Curious?
Posted by Short_Pickle1980@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 127 comments
Does anyone recall hearing adults say things like, “When someone says 5 years ago I think 1979 not 1995.”
Posted by Short_Pickle1980@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 127 comments
Does anyone recall hearing adults say things like, “When someone says 5 years ago I think 1979 not 1995.”
disguisedasnrml@reddit
When I found out it was getting hard to get parts for jeep TJs I couldn't comprehend.....then I did the math....
Tizzle_Boy_Get_Em@reddit
When we grew up, the "oldies" were generally between the late 50s and 60s. Now, by that math, the oldies to these kids now are 70s and the 80s...we play the 50s and 60s in our house, but the disparity of the types/genres of music has changed so much that im not sure "oldies" exist anymore. I think we now call them "throwbacks".
mix0logist@reddit
See, I hate that the timeframe for these genres/stations has changed. Oldies should always be the hits from the 50s and 60s. Classic rock should always be the late-60s to the early-80s. That way you know what you're getting.
Also, I'm bummed that there's no oldies station in my area anymore.
tamaringin@reddit
Yeah, I miss the dedicated oldies station in my area too.
We do still have the classic rock station, which plays a lot of Zeppelin, Hendrix, Tom Petty, etc.... but has also started taking me out every time I listen by mixing in, like, Green Day and Foo Fighters and The Wallflowers.
a_solid_6@reddit
They even call 90s music "old school." But it makes sense. We were teens in the 90s-- three decades ago. The 90s are to them what the 60s were to us.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
I am almost happy they are realizing that our time was long, long ago.
FromMyTARDIS@reddit
No the oldies are now the 90s and 2000s
justfirfunsies@reddit
My back hurts
nickd1980@reddit
It's more like everything hurts!
justfirfunsies@reddit
Everything!
Artistic_Alps_4794@reddit
Oh yeah. Everyday I think of what adults told me about how time goes faster as you get older.
nickd1980@reddit
Time is going faster. Everyday I think I should have said yes to the only girl that asked me out back in 95! 31 years later (where did the time go?) I still remember it like it was yesterday!
nzungu69@reddit
it's facinating how this is literally true.
the longer you live, the smaller a portion of your life a given time period takes up, and your lived experience of time scales accordlingly.
your brain subjectively feels time passing faster the older it gets, despite there being no external change to the rate of the passage of time. the subjective experience of a year to a ten year old brain is relativistically longer than that experience is for a forty year old brain.
facinating stuff.
AquariusRising1983@reddit
My dad used to say Life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.
papercup_mixmaster@reddit
Working in museums, I'll have people tell me "a few years ago, my father donated..." and it was 1958.
Pretend-Menu-8660@reddit
D34N2@reddit
I like how this was written in 2022, but is still accurate today.
Pretend-Menu-8660@reddit
I don’t think it’s gonna change for us. This is our new benchmark lol
Thecalin33@reddit
Never have I felt more understood.
Pretend-Menu-8660@reddit
Right??
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
_Xee@reddit
Accurate.
three-sense@reddit
“The other day” can now be 5+ years ago.
Okra-Tomatoes@reddit
Covid really messed with my sense of time. 2020 is simultaneously ten minutes ago and ten years ago.
iamthe0ther0ne@reddit
Same. I wonder if it's just because we're getting older or if the zoomers feel it too.
SensiblyInquisitive@reddit
Yes, I wonder also if this phenomenon is something that tends to happen when people hit their 40s, like is this how our parents and grandparents felt when they were our age? Or did the pandemic just really mess with our perception of the passage of time?
three-sense@reddit
Hard to believe “lockdown” was 18 months ago already! ^/s
plastiquearse@reddit
The saying that “it’s been a minute” feels salient. When I first heard it I was learning a new culture (we had just moved) and I was a youngin - and I thought it was absurd that “a minute” was used to signify quite a long passage of time.
Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit
Last week I told a coworker we needed to look at a document from a couple months back for something. He found the document and it was from 2023. Oops.
AquariusRising1983@reddit
This shit happens to me all the time. I'll say "it was just the other day" to find out it was months ago; and yeah, "a couple months ago" usually turns out to be 3 - 5 years. It's fucking crazy.
FalconGK81@reddit
I'm going on a cruise at the end of the month. I decided to do a refresher scuba dive, since its "been a couple years". Go do my refresher dive. Get my log book out to log my dive. Last dive logged was in 2019. "Been a couple of years" indeed.
Sofagirrl79@reddit
COVID era seemed like a lifetime and just a few years ago lol, COVID BS really messed up the 2020s ,I miss 2019,I turned 40 in late December that year and the next year was a big FU
Charger2950@reddit
This happens to me last month. Was looking for a few pictures for work that I took and need to see again.
was like “hmmmmm…..when did I take those? I think it was 10 or 11 months ago…..”
I took them in 2023! 🙃
It was terrifying.
lizziekap@reddit
And this is why is 80/81 babies are GenX. 20 years ago always has been and always will be the 1970s.
JohnEffingZoidberg@reddit
If "1979" by Smashing Pumpkins were released today, it would be named "2010".
Let that sink in.
Hlodvigovich915@reddit
If Back to the Future were released this year, Marty McFly would go back to 1996.
Mudlark2017@reddit
The one that gets me is that the Phantom Menace was released in 1999, 16 years after Return of the Jedi which at the time I thought was from another lifetime. It's now been 27 years since the Phantom Menace was released...gulp
itriedicant@reddit
why would you do that to me?
JohnEffingZoidberg@reddit
Holy cow, I never thought about it that way. Phantom Menace tech just seems so much more advanced.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
1979 taught me that my rock heroes were REALLY OLD even then.
Ramone5150@reddit
If Back to the Future was made today, Marty McFly would be going back to 1996.
fant5y@reddit
That hit me somehow 😲 and at the same time I wish they'd do that movie. 1996 always feels like one of my favorite years.
Ramone5150@reddit
They kinda made a movie like that called “Totally Killer”. It’s like a slasher film version of Back to the Future.
ScreenTricky4257@reddit
For me when someone says, "It was 20 years ago," I think, "today! Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play!"
antiphonic@reddit
Ive been living my life increasingly through some sort of interface since 2012 or so and primarily through a screen since 2020. I suppose that could have something to do with the time dilation.
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
I had my 20 year anniversary last week, so this exact question is actually very relevant to me, lol.
Undercover_Dave@reddit
It's like if someone says they have an old shitty car, I'm picturing a Pinto from the 70s, not a 2006 Kia. 2000 anything still sounds so new to me.
jaymzx0@reddit
You see a modern car like an old 2000's Pontiac. A piece of shit with power windows, A/C, a digital dashboard, and over 200 HP? What the hell? I think POS I think of the old Jetta that didn't have heat, a leaking sunroof, crank windows that perpetually fog up, and a manual transmission with a slipping clutch.
Without Cash for Clunkers in the US we would still see 90's Accords and Civics. They would still be over 5 grand, too.
FalconGK81@reddit
My brain: "How does a car have hit points?"
jaymzx0@reddit
You're thinking Mustangs. Pedestrians are like running over and picking up boosts.
TifanAching@reddit
We've had our car for ten years now which is wild considering I only bought it a year ago.
LadyMirkwood@reddit
"I should get round to watching that movie that came last year"
Checks date released 2012
chrisdecaf@reddit
Guys yall know its ok that we're getting older and that time is passing right? 2006 absolutely feels like 20 years ago. It feels like a completely different world.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
It feels like "last decade"
chrisdecaf@reddit
Not to me. 2006 feels almost like a lifetime ago. My now-adult nieces and nephews were babies, W was president, I still had a flip phone, I was working in food service, I could still get an analog signal on my TV, which was a CRT with rabbit ears.
VecchioDiM3rd1955@reddit
It's the same reason that I think I have just bought my car, when in fact was in 2019. And it was a time that at a VW dealer one could choose a new car in the parking lot and pay it 10000 euro.
I'm usig it a lot less nowadys actually, I drive less than 5000 km in a year. Before I was driving 15000 km a year.
TomPalmer1979@reddit
Just last night I was watching something about the new Crystal Lake series, and the youtuber said "The Friday The 13th series has been on hold for 17 years".
I immediately thought, bullshit! They just did a remake in 2009, that's just a couple of years ago! 2009 was only...(counts on fingers)...aw shit.
BeautifulChaosEnergy@reddit
Excuse me while I go cry in the corner now 😩
Short_Pickle1980@reddit (OP)
Can I sit by you 😭
BeautifulChaosEnergy@reddit
Of course
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
5 years ago was after COVID
mix0logist@reddit
I'm constantly realizing this over and over again.
0dayssince@reddit
Nah
mix0logist@reddit
If Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play 20 years ago today they'd sound like Fall Out Boy.
sesimie@reddit
And we are also in the back half of the 2020s.... Time is flying!
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
A quarter of the century has gone and we're still waiting for the century to begin
reddit3k@reddit
I remember watching "Beyond: 2000" on the Discovery Channel in the '90s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qECkG3c8y8I
You know.. when the future seemed so full of optimism as one of the commenters on that video nicely summarized it 12 years ago.
Kellzy1212@reddit
2029? That’s not a real year! By 2029 I’ll be drinking moon juice with President Johnathan Taylor Thomas, not writing you a paper check.
jazzminarino@reddit
Anytime someone updates their payment method and says their card expires in 2032, I'm like naaaaah that's a fake card.
Kellzy1212@reddit
Mulaney bit
jazzminarino@reddit
Thank you for sharing this! I didn't get the reference but absolutely enjoyed hearing the bit. (Very time appropriate as I'm selling a property and my real estate agent is just like this.)
Kellzy1212@reddit
It’s what plays in my head rent free. 😹
jar36@reddit
Was just thinking about how decades ago, if I bought something like, let's say, a game controller that I'd think it lasted a long time if it still worked 5 yrs later. Now I'm buying things like that thinking this should last 10 yrs and that's not really that long
DerpaNet3000@reddit
Every day
cashews_clay15@reddit
I kind of forgot about the decade of 2000-2010. And Covid years.
It goes 80’s, 90’s, 2010 - 2020, 2025-2026
Short_Pickle1980@reddit (OP)
This is the only plausible explanation.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
It does really feel like 2008 - 2024 was a decade and we're finally in a new one.
itriedicant@reddit
well, I'm a younger xennial (1984), so 20 years ago were the nineties for me.
and if 1985 by Bowling For Soup came out today, it would be about 2007, which wasn't even ten years ago.
Kind-Ad5505@reddit
I know
blamberr@reddit
I told someone pining for a coneheads movie today that it had been 50 years since the debut of his source material and he tried to argue
Roland-Of-Eld-19@reddit
Eassssyyy killer its Not 50 years until next January haha
blamberr@reddit
katiespecies647@reddit
I realized yesterday that my beloved green cordouroy jacket from the Gap is from circa 2000, so it's vintage...and I'm the original owner. If someone gave me a vintage jacket that old as a teen in 1998 it would have been from 1972.
bydh@reddit
Yes, but also because my lower back hurts
ES_Legman@reddit
Final Fantasy VII and GoldenEye were released closer to the first landing on the moon than they are to the present day.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
ES_Legman@reddit
Vegeta too
HabaneroPopper@reddit
This made me cackle
Any_Nectarine_7806@reddit
I get this feeling when I realize that Nirvana is to today's high schoolers what The Doors was for me in high school.
CSWorldChamp@reddit
World War II was 50 years ago, and Vietnam was 20 years ago.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
Sofagirrl79@reddit
When I think of 20 years I think of 2006 ,but damn 2006 seems like yesterday and far away at the same time
redcurrantevents@reddit
It’s okay because I probably needed to sit down anyway.
Ingonyama70@reddit
ME. I say that, all the time.
NorthBase710@reddit
No i don't need to sit down, when i hear facts.
Forward_Bread2285@reddit
“Yesterday” is now just a vague concept from the past decade.
CrashOverIt@reddit
Mainly because of knee and back problems 😂
sodascouts@reddit
I'm always looking at the metadata on my photos to see when I did things or went places. It is awkward when I'm asked about something and I find myself making a guesstimate about the date of my own life event.
Konnorwolf@reddit
2020 was last year. Anything after 2000 is a few years at best.
e-wrecked@reddit
This stopped being true when I go back and listen to the music I did 20 years ago. I mean MCR, Fallout Boy, Panic! At The Disco...yeah time seems to be working right.
SlapHappyDude@reddit
I no longer think the 80s were 20 years ago. Closer to 30.
irate_alien@reddit
First thing that comes to mind for me is “Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play”
Inc-Roid@reddit
My first thought too
Charger2950@reddit
My brain still cannot process or come to terms with the fact that 20 years ago was 2006.
It’s truly absolutely fucking mind-blowing. When I say that it seems like yesterday, I am not exaggerating in the slightest.
PaleoSpeedwagon@reddit
ngl I needed to sit down for a bit, anyway
notimetosleep8@reddit
That was my dad and I now can relate.
ParticularYak4401@reddit
Oh fuck. That means my niece will be 20 in December and I am still 27 so don’t know how that is gonna happen.
ansley_g@reddit
When “the 80’s” are now considered “the oldies.” 😭
Waddaya-want@reddit
No, I don't recall adults saying that when I was younger.
And, although for a long while I felt like the 80s was 20yrs ago, my brain has adjusted now. Someone says 20yrs ago, my mind goes to the noughties
Kellzy1212@reddit
I quote this regularly
iwantmy-2dollars@reddit
Our oldest is Class of 2038. I’m still reeling from that announcement last week. That is not a real number.
MundaneWiley@reddit
Yep, i’m actually at the point where if someone asks my age i have to do the math. i always forget the exact number
WatermelonCheeks@reddit
Checking the age of my 1st gen Kindle that finally stopped working…holy crap

Cael_NaMaor@reddit
Not since the Oughties have I thought the Eighties were twenty years ago...
der_innkeeper@reddit
> "...need to sit down for a bit..."
Slowly. Mind the knees and back.
MmmSteaky@reddit
You still have knees and a back?!
der_innkeeper@reddit
No... that's why I have to mind them.
moonbunnychan@reddit
Im pretty sure I'm going to live the rest of my life thinking the 80s were 20 years ago, the 90s the recent past,.and the 00s just a couole of years ago.
Academic_Flounder_33@reddit
I've worked so hard over the years to remember that "10 years ago" is NOT the 90s
Wonderful_Hornet_756@reddit
I need help getting up off the floor
DisastrousBeautyyy@reddit
This stands out to me because my son was born 20 years ago, last month.
False_Ad_5372@reddit
…sit down a bit…. Because you realized you’re out of breath from so much standing. Two minutes is a long time, these days.
writersontop@reddit
No.
ryhoyarbie@reddit
2006?
Canyon_Cruiser@reddit
I’m associating with Boom boxes and the crack epidemic 😭😭
originalbrowncoat@reddit
cobalt-radiant@reddit
This happens to me all the time. Still doesn't feel right.