THE OG Millennial
AGED TO PERFECTION
If you’re an older Millennial—born in the early 80s to mid-90s—you grew up in a world that straddled two eras: the analog past and the digital future.
You are the last generation to remember life before the internet and the first to embrace it in your teenage years.
Real Talk: you are a national treasure!
The Golden Age of Growing Up
Life in the 80s and 90s was a vibrant mix of neon colors, cassette tapes, and the constant struggle to untangle a phone cord while chatting with friends. You remember the thrill of renting a VHS tape on a Friday night, blowing into a Nintendo cartridge to make it work, and the agony of waiting for your favorite song to come on the radio so you could record it on a cassette—only for the DJ to start talking over the ending.
You had to call a friend’s house and ask their parents if they were home, and when they weren’t, you left a message on their answering machine. You memorized phone numbers, made mix tapes for crushes, and carried a Walkman or Discman everywhere, praying it wouldn’t skip as you walked. The experience of rewinding a tape with a pencil, waiting weeks for film to develop, and having to be home to catch your favorite TV show made your childhood uniquely hands-on and immersive.
Pop Culture That Defined a Generation
Saturday mornings were sacred, dedicated to cartoons like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DuckTales, and Rugrats. Afternoons belonged to Nickelodeon game shows and Disney Channel Original Movies. And when the evening rolled around, you tuned into TRL to see whether Backstreet Boys or NSYNC would clinch the top spot. Your fashion choices ranged from scrunchies and slap bracelets to Guess jeans, butterfly clips, and platform sneakers. And let's not forget the countless hours spent perfecting a high score on Snake, keeping a Tamagotchi alive, or trading holographic Pokémon cards at recess. You grew up quoting lines from Boy Meets World, Saved by the Bell, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, while debating whether Friends or Seinfeld was the better sitcom. Your CD collection was filled with everything from Britney Spears to Nirvana, and your shelves were stacked with Goosebumps books, Trapper Keepers, and Pogs.
Pop culture wasn’t just entertainment—it was a defining part of your identity.
Technology: The Evolution We Witnessed
Older Millennials have the unique experience of growing up alongside technology’s most rapid evolution. We transitioned from landlines to cordless phones to flip phones to smartphones. We witnessed the evolution of the internet—from dial-up screeches to Wi-Fi, from AOL chatrooms to social media dominance. We were the first to craft custom MySpace pages with HTML (before coding was a mainstream skill) and the pioneers of instant messaging, sliding into DMs back when it was simply called “sending an IM.”
We watched the transition from VHS to DVD, then Blu-ray, and finally streaming. We lived through the rise and fall of Napster, LimeWire, and the painstakingly slow process of downloading a single song. Before TikTok, we had Kazaa and Winamp; before YouTube, we relied on America’s Funniest Home Videos. Our first cell phones had monochrome screens and polyphonic ringtones, and we survived road trips with a mix CD and a printed-out MapQuest route.
The Last Generation of a Simpler Time
We were the last to grow up without social media, without a camera in every pocket, and without a constant connection to the world. We passed notes in class instead of sending texts, and our childhoods felt endless because we weren’t inundated with notifications and information overload. Summer days meant biking to a friend’s house without sending a single text, and Friday nights meant roaming the mall for hours, fueled by Orange Julius, free chicken teriyaki samples, and clutch finds at KB Toys, Mr. Bulky’s, and Spencer’s.
Nostalgia isn’t just about remembering—it’s about appreciating a time when life was a little slower, a little simpler, and a lot more hands-on. We lived in a world where you had to be present in the moment, whether it was playing outside with friends, making mixtapes for crushes, or gathering around the TV for a must-watch episode of TGIF. We had childhoods filled with scraped knees, rollerblade races, and handwritten notes folded into intricate origami-like designs. The simplicity of it all made the memories that much sweeter.
Millennials: The Best of Both Worlds
Older Millennials are a bridge between two worlds—tech-savvy but nostalgic, adaptive but grounded. We’ve learned to navigate the ever-changing digital landscape while holding onto the tangible, irreplaceable memories of a pre-internet world. Whether you’re still quoting The Fresh Prince, reminiscing about your first AIM screen name, or feeling a rush of nostalgia when you hear the words "Be Kind, Rewind," one thing’s for sure: growing up in the 80s and 90s wasn’t just a childhood—it was an experience, and one that shaped an entire generation.
We can switch effortlessly between digital and analog worlds, knowing both the joy of handwritten letters and the convenience of emails. We are fluent in the language of dial-up tones, cassette rewinds, and pixelated video games, yet we embrace the speed of modern technology. Our past shapes our present, giving us a unique perspective—one that cherishes the old but embraces the new, making us the perfect blend of resilience, adaptability, and nostalgia.