"You're not a real 90s kid." Chances are, many of us have heard this sentence more than enough times throughout our lives, typically said with a condescending tone. One common argument is that the real 90s kids were born in the 80s, so that they were old enough to remember the 90s as it was happening. So by this logic, anyone born between 1995 and 1998 isn't a "true 90s kid", even though they were born in the 1990s.
But at the same time, these individuals (who are currently between the ages of 17 and 21) aren't exactly in the same generation as middle schoolers, who were born after 2000. There is a noticeable cultural gap between today's 11-year-olds and today's college students that makes it difficult to lump us all together, at least for right now. So what are we?
We're not 90s kids, but we're not really in the emerging generation either. We're somewhere in the middle, but "00s kids" just doesn't have a ring to it (besides, how would you even pronounce that?). Even though we don't have a catchy name, I think it's safe to say that we grew up in a pretty great time period. We had some of the 90s culture combined with the gradually advancing technology, so I guess you could say that we had the best of both worlds (yes, that Hannah Montana reference was intentional). Let's all take a walk down memory lane and highlight some of the best parts of growing up in the early 2000s.
We had CDs, but we also had iPods. We had VHS tapes, but we also had DVDs. We had Blockbuster, but we also had Redbox. We had CD-ROM games, but we also had online flash games. We had Pokémon trading cards, but we also had Pokémon Game Boy games.
We watched Friends, but also Hannah Montana. We watched Boy Meets World, but also Drake and Josh. We watched Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but also Suite Life of Zack and Cody. We watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but also Wizards of Waverly Place. We watched The Lion King, but also Finding Nemo.
These are only a small fraction of all of the parts of our childhood that changed during the turn of the millennium, but I think you get the point. We were young enough to be able to pick up on new technological advances fairly easily, but the first 10 or so years of our lives were not centered around social media and iPhones. Sadly, that simply isn't something that the generation after us necessarily had. So yes, those of us born in the mid to late 90s did grow up in an era that included some fairly advanced technology. Perhaps we aren't "true 90s kids". But in the end, I think we can all agree that growing up in the early 2000s gave us a pretty awesome childhood nevertheless.
