8 Significant ‘Rites Of Passage’ Millennials Experienced That Younger Generations Will Never Understand
They will never know the excitement of waiting for the next Harry Potter book at midnight outside of Barnes and Noble.
GalacticDreamer | Shutterstock No matter what generation we are a part of, we all likely remember some very specific rites of passage. Whether it was riding a bike without training wheels for the first time, conquering your fear of public speaking, or finally doing that insanely high drop tower ride you swore you’d never do.
However, there are certain rites of passage that appear to be generationally specific since cultural practices and societal expectations often evolve over time. These changes are influenced by shifts in technology, social norms, and values. According to some millennials, there are significant rites of passage they had the opportunity to experience, but younger generations will likely not get the same chance.
Here are 8 significant rites of passage millennials experienced that younger generations likely never did:
1. Calling the movie theater to find out the showtimes
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Before movie theaters had their own websites that displayed showtimes to viewers, those who were interested in catching a movie had to actually pick up the phone and call the theater.
They also likely had to have a notepad and pen on hand to jot down the times just in case they forgot!
After the internet became more accessible to the public in the 1990s, movie theater chains began displaying showtimes online — and likely spared themselves the constant ringing of the phone! In fact, 2014 was the end of MovieFone, the last vestige of a bygone era of calling for movie showings.
Nowadays, all we have to do is a quick Google search to find out what time works best for us to see the new "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie (something millennials likely never believed would happen either!)
2. Agonizing over every little detail on their Myspace page
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Before Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, there was Myspace, a social networking website that allowed users to connect with others and share photos and music.
It was very popular with teenagers from 2005 to 2008.
Just like many of us have a million drafts in our TikToks, debating whether or not we should post them, back in the day, millennial teens would stress over their Myspace background images and layouts. They would constantly check their follower count to see who was still in the loop of their lives.
Even though Myspace’s popularity has diminished over time, and no current American teenager uses it, the feeling of obsessing over what we put out there on social media is at least one thing millennials and younger generations undeniably have in common.
3. Getting your ears pierced at Claire’s
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While many of us from younger generations are still familiar with the fashion hot spot for kids at the mall, hardly anyone chooses to get their ears pierced at Claire’s anymore.
Since parents tend to be more overprotective than they ever were, Claire’s has been deemed a dangerous place for children to get their ears pierced since the piercers use a piercing gun rather than a needle to do the job. Piercing guns are considered generally less sanitary and can inflict potential damage to the ear, increasing the risk of infections post-piercing.
However, back in the day, it didn’t cost much to get your ears pierced at Claire’s, and they offered a variety of brightly colored earrings that kids couldn’t resist!
Sitting up on that chair holding a stuffed animal in your lap with a piercer on each side about to punch holes in your ear is likely a memory that many millennial women cherish.
Even if their earrings did end up becoming infected or crooked, they loved showing off their new studs that they got at the one and only Claire’s!
4. The Twin Towers on the New York skyline
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It’s been almost 25 years since one of the deadliest terrorist attacks happened on American soil, and some millennials can still see the moment they watched the Twin Towers crumble to the ground.
The oldest millennials were 20 years old on that fateful day in 2001, and the youngest was 5 years old.
At the time, many of them switched on their TVs after learning that a plane hit the North Tower at the World Trade Center. Initially assuming that it was just an accident, they were not expecting to watch a second plane hit the South Tower before their very eyes.
Many of us in Gen-Z were not even born when 9/11 happened and simply learned about it in history class and YouTube documentaries. However, millennials lived through it, and the day brings on a whole different level of emotions each year when it comes around.
5. Fighting over the shared family computer
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Before we had tablets and laptops of our own, families generally had one computer everyone shared in the living room. To avoid constant battles over computer use, parents and their children often negotiated on a set schedule that determined who could use the computer at what time.
Dad would get to use it immediately after work to print out some documents. You and your siblings would get to use it to instant message your friends and play virtual games right after you finished your homework.
If you are a Gen-Z kid, you likely never had to worry about this as your parents likely caved and bought you and your siblings your own iPad, especially if they were millennials themselves who grew up with a shared computer!
Sometimes, spending the extra money was worth it to avoid having to hear your kids scream at each other over whose turn it was to watch YouTube.
6. Learning how to text on a flip phone
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Before the iPhone hit stores in 2007, there were Blackberries and other cell phones that contained a physical keyboard you would use to text with. Some phones did not even have a keyboard, and people would have to text using the keypad of numbers.
In 1983, just a couple of years after the first millennials were born, the first cellphone known to man, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, was released. The device had a limited talk time of 30 minutes, weighed nearly 3 pounds, and was priced at $3,995.
The introduction of a flip phone that had a keyboard was revolutionary.
By the time the iPhone and autocorrect rolled around, millennials had already mastered using just their thumbs to type out a message at lightning speed (and that was with having to go back and delete any spelling mistakes they had made!)
7. Memorizing your friend’s phone numbers
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Even before cell phones, there were traditional landlines that an entire family shared. So, if you wanted to call a friend, you risked the chance of having to talk to one of their family members (something that makes the younger generation shudder just at the thought of it).
In order to dial them, you would have to memorize their home phone numbers, something we don’t even have to worry about now, thanks to contact lists on our cell phones.
If you called them often enough, it would likely become a habit you wouldn’t even think twice about. You would just have to brace yourself in case their parents answered, and you were stuck dealing with all of their questions.
8. Waiting at the bookstore at midnight for the release of a new Harry Potter book
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Even if you are not a millennial, you likely remember the books and movies that depicted the famous story of the boy who lived.
Since the publication of the first book in 1997, 600 million copies of the Harry Potter books have been sold worldwide, and according to a demographic breakdown of the Harry Potter fandom, 69% of millennials show a great interest in the series.
Before the introduction of Kindles and eBooks, people lined up outside of their local bookstores hoping to snag the next copy of their favorite book series when the clock struck midnight on the release date.
A lot of millennials remember this being the case for the release of the newest Harry Potter books. Many of them, who were Harry Potter fanatics, anxiously waited outside of Barnes and Noble at 11:50 PM with their wands in hand and fake scars plastered on their foreheads.
While many of us can relate to waiting online, biting our fingernails to see if we scored those concert tickets we wanted, the anticipation and excitement of waiting to get a new book has faded with each generation — along with many of the other milestones millennials used to hit that have since been transformed by evolving societal dynamics.
Megan Quinn is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Creative Writing. She covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on justice in the workplace, personal relationships, parenting debates, and the human experience.