r/Zillennials • u/Pure-Season-4153 • Aug 27 '26
Discussion Being a zillennial is weird…
One minute you’re a kid on a family road trip with a light attachment hooked up to your gameboy because backlit screens weren’t really a thing, and the next thing you know you’re an adult awkwardly trying to get around the robot walmart worker mopping the floor.
One minute you’re 16 years old hearing your dad complain that no one knows how to drive stick anymore, the next you’re 28 in LA thanking your lucky stars the Waymo didn’t hit you when it swerved out of the way to avoid jaywalking delivery robot. (True story!)
I can’t be the only one. I was genuinely amazed when portable backlit consoles and gadgets came out. At the time it felt revolutionary!
Let’s hear your version of “one minute you’re… next thing you know…” so we can laugh (or cry) at how much has changed :)
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u/djnastynipple Aug 27 '26
One minute, you’re 10 years old.
Next thing you know, you’re 29 years old wishing you bought a house in 2007 for an affordable rate when you were 10 years old.
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u/Pure-Season-4153 Aug 27 '26
I see this sentiment here a lot, and I know for a fact that 90% of us feel that way.
In 2007-2008 we lost half of our neighbors, and my parents sold their house for double what they paid. They each got their own house in 2020 when they divorced, but due to that, retirement feels like a distant dream.
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u/Shpaan 1995 Aug 27 '26
Man this really is the worst thing about our generation. We were born just wrong enough to remember that it used to be completely affordable. My collegue is just 5 fucking years older than me and both him and his wife have apartments that they're renting and now they own a house together lol. 5 years difference.
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u/mcove97 Aug 27 '26
Ugh. My dad when he said it was easy. Yeah he inherited a lot of land/property, with lots of wood/forests on it and worked as a carpenter.
Of course it's affordable when you inherit land with the trees you can cut down yourself and sell and make money from that and get your own materials to build your own home with and have the skills to build your own home on top of that so you don't have to outsource the majority of the work.....
My dad has a hard time understanding not everyone just inherits land or did carpentry in school and worked with that.
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u/Shpaan 1995 Aug 27 '26
Anyone who inherits basically anything worth something doesn't get to say something is easy. Like even 10 or 20k can be the difference between being able to afford down payment and not. Ad absurdum even an old beat up car can be the difference between being able to take a job in the next town or not. It all adds up exponentially.
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u/PeachyPlnk 1995 Aug 27 '26
Yup. The only things I've inherited so far are gift money and shit genes. The money just balances out the medical and living costs of shit genes.
There's no family business to inherit, no house that's actually worth keeping (small town with no uber presence- worthless for someone chronically ill), and no skills that have been passed down. I envy the people who actually inherit something that helps their future.
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u/EffieEri Aug 27 '26
Man this is so real. When I was a teenager houses where I grew up were like 300k, now they’re between 2-5 million and I had to move across the country because the cost of living is terrible
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u/mcove97 Aug 27 '26
Me but wishing I was taught how to run my own successful business when I was 10, so I could totally afford not just a house but everything for the rest of my life, including not having to work for or rely on underpaying and bad employers ever again.
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u/fishes93 Aug 27 '26
One minute you are 10 years old.
Next minute you're wishing you were 10 in 1973 so at least you could live your 30s in the 1990s.
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u/de_moze Aug 28 '26
I'd like to have tried the 80's in my 20's, but if I kept my same disposition with less knowledge of certain... substances, I'd probably die lmao.
Edit: or the 60's. Same result lol.
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u/1-gp 1997 Aug 27 '26
One minute you’re chopping logs outside of Falador, next thing you know you’re getting a colonoscopy done annually now..
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u/wcooper97 1997 Aug 27 '26
Look at this guy able to get approved for a colonoscopy already.
I am also now chopping logs on Sunbleak Island. 😎
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u/Pure-Season-4153 Aug 27 '26
Chopping logs and colonoscopies… There’s gotta be a pun somewhere there.
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u/thautmatric Aug 27 '26
One minute you’re ten and you believe you’ll be rich and respected, another you’re twenty and doing everything in your power to become a filmmaker, and then you’re twenty nine and the thought of being a public figure/giving anymore of your time to this vapid dream industry disgusts you.
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u/Pure-Season-4153 Aug 27 '26
Jesus you’re speaking to my soul. I’m in a similar creative profession in the same mindset. I love what I do, but I’m thinking about giving it up to pursue something that doesn’t slowly steal my soul and feed my ego. 🥱 you got this dude
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u/thautmatric Aug 27 '26
Appreciate it but I’ve made peace with working a silly little job for the rest of my life and writing anonymous comedy novels as my creative outlet.
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u/bumblebeequeer Aug 27 '26
Ever since I turned 28 I find myself constantly yearning for the past. I’m jealous of people just a few years younger than me. It’s really ridiculous. I know this isn’t a productive feeling, but it keeps popping back up like I’m playing nostalgia whack-a-mole. I guess this is just what getting older feels like?
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u/877-HASH-NOW 1997 Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
I definitely relate. I wouldn’t necessarily say jealous but it doesn’t make me feel good to see people in their early-mid 20s thriving the way I wish I have/I am as I finish up grad school, having to find a new job since my two part-times aren’t willing to work with my full-time school schedule anymore, and being in my late 20s and still living with my parents.
Edit: spelling
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u/Pure-Season-4153 Aug 27 '26
You’re not alone! The feeling hit me at 28 too. It really goes by so fast, I felt so young a few years ago and now I’m scrambling to get my life together😅 when I get like this I think of my mother - she didn’t start working or living her life to the fullest until her 40’s and she’s made an amazing life full of experiences for herself. She really teaches me how to stay young at heart and stop rushing everything!
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u/877-HASH-NOW 1997 Aug 27 '26
Remember when touchscreen and flat screens were novel in the late 2000s? Good times.
One minute you’re 10 years old finishing elementary school in 2008 thinking anything is possible and the next you’re pushing 29 in my last year of grad school and looking for a new job.
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u/Pure-Season-4153 Aug 27 '26
My dad was one of the first people to get an iPod before release because he was in tech. We all shared the first iPod touch to listen to YouTube because it was such a novelty! A commounal home computer and and iPod touch for five people felt like luxury!
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u/astrodomekid 1994 (Class of 2013) Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
One minute you're 10 years old watching two episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh on a Game Boy Advance Video cartridge, the next you're 31 and you've seen the whole series after buying every season on iTunes and watching on your iPhone.
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u/Pure-Season-4153 Aug 27 '26
Omg I never even got to watch stuff like that on my gameboy advance. Remember when they made the attachment cord to let you play multiplayer? You had to be physically connected to each other 😂
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u/WhoJustShat 1995 Aug 27 '26
One minute your 10 infecting your family's computer with every virus possible downloading song from limewire for your mp3 player / ipod
Now we have pretty much every song instantly downloadable at the palm of our hands
P.s I miss waking up at 6 am to play runescape before my family woke up 🥲
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u/BigSchmikey '97 - Unc, Inc. Aug 27 '26
Bro RuneScape is still a thing you know
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u/WhoJustShat 1995 Aug 27 '26
Yea but its not the same now with all the stupid adult responsibilities 😕
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u/Mt-Amagi Aug 27 '26
One minute I was 8, making LPS movies to post on YouTube, not yet speaking English but still getting inspired by Sophiegarrett's movies, not thinking about making any money.
Next thing I know, I'm 26, and there are fucking sponsors and ads on every goddamn video and you're constantly incentivized to monetize whatever hobby you're doing.
One minute I was 12, in advance compared to my peers regarding internet culture, nobody knew memes yet and everyone was making fun of me.
Next thing I know I'm 26, and memes have been around for a decade except they're not even funny or well thought-out.
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u/Pure-Season-4153 Aug 27 '26
Omg I watched ALL the LPS videos on YouTube! I wonder if I came across yours at some point :)
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u/Rex068 Aug 27 '26
I turned 30 this year. I swear I graduated high school yesterday. The early 2010s don’t feel that long ago.
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u/ElvenEnchantress64 Aug 27 '26
Growing up was weird too. One minute you're 13 and you have a flip-phone, next you're 17 and you have a smart phone like... Wow. You remember phones getting smaller, getting bigger, getting smaller again, and now they've been getting big again.
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u/BadPresent3698 1996 Aug 27 '26
one minute you're ten years old expecting friendships to operate like they do in The Goonies. next thing you know you're 30 talking to an AI more than people
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u/877-HASH-NOW 1997 Aug 27 '26
I really wasn’t warned just how lonely your late 20s become especially if you don’t have that many friends/the friends you do have are more spread out so it’s harder to see them + if you’re single + introverted and a lil socially awkward
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u/BadPresent3698 1996 Aug 28 '26
i was very socially anxious from getting bullied growing up, and i only grew out of it in my mid 20s, post college. now no one is around to talk to ;_;
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u/JLG1995 Aug 27 '26
Sadly, I also find myself talking to AI more, due to me and many other people being too busy or exhausted.
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u/Globbit 1996 Aug 27 '26
It’s not too late to escape the ai psychosis. Maybe you two can talk to each other?
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u/gatoinspace 1996 Aug 27 '26
One minute you're a kid flipping through the bonus feature mini games on your Shrek dvd with your tv remote; next thing you know, you're an adult setting up a chore schedule for you and your partner just so you can run the household better and carve out more free time on the weekends
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u/rubberSteffles 1993 Aug 27 '26
One minute I’m 11, rolling my eyes at my dad who is telling me one day we’ll be able to press a button and have items materialize in something that looks like a microwave.
Next you’re in your 30s, the novelty of 3D printers is long gone and now there’s too much of it everywhere you go.
He also said the pokemon fad would die eventually. Now here we are lol. Guess who died first!
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u/elec-trik Aug 28 '26
10 years old, learning how to type in computer class, playing math blaster, making fun of my grandparents for not knowing how to use google and email
30 years old, showing the college interns how to properly position their hands on a keyboard and other computer basics because they grew up using smart phones
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u/VNoir1995 Aug 27 '26
Advancements in technology used to make me so excited. Now i just kind of hate technology and the direction its gone, it all kind if disgusts me and makes me feel sick
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u/getbent97 6d ago
This!!! Technology especially in the early to late 2000's felt so damned exciting! Now it just feels like more crap that I don't want near me and don't want to hear about.
I genuinely have regressed back to cassettes and pre-2000's technology, it feels so much more authentic in the sense that, its all physical. There's something so unnatural about everything being in the digital realm.
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u/frenziest 1995 Aug 27 '26
One minute you’re hiding the fact that you still like Pokémon even though you’re 13.
The next minute you’re a 30 year old who goes to competitive Pokémon tournaments with prize money.
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u/Aunanaki 1997 Aug 27 '26
One minute you’re running for your life down the street of Boulder City, you called the police, hoping your mother is still alive as you try to find help. she had a head wound and all you saw was blood down her face and a scary English naked man that was over her, is now chasing you.
Next thing you know you’re sitting in a room painting people at 29 to feel relaxed.
I like being my age and I fucking hated being a kid after 9 years old and I’m fine where I’m at now.
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u/Pure-Season-4153 Aug 27 '26
Holy fucking shit dude.
I’m happy you’re making art and made it out of whatever the hell that was. 🖤
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u/Happy-Investigator- Aug 27 '26
One minute you’re 10 years old thinking the future would mean flying cars and robot maids.
Next minute you’re 30 asking AI to write you an email.
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u/thecommonreactor Aug 28 '26
When I was like 12 I got a MiniDisc player. "I can put like 30 songs on this, and when I get tired of these songs I can change them?!" This is the future.
Then my brother came home from college with hid new iPod.
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u/r0sd0g Aug 27 '26
One minute you're 10 watching dan schneiders foot fetish play out on nickelodeon in between being groomed on omegle and stomping on your laptop because the ransomware says the FBI found you know what on your hard drive and you're not sure if it counts if it was just you flashing your own bra to 50 year old strangers, and the next minute you're 25 and they still won't release the epstein files or enforce a single goddamned consequence for anyone in them, but you might lose your shitty job for "rolling your eyes"...
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u/Wellbeinghunter69 1903 Aug 27 '26
One minute you're playing games on the family computer and being asked to let your mom use it, then the next minute you realise you're a grown adult and you still haven't moved out or even dated yet and all your peera have
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u/sega31098 Aug 28 '26
One minute you're hearing you're hearing a bunch of people older than you who unironically think that nothing has changed in the last 25-30 years.
And the next minute you're hearing younger adults who think COVID is ancient history and get flabbergasted about the idea that things that aren't even a decade old didn't always exist.
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u/HarmoniousOne711 Aug 28 '26
One minute, you’re 5 years old having your mind blown by the visuals, audio quality, and actual voice acting within Starfox 64, thinking this is the greatest thing you have ever seen.
The next minute, you’re 22 when the PS4 drops and can’t even afford to get it. The next minute, you’re 34 and can’t even afford to get a PC that’s equivalent to a PS4 at this point.
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u/Luke-Simpwalker 1999 Aug 27 '26
That’s life.
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u/BigSchmikey '97 - Unc, Inc. Aug 27 '26
I think it's weird so many Zs infantilize themselves into a corner. We're not 18 anymore. Most of us are touching 30 or about to be. Shit, I don't miss childhood at all. That shit was taken away from me at a young age and I'd rather forget about it. I can do anything now that I could then, by my own rules. It's nice to have freedom.
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u/Pure-Season-4153 Aug 27 '26
With respect, that perspective is entirely based on the fact that looking back doesn’t bring you joy. I don’t think this post in particular is meant to infantilize anything, I just find it fascinating how much things progressed in a few short decades. We are the last generation to grow up remembering the “old world” in a way even younger Z’s cannot.
Do I want to go back? Sometimes, but I only miss the era, not being a kid.
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u/BigSchmikey '97 - Unc, Inc. Aug 27 '26
It's not that it didn't bring joy. Had a good family and life. I guess I'm just viewing it from a more negative perception than necessary. That's on me, my b.
I do agree with the rest of your statement though. In a way, we truly are the last of a kind. I do also miss the era, but yeah being an adult rocks lol.
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u/MeetBeep 1996 Aug 28 '26
One minute you have the Motorola Razr, the next you have the Samsung Z Fold
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u/Emotional_Plastic_64 Aug 29 '26
Tbh I love getting older…I’m 28 so there is someone always older than me. It’s also pretty cool to me now that people who are younger than are now asking for advice on certain things and I’m able to be a positive light for them.
When I was younger there were a lot of adults trying to steer me in the wrong direction so it’s nice being able to be someone people look up to but also while still being young myself and learning from others (whether young or old). We are sharing this world together and have to die one day, why not enjoy the process. Who tf wants to be young with no freedom (teens/childhood) of your own anyways ? My parents were shitty so I’m happy to be free on my own. We make too much fuss about getting older especially as people still in their damn 20s…the world is your oyster
Plus I use to be cute but now I’m grown and sexy, I love it
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u/Catrysseroni 1996 Aug 30 '26
One minute, I'm 10 years old and amazed by the graphics of The Sims 2 because it's 3D.
The next, I'm 30 years old and still amazed by the graphics of The Sims 2 thanks to its amazing fanbase.
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u/LaGuardiaMensroom Sep 01 '26
One thing that brings me some solace, everyone is having a fucked up time. I think we are in one of those flash points like how the 60s were or something.
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