20 things kids today will never understand: A walk back to simpler times

There was a time when life moved a little slower, not because we wanted it to; we simply didn’t have a choice.

You couldn’t Google an answer in two seconds. You couldn’t send a voice note explaining your entire life in 47 seconds.

You couldn’t check where your friend was, what they were doing, or whether they had seen your message.

And somehow… we survived. In fact, some of us had the time of our lives.

So, take a little walk back with us.

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Back to a time when the internet came with a warning: “Don’t use the phone, I’m waiting for a call.”

Getting online meant occupying the phone line. That unmistakable dial-up sound would fill the room, and if someone needed to make a call, your internet session was over.

And phones? Oh, phones were an entirely different species. We didn’t have Contacts. We had brains.

You were expected to memorise phone numbers, and not just your own, but your best friend’s, your cousins’, your crush’s and probably the landline at your friend’s house.

Some of us could rattle off ten numbers without blinking.

And if you wanted to speak to that friend? You called their house. Then came the terrifying moment when their parent answered.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is Sarah there?”

And then you waited while their mother yelled through the house:

“SARAH! IT’S FOR YOU!”

There was no caller ID. No WhatsApp. No “Hey, are you free?” You just called and hoped for the best.

If you were lucky enough to have a mobile phone, dropping it wasn’t necessarily the disaster it is today.

Your phone would hit the floor and explode into pieces.

The front would go one way. The back cover another. The battery would somehow travel three metres.

Then there was that tiny piece of paper holding the battery in place. You’d collect all the pieces, put everything back together, press the power button… and carry on with your day.

Speaking of phones, airtime wasn’t something you simply bought with Apple Pay or a banking app.

You went to the shop, bought an airtime voucher, scratched off the silver strip and carefully entered the numbers.

And if you had no airtime? Please Call Me. A technological masterpiece.

Before unlimited messaging, we had SMSes and 160 characters.

You didn’t just write a message. You edited it.

“Okay” suddenly became “K.” Words were shortened. Vowels disappeared. Entire sentences were sacrificed to stay within the character limit.

And if you really needed to say something? You called. Imagine that.

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But technology wasn’t the only thing that required patience.

Remember taking photographs? You’d take the picture, smile, pose, take another one just in case… and then wait.

You had absolutely no idea whether your eyes were open, whether someone had walked behind you, or whether your thumb was covering half the lens.

You only found out when the film was developed.

And there was always that one photograph where everyone looked fantastic except the person whose eyes were closed.

No deleting. No retaking. No “Wait, let me see.” Just memories developing one photograph at a time.

Then there were the things we did to entertain ourselves.

Parents would simply say: “Go outside and play.” And off you’d go.

No location sharing. No “Where are you?” No Find My iPhone.

You could disappear for six hours and return home dusty, hungry and carrying absolutely no explanation.

And somehow, your parents trusted you’d eventually find your way back.

If you stayed home, there was always television. But not Netflix, YouTube, or “What do you feel like watching?”

We had SABC 1, SABC 2 and SABC 3, and we knew the schedules.

You knew what was coming on, when it was coming on and exactly how long you had to wait for your favourite show.

And then, somewhere in the background, there was always the looming question:

“Have you paid the TV licence?” That conversation could turn an ordinary evening into a family summit.

And if the picture wasn’t clear? You climbed onto the TV and started moving those bunny ears.

Left. Right. Up. Down.

“Is it clear?”

“No!”

“Now?”

“Wait… hold it there!”

Technology had clearly not yet discovered the concept of convenience.

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Even school was different. Researching a project meant reaching for an encyclopaedia, aka, the original Google.

You didn’t search. You looked it up, and if your teacher needed to show you something to the entire class, out came the overhead projector and a transparency.

Someone would inevitably touch the projector, someone would write too hard, and someone at the back would complain that they couldn’t see.

Then there were the notes. Tiny pieces of folded paper passed between desks.

“Did you do number 5?”

“Do you like Jason?”

“Meet me after school.”

A completely physical paper trail of your crimes, and if the teacher caught you? There was no deleting the evidence.

Meanwhile, after school, you could walk to the shop with R5 and feel like you had just received a small inheritance.

You’d stand there calculating. Chappies. Something sweet. Something salty. Maybe a cooldrink if the budget allowed.

And speaking of Chappies… the wrappers knew EVERYTHING.

Random facts. Questions. Little pieces of information you absolutely did not need but somehow remembered for the next 20 years.

Then came the teenage years. The era of burning CDs. You’d carefully choose your songs, arrange them in the perfect order and burn your masterpiece.

Then you’d put it into the CD player.

Track 1? Perfect. Track 2? Perfect. Track 6? Still going. Track 7? “Please, please, please work.”

And when it skipped? Your entire afternoon was ruined.

Road trips were another adventure. Before Google Maps confidently told you to turn left in 300 metres, you would print directions.

Pages of directions. You’d fold them up, put them in the cubby hole and hope someone in the passenger seat could navigate.

“Turn left.”

“Here?”

“No, the next one!”

“YOU SAID LEFT!”

And somehow, you still got there.

And then there was Mxit. If you know, you know. Before Instagram DMs, before WhatsApp and before Snapchat streaks; Mxit had us creating usernames, changing statuses and having conversations that felt like classified government information.

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It was chaotic. It was dramatic. It was ours, and perhaps that’s what makes these memories so special.

Life wasn’t necessarily easier, but it was slower.

We waited for photographs. We waited for replies. We waited for television shows. We waited for songs to come on the radio. We waited for the internet to connect.

We memorised numbers. We knocked on doors. We played outside. We made plans without sending twelve WhatsApp messages first.

And somehow, without all the technology designed to keep us connected every second of every day, we were connected anyway.

Maybe that’s what kids today will never understand.

Not the technology we didn’t have, but the strange, beautiful feeling of having less… and somehow feeling like it was enough.