don't catch it on YouTube it's hard to keep up. It used to be the thing to catch the latest Micheal Jackson video on Thursday night and talk about it at school. 

2)     Saturday morning cartoons and teen sitcoms- Yes, I know there is cable now for all that but there was something special about having that Saturday morning line up till 12 then you go out to play. And Although Disney and Nickelodeon have many reincarnations of Saved By the Bell and the Boy Meets World Spin off (thumbs down), it’s not the same feeling when you watch it at random times.

3)     TGIF and Saturday night comedies- If you were a kid and of course weren’t partying it up on the weekend nights it was good to have some TV options everyone else watched. Do kids have that kind of line up now? I mean, it’s the reason I love the Golden Girls because it came on Saturday night and lasted 7 darn seasons. And everyone watched Family Matters. What Friday and Saturday night series are there now?

4)     Music- there was a lot more “teeny bopper” music back then. We had The Boys, ABC, a young Brandy and Monica, Tevin Campbell, Usher. And that’s just the R&B side (Hanson anyone)? Now you have Justin Beiber and some random Beiber like types whose names I don't know. Very limited.

5)     Toys, even those don’t seem as cool. Everything is computer based. If the power goes out, you better make sure you have some old school toys with you or that the battery is fully charged.When I saw a little child touch a book like it was touch screen I realized that things were changing and I wonder if its better, worse or just different.

Or maybe I'm just out of touch with kids and just have no idea what's cool. Do kids still even use the word cool. *cracks back and takes a seat*