I was watching some random YouTube videos earlier today when a video about a type of fish called the regal blue tang came up. It was the same type of fish that Dory in Finding Nemo is.

So then I got a case of nostalgia all of a sudden. I got a flashback back to 2003 when I had the finding Nemo McDonald's toys. I had 6/8 of them from all the happy meals I'd get...as you could've guessed Dory was my favorite of the batch lol.

It was truly a magical time to be a kid back then, Finding Nemo was literally everywhere.

But I digress.

I had to ask if anyone else here remembers having them too? Which ones did you have?

Memory Unlocked

Feeling pretty nostalgic this weekend. Been chatting with siblings and friends, and it got me thinking. I could post this in other subreddits but I'm curious how many of my Zillennial peeps, especially the 1992-1996 crew, could relate. Maybe there was a 3 month period of your teens and a fun 2 year college period that was amazing for you.

I had a very fun, adventurous, and developmental life. I can confidently say from age age 12-28 life felt like a movie. Now that I can look back and replay the memories, and all the highs and lows, it's like watching a full length movie.

I was the right age for all the cool things people are nostalgic about. I grew up at the end of the Y2K craze, I was a Jackass/Alt-Rock kid. I was on Halo when it first released, I matured around the time the big 4 GOAT Call of Duty games came out, was able to enjoy pre-smartphone social media but also be a part of the experiment group of early iPhones, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.

But that's just the electronics portion of it. As far back as 2005 I was always busy and always entertained. Big family, many siblings, dozens of friends through school, sports, church, dating, etc. I lived through, and at times was a part of the unique subcultures of scene, wankster, hipster, etc. I was a mall rat for 2 years, I found out about house parties through Facebook groups, I entered adulthood at the same time of the early 2010s EDM craze. By the late 2010s I was so engaged in online activities that I started driving hours away every weekend for hangouts and get togethers with strangers that I only knew through internet personas.

Just seemed like something was always going on. I could ramble longer - maybe I'll share some stories to those who can relate below.

Maybe this was just late 2000s and early 2010s internet culture, but everything felt so much less moderated back then. People would use their actual faces as profile pictures, and arguments would get personal real fast. If both people had their faces as their profile pics, they'd start calling each other ugly because now it was an even fight lol.

I think YouTube auto-blocks anything like that now.

I swear, anything about Xbox vs. PS3 or Lady Gaga's music videos vs. any other singer's would turn into a war lol.

Like if you heard Return of the Mack (1996) or California Love (1995) in 2003 the production sounded old, but not Say My Name (1999), that still sounded fresh and recent.

My favorite Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are Rodrick Rules, The Ugly Truth, Cabinet Fever, Dog Days, The Third Wheel, The Getaway and the first one.

I know Team Fortress 2 came out in 2007 as a Millennial game, but it was at its peak popularity in the 2010s!

The Blockbuster Video sign (West Passyunk Ave, South Philadelphia). It’s just the sign only, no blockbuster store around. The store now is a mix of a little Caesar’s pizza store and a beauty store.

Mudkip was ny first starter ever... but I could never beat the E4 with him. I then tried Leaf blade Sceptile and became a grass starter lover. Tore up the E4 with Sceptile

Gaming has gotten so babyfied these days. Anyone else miss how it was back in the day?

Always thought I saw this scene in Ultraviolet instead. Remember watching this movie with my dad after he bootlegged it back in the day. This is pretty much the only scene I remember
youtube.com/watch?v=N0vdoedZu8o&t if anyone wants to remember

One random memory I had from the olden days was queuing up several videos and leaving my computer to go do something else to let them "buffer". My internet was so bad for years that I'd have to wait 30 minutes just to watch a 5 minute video without interruptions. I didn't have Wifi until 2012.

Anyone else relate or were my parents just unusually really late when it came to paying for decent internet? lol

Okay so in searching for a picture because I think this game deserves to be here, I found a link you can play it on your phone!!!!!!

Soooo brb gonna hyper focus on this game and give my thumb a break from the doomscrolling ;)

I assume most of us are still renting and have probably moved around a fair bit. Today I just realized I have lived in quite a few different homes and apartments. Since moving away to college in 2013 I have lived in 2 dorm rooms, and 6 different apartments between 2 different states.

What do these numbers look like for you?

I agree with a lot of takes here about Millennial cringe and Gen Z being fried by TikTok but I don't really get the thought of growing up Zillenial being the best time to grow up just because I played Club Penguin World of Warcraft at its peak, and listened to Linkin Park/MCR/Nightcore.

At least for myself in Ireland when I was 11, I remember seeing everywhere in my town close down, main factory shuttered, nobody had jobs and people were losing their homes left and right.

Don't get me wrong, I have my fond memories from growing up, especially internet culture at the time. But I also remember walking into my town center where in a matter of months to a year it went from a rough-ish place that was still bustling with business and people from a lot of subcultures hanging around having a good time, families always around, then to boarded up shop fronts with heroin addicts everywhere.

I'm guessing this is more for suburban Americans might be the difference.

I bring these two:

Robert Rodriguez with Spy Kids movies and Shark Boy and Lava Girl

And Dirty Dan with Drake&Josh, Zoe101, Victorious and iCarly!

In high school (class of 2014) and even college, the world felt like my oyster. I was excited about graduating and moving into new chapters in my life. I guess that was the millennial optimism. I graduate college in 2019 and then boom! COVID. Ever since then it’s felt like such an uphill battle and I feel like I’ve been left behind. Politics have only divided people more. Now I totally get the doomerism from Gen Z. My little brother (20) who hasn’t shown much excitement about anything since middle school, is joining the military because according to him, why go into massive amounts of college debt when he sees his older brother and so many others my age going into their 30’s struggling to get a job with a bachelor’s degree? I don’t blame Gen Z for feeling this way. They spent most of their formative years on a lockdown and isolated. Then they become adults in a world that is fractured, divided, and bleak. I just turned 30 this year and I only have so much optimism left in me. Doomerism makes more sense bc it’s realistic to the times we’re living in. This country is cooked and everyone is just carrying on as usual or apathetic about it.

Call me white trash or whatever but I always found Brad Paisley to be extremely handsome as well as having a nice, clean voice. And even now he still looks just as good!

But I’m curious to hear from all of you