Hi, I'm Micah. And I'm Chris. And this is a very special 90th episode of the Donut Box
podcast.
Chris, it's number 90, the 90th episode. And I think it's time for us to change up the
model just a little bit. What do you think?
Oh yeah, I think so. I think we have a significant mark that we've hit. And it's exciting to
me that we're 10 away from 100. And you know, it's just like you just keep doing it consistently.
And then those numbers keep sneaking up on you. And you're like, holy crap, we've been
doing this for two years.
Yeah, it's almost there, man. Almost two whole years. But yeah, we want to appreciate
everybody for joining us today. Wherever you are in the United States around the world,
we really appreciate you. This week, we're going to be talking about something really,
really interesting. And it's a lot from our childhood. But since it's the 90th episode,
we figured we do the late 90s, early 2000s, best things that were about that time frame.
And what we'd like better about nowadays, I guess is the best way we can call it. Or
is there more concise way to say that?
No, I think that's pretty much it. I mean, if you're a listener millennial and you grew
up, this might bring it back some nostalgia for you. If you're a younger listener, this
might put some perspective for you. And if you're an older listener, this also might
put some perspective on it for you. Because I think old, not saying elderly people, but
people that are like upper millennials and or Gen Xers, they have a different remembering
of the 90s slash early 2000s because, and I'll say it like this, we're kind of in like
that bridge gap, like right on the tail end of millennials, not definitely Gen Z at all.
I don't claim Gen Z by no means, but we're kind of in that bridge years, right?
I'm going to digress on that for two seconds. I think reason being was we were both brought
up on kind of old, older school values. So I think we got more of the millennial upbringing
than we did the Gen Zers. That's that's what I think happened there, even though we were
on the cusp.
Yeah, maybe even a little bit of Gen X bleeding into it a little bit.
Yeah, right. Yeah, we've had to see therapists anyways. So just just joking. But you know,
it was it was a very interesting time period. There was a lot of cool things happening.
You know, biggest thing for me and where I thought we could start with was church and
what we saw in church. So this was something and I'm going to go even beyond this is a
early 90s late 80s and I got to start here. But my wife did not know what Carmen was and
I had to show her what Carmen was because and you know what I showed her Chris and maybe
this will bring some nostalgia to the was it the boxing movie. Did you show her that?
No, I did not show her the boxing movie, but I showed her the music video of devil bite
the dust. Oh, yeah, the Western one, you know, the one with the Western one with the yeah,
it was so for those of you who don't know who Carmen is, Carmen was really, really big.
He had the curly hair. He was like a Christian pop singer and I think like Rick Astley, but
Christian. Yeah, I think the thing about like church
during that time they were trying to, I guess, copy a lot of like what the secular music
was doing. But like, it just wasn't as good. So I don't know, man, like they would still
have tried to do like these cool rap beats and like pop music, but it was it was very
cheesy, just very cheesy. It was it was incredibly, incredibly cheesy. But you know, I don't
I don't know why but typically all the churches that I went to as a child, I don't know, they
tended to have kind of those older school things going on. Like Carmen was still really
big even though he was like 10 years removed from popularity, if that makes sense. So that
was still like weirdly popular and I don't know. Was he popular with with your family,
Chris? Oh, very much so. We had like the Carmen tapes
and everything, but it wasn't like super, super. That was like early 90s. I think kind
of the late 90s, early 2000s that kind of like. Now, I wasn't a big fan of that sort
of stuff, but I tell you what I was a big fan of now that was veggie tales. Like and now
we're going into the early 2000s. I guess that was late 90s, right? Early 2000s. But
veggie tales, I really liked veggie tales. What did you think of veggie tales? I know
we got it shoved down our throat a lot, but hey, it was tolerable.
For those of y'all that do not know, veggie tales is a Christian Bible animated show where
the veggies, even though Bob the tomato is technically a fruit, there's Bob and Larry,
they're the hosts of the show and these vegetables act out Bible stories. Now, you may be this
is really, really weird, but they actually did it in a way that was like fun and entertaining.
And I think even people that didn't really grow up in church, I think they know about
veggie tales to some degree. If you grew up around that time, but it was it was good.
Once it started getting in the late years, though, the episode just kind of started falling
off, but it was a good way to teach kids Bible stories. And it wasn't really that cheesy.
I don't think that wasn't cheesy. Like, I think it was a good animated show that wasn't
too in your face about it. And it was entertaining for kids because it was one of those things
to where the veggies always had, you know, characters from the story. So, you know, one
of them would be the, they always had the bad characters and the good characters and
all that good jazz. So we always liked that. But I actually show my kids veggie tales the
other day and a lot of them know what it is, but a lot of them that hadn't seen it really
liked it. So I mean, it's still relevant, I guess, for kids.
It stands the test of time. That's good. That's good. What are some other things from, we'll
move on from the church aspect of it, but it's just because we spent a lot of time there.
What are some of the other things from that time period that were that were really, really
big and stood out?
I think this was the age where technology was really like on the cusp of revitalizing.
So the first iPhone didn't really come out until 2007, right? Is that, is that right?
2007, 2008, when the first iPhone came out?
It's hard to remember because I'll be honest with you. The iPhone, to me, my family wasn't
really an Apple family. We really couldn't afford it. So for us, it was like, I just
remember it was iPods and those are really big like 2005. So I guess 2005, 2007, in between
that time period.
So let me tell you this, folks. Before the iPod, there was these things called MP3 players.
And what you would have to do is you would have to either buy or illegally steal the
songs and you would have to put them in your library and you would have to download the
song, like connect your MP3 to the computer and there was no Bluetooth. So you had to
like have a wire, connect it with the wire to the computer.
You had to have the right wire because sometimes it would be different kinds of USB wires and
so you wouldn't have like the compatible one. It would be a mess. Something else too, I
would like to say those websites where you're stealing the music, they were sketchy where
you got the free music. Oh, they were sketchy and that's how you get viruses on your family's
computer.
Or what you would have to do is you would have to put a CD in the computer and then you
would have to make it was what was called a rip list, RIP, rip list. And so you would
put the song into this list and drag it over there. And if you wanted like multiple songs
that were from different CDs, you had to do it one CD at a time and then you had to put
it the rip file and then you had to download.
So and then it would it would download onto your MP3 player and sync it up. And then also
the same thing with burning CDs. That was like a big burning CDs, making mix tapes for
people. I remember was a thing like for your friends, you would like make a mix tape and
you would like do because once you made it once you can like duplicate it if you had the
right software, which was cool. But it was a lot of the same process. You had the CD and
you'd have to click and drag the files or you'd have to download it first and click
the drag the files manually to burn it on there and you'd have to have the right software.
Somebody was talking to me about this earlier and they were like, yeah, you remember when
you had to make your friends and mix and you had to really make sure that their handwriting
was really good or otherwise you can tell what they had written on the CD and you wouldn't
know which songs were what. And so that was like just a different time period. We've talked
about YouTube a lot. YouTube didn't come out until 2005, but that was almost like, I wouldn't
want to say like a dark web website, but it was just for people to go find random cult
videos. It's not the business that it was or is now.
No, people, people weren't making money like that. It wasn't a business back then. Oh,
something else we can get back on YouTube in a second, but something else while I'm
thinking about it was we saw the transition from VHS to DVD. I remember that was big transition
whenever I was a kid. I just remember thinking, wow, it went from this big and for those of
you who don't know, maybe we have the younger audience listening. That's okay. VHS tapes
were kind of clunky, black sets, squares, cassettes, basically large cassettes. And
the biggest thing about it was it wasn't like a DVD. You had to put it in the slot and yes,
it would run, but you'd have to rewind it afterwards. Or if you press play again, it
would just be at the end of the movie still. And unless you rewound it and it was a manual
thing like you'd have to press rewind and it would go backwards and then you'd have
to wait till it gets all the way to the very end. Then you watch it again. It was that
and I just remember compared to it that little bitty disc, you know, seeing that little DVD
CD size disc, you're going, holy cow, that is getting so small. And then I remember when
they went like floppies to thumb drives. I thought that was pretty crazy.
I'll tell you that this is how you know you made it as a family during that time when
you had some money. When you had the VHS slash DVD combo player because people had to have
machines to play their movies. It's not like streaming now. And so there would be like,
not everybody had switched over to DVDs yet. And so places did still sell VHS tapes, but
it was like one of those deals where you could still watch your old VHS tapes, but you could
watch the new movies that were coming out on DVDs. And then finally they started re-releasing
all those older movies that were on VHS onto DVDs. But that makes me think of there used
to be video rental stores. Do you remember that? So and most of those were VHS tapes.
So like now we have the benefit of just streaming, paying for a service, but people would actually
go to the store on a Friday night and you would be looking for a movie and you'd be
like, Oh, what movie do I want to watch? If you didn't know it, you'd be like, Oh, what
movie do I want to watch? And so you would rent it and then you would take it home, pay
the fee and whatever and then bring it back. But you always had to bring it back reroute.
Rewound. If you didn't bring back reroute, they would charge you a fee. That's like a
that's like a what people would do on Friday nights. People would go to the video store,
pick a couple of movies for the weekend and then they would. That was the original Netflix
and chill. It was blockbuster and chill, I guess, or whatever. But even even Netflix
was like, Oh yeah, you it was a subscription service still, but you would pick like five
movies and they would send it to you. Then you had to send it back or something. Yeah.
And you know, I don't know. I didn't know too much about it, but I had friends that
because like my family didn't do that. But I had friends family do that. But apparently
it was like you picked movies in a queue at first and it's like they would send them
to you based on availability. And that's basically how it worked. So if you wanted to see the
brand new movie, well, you might not be seeing it for a little bit because there's only so
many in circulation and you're, you know, you have that on your list and they'll get
it to you when they get it to you and they'll move it around based on availability. So it's
definitely a lot different. But you know, back to the video store stuff, I remember
there was local places, there was big chains. I miss Hastings, by the way, even though that
wasn't one that we found until later before they closed. But it also makes me think about
a lot of these computer stores, you know, Best Buy, they kind of made it through everything.
But do you remember like it was called CompUS and then there was like Circuit City. Do you
remember those? Yeah, I remember those. Like whatever happened with them? Like, I mean,
they kind of died, which is kind of weird to think about because we're in a day and
age where computers are big, you know, everybody's got a computer. We're using one right now.
You and I both and we have miniature ones as well as phones. So it's interesting that
that business didn't take off more. But you know, Best Buy has been alive and kicking
for a long time. Well, most of what people would do is they would buy one computer and
like when I say computer, this computer was like clunky big, you had the big monitor and
most people would put it in one room and the whole family would use it, right? It's the
family computer. It's a family computer. People would use it, you know, most people had it
in their living room. So yeah, I remember that was a big thing. I think my mom actually
finally got rid of her big computer. But I remember like if you had to do a school assignment,
whatever, like you either went to the library or you had the family computer. And that brings
me to the next point, internet at the time. We saw a lot of things change internet age
wise. I remember the very first internet services that we ever received were the dial up the
dial up internet. And I always hated it, man, that noise always freaked me out here. You
know, I was connecting. I hated that. Yeah, for sure. And then they had the, you know,
the wires and everything that is what it was called. It was DSL. And then it became wireless.
And it's just it's changed a lot over time. I'll tell you that much. But do you did you
have the family members that had the dial up service for forever in a day? And the problem
for those of you who don't know what dial up service was and what it is, it's incredibly
slow, like it's really, really slow. And it takes a while to connect up and, you know,
we're used to good internet speeds. And even sometimes, like I'm talking slower than mobile
hotspot kind of thing. It's really slow. Yeah. And if you use the phone, if you're downloading
something, you're done skis. So kind of transitioning a little bit. Let's talk about the style.
So the it was starting to transition a little bit into a different style in the early 2000s.
And there are basically, I would say maybe three main styles or categories that people
fit into. Of course, you have the people that just wore the everyday clothes, but you had
the people that were wearing the urban streetwear. So like the big baggy pants, sagging pants
became a thing wearing just oversized urban clothes, chains, grills, fitted hats. Like
that was a big deal, right? Wearing 5950. Yeah. That was a big deal. So there are people
that did that. And then there was like the punk rock scene kind of came on to the phase.
The packs, the original like pack sun kind of kind of style. And what I'm talking about
is it's like you kind of had like the skater crowd, but then you almost had the hipster
crowd that had other, what were some of the other stores in the mall? I know Hollister
came in at one point, but then Hollister is like its own like different. I'm talking about
like the, it's maybe they're like between the Hollister people and the emo people because
they had like the spike hair, Mohawk's were a big thing and like doing like the blonde
tips. Was it the hot topic? Well, hot topic was
Yeah. So it was more like this, I guess it was the skater vibes, right? They were wearing
the vans, had like the long, swooshy hair, the independent brand stuff. Yeah. And then
you had like the preppy Hollister, like those kind of American Eagle was like a thing. And
then you had the emo crowd and bro, the hot topic. I literally just talked about this with
someone that I worked with because she was talking about like growing up and stuff. I
was like, you went to hot topic and shot, didn't you? Hot topic is chilled out, but hot topic
used to be the emo store. And I used to think, man, if I go into hot topic, the devil is
going to possess my soul. I really thought that. Yeah. Well, it didn't help. They kind
of scared us away from that in certain venues. But yeah, no, hot topic has definitely chilled
out. It was it was definitely a different place. Now it's kind of just graphic tease,
right? I mean, it's like kind of more maybe more like a Spencer's GIFs turn, but without
all the rest of the stuff, like just the clothes, maybe a little bit, but it's kind of like
that weird niche graphic tease, but like definitely anime. If you're really big in the anime,
that hot topic is kind of turned into that. So it's kind of from, I don't know what their
crowd is. I really couldn't tell you. They're unique. They're unique crowd. They've definitely
evolved over the time. So what like late nineties and early 2000s, what were some of like the
big moments, whether it was in celebrity pop culture, history, whatever, or were some like
the big moments that stick out to you to me personally. So living in Augusta, and this
happened really early on when Tiger won the Masters. Like I never seen a town erupt like
that. And you know, I don't even remember what year that was. But for those of you who
don't know what the Masters is, it's a big golf tournament. It happens in Augusta, Georgia,
and the whole world watches it or at least they say that. I'm not sure. A lot of people
at Augusta try to get out of town for the Masters because it's kind of a pain to be around
because everybody's there. But anyways, Tiger Woods was playing and he ended up winning
and making this miraculous comeback. But one of the shots, it was just amazing and kind
of rolled in and kind of teetered on the end and went in. It was big sports moment in history.
But something I'd never seen before. I guess I'd never been in a town where like a big
sporting event happened, but it was just the feeling was different. Like it was weird after
that happened. It was like there was a weird excitement in the air and a lot of people
I talked about it for a long time. Like it was something that stayed around for a little
bit, at least from what I remember. I'm going to tell you about four and I'm going to make
them really quick. 9-11 really quick. Of course, you can't forget about 9-11, right? I was
like in first grade. So like I was in school and I don't really remember much about 9-11,
right? The next one that I'm going to talk about and I don't know why this sticks inside
my head. But when Kobe Bryant got accused of messing with that white, white girl and
he allegedly assaulted her. And yeah, I remember that was a big trial. And I remember being
like, bro, like what? See, a lot of people forget about that about Kobe Bryant. It was
in that trial. I don't know why that sticks out to me, but it does just for some odd
reason. And then another one that really sticks out to me is of course, Barack Obama getting
elected as president. I mean, we got to see the first black president elected in the office,
whether you love him, hate him, disagree, whatever. Like that's still a moment in history.
Yeah, we watched history, which is pretty incredible. I mean, it's a part of history
books that we can tell our kids and grandkids like, yep, I remember when that happened.
Yes. Definitely something else. And this is like really, really dumb. But I'm sure you
remember this with the whole little Disney feud with Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi
Lovato and they were all fighting over Nick Jonas. I don't remember what happened, but
I just remember there was like real life beef between them. And then like they literally
hated each other's guts, but then they all did a commercial for the, you remember the
world change? No, it wasn't abstinence. It was like recycle and save the earth, like
turn off all my phone and they're all like smiling, but you can tell that like they want
to stab each other. I definitely remember that for sure. I remember Michael Jackson and of
course his trial. That's what I was going to say too. I was going to say the Michael
Jackson trial when you, when you brought up the whole Kobe thing, it's like, man, you
can't forget old Michael Jackson and McCulloch Hulkin.
Yeah. Definitely for sure. In sports, that was like during from probably from 2000 to
2010, it was like in football, it was always like the giants and the Patriots, like every
Super Bowl that was a big domineering thing. And then the Lakers and the Boston Celtics,
that was like a big domineering Celtics or it was like every year. I just remember every
year. What are some like TV shows that like stand out to you like, Oh, this is like, man.
Of course, of course, family guy was iconic. That came out in 2000. And I think, you know,
the later seasons are goofy, but the probably up until like, what season eight, nine, something
like that. It's pretty, it's, it's pretty good. I'm trying to think Chris doesn't like
it as much. I like Futurama, which is kind of in that same realm. Of course, King of
the Hill, King of the Hill is great. I think that's a great show from that time period.
I'll tell you this much, man, some of those kids cartoons that we watch, though, I've
gone back and watch them now and I'm going, Oh man, I'm not really sure why my parents
let me watch that actually. So one that I really liked as a kid was Courage the Cowardly
Dog. Like I like Courage the Cowardly Dog, but you know, I watched it again. And there
was this one episode about they had ordered this mattress and you know, it was like free
delivery, but there was like a demon living in the mattress and was like inhabiting them
and all this. It was like, what? You know, the dog had to help them and things like that.
And it was just incredible because how much we were also censored and what else we couldn't
watch. But that was okay. That was kind of interesting to me. My favorite cartoon of
the time was Ed Ed Nettie, though. I really don't know why it's a really dumb show. Like
even now that I watch it, I'm just like, man, this is a really dumb show. I mean, it's really
just about getting money and getting your job breakers and staying away from the women.
I mean, maybe that was the motto as a kid. I don't know.
I mean, your parents were not the greatest, giving you free internet access and let you
watch whatever you want. I will tell you, if you want to find some shows that like, man,
this just defines that era of the late nineties, 2000 to 2010, the George Lopez show. That's
a big one. Everybody loves Raymond. Boom. The office. That like, if you watch that,
like that show literally follows all the trends all the way through the through the whole
decade, even though, even though it was, it started, I think it started like 2004, 2005,
but it still was, it still mimicked that timeframe for sure. And drinking Josh. That's like,
oh yeah, that is definitely like, you watch that. You're like, yeah, this is definitely
from the 2000s, but I feel like George Lopez, you watch it. You're like, or my wife and
kids, you watch it. You're like, yep, this is definitely from the 2000s. Like that's
that a lot of, a lot of the sitcoms, they just, they just look a lot of, a lot of the
same. I don't know why, but I liked a lot of African American sitcoms like Monique.
I don't know why I like Monique. That was a fun show. And then there was like, there
was a, what was the, what was that other one that we watched where she's always trying to
go after the professor? Oh, the parkers. The parkers. Yeah, that was a funny one. Yeah.
I think too, I don't know, like around that time, it was definitely like the family was
still like a big thing. Of course you see that in TV shows, like the mom, having the
mom and the dad and like, you know, the kids and stuff like that. But like the theme was
kind of weird. It wasn't, it was more like dad works and like mom is starting to work
kind of a type deal. Yeah. And not just that, but dad's always goofy. Dad's always kind
of not really all there at home, if that makes sense. And so he really doesn't know what's
going on. And they kind of make him out to be kind of a goofball. Yeah. It was, it was
always like, Oh, dad's here, but dad has no idea what's going on. And that's kind of
another one is that really shows the era is Malcolm in the middle. I guess like that
shows kind of the that or that era. I don't know. Kind of has that feel to part is true.
What do you feel like is like, Oh, we did this really well in the 2000s. Like, I think
we did this really good. And I missed this. Weirdly enough to say customer service. And
maybe it's just because I was a kid and didn't directly interact with people and maybe it
was different. But I just don't remember as many rude interactions when you went out
in public and did business. But maybe that's, that's me. I think COVID changed that, bro.
I think that that's a product. And that's probably true. I mean, there's definitely
and here I'm going to go into something kind of bigger. I really feel like versus back
then people are a lot more divided than they were back then. Like I feel like there's a
there's a massive rift between people. I feel like in, you know, this is going away from
a lot of the other stuff that we're talking about. We were talking about a lot of material
stuff and what we liked about shows and stuff like that. But you know, I really think that
people from from that era, and it sounds kind of old foggy, but it's like they did look
out for each other a little more. It feels like now you got to be a little bit more weary
of people. And that's that's a shame in a way. But a lot of it has to do with hurting
people's feelings, being politically correct, and having to tow a line and be worried about
where that person's line is at all times. And it's good to be healthy and respect people's
boundaries. I guess what's hard is back in the day, you could state your opinion, and
there's ways to state your opinion and not be an ass, right? But what I'm saying is,
I don't feel like nowadays you can validly state your opinion without there being some
sort of division. It's either somebody's for you and like, Yeah, I feel that way with you.
Or it's no, I don't feel that way and you're absolutely wrong and I don't like you for it.
You're sitting here going there's no middle ground. I feel like there was a lot more
room back then of like, Okay, you feel how you feel. That's fine. I don't really feel
that way. But I understand how you got to there.
I could be totally wrong. But I feel like that period that we grew up in 2000 to 2010,
like there was not like anything that was like, Oh, this is like absolutely freaking
horrible. But people would just say what they wanted to say. And like, there was no hate
behind it. Like people would just say their opinions without there being hate behind it.
And people were just like, Oh, yeah, or like, people could laugh at more stuff or, you know,
and I felt like it was more, you could laugh at yourself and it's like, Oh, yeah, that's
funny for sure. As far as our country, I think it was like, the most. And I know it's like
saying healthy is kind of like, opening the can of worms. But I feel like it was pretty
healthy because it's like, there wasn't like a ton of racism. There wasn't like a ton
of trampling on people's rights. Now I know people will probably be like, Oh, yeah, what
about this and what about that? But like, I feel like 2010, that's not even 2010, like
2000, maybe 16 is when we started swinging the pendulum way the other way. Does that
make sense? No, absolutely. And honestly, what I think
it's because we had a lot of events in the early especially 9 11. 9 11 was a, you know,
that really brought everybody together. It was, it was like, I don't care where you're
from. I just remember after 9 11, everybody had an American flag on their front porch.
You know, whenever they went to war, or when we went to war, Afghanistan first, and then
we went to Iraq, there was the yellow ribbons on a lot of people's trees. There was a lot
of support. And it was one of those things of and I'm not saying that there's not support
now. But what I'm saying is there's still a massive divide. What you'll see in place
of American flags, especially when we're coming into this next time of year in America, it's
really sad. You'll see blue and red, you know, signs in people's yards instead. You know,
and it's it's like it was like that before, but at least we all stood together going,
we're going to make this place a better place instead of you're wrong, no, you're wrong.
Yeah. Well, even then too, like on the shows, like I think of Extreme Makeover Home Edition,
it's like, oh yeah, we're going to help this vet out or we're going to help this cancer
patient out or whatever. Like people rallied around. They were like, people would tune
in to see, see these people getting help. Like they would tune in to see somebody that
it was a heartwarming thing. Yeah. Like that. I mean, it wasn't, you know, reality shows
have even changed like that now, right? It's more geared to there's a lot more shows to
humiliate people than there is to give them something nice, right? I don't know. Maybe
that's that's something that's changed. And don't get me wrong, it is entertaining as
well to watch some people's reactions in that fashion. And there were shows back in the
day like that, like punked is one of them, right? But I'm just saying you're right.
Like we all tuned in. There's something that I can say about every person that I've really
talked to. My wife, you Chris, a lot of other friends, it's like, what were you doing on
a Sunday night between seven and eight PM? I was watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition
with my family. And when eight o'clock happened, it's time to start getting ready for bed.
It was almost like an American thing. It's like you, I don't know. It was like, I can't
explain it or even like America's Got Talent or like even shows like that. A lot of people
watched American Idol. I know a ton of people watched American Idol. I think that was like
the first time where American families tuned in to watch. I wouldn't say a reality show,
but before people would tune in to like watch a show like, I don't know, like Parker, Texas,
Ranger, for example, like, Oh yeah, we're going to watch this show. But like people would
literally tune in to watch these real people competing for something like Hell's Kitchen
or America's Got Talent or Extreme Makeover Home Edition. And I think that's like, that
was like a family. I know that was at least the thing in my house. It's like, Oh yeah,
like,
Are even fear factor, like people loved fear factor, right?
It was something to look forward to. You'd be like, Oh yeah, we're going to watch this
tonight before school happens.
Yeah. And you normally had these TV schedules memorized, right? Okay, this is when this new
episode's going to come out. Here's so here's where I'm going to go into of what I don't
like about today versus then and what I would love to change. But I kind of don't. And here,
let me explain. I really don't like what you're talking about there was was really nice. You
only had what I like to call one layer, you're only looking at one thing, right? You do that
now, you go pile up on your couch with your family, right? You watch a TV show, everybody's
going to be on their phone. That's two layers, right? You're doing two things. Most of the
time, people nowadays are multitasking. Now you throw talking into the mix, say you talk
to somebody else. Now you have three things that people are trying to focus on at one
time. And what I don't like about it is, we become so attached to our phones that, you
know, it's it's nice to have it. It's a comfort when you're relaxing, you want to use it.
And I completely understand because I'm the same exact way, but it takes away from a lot
of those personal moments. There's not as many attainable memories of me sitting on
the couch going, I remember watching this with my family, right? Full on through. And
you know, there used to even be things, okay, just for an example, right? I remember watching
my cousin Vinnie with my family, right? Very funny movie. And I remember my grandfather
being like, I like this movie, just too much cousin. I wouldn't have gotten that if I was
in my phone, right? Like I would have missed that. And it might not mean much, but at the
same time, when those people are gone, those that's the stuff you'll think about, right?
Those memories that you had. So I don't know. I know that was kind of a full circle deal.
But I just to for my job, I have two computers, right? I've got two computer screens in front
of me, I've got my phone that I'm watching for. So I'm working on all this stuff all
the time. I think life nowadays is just too digital, too layered, we have too much going
on. And I don't really think that it's healthy for us how much we've kind of taken on so
much technology. Yeah, I think that's what I was going to
say I miss about the 2000s is like, is social media because social media used to just be
this thing you would hop on and you would just go to just talk to your friends, see
what they were doing, you know, post some crazy stuff, play for like you would get on
for like an hour or two and then hop off, you know? And so I think it was it was just
like that fun thing. Whereas now it's like people are literally on it like all the time.
And because it's evolving, like it's constantly putting stuff across your face. And so you
constantly have new stuff to consume. And we just consume way too much.
And you know, I really feel bad for whenever I was a kid, I really wanted to be a celebrity,
right? Or I wanted to be a sports star, everybody has dreams after sports star be up there.
Now, I feel bad for celebrities a lot of fronts because they have to not only keep up with
back in the day, like take I'm going to go sports, you know me, I'm going to go sports,
but take a sports star from back in the day, take Michael Jordan. He got to do his television
interviews. He got to play basketball. That was it. Nowadays, that's not we have 24 hour
sports news networks. We have interviews, interviews, interviews, not just that, but
he has to keep on social media. Like you have to be a social media person, or you start losing people.
Like as weird as bad as that is say, you'll start losing people, you'll start losing your status
if you don't have an active presence on social media. So it's become an imperative thing.
I mean, you think about it, all your influential people have to they have staff for it, right?
But they know that they have to stay up on social media, like everybody has a social
media account. It's insane. And it's, it's used so much. I don't know. It used to be just such a
like Chris was saying, it used to be just such a fun, goofy little thing you do, right with your
friends, maybe even link YouTube over to it, like share a YouTube link of, you know, here's the
stupid video. Like I remember the one that we used to watch was the Lord of the Rings one, where it
was the potato song Boil a Mash, I'm Stickin' This Do. I don't know. It was goofy stuff like that,
right? And I don't know, all that's changed. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money.
Well, going back to what you said, it is where everybody's so much on their phones. And like,
I think I saw, they're so focused on recording their experience that it's like, you're missing out
on the experience. Like I saw that at medieval times, like dad was recording the whole time.
And I'm like, bro, you're totally missing out. Like on the experience, you're missing out from
enjoying it. And people do that way too much because they want to put it on Insta or they want
to put it on Facebook. And I have the other problem where I'm like, I don't take enough pictures,
like when I'm out. No, that's my problem too. That's exactly how I feel. That's exactly how I
feel. I don't take enough pictures. I'm so in the moment that I forget to pull out my phone and go,
hey, this would be a good moment for a picture. I think I miss people just being able to say
what they have to say without people getting offended. And I know back then,
you know, movies and TV shows did have some agendas, but it's like every TV show and every
movie now has an agenda. And I'm like, bro, can we just watch entertainment like without
the political BS? You know, maybe there was an agenda back then, but at least it was hidden.
Like I'm okay if it's, I don't know, maybe if you're gonna, if you're gonna do something like that,
hide it. I am just like, bro, that's why I watch professional wrestling because it's like,
sometimes they do bring like political stuff into it, but really not. Most of the time,
it's just about the story. And I'm just like, Oh yeah, see, I enjoy this story. Like it's just a
good story. I don't care if the wrestler is gay, straight, whatever, Democrat, I don't care. Like
just give me a good story. And I'm sick of just, it's almost now I'm like expecting it. I'm like,
Oh, where's the, where's the, where's the preachy message? And I'll be like, Oh, there it is.
That's why I'm pleasantly surprised when a movie like for example, the Super Mario Brothers movie,
it was the first movie I'd seen in a very long time that didn't have a preachy mess message in it.
And so it's nice. No heck yeah, I totally agree. And hopefully, you know, we had talked about the
pendulum swinging a little bit and things like that. Hopefully the pendulum swings again,
a little bit of a different direction, right? Yeah. What do you think is like, Oh yeah, this is
definitely way better now that it was in the early 2000. What do you think is like, Oh yeah,
this is better now. You know, on the other front, a lot of technology is really cool. We can hail
taxis, ride services from anywhere, anytime we can get food delivered to your house from anywhere.
Now, you know, you can make your travel plans online without having to go to a travel agent.
You can, I mean, there's, there's so many things like that to where it's like you have the modern
day conveniences that if I were to go back, I'd be saying, man, this is quite annoying. I have to
book my flights through a travel agent. Like why would I want to talk to share? I think,
I think it created like the technology created a lot of jobs that like, we didn't even think
where possible. Like it created whole new career paths. Like if you would have said,
you know, 10, even 10 years ago, Oh yeah, I'm going to be a social media manager or a social
media marketer or I'm going to be a YouTuber or influencer. I would have been like, Yeah,
I don't think so, buddy. Like you're going to make money off of that. Yeah, I really don't think so.
Something else too, working from home. Like I never thought that working from home would be a
readily available thing that you could get a job with that being the expectation of like, Yeah,
you'll work from home. Yeah, I know you enjoy it, man, but I'm like one of those like, I just couldn't
do it. Like I could work from home if I had to. Like I could do it if I, if I had to, but I'm like,
Yeah, I don't know. But it is a viable choice because I think it does help people with small
children, you know, it does help them be able to take care of their family and do work, you know,
know, yeah, no, absolutely. And I think my biggest thing that it helps me with,
it helps because I don't know talking, talking to people at work, I'm a big talker, right?
So I'm in plenty of meetings and things like that. People are going to come around to me and
talk and I never get any work done. Like every time I'm in the office, I never get any work done.
So it's, it's one of those things, it just works better for me. Because I'm not talking to anybody,
I can remain focused the entire time. Yeah, I'm trying to think what do you, what else do you
think is, is maybe a little bit better? The Miami Dolphins are better than they were.
Yeah, the Buffalo Bills are definitely better than they were.
Golden State Warriors are too. Oh man, video game graphics, way better. It's all, it's,
it's kind of scary how, how good they actually are. Like, but then on the other front, I'm going to
say this, some of the video game quality has gone down. Like the graphics have gone up, but stuff
like Madden or really anything that EA Games has made the last little bit has been just garbage.
Like it looks graphically great, but you can tell that's what they put on their F.
Um, definitely cars have gotten a lot better. There's so much technology. I mean, there's a
plus and a negative side. The negative side is they make them so computerized now that it's even
hard for you to even work on the new ones, but it is, uh, it does have stuff like Bluetooth and it
does have stuff like, you know, if you're in an accident, it recognizes that it does have backup
cameras and if you need a backup camera to backup, you probably shouldn't be driving. But, um, I mean,
cars have come a long way. I also think, um, music has definitely not come a long way. It's
actually kind of gone. I think it's a request. I was going to say it's kind of gone the other way.
Yeah. It, a lot of it, here's, here's my biggest problem. And I think when we grew up, music had
its own different flavors. I think a lot of it, and I'm glad it in a way that it kind of took
this turn, but a lot of it has kind of that hip hop twist now, right? Which is fine because I loved
hip hop and rap from the early 2000s and things like that. But I don't know. You listen to a
country song now. It's got that basic like beat to it. You know what I mean? And they kind of go
along with it and you listen to a lot of pop music and it's the same way and it's fine. But it's just,
I don't know, used to the flavors were very different, right? I felt like you, you had,
fill me in Chris, what am I trying to say? I mean, like rock music, there was a lot of different
kinds of rock music, even like now I feel like there's a couple kinds that are mainstream,
but not anything that's great. Like if you listen to your local rock station, it's not going to be
that mix that it used to be. That's not true. That's not true. If you listen to your local rock
station, rock is one of the only genres where it is different. If you listen to your local rock
station, they have a pretty good mix. Maybe my local rock station just isn't very good because
they didn't, they're not mixing it up very well. And you know, like I said, maybe mine's not very
good. But it's, to me, the radio stations that I listen to, I don't listen to like top 100s because
I'm going, this is popular. Why? Question mark or what the main question I always ask is,
and what genre is this supposed to be? Yeah. I think streaming services, I think that's been like
a game changer sometimes for the bad, but I think it's been a game changer because now
you don't have to wait until, you know, Sunday at 9 to watch your new episode, which I'm kind of like,
man, I do feel like that is part of like our problem in America. But at the same time,
we have nothing to look forward to. We used to have the little things to look forward to.
Well, yeah, that's true. But I mean, that's why I like, like I said, I like professional wrestling
because I know every Monday and Wednesday and Friday, there's going to be a new show. But also
on the flip side of that, a lot of services are starting to do this where if there's a new show,
they'll release the first two episodes and then they'll release them every weekend. So I think
that's where they're getting people to kind of not binge watch stuff, which is, you know, which
is good. I think that, I think that traveling is like a lot more, maybe it's more, I wouldn't say
a more affordable, but more accessible than it used to be. I feel like a lot more people are
traveling, like a lot more people fly, like people fly all the time. We're back in the day, it was
like, that was a big deal, you know, to fly. It's like, that's a really big deal. I also think it
was the region of the country that we live in as well. There was a lot of people that tell me if
I'm wrong, that and shout out to Augusta if you're listening, they discussed the, but I feel like a
lot of those people, they're like, I've never left the county before or I've seen people, it's like,
I've been over to South Carolina once. It's like, they're not going to go fly. You know, at least
there was a lot of folks that I came in contact with that were kind of like that versus Texas.
Texas is so massive, you know, you have to go eight counties just to get to the next major city.
So it's one of those things to where it's like, traveling is not a big deal. And a lot of the
times, like I'll speak for Lubbock and most people from other states and other countries are going
to be mind blown to get to Dallas. It's five and a half hours to get to San Antonio, which is south,
is about six and a half. You know, you want to go anywhere. Flying has to be a viable option
unless you want to drive that long. And for that's a day trip for Texans, it's like whatever. But
it's just like, it's like, if you ate, if you think six hours is a long trip, you're weaning,
you're weaning. I'm just saying, but people, people, I've heard people like, yeah, I'm not going
to make that drive. So I'm going to fly it. It's like, okay. I think, I think one thing that is
more beneficial now is like, we have access to so much information. Okay, maybe a bad thing. But
like to learn something is very like, it's very accessible. You can just YouTube it, you can
Google it. Like it's very easy to learn new things. And so I think that's a, that's a tool. Oh,
it's a definite tool. I think the problem has become there's been a, and I don't know why this
is going to sound preachy, but a spirit of complacency. Now, there's just been kind of,
and tell me if I'm wrong, but I've just noticed kind of people expect answers to be given to them
because they are so readily available versus before. I mean, I remember when I was a kid,
and then Cyclopedias where you go to find information and sometimes it ain't in there.
Sometimes you got to go look and look in books and things like that to figure out what's what.
And so I don't know. I think now it's, it's so easy and so readily available. People are so used
to being like, Hey, Google, what's going on with this? And it's gives you the answer. So they're,
you know, whether it's work, whether it's whatever, they're going to want to ask somebody else when
it's like, Hey, man, you can totally figure that information out on yourself. Yeah, they're not
used to mining or discovering the answer on their own. I think it makes an impact of that critical
thinking. Yeah. And you got to use that, man. Like you have to use that. It is definitely a big tool
for sure, man. Anything else you want to say that's like, Oh, this is definitely better now than it was
20 years ago. Man, I'll probably think of five, six things after we get off of here. Yeah, not
right now. I can't believe we're almost to 50 minutes of talking about the era in which we grew up.
Yeah. So what is like your, if you could just say your one big takeaway or like,
man, this is just, I'm going to tie this up and put a bow on it. What, what would you say?
The late 90s, early 2000s were a fantastic time. They have a lot of nostalgia in our hearts,
whether it's TV shows, whether it's games, whether it's, I don't know, going over to your friend's
house and going and having a good time with hungry, hungry hippos, whatever you happen to do during
that time. The deal is it was a, it was a fun time, but we've moved on. And I'm glad that we've moved
on to bigger and better things because the world is a very exciting place where we can do things
that we could not have done during that time or even conceived to have done during that time.
And I'm excited for the future of where we are going because it's only going to get better.
And the things that are negative and bad, there will always be stuff that's negative and bad. But,
you know, I think we can enjoy the good times. And although there are some things and some values
I would like to bring over to this era, I think that this era is okay. And like I said, it's
pretty darn innovative. I'm happy that I'm happy that life is cool like that, I guess.
Yeah, we have definitely changed a lot over the past 20 years. The early 2000s were a lot of that,
a lot of figuring stuff out. It was a good time. I'm not, I would say I'm not like
jazzed about where we're at right now. I'm not going to be one of those man or country going
to hell in a hand basket. But I'm also like, man, there's a lot of opportunities and a lot of
things for this younger generation to do. I do hope and pray that the pendulum kind of swings
back towards the middle and people would stop being so but hurt all the time and so sensitive
and grow some tough skin. But all in all, man, like you got to move forward. You can't be too busy
looking at the past because if you do that, you're just never going to grow. But you can also look
in the there's there's a healthy balance, right? You can look in the past and say, oh, I remember
those times or hear a song and be like, oh, that reminds me of the 90s and kind of have that. Oh,
that's nice. But, you know, you don't want to you don't want to go back there. You don't want to
live there. Now is a cool time. You get to do all sorts of stuff. Hey, like I said, you get to
Uber eat stuff to your house and have eight big Macs with no judgment. Yeah. And you'll pay $5,000
for them with the delivery fees and the 10. You will. So you need some money. That's the only
thing I don't like about nowadays is backed in. You could have gotten a lot more for a lot less.
Sorry. I know we just capped it, bro. But one thing that does suck right now is that like it
is not affordable. People cannot buy houses. Like it's bad. Like people are all like, yeah,
we parents ages, they bought a house and all this. And it's like, bro, like we can barely
pay the light bill. Like we're making more money than our parents did.
Buy a lot. But things are just so much more expensive. So yeah, man. But tell them where to go.
So TV trash can dot com TV trash can dot com. We can't make inflation go down, but we can
have a nice website and make you laugh. Hopefully we can make your depression go down.
Yeah. That way you don't have to see a therapist as often and save you money that way. Look at us.
We're saving you money in these tough economic times. That's what we're here for TV trash can
dot com. Yeah, man. Cool 90th episode. I enjoy the free form. I enjoy just talking and yeah,
just it's always fun. It's great. We got to plan out what we're going to do for a hundredth episode.
But yeah, join us next time because it's going to be a great time. We're on our trek to hit a
hundredth episode. So keep chugging along. But you got anything else you want to say? All right.
Well, I'm Chris and I'm Michael and this is the Dona Box podcast.