The 1990s was a decade of saccharine pop music, frosted blonde hair, and exciting technological innovations. Unique fads swept the nation, boy bands churned out music, and everyone made some questionable fashion choices. However, many 90s trends have lost their synthetic sparkle and have become nostalgic relics of the past. Here are 20 things from the nineties that aren’t popular nowadays.
Tamagotchis
Tamagotchi’s egg-shaped legacy might live on in the hearts of nineties kids, but they are woefully absent from the school playgrounds of today. At one time, we were all obsessing over our demanding virtual pets and spent hours making sure they were kept alive.
Sunbathing
Before people fully grasped the damage caused by UV rays, we were roasting ourselves in sun beds or on the beach to achieve the perfect tan. This quest for a sunkissed appearance would ultimately increase people’s risk of premature aging and skin cancer. Thankfully, sunbathing isn’t nearly as popular as it was in the 1990s.
Incandescent Lightbulbs
Incandescent lightbulbs were a staple of every household during the 1990s, and their warm glow could be seen through windows across the US. Nowadays, these dangerous, inefficient bulbs have been banned and replaced with environmentally friendly alternatives.
Plastic Baby Bottles
Until a series of alarming studies discovered the health risks of Bisphenol A, this substance was found in baby bottles across the country. The hard plastic baby bottles containing BPA aren’t just unpopular these days. They’re considered dangerous for our children.
Mercury Thermometers
Mercury thermometers were commonplace in the 1990s, used in both doctor’s clinics and homes across the states. That was until scientists discovered a harmful neurotoxin was released every time one of these thermometers broke. Fortunately, mercury thermometers have been replaced with
Diet Candies
The 1990s gave rise to several strange diet narratives, and weight-loss candies were among these. Fat-free Devil’s Food Cookie Cakes promised consumers that they could eat cake while losing weight. Unsurprisingly, these sugary snacks have been debunked, discontinued, and removed from pantries across the country.
Inappropriate Pop Songs
From Atomic Kitten to The Spice Girls, the 1990s produced an array of pop songs that would be considered offensive now. Many of the songs loved by nineties teens were sexually inappropriate or perpetuated harmful stereotypes of women.
Cassette Tapes
While rudimentary by today’s standards, technology in the 1990s was far from obsolete. Now considered a dead medium, the humble cassette player allowed music to become more personal, portable, and affordable. Gone were the days of carrying around giant boomboxes; these tape players meant people could play their favorite tunes discreetly.
Camcorders
Once a staple of school projects and family vacations, the camcorder was another popular 1990s innovation. The rise of compact and affordable models allowed people to record cherished memories. Nowadays, recording videos can be done on one device.
Sugary Breakfast Cereals
To eat breakfast in the 1990s was to overload our bodies with sickly sweet cereals, and we couldn’t imagine anything better. From Cookie Crisp to Reese’s Peanut Butter Puffs, the breakfast choice of 90’s kids was rarely savory. Nowadays, we value the importance of a nutritious breakfast complete with fiber and whole grains.
Video Rental Stores
In the 1990s, no weekend was complete without a trip to the local Blockbuster. Families would get to their local video rental store early on a Friday to secure the latest must-see picture. In the golden age of video rental stores, Blockbuster was opening a new shop every 24 hours across the states to keep up with demand. But nowadays, streaming services have made rental stores painfully obsolete.
Compact Disc Players
In the mid-1990s, the compact disc player industry seemed indestructible. Suddenly, bulky vinyls were replaced with sleek 12cm optical discs, and sales skyrocketed. But as the 2000s gave way to the rise of MP3 players, these icons of the music industry started to dwindle.
Tactile Technology
We live in an age of touchscreen keyboards that barely require us to apply any pressure. While this is certainly easier than jamming away at a stuck key on our ancient PCs, there’s a certain nostalgia for tactile technology. These days, iPads and tablets have replaced vintage keyboards and typewriters.
Grunge
Inspired by the unkempt cool of bands such as Nirvana, grunge fashion was a popular trend in the 1990s. Think combat boots, ripped jeans, choker necklaces, and greasy-haired looks that regularly disgruntled the older generations. While aspects of grunge return once in a while, the 90’s fashion craze is far less popular today.
Ultra-Thin Eyebrows
The 1990s had some unforgettable makeup trends, and ultra-thin eyebrows were quick to lose popularity. Pencil-thin brows with a defined arch were all the rage for 90s youngsters, which led many to over-pluck their eyebrows and regret it later.
Paper Maps
Google’s navigation app has removed the need to pour over a sprawling paper map, whether you love or hate it. Since paper maps became a relic of the past, road trips haven’t quite been the same.
The Goatee Beard
Facial hair wasn’t very popular in the first half of the decade, but by the mid-1990s, the goatee trend was established as a bridge between being clean-shaven and fully bearded. Suddenly, everyone seemed to be rocking the goatee, from Bradd Pitt to George Clooney, but you’d rarely find this tiny beard nowadays.
“The Running Man” Dance
This series of quick steps gave 90s party animals the illusion of running forward on the dancefloor. The iconic Running Man Dance gained momentum in the early 1990s but had faded into obscurity by the early nineties.
Dial-Up Internet
Dial-up modems were a technological revolution, bringing the internet to households everywhere and kicking off the digital age. Anyone who lived through the nineties can remember the love-hate relationship they had with dial-up internet speeds, but at the time, it was all we had.
Gameboys
Selling over 12 million units, Gameboy’s release in 1990 changed the gaming industry forever, and everyone had one of these handheld devices. While classic games such as Super Mario are still popular today, the Game Boy medium has been replaced with online versions.
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