What’s ‘normal’ today that would shock people 20 years ago?

The fact the minimum wage hasn't gone up all that much relative to the cost of rent, houses, food, gas....

Job market was absolute shit starting around 2007 due to the great recession, so I guess that is only 19 years ago.

Back then, people assumed a degree meant security. Today, you could have a master’s and still be flipping burgers

Wild how your supposed to have 3 years experience for an "entry level" position now

The degree isn’t the problem. The expectations were

We assume this because that is what we were told at school or by our parents. However, I graduated with a Master’s in Psychology in 2000. My first job was as a carer, doing housework and helping older people shower or change their incontinence pads. It was a Level 2 job (my degree was Level 5-6). After a few years of Level 2-3 work, I retrained as a teacher and worked an L6 job. Then I went back to uni in my 30s and got an L8 qualification, which I do now. It took me till I was 40 and 8 years of education to earn more than if I'd just got a job at 18. Throughout my undergrad and my 20s, we had damp houses, single glazing, so cold homes and c**** food. We were always in debt and feeling injustice. There was always an earnings imbalance, with older people better off and in more secure jobs. Is it different now, or are expectations unrealistic?

This was a thing 20 years ago as well, but to a lesser degree

Actually this wasn’t really a thing 20 years ago either circa 2008

Yeah. Back then, graduating basically meant a steady job. Now it feels like a degree just comes with more anxiety and rent bills.

Nah, this was definitely a thing 20 years ago. I was there.

2006 was just as bad, even worse because the great recession started the next year. People were being laid off on a massive scale and no one was hiring. There were no raises except for cost of living which was pennies.

It wasn’t shocking 20 years ago.

Why does this have to happen when it’s my turn to become an adult bro

Watch Good luck, have fun, don’t die

Yeah. People used to actually *look* at each other during lunch, now it’s all scroll, scroll, scroll.

I've been rewatching an 00s show and it's so nice to see them sitting around reading during scenes rather than on their phones lol.

agreed.

20 years ago was 2006. Just one year before iPhone. We would have been amazed by screen size and speed and everything, but not shocked. PDAs and (rather bad) smartphones were already a thing.

Nope, people saw them merging in the 90s.

I got my first smartphone in 2003 so I don’t think this is a 20 years ago thing. 30 years ago, sure.

More broadly speaking, how our world has become organized around smartphones and the online world. They’re the vector through which we communicate, do business and seek entertainment. The digital world has replaced postal mail, cash payments, traditional news outlets and dozens of other elements of life. 

Wait, what!? Like... Pornhup requiring a verified log in?

America truely is more free than others.

Because you're buying the c**** stuff. Buy the premium products and they will last. If you compare 20usd hammer from 20 years ago to 20usd hammer from today it will be c****. Compare the product after you calculate the inflation.

In 2006 there was work from home jobs. Internet wasn’t that brand new

No Pad Kra Pao for a whole season would be sad.

Photoshop and Lightroom that have features that are basically witchcraft, not to mention the ai trained autofocus in my camera that latches onto eyes perfectly.

Richard Nixon though

It's more that *everyone knows* that he's a rapist pedo grifter who uses the office to unlawfully enrich himself and sells US state secrets abroad etc etc etc - and the establisment and the republican "patriots" all just accept it

that Donny is President in the first place... Unbelievable.

…And that a broad section of our electorate is okay with that. 

Those are great examples. Shet I'm *still* shocked over them!!

We did have smartphones in 2006. They were rather bad, but existed.

Nah. People might be a bit like "oh wow it's faster than I thought, cool" but it really wouldn't "*blow people's minds*".  Everything had been rapidly moving to the internet since the 90s, and the internet had been trying to get into the cell phone since the turn of the millennium at least. Mobile phones with cameras and entertainment (games) were popular, and digital banking and online maps were a thing, MP3 players were a thing - the early 00s were a time of rapid technological advancement with both the internet and mobile phones, new things coming out all the time and the gadgets getting more and more features.  The smartphone with its touchscreen was a huge change, but it had been coming, clumsy touch technology had been a thing etc. Social media being totally privacy-eroding and brainrot and doomscrolling tho, *that* might blow people's minds. And maybe paying with your phone contactlessly

I had the Pocket PC phone in 2001. Blew peoples minds

More like 30 years ago. I got my first cell phone in 98. The speed of tech advance in 2006 would’ve made it believable to put all the things you mentioned on a phone. In 96 it only did calls. We didn’t even have snake for another five years. Texting wasn’t widely available till the mid 00s.

I mean they would be but not for those reasons. You just described all software and even most book with how btoad that statement is.

My first phone could store 12 SMS messages. I remember paying £10 to activate it and then £3 a month to be able to send messages back in the 90s

Not only is the [bystander effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect) old enough to drink, it should be retiring soon; the murder of [Kitty Genovese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese) was more than 60 years ago.

We had social media in 2006. MySpace, Migente, black planet, etc

Smartphones existed in 2006. They were much more limited, but they were around. BlackBerries were extremely popular among business people, and we were already seeing a slow uptick of consumer adoption. (There were a few BlackBerries specifically targeted to consumers, there was T-Mobile sidekick, some others) Of course, then the iPhone changed the entire market into what it eventually became.

What? The "obnoxious guy talking loudly on his bag/briefcase phone" has been a trope in media since at least the early 1990s. Hell, [Listnook thought it was annoying](https://www.listnook.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/11myn7/listnook_do_you_think_its_rude_when_customers_are/) fifteen years ago.

Nope. Similar stuff existed more than 20 years ago.

Losing equal rights