“What Will Die With Millennials?”: 49 People Share The Trends And Memories They Don’t Expect To Outlast Their Generation

Every generation has their own unique traits and is marked by important global events. Millennials, for example, were once mocked for their love of avocado toast and buying $5 lattes instead of setting money aside for retirement or to invest in a home. (And can you blame them? Who doesn’t love brunch?) But there are plenty of other trends and experiences that millennials will remember for the rest of their lives; they just might be the only ones who do…

One curious Reddit user recently asked, “What will die with millennials?” And thousands of people shared their thoughts in the replies. From trips to Blockbuster to find the perfect Friday night film to burning mix CDs on the family computer for their high school crush, we’ve gathered a list of some of the most quintessential millennial experiences that might get you a blank stare if you mention them to Gen Zers.

Be sure to upvote the things you fondly remember or the things you think should die out with millennials, and let us know in the comments how you feel about the “snowflake generation”. (Just kidding, that term will hopefully die out with the baby boomers!) Keep reading to also find an interview with the woman who started this conversation in the first place. Then, if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article highlighting what it’s like to be a millennial today, look no further than right here.

#1

Privacy. The kids today share everything they will even post someone else online. Millennials understand life before the internet and we see the internet as a tool. The younger generations see it as real as real life. They have no problem signing their rights away online and posting every aspect of their life for all to see.

Image credits: Cool_Weather_7763

We reached out to the woman who started this conversation on Reddit in the first place, Lindsay, to hear what inspired her to ask this question. "I am a millennial, I identify as an elder millennial," she told Bored Panda. "I am a therapist and work exclusively with Gen Zers at my practice: Austin Teen Therapy. Honestly, I didn’t think much about my generation until there were grown up people in a generation following mine."

"There has been a lot of talk about millennials and the internet," Lindsay explained. "We hear about millennials being the first generation to have grown up with the internet. The flip side to that: we will be the last folks to remember life without the internet so widely available. And when we die that will die with us. This fascination with generational culture, disappearing culture, and technology led me to pose the question."

#2

Dubbing cassettes and burning your own mix on CD

Image credits: pfc_Frank

We also asked Lindsay if she thinks certain things will always die out with every generation, or if technology has advanced to a point where that will happen less often. "I suspect things will continue to die with each generation despite advances in technology," she shared. "And for that very reason: technology continues to advance."

#3

3.5 inch floppy discs

Image credits: Traylor_Swift

Millennials get a lot of flack for being “snowflakes”, obsessed with brunch or being the “me generation”, but no generation is perfect. And just because many of them don’t have the “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality of their elders does not mean they are lazy or entitled. They have just realized that being treated poorly by employers should not be the norm, and having a healthy work-life balance shouldn't be merely a fantasy. Plus, what some people call being “snowflakes”, others consider showing empathy for others and being sensitive to social issues. Potato, puh-tah-toe, right?

There are some great qualities about millennials that tend to be swept under the rug as well. For example, 90% of millennials say that working for a sustainable company is important to them, while only 77% of baby boomers feel the same way. These snowflakes are actually concerned about the future of the planet and want to ensure that climate change doesn’t add actual snowflakes to the list of things that die out when their generation does. Gen Z might be even more famous for being socially aware and active, but millennials certainly paved the way for their younger siblings.     

#4

Headphone jacks ?

Image credits: HmmThatWorked

#5

Time when internet was in the golden era.
More genuine content, no clickbait, no hidden agenda, no fake news and hate speech. It was a better and smaller community.

Image credits: mardex_5

#6

Memory of life without internet

Image credits: RagingDinoZ

While millennials may only be 26-41 years old at the moment, we can already predict some of the trends, memories and experiences that will become things of the past as this generation ages. Technology has progressed rapidly during their lifetimes already, and most of Gen Z has no memory of a world without smartphones and streaming platforms. Remember when watching a movie on Netflix meant being sent a DVD in the mail? Or watching a film on Friday night meant a trip to Blockbuster? If you’re not a millennial, you might not remember those days!

There are also various cultural phenomena that no one will remember as well as millennials do. For example, one of the responses on this list mentions how normal it was for millennials to mention their Harry Potter houses. Similarly to how Gen Z might mention their astrology signs, knowing what Hogwarts house you fell into was imperative when I was growing up. The Harry Potter books became the most sold book series of all time, and anyone who did not read the series, or at least watch the films, could be easily left out during lunch time chats. However, with the controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling’s transphobic tweets and the fact that times simply change, reading the Harry Potter books might not be a rite of passage for all kids in the coming generations. 

#7

Playing multi-player video games with split screens in one room.

Image credits: EngineerMinded

#8

Watching “whatever was on”. Everything is always on now, you don’t stumble into an interesting (or awful) show because it’s the only thing mildly interesting on tv.

Image credits: ChefJeff7777777

#9

Hopefully predatory student loans

Image credits: colbat45

Now that millennials have reached the age where they’re raising children of their own, some outdated mindsets and views might be going extinct as well. Katy Steinmetz wrote a piece for TIME examining just how parenting is shifting over time, where she noted that millennials are raising their kids the way they wish they had been raised. “These young adults, having been raised to count individuality and self-expression as the highest values, are attempting to run their families as mini-democracies, seeking consensus from spouses, kids and extended friend circles on even the smallest decisions,” Steinmetz writes. “They’re backing away from the overscheduled days of their youth, preferring a more responsive, less directorial approach to activities. And they’re teaching their kids to be themselves and try new things—often unwittingly conditioning their tiny progeny to see experiences as things to be documented and shared with the world.”

#10

Listening to the radio all day waiting for your favorite song

Image credits: poopstinkss

#11

Memory of having a ‘house phone’

Image credits: friendg

#12

Calling someone’s home and not knowing who would pick up, and as a result, having unexpected conversations

Image credits: jq69swaws

And while millennials are also famous for their optimism, it can be challenging to raise kids in a world full of influencers and constant pressure on social media. Nearly 90% of millennials are active on social media, meaning that it is extremely easy for them to compare their own lives, including their children, to others. But sharing baby pictures on Facebook and documenting every “first” a child has might just be the new norm. Millennials will likely be the last ones to remember growing up without their parents posting on Facebook or having access to it when they were teenagers, and the idea of not being on social media, or at least not knowing how to use it, will be a thing of the past.    

#13

Memories of watching movies on VCRs.

Image credits: mrmonster459

#14

AOL Dial Up.

Image credits: Skystrong11

#15

Strip malls. They're ugly and unsustainable.

Image credits: BrownAmericanDude

Kids today have a completely different experience growing up than millennials did when they were young. It will be interesting to see how having a digital footprint of essentially their entire lives will impact them. “Children growing up will have multiple identities,” Sarita Schoenebeck of the University of Michigan told TIME. “They will have a more public one that has been created by their parents, that’s been cultivated by grandparents. But they will maintain a more personal and private independent identity as well.” Gone are the days of having to print photos or keep journals for memories. The children of millennials will have everything at their fingertips. 

#16

Playing video games without having to buy DLC to get the full experience.

Image credits: Martimusmcfly2036

#17

Going to Blockbuster and trying to find a film to watch, or a one new and one old combo

Image credits: UbbeKent

#18

Cursive.

One negative idea that will hopefully die out with millennials is the stigma around discussing mental health issues. For the most part, millennials are open to engaging in conversations about mental health and promoting practices like therapy, but Gen Z is even more open-minded. In fact, 70% of teens say that anxiety and depression are major issues for their age group, according to Pew Research Center. With young people starting to talk about and be mindful of mental health issues at increasingly young ages, hopefully any stigma associated with taking care of mental health will soon be a thing of the past.     

#19

Using your thumb and pinky to pretend you’re talking on the phone.

Gen Z uses their whole palm like a smart phone.

#20

Memory of 9/11

Image credits: saxypatrickb

#21

Declaring your Harry Potter house to others in normal conversation

Millennials aren’t going anywhere any time soon, but it’s interesting to think about how rapidly the world has changed during their lifetime already. Keep upvoting the responses that you agree with or that you thought raised interesting points, and then feel free to share what else you think will die out with millennials in the comments. And if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article discussing what it’s like to be a millennial today, we recommend reading this piece next. 

#22

I once tried to explain the my niece that phones used to be wired to walls. She's ten (she was six at the time) cell phones are all she's ever known.

Among the reasons she guessed as to why they were "tied" to walls: To stop people from stealing them.

Image credits: N_Who

#23

I really hope bullying in schools ends with us. I’ve noticed that kids are way more tolerant and accepting than we were. It’s not “cool” to make fun of other kids, it just makes you look like an a*****e. And conversely it IS cool to accept people who are different than you and find ways to help other students who need it. I hope that keeps being a thing.

#24

Remembering someone’s phone number

Image credits: Misttertee_27

#25

For office workers, my hope is the traditional expectation of being in an office, at a desk, 9 AM to 5 PM five days a week. With our ability to be connected from almost everywhere, the whole idea of driving back and forth between an office to sit a desk for 8ish hours a day, just to drive back home at stare at one’s possessions seems very antiquated.

Pre-pandemic I commuted between a suburb and a major city 5 days a week, often spending between an hour to an hour and a half each way in my car. Now that I am set up with a remote office from home, I don’t think I can ever go back to that way of doing things.

#26

How about all of those solid oak "entertainment center" cabinets, with fixed shelving spaced out to accommodate a 2 foot deep 4:3 aspect-ratio CRT television? No one's going to want those. A larger 16:9 flatscreen isn't going to fit in that square space, and a smaller one that does is going to look awkward and weird in it.

Same deal with all the china cabinets. Who is going to want all the old china cabinets the boomers have, or for that matter, all their expensive china? Millennials seem less likely to see the point of owning a bunch of dishware that only gets used about twice a year.

#27

I think the “bootstrap” mentality. It’s already declining in millennials but there are still plenty on the front end of the generation that still believe in working themselves to death and grinding 24/7.

Most on the younger side of the generation see right through it and have taken a “job is just to support my lifestyle” perspective.

Our parents still think we need to go in with our resume and demand an interview. Our kids constantly show us kids that have made it on YouTube / tiktok/whatever. We’ve seen both sides of it and we’re just not real impressed.

#28

Awkwardly trying not to look at each other in a waiting room.

#29

Burials. Most people I hear from want to be cremated plus do you know how f*****g expensive dying is? Probably will have to pay rent on the plots by the time we all die too ffs

#30

Hopefully tiktok

#31

Not knowing the answer to something and saying, 'I guess we’ll never know.'

#32

Please let it be man-buns.

#33

I remember a time when long-distance communication was more expensive than local communication. These days, WhatsApp and Discord make it free. We also had family in another country and could go years without seeing their face, and now video calls are easy. Social media isn’t all bad

#34

Being able to go into the cockpit mid-flight on a commercial aircraft is something people younger than me will not experience. I remember going in there, and not being able to see anything over the dashboard. I wondered how they could fly the plane if they couldn't see in front of them. But I now realize that I was just little

#35

Please let it be people who wear Ugg boots in the snow. Goddamn, is that ever impractical.

#36

The hustle culture. Having 2 jobs to make ends meet or working and studying at the same time. We never asked for living wages or lower tuitions or free healthcare or better public transportation as hard as Gen Zers. I’m happy, Gen Z has realized this system is rigged for the rich and the corporations.

#37

Hopefully their love of avocado toast. Then we get the economy back on track.

#38

Hopefully virtue signalling one's believed moral superiority by getting offended as much as possible on behalf of groups you are not associated with.

#39

Skinny jeans, we will all miss you

#40

The Planet

#41

Cable TV. It's already on its way out.

#42

having kids or not as many kids... we just can't afford it

#43

At this rate, an ecosystem that is inhabitable for humans, probably

#44

Getting along with people who have different political views as you have.

#45

Knowing what the save icon actually is...

#46

Probably giraffes. No fault of the milliennials but you're on the same timeline.

#47

Physical copies of movies and games, it seems like...

#48

Articles about how millennials ruin everything.

#49

Apparently using a Haynes or a Chilton’s manual to work on your car. I hate using YouTube videos for car maintenance, but it looks like that’s all I have left.

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