BACK THEN (1990s)

22 years ago, there was a time. A time known as the 90s. The 90s came with lots of weird hairdos and fashion but the 90s also had more communication between people compared to the present day. What did you remembered about your 1990s? Well, I was born in the late 80s, 1989 to be exact and there fore I was part of the assemble of The Last Children of the 80s (its not a cult, just something I made up). The 90s were very colorful. Life was technicolor and painted with crayons. There were unicorns flying high up above (actually, no. Unicorns weren't that famous till Barbie and her gang decides to put them in her movie and Lady Gaga tattooed a Unicorn on her thighs). ANYWAYS, here are some of the things that made the 90s...well, the 90s.

Before piracy was big and heavy (not that I mind it), there was a rectangular thingy called cassettes. Cassettes are basically the modern day's CDs. Apart from radio, cassettes were our source of music. My first cassettes was of Backstreet Boys. Yeap, I was a groupie to boybands back then. And girlbands! 

Since we are on the matter of cassettes, lets move to the players. Back in those days we had not radio (well, not the compact ones), we had BOOMBOX. We had big, bulky radios that comes with a rectangular compartment specially for the cassettes and to rewind the music, we had to press and hold the rewind button. Usually when I do that, my mom would be telling me 'keep rewinding and later your cassettes will spoil then don't ask me buy new one'. Car radios were bulkier too and they had cassette players. You can still find these players in cars like Proton Saga (the old model of course).

Before MP3 players were invented, before iPod were the 'in' thing, we had something legend...wait for it...dary called the WALKMAN. Back in the 90s, us kids would strap our Walkman on and walk around the neighborhood *Like A Boss. We thought we look cool until 2000 came in, LOL.

Imagine walking around with one of these thing (points to the yellow one!)

VHS. The mention of it, most people go 'HAR?!' VHS stands for Video Home System and its size is almost like the Walkman except it is a tape that contains motion pictures. The inside of the VHS are pretty much the same like the cassettes. I had a collection of Dragon Ball and Spiderman tapes.

Before Facebook, Wii, XBox, PS# was invented (or it probably had been invented but they were testing it in a secret facility), before tablets were invented (heck, the only tablet we know at that time were the ones you get from the doctor's), we had many other activities and gadgets. We had the infamous and a MUST own for every kid, the GAMEBOY. I had a lime green one which cost me RM250. 1999's angpao money gone. We had PS1, the very first generation but of course it was on the higher end at that time. We also had Digimon in a small digital thiny where we could connect and battle. We had Tamagochi and all of those virtual pet stuff. These days with Facebook and tablets, people don't seem to talk that much anymore. A group of friends may agree to go out and hang but once they are seated, they whip out their iPhones, iPads, Blackberries and other form of internet based gadgets. Though we had gadgets in the 90s, our gadgets requires communication. With the Gameboy, we could sync and trade. We talk about the games we play, exchange strategies (mostly games like Pokemon and card games). With Tamagotchi and Digimon, we train and connect to battle and whoever wins, wins bragging right. Even with PS1, I remember going to a friend's house to play every few days and we would battle it out in King of Fighters. We would talk about tactics and how to generate the ultimate attacks and such. We also made bets like whoever loses in the game has to run around the apartment or we had to wrestle it out. We had games but the games came in cassette-like-tapes as well. And the player was pretty big. At that time, the tapes would cost anywhere from RM10-RM100 depending on the games inside.There was still communication going on. These days, people communicate but they can be next to each other and text to communicate or inbox one another's Facebook to say something. All we see are people holding an iPad and walk-around like zombies.

I still have 2 of these xD

Apart from gadgets and minor technology, the 90s kids were very much active in outdoor activities. For me, I'll be at the field below our apartment by 5pm. Football, hide and seek, jumping down from the second floor (I know, insane but it wasn't that high. I created the game, LOL), skipping ropes, treasure hunt and many others. We had LEGOS! We'd bring out our toys and make them fight. We had merchandises from Power Rangers and pretended to be one of them. We pretended that we were part of the X-Men (I was always Storm I know, like what was I thinking?!). We played badminton, basketball. These days, we only play Angry Bird or Fruit Ninja. 

LEGO FTW!

Long before Kim Kardashian released her sex tape and brought forth her army of Kardashians, we had good TV shows. Be it reality shows or series. We had Survivors (still around, I think), Giligan's Island, Cheers, The Cosby Show, The George Lopez Show, The Nanny, Beverly Hills 90210 (NOT the new one. The new one sucks.) and many others. Though most of them had bad hair but hey, bad hair were GOOD hair in the 90s. Even I myself had the Superman-comb-to-the-side hairdo till I turned gay. LOL!

Favorite Comedy of ALL TIME! Watched every episode and EVERY re-runs!

The ORIGINAL Beverly Hills 90210

Before Justin Bieber, the horror was known, we had good music. Back in the 90s, Britney was still a virgin and she danced better. She never thought of shaving her head back in the 90s. C'mon, back in the 90s most of us were dancing to Oops, I Did It Again. Before Glee, I was my own Glee. Back in the 90s, love songs came from Celine Dion and her likes, not Bieber or SelGo (though Love You Like A Love Song is good). We had Spice Girls before The Pussycat Dolls and dayumn, why did you girls split up? Even PCD did the same. CURSES!

In the 90s, not much was known about digital camera (I don't think we have it at all at that time). Most of us were using one of those big black camera that requires film rolls to snap. Then digital camera came and everyone threw their big black camera away. Then lomo camera came and now prices for those old camera hijacked because people are into old things again. People pay a lot to look poor these days.

Time pass so fast and sometimes, I wish we were in the 90s again but who am I kidding? I am part of this Socially Awkward Age and we can't live without Facebook and Google. I miss those days when Lego and TV made my day. So that is that and how the 1990s were.

This is how 2012 onward looks like.