25 Reasons We're Glad We Grew Up in the '80s

We all over-romanticize our childhoods, and it's no different for those of us who came of age in the 1980s. But what makes us different is that we don't try to pretend that our decade was something it wasn't. We're not like those '50s kids who pretend life was all poodle skirts and milkshakes. We're well aware of how goofy the '80s were.

It was an era of shoulder pads and synth solos and utterly ridiculous attempts at breakdancing. And you know what? We unabashedly love it! It was the best time to be a kid, despite all the cringe-worthy moments—and maybe even because of them. Here are 25 ways that growing up in the '80s was totally tubular and gnarly—and if you don't believe us, you can eat our shorts!

MTV in the 1980s was different from today's primary music video-viewing option (YouTube) in a very fundamental way: You didn't get to pick which videos you watched. If you wanted to see, say, the Prince video "When Doves Cry" or The Police's "Every Breath You Take," you might have to sit through hours and hours of videos you could care less about. We can't tell you how many times we watched that Rod Stewart "Infatuation" video just in case something cool was coming up next. It was an important lesson in patience.

In the '80s, the only way to interact with friends was face-to-face, in real time, usually on the playground. Instead of depending on texts, Twitter DMs, or SnapChat, your friends were people that you actually knew and saw on a daily basis. You joked with them, had conflicts with them, and made memories with them—all while experiencing fresh air and making eye contact on the monkey bars. Pretty novel, huh?

It doesn't have the same mystique that it once did, but during the '80s, trying to solve a Rubik's cube was every kid's white whale. Anyone could get one side. But to get all six colors lined up? Well, that could only mean that you were the Yoda of your generation.

Both existed in our closets and we wore them without shame. Not only that, we thought we looked pretty chic! Acid wash jeans had a certain rugged je ne sais quoi. And, as for parachute pants, they were the only clothing with enough freedom for MC Hammer-style dancing. We'd like to see you try to do a "Can't Touch This" triple step in regular slacks.

Black, gray, and navy blue? Only if you were a goth kid. For everybody else in the '80s, it was yellow, green, pink, and blue hues so bright, they practically counted as heat sources. It was our way of announcing to the world, "Hey, look at us! But not too long, because you might burn your retinas."

No one seems to watch commercials anymore, but in the '80s, we actually looked forward to them. The "Where's the beef?" lady from the Wendy's commercial was hands down one of the funniest people on TV, and that Nair commercial with the "if you dare wear short-shorts" jingle will forever be stuck in our heads. But as '80s kids, we weren't complaining: We loved those commercial sometimes more than the shows themselves.

When it was first introduced, this video game was meant to be educational, teaching kids about the grim realities of losing cattle or dying from dysentery in the American West of the 1890s. Or something like that… But it became so much more. When the teacher announced that it was time to play Oregon Trail on the school computers, it felt like a gift from the heavens.

These glorious devices were perfect for vibrating an entire city block with the power of a deafening bass thud. Sure, there were better (and more private) ways to enjoy music, but with a boombox on your shoulder, everyone looked as cool as John Cusack in Say Anything… or—even better—Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), the boombox-carrying warrior from Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.

Every time we learned that there was another book in The Baby-Sitters Club or Sweet Valley High series, we staggered to the mall bookstore like brain-hungry zombies in some post-apocalyptic movie. Yes, we loved those books that much. Who didn't want the Wakefield twins or the Stoneybrook pals to be their best friends?

Even though we're listing reasons we're glad we grew up in the '80s, we're including dot matrix paper—and for good reason. Feeding paper into a dot matrix printer was a masterclass in intense focus and concentration. You couldn't just jam paper in there and hit the print button. It was a balancing act, requiring delicate fingers and some well-tested hand-eye coordination. Printing up anything on dot matrix paper felt like nothing short of a victory. Kids today will never know that artistry.

We're not just talking about the personal feelings and opinions of '80s-era kids, here. Literally, the federal government classified ketchup as a vegetable in 1981. If it's good enough for the United States of America, then it was good enough for us. (For the record, this sugar-filled condiment is no longer considered a vegetable.)

Today, having your own computer is more of a necessity than a privilege. But in the '80s, when computers were becoming more widely available to people who weren't scientists in lab coats, we were blown away every time we got to so much as touch one. Some of us were lucky enough to own our own Commodore 64, but most of us made do with school computer labs. There was only one rule: Don't forget your floppy disk!

Who among us didn't walk out of the theater after seeing Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo and think, "I can do that"?

If the thought of mastering gravity-defying moves like the Buddha Spins or the Boomerang when you have no formal dance training sounds preposterous to you, then you absolutely did not experience an '80s childhood.

As '80s kids, we didn't need to be told when to come home by our parents. We just waited until the street lights came on, which was an all-neighborhood warning that it was time to call it a night. It was the '80s kid equivalent of the last call at a bar.

The reason movies like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Pretty in Pink were so relatable is that the teen leads were flawed—just like us.

Being a lovable loser like Duckie (Jon Cryer) was an achievable goal. Girls-next-door like Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) wore their insecurities on their sleeves. Director and writer John Hughes managed to do a remarkable thing, especially for an adult: He reflected back at us exactly who we were (or what we felt like) on the big screen.

Netflix and chill? More like the "drive to the Blockbuster and hope all the good movies haven't been rented already… and chill."

In the 1980s, it was survival of the fittest (or, rather, the quickest) in our video entertainment world, and a great reminder that nobody is entitled to anything.

Hey, if they weren't real babies, why did we get birth certificates with every purchase? Yes, we know, Cabbage Patch Dolls all look like tiny Mickey Rooneys. You don't have to remind us. But as anyone will tell you, all children are beautiful in a parent's eyes.

It was everybody's fantasy automobile, thanks in no small part to the Back to the Future movies. We weren't so deluded that we thought every DeLorean was capable of traveling back in time or into the future, but that really didn't matter. We wanted them for the gull-wing doors alone. Transportation doesn't get more futuristic than that!ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb

Compared to the 1980s, we know a lot more about addiction today, and realize it's not quite so simple as just saying, "No, thank you." But when former First Lady Nancy Reagan made a guest appearance on Diff'rent Strokes in 1983 and shared her now-legendary anti-drug message, it felt like we'd gotten all of the tools we needed for a drug-free life.

Even if we were too young to understand the full extent of the Cold War—and how the Berlin Wall represented not just a physical barrier between East and West Germany but a symbolic one, as well—it was still a really big deal to watch that wall come crumbling down. It gave us goosebumps because it meant that the world was getting a little smaller, and freedom was actually prevailing. The Soviet Union, the country we'd grown up believing was our biggest threat, was starting to act like we might be… friends? Could such a thing be possible? For the first time, it seemed like the world was becoming a saner and safer place than the one our parents inhabited.

Without smartphones doing the hard work for you, if you wanted to stay in contact with someone in the '80s, you needed to have their seven-digit phone number committed to memory (or carry around a little black book). It was a skill that kept our brains healthy. We're not saying we were better at math because of it, but it certainly didn't hurt.

In the 1980s, television created shared moments for a world full of strangers. It was a way to feel connected to a global community by the simple act of watching the same show at the same time—whether it was the "Who shot J.R." mystery of Dallas or the series finale of M*A*S*H (which was watched by a staggering 106 million people—a record, by the way, that remains unbroken).

We didn't have emojis, but our in-class notes often included encrypted language or indecipherable codes, just in case they were confiscated and read aloud to the class. There was a palpable sense of danger when trying to scribble a message undetected while maintaining eye contact with the teacher. It was like we were World War II-era spies trying to get a message across enemy lines.

Bootlegging music existed in the '80s, too, it just involved sitting next to the radio and waiting for the local station to play your favorite tune, all while resting one finger on the record button of your cassette player. We usually didn't get the whole song, especially if the stupid DJ talked over the beginning (what was he thinking?), but it still felt like we were beating the system somehow.

There was an art form to crafting the perfect mixtape. Unlike the digital playlists of today, we had limitations—there was only so much time on each side of a cassette. But rather than feel constrained, we treated it like a challenge. After all, a painter isn't confined by the size of their canvas. It's what you do with that allotted space that counts. A mixtape, in the right hands, could be truly transcendent. And for the era's ultimate mixtape, here are 25 Songs Every '80s Kid Knows By Heart.

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