Rec
❤️🩹
This feels like the platform I imagined the cool girls would post on when I was 10 years old. They always wore hoop earrings, had an extensive CD and perfume collection and were the kindest people you would ever meet.
2025 always sounded so futuristic but I feel like I am back in the 2010s again. As i try to disconnect from social media more and be more mindful of how and what media i consume, i chase this feeling from my childhood. Wasting my Saturdays behind the family computer and going down a Youtube rabbit hole, blasting music from my CD player and trying to text on my Nokia phone (by having to press a button three times to get one letter.) Is it the innocence i miss because i didn't have a clue about attachment styles in relationships or the imposter syndrome i get when i go on LinkedIn? I don't know. But since the beginning of 2025 I have noticed once more, I am still 10-year old Sara: I have been listening to Avicii again, since his new documentary came out at the beginning of this year. I am always on the hunt for 2000s Guess kitten heels and handbags on Vinted and Vestiaire. Watching Lamine Yamal play reminds me of the creativity that Brazilian Football represents and the joy i had when watching them compete in the World Cup in 2014.
There is this quote i love, which talks about you being a mosaic of the people you've ever loved and how they impact you in different ways. As much as I am a product of the people in my life i am also a product of my time. As a 2002 baby I do miss the simplicity of social media, post recession pop and my daily workout being completed on Wii Sports. As nostalgic as I am, i can't wait for what this year has in store.
2025 always sounded so futuristic but I feel like I am back in the 2010s again. As i try to disconnect from social media more and be more mindful of how and what media i consume, i chase this feeling from my childhood. Wasting my Saturdays behind the family computer and going down a Youtube rabbit hole, blasting music from my CD player and trying to text on my Nokia phone (by having to press a button three times to get one letter.) Is it the innocence i miss because i didn't have a clue about attachment styles in relationships or the imposter syndrome i get when i go on LinkedIn? I don't know. But since the beginning of 2025 I have noticed once more, I am still 10-year old Sara: I have been listening to Avicii again, since his new documentary came out at the beginning of this year. I am always on the hunt for 2000s Guess kitten heels and handbags on Vinted and Vestiaire. Watching Lamine Yamal play reminds me of the creativity that Brazilian Football represents and the joy i had when watching them compete in the World Cup in 2014.
There is this quote i love, which talks about you being a mosaic of the people you've ever loved and how they impact you in different ways. As much as I am a product of the people in my life i am also a product of my time. As a 2002 baby I do miss the simplicity of social media, post recession pop and my daily workout being completed on Wii Sports. As nostalgic as I am, i can't wait for what this year has in store.
Jan 19, 2025
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🕰by @artifaxing on instagram.
“ It’s 2025 as I write this, and I’m holding what would’ve been seen as a supercomputer just 50 years ago in the palm of my hand. I can Google any image, take a photo, post it online, and reach millions in seconds. But still… I find myself missing the past. The “good days.” And maybe you do too. For years now, I’ve noticed something. When I scroll, I see grainy VHS clips, blurry digital photos, old games on outdated consoles. And I always ask why. But I know the answer. Everything today feels polished. We’ve got 8K, 160fps, ultra-HD in our pockets. Even the cheapest cameras capture insane quality. But is that a true reflection of us? I don’t think so. We’re drawn to what’s imperfect because we’re imperfect. That raw, nostalgic look feels more real. And especially in moments of uncertainty, people turn to it for comfort. It’s familiar. It feels safe. According to fMRI studies, nostalgia even lights up reward centers in our brain, particularly the medial prefrontal cortex. That’s why you see it everywhere now. People are buying old iPhones just to get the early 2010s look in photos. Brands are tapping into that too. Nostalgia marketing has seen a 20 to 30 percent rise recently. It’s not just media. It’s clothes, logos, design. Minimalism and modernism made everything clean, but in doing so, kind of erased the personality. People want character again. They want imperfection. They want bold, messy, loud. They want to feel something. “
“ It’s 2025 as I write this, and I’m holding what would’ve been seen as a supercomputer just 50 years ago in the palm of my hand. I can Google any image, take a photo, post it online, and reach millions in seconds. But still… I find myself missing the past. The “good days.” And maybe you do too. For years now, I’ve noticed something. When I scroll, I see grainy VHS clips, blurry digital photos, old games on outdated consoles. And I always ask why. But I know the answer. Everything today feels polished. We’ve got 8K, 160fps, ultra-HD in our pockets. Even the cheapest cameras capture insane quality. But is that a true reflection of us? I don’t think so. We’re drawn to what’s imperfect because we’re imperfect. That raw, nostalgic look feels more real. And especially in moments of uncertainty, people turn to it for comfort. It’s familiar. It feels safe. According to fMRI studies, nostalgia even lights up reward centers in our brain, particularly the medial prefrontal cortex. That’s why you see it everywhere now. People are buying old iPhones just to get the early 2010s look in photos. Brands are tapping into that too. Nostalgia marketing has seen a 20 to 30 percent rise recently. It’s not just media. It’s clothes, logos, design. Minimalism and modernism made everything clean, but in doing so, kind of erased the personality. People want character again. They want imperfection. They want bold, messy, loud. They want to feel something. “
Jul 3, 2025
Rec
🎭Every new piece of technology was so exciting, because of the monoculture every new release felt like an Event, everything was shiny and glittery and in fun colors. Listening to music for the first time on an iPod was crazy. Getting a portable DVD player to watch Buffy the Vampire slayer DVDs on long road trips made me feel like I lived in the future. Seeing digital cable for the first time where it would display the programming schedule with descriptions blew my mind.
I played so many games on CD-ROM on a clunky beige monitor attached to a giant tower running Windows 98–a lot of my parents’ friends were educators so they were constantly giving me new ones to play. Neopets was my life and I loved exploring new sites. I remember frequenting many websites that were just lists of other sites lol. I did also spend a lot of time playing outside and just imagining things. Everything you see on Buzzfeed 90s kid remember the 2000s articles is accurate. The high of optimism when Obama got elected after eight years of Bush was unparalleled!
That said yeah the forced conformity was incredibly stifling and social groups were still cliquish (though this was starting to dissolve by the time I got into high school). Things that would make you cool now would lead you to be mocked or become an outcast so it was nice that emo kids existed because they were a lot more accepting of idiosyncrasies and quirks. Gender nonconformity was frowned upon—I got my hair cut short in eighth grade and was made fun of by so many people, and my male gym coach called me sir!
The beauty standards were insane and also so narrow. I remember being in a Kohl’s dressing room when I was like 12 and crying as I tried on increasingly larger pants sizes because my butt wouldn’t fit into anything I tried on and wondering why I was cursed with this body.
HONESTLY the hardest thing for me was that I needed glasses and the only ones that were really available at my local glasses shops were very ugly and nerdy (or if there were cool ones they were designer and cost like $600) and you couldn’t just buy them online so I was walking around looking like Harry Potter for most of my childhood and early adolescence and feeling very insecure about it.
The good thing about personal style, culture, and taste is that i truly had to figure it all out on my own by seeking out and curating sources of inspiration, or by word of mouth from other people, rather than having inspiration algorithmically fed to me.
I remember going trick or treating in the mall after 9/11 because some parents including my mother were very paranoid that something (?) would happen? My mom was very paranoid in general because of her own childhood experiences and seeing all of the news stories about child abductions but I wasn’t helicoptered and my parents would let me walk around the neighborhood with my friends as I got older. We spent so much time just walking from strip mall to strip mall and like loitering at Barnes and Noble lol.
So it was a mixed bag really but I wouldn’t go back and my nostalgia is usually only in passing. This is controversial but I don’t have any fondness for physical media other than vinyl records because I remember just thinking CDs DVDs and VHSs sucked and I hated when they would get damaged. When I realized that I could acquire any digital media I wanted on the internet it felt like the world was my oyster and I never looked back.
You know what though actually I just remembered how much cheaper everything was and I got mad so…
I played so many games on CD-ROM on a clunky beige monitor attached to a giant tower running Windows 98–a lot of my parents’ friends were educators so they were constantly giving me new ones to play. Neopets was my life and I loved exploring new sites. I remember frequenting many websites that were just lists of other sites lol. I did also spend a lot of time playing outside and just imagining things. Everything you see on Buzzfeed 90s kid remember the 2000s articles is accurate. The high of optimism when Obama got elected after eight years of Bush was unparalleled!
That said yeah the forced conformity was incredibly stifling and social groups were still cliquish (though this was starting to dissolve by the time I got into high school). Things that would make you cool now would lead you to be mocked or become an outcast so it was nice that emo kids existed because they were a lot more accepting of idiosyncrasies and quirks. Gender nonconformity was frowned upon—I got my hair cut short in eighth grade and was made fun of by so many people, and my male gym coach called me sir!
The beauty standards were insane and also so narrow. I remember being in a Kohl’s dressing room when I was like 12 and crying as I tried on increasingly larger pants sizes because my butt wouldn’t fit into anything I tried on and wondering why I was cursed with this body.
HONESTLY the hardest thing for me was that I needed glasses and the only ones that were really available at my local glasses shops were very ugly and nerdy (or if there were cool ones they were designer and cost like $600) and you couldn’t just buy them online so I was walking around looking like Harry Potter for most of my childhood and early adolescence and feeling very insecure about it.
The good thing about personal style, culture, and taste is that i truly had to figure it all out on my own by seeking out and curating sources of inspiration, or by word of mouth from other people, rather than having inspiration algorithmically fed to me.
I remember going trick or treating in the mall after 9/11 because some parents including my mother were very paranoid that something (?) would happen? My mom was very paranoid in general because of her own childhood experiences and seeing all of the news stories about child abductions but I wasn’t helicoptered and my parents would let me walk around the neighborhood with my friends as I got older. We spent so much time just walking from strip mall to strip mall and like loitering at Barnes and Noble lol.
So it was a mixed bag really but I wouldn’t go back and my nostalgia is usually only in passing. This is controversial but I don’t have any fondness for physical media other than vinyl records because I remember just thinking CDs DVDs and VHSs sucked and I hated when they would get damaged. When I realized that I could acquire any digital media I wanted on the internet it felt like the world was my oyster and I never looked back.
You know what though actually I just remembered how much cheaper everything was and I got mad so…
6d ago
Rec
💭I saw somebody else respond in this format so I’m going to provide my misc memories from being 6-16 in the 2000s:
• frying an egg on the sidewalk/asphalt/car hoods with kids from my apartment complex because we were convinced it was that hot out • watching SpongeBob seasons 1-3 on repeat • watching mtv after school and always having a talk show or pbs queued up on the “previous channel” button so if my mom came home I could quickly look like I was watching Ellen or Oprah or cyberspace all along (mtv shows were so raunchy) •you had to watch vh1 for anything music related • catalogs!!! i would do all my “scrolling” in limited too catalogs and then dig through racks at tj maxx to find similar things my mom could actually buy •teen mags for the quizzes • driving around with my mom listening to her cds while she smoked and ran errands (honestly this still holds up today/ I keep it alive in my own ac-less suv) • beanie babies and being called out if you had fakes • listening to radio Disney on my boom box before bed •riding my bike aimlessly when I had nothing else to do •walking to the gas station with my $5 allowance and buying Sobe, now n later, tgi Friday potato skins, and cherry vanilla coke •I also got in trouble a lot for wandering off or smoking rolled up sticky notes or vandalizing storage units with “brat girl” or something so y2k •I remember my outfits so well…. Many cheeky graphic tees, ringer tees, layered tanks, peasant skirts, stripes, capris, platform sneakers, chokers •redesigning my MySpace every weekend •changing my aim screen name with the seasons •being bullied by boys in middle school, over aim or getting prank called •when I got a cell phone I never remember charging it, but I do remember trying to break my Nokia brick because I wanted a razr or a chocolate, but it was truly indestructible •listening to mix cds in friends cars as they began to drive because nobody had an aux cord or Bluetooth •2008-2010 we’re really dark so I’ll spare you more details
• frying an egg on the sidewalk/asphalt/car hoods with kids from my apartment complex because we were convinced it was that hot out • watching SpongeBob seasons 1-3 on repeat • watching mtv after school and always having a talk show or pbs queued up on the “previous channel” button so if my mom came home I could quickly look like I was watching Ellen or Oprah or cyberspace all along (mtv shows were so raunchy) •you had to watch vh1 for anything music related • catalogs!!! i would do all my “scrolling” in limited too catalogs and then dig through racks at tj maxx to find similar things my mom could actually buy •teen mags for the quizzes • driving around with my mom listening to her cds while she smoked and ran errands (honestly this still holds up today/ I keep it alive in my own ac-less suv) • beanie babies and being called out if you had fakes • listening to radio Disney on my boom box before bed •riding my bike aimlessly when I had nothing else to do •walking to the gas station with my $5 allowance and buying Sobe, now n later, tgi Friday potato skins, and cherry vanilla coke •I also got in trouble a lot for wandering off or smoking rolled up sticky notes or vandalizing storage units with “brat girl” or something so y2k •I remember my outfits so well…. Many cheeky graphic tees, ringer tees, layered tanks, peasant skirts, stripes, capris, platform sneakers, chokers •redesigning my MySpace every weekend •changing my aim screen name with the seasons •being bullied by boys in middle school, over aim or getting prank called •when I got a cell phone I never remember charging it, but I do remember trying to break my Nokia brick because I wanted a razr or a chocolate, but it was truly indestructible •listening to mix cds in friends cars as they began to drive because nobody had an aux cord or Bluetooth •2008-2010 we’re really dark so I’ll spare you more details
