Remember when burning CDs was an art form and AIM away messages were your daily creative outlet? Join us as we look back at the activities, trends, and technologies that defined the 2000s but have since become relics of a simpler digital age. Which of these nostalgic activities do you miss the most?
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00:00Well, they were once something that no driver or hiker left home without.
00:04But hard copy paper maps are going the way of many tangible items in this digital aid.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:10And today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 things from the aughts
00:14that used to be the bomb.com, but today are totally old school.
00:20Whose ringtone is Barracuda?
00:23Number 20. Jessica Simpson's Dessert Beauty.
00:26Fans in New York this weekend lined up for the unveiling of her new line of edible cosmetics.
00:32One of the biggest stars of the early 2000s,
00:34Jessica Simpson had a horde of fans ready to buy anything she put her name on.
00:38In 2004, Simpson launched Dessert Beauty,
00:41a line of edible cosmetics in a variety of saccharine scents and flavors.
00:45There was everything from shimmering, kissable hair and body fragrance
00:48to the whipped body cream that came with sprinkles no one knew what to do with.
00:52We obviously had to get our hands on every cupcake-scented product this line offered.
00:57Unfortunately, legal battles led to the brand and its offshoots being discontinued.
01:01A perfect encapsulation of the cutesy, sexy and girly vibe of the early aughts,
01:06Dessert Beauty is now obsolete, but sorely missed.
01:09That's how it moisturizes, huh?
01:11It's a good moisturizer when you can even shake your legs with it.
01:16Yummy.
01:18Put it on your footing.
01:19Number 19. Watching TV Shows on DVD Box Sets.
01:23Plus never-before-seen footage by Veronica Mars, the complete first season now on DVD.
01:28Since streaming became mainstream, DVDs have slowly become obsolete.
01:32Before streaming services allowed us to binge-watch TV shows all in one sitting,
01:36the main option for watching your favorite TV episodes on demand was massive DVD box sets.
01:42The multi-disc sets looked impressive on a shelf, and were often sought-after collector's items.
01:47All packaged in nice hardcover books, and they also give you a copy of the script from the last episode.
01:55Today, most people consider DVD box sets expensive and unnecessary,
02:00but as Netflix and other streaming services quietly remove beloved series,
02:04some are turning back to this old-school technology.
02:07Like records in the 2010s, DVDs might be the new hot physical media for collectors.
02:13Number 18. T9 Texting.
02:15999-666-885-555-666-888-335-444-622-337-777-555-999.
02:24What was worse?
02:26Having to click seven four times to type one letter S,
02:29or having to go back to fix an incorrect T9 text prediction.
02:33Thankfully, we don't have to put up with either of these clunky typing systems anymore,
02:37but back in the 2000s, we had no choice.
02:40T9 texting was intended to speed up the time-consuming process of using the 3x4 numeric keypads
02:45common to the cell phones of the early aughts,
02:48but it was frustrating when a poorly predicted text slowed things down altogether.
02:52It was remarkable how fast we were still able to fire off messages in the face of so many obstacles.
02:57Today's youth have it easy.
02:59Number 17. Play Dance Dance Revolution in an Arcade.
03:07Dance Dance Revolution was truly a revolution in arcade technology.
03:12Or at least it felt like one.
03:13First released in Japan in 1998,
03:15this step coordination game quickly took the world by storm.
03:19It seemed like it was impossible to find a DDR game in an arcade without a line of players,
03:23but we were still happy to wait.
03:25Though less popular today,
03:26it still maintains a small following of dedicated fans and players
03:30who compete in tournaments around the world.
03:32As for the rest of us,
03:33we no longer head down to the arcade with our friends for a fiercely competitive DDR session.
03:38The game will forever remain a fond memory from our youth, though.
03:42The coolest choice for a beverage on a hot day in the aughts
04:04was by far the brightly colored drinks in glass bottles with the sick lizard design.
04:08We're talking, of course, about Sobe.
04:11The line of teas, juices, and flavored waters were ubiquitous in convenience stores in the 2000s.
04:16By now, you're probably realizing it's been a while since you've seen their products on shelves
04:20and wondering, what happened?
04:22To begin, PepsiCo, Sobe's parent company, opted for plastic packaging in 2007,
04:28causing the product to lose some of its classic feel.
04:30Naturally sweetened, wildly delicious.
04:33Sobe was having a hard time financially, eventually being removed from stores.
04:37Now, the drinks are incredibly difficult to locate.
04:41Number 15.
04:42Watch Style Network.
04:44He's putting it all together.
04:47Almost.
04:49Maybe.
04:50Perfect.
04:53Before influencers and the curated algorithm of Pinterest,
04:56fashion-forward individuals of the early 2000s learned of the latest trends through Style Network,
05:01a spinoff of E! launched in 1998.
05:04It featured a variety of fashion-centric and makeover programming like the Look for Less and Clean House.
05:09They're pack rats ready to clean up their ass.
05:11I'll do it, I'll do it!
05:12The Clean House team will help them confront their clutter.
05:15We'll lose all this riffraff.
05:16The channel rebranded as the decade neared its close,
05:19ultimately becoming Esquire Network in 2013.
05:23It broadened its focus, expanding to cover sports, travel, and more.
05:27The unexpected change upset both viewers and stars of the Style Network
05:31due to the sudden cancellation of beloved shows.
05:33The rebrand was largely unsuccessful,
05:36and Esquire Network was pulled from television in 2017.
05:39For many of us,
05:51MySpace was our first foray into the world of social media.
05:54Though similar in some ways to the social networks of today,
05:57there were some elements we'd never dream of using again.
06:00Navigating the social landmine of changing your top eight,
06:04a ranking of your eight closest friends,
06:06was a new kind of stress we were not prepared to deal with.
06:09Pages were customizable, as long as you learned to use HTML.
06:13Curating a perfect MySpace page with accompanying music was time-consuming,
06:17but seemed important at the time.
06:18Who has the energy to put that much effort into their many social media platforms today?
06:23Number 13, pay for ringtones.
06:27Before we all collectively decided to keep our phones on vibrate permanently,
06:30having a unique ringtone was a status symbol.
06:34Whose ringtone is Barracuda?
06:37It meant you either shelled out the roughly $2.50,
06:40or you recorded it directly from the radio
06:42after waiting for your favorite song to come on.
06:44today hearing even a default ringtone played out loud is a rarity let alone a custom one
06:56the rise of smartphones with all of their many apps and notifications has made it a necessity
07:01to keep your phone on silent most of the time plus with the age of streaming making nearly
07:06all music easily accessible the novelty of a special song as your ringtone just isn't worth
07:11the money number 12 chain emails i was just checking my emails i didn't know it would be full
07:17of curses all right calm down all we need to do is send that to 10 friends or foes by sunrise and
07:25the curse will be lifted quick send this video to 10 friends or you'll have bad luck for a year
07:30while there's still plenty of spam clogging our inboxes on a daily basis these days chain emails
07:35were unique in that they came directly from friends and family with a message urging you to forward
07:40this email for good luck or to avoid bad luck or any other fake consequence they ranged from
07:45harmless to seriously annoying email this to 15 people or you'll have bad luck forever oh no i
07:52better send this to my whole contact list just to be safe today email is used less for socializing and
07:58more for serious matters like work or online shopping order confirmations as a result the frivolous chain
08:04email has slowly fallen out of fashion a relic of the internet's youth number 11 use a paper map
08:11well they were once something that no driver or hiker left home without but hard copy paper maps are going
08:17the way of many tangible items in this digital age of smartphones gps and countless apps for better or
08:25for worse almost no one needs to use a physical map these days with the advent of smartphones with
08:30built-in gps apps we can easily find walking driving or public transit routes to any destination we wish
08:37to reach this feature has become so ubiquitous we've almost forgotten what a hassle clunky paper maps that
08:42were impossible to fold back up were granted it's still a good idea to keep a paper map in your car
08:47in case of emergencies or if you're headed to a remote location it's a great backup having to map
08:51in a compass you're not going to run out of battery but it's unlikely this humble navigation tool will
08:55ever be an essential travel item again number 10 netflix dvds before streaming the way we used
09:03netflix was by renting dvds through the mail what's going on here we would curate our cues carefully
09:10hoping that none of the movies we wanted to see had a very long wait in a time when physical rental
09:15stores reigned supreme being able to get just about any dvd we could think of by mail with no
09:21late fees felt like a miracle go to netflix.com make a list of the movies you want to see and in
09:28about one business day you'll get three dvds keep them as long as you want without late fees and if
09:33something wasn't available on netflix's streaming service waiting a few days for the dvd wasn't a bad
09:39trade-off you can still rent discs through netflix but their library has diminished significantly
09:46we love the convenience of streaming but we still miss the excitement of getting one of those red
09:50envelopes in the mail return one in this prepaid envelope and they'll automatically send you another
09:55movie from your list number nine burning mixed cds we know it wasn't exactly legal but it's hard to
10:02describe the thrill of putting your favorite songs on a blank cd especially if it was for your crush for a
10:09lot of people the most common cd to burn is an audio cd if you already have digital music on your
10:14computer such as mp3 files and wma files you can use windows media player to burn an audio cd that you
10:21can play on any cd player the previous generation had to record songs off the radio so this felt like
10:27we were truly in the future is your music burning on a mac but there were still some kinks to work out
10:34one of the worst experiences was receiving a burn error message right before the cd was finished but
10:41if it all went well these mixes soon became fixtures in our portable cd players and boom boxes the sony
10:47sports disc man tough enough to keep playing head after head we don't know where they went but they were
10:52arguably the best compilations ever made number eight the atkins diet dr robert atkins created his
11:00eponymous diet in the 60s but the 2000s is when the craze really took over so it really changed my
11:06energy level and it changed a lot of things and so i decided to put other people on it and the rest is
11:12history some had the misconception that all you need to do on atkins was avoid carbs and then you'd lose
11:17weight but it required more discipline than simply eating bacon instead of bread the hell is that a
11:22baggie full of bacon come on atkins what some followers were even restricting essential foods
11:32like certain vegetables because they had carbs numerous medical associations criticized the diet
11:37for its impracticality and it's doubtful it can cause long-term weight loss i'm doing atkins in the
11:43first six weeks i lost 23 pounds then i went to 30 pounds i lost and then christmas came and then i
11:52put on five pounds but let me tell you i am now back in my jeans if you're looking to lose weight for
11:59good it's gonna take more than a fad diet number seven using lime wire to find songs for our mix cds
12:08need to rely on peer-to-peer file sharing services such as lime wire the software itself was a java
12:13application that you simply downloaded for free from lime wire.com there was also a paid version
12:19called lime wire pro that promised faster speeds and better search results but most people just went
12:24with the free basic version but even though we were getting these songs for free it wasn't always a
12:29cakewalk sometimes we'd find the song we want but it was a low quality version taken from the radio
12:35other times the song would be completely mislabeled and we were led to believe that
12:39bob marley wrote don't worry be happy rather than bobby mcferrin
12:47and then there was the possibility of downloading a virus to the family computer
12:51damn lime wire the generation growing up on spotify doesn't know how easy they have it
12:57number six scene did you spend much of the 2000s at hot topic hoping others would notice how cool your
13:05bright pink hair and eyeliner were oh hot topic when did this open two weeks ago it used to be a banana
13:12republic of course freaking hot topic that explains everything if so you probably considered yourself a
13:21scene kid like many other youth-led subcultures scene thrived on defiance of the status quo even if
13:27it meant trying to fit in with countless other scene kids music was another core part of scene identity
13:33with emo and pop punk bands like my chemical romance and paramour making so many young millennials feel heard
13:39okay maybe it was just a phase but it was still a healthy stage of adolescent development even if we
13:52don't go so hard on the mascara now
14:00number five playing minesweeper parents won't buy you a playstation or xbox well there are still plenty of
14:07other ways to be a gamer like playing minesweeper for instance and there are 10 mines in it and what
14:12your goal is to do is to cover up those mines and not basically not lose if your computer had windows
14:20then you probably remember many rainy afternoons of clicking on squares trying not to get blown up
14:26figuratively speaking at first we would just click around randomly but we eventually started using our
14:32critical thinking skills of course sometimes we had to guess and it would backfire
14:36that you just have to get really used to seeing and just you know making sure you're careful
14:41because if you try to go too fast you will be not careful and end up losing but if the internet was
14:46down and there was nothing on tv a game of minesweeper or 10 was a decent solution you can still
14:52download the app on your phone but in such a competitive market for mobile gaming minesweeper
14:57will always feel retro
15:04number four ipods
15:07want to feel old the original ipod turned 20 years old in october 2021 we cannot overstate how
15:16much of a game changer this was when it came to listening to music basically if you want to compete
15:20with apple on this thing now you gotta you gotta have an ipod knockoff you can't do something much
15:25different so it's changed the world that way to be able to fit hundreds of songs into one device
15:30that could fit into your pocket was like discovering fire but the biggest thing about ipod is it holds
15:36a thousand songs now this is a quantum leap because it's your for most people it's their entire music
15:43library sure it was a bit clunkier than later models and you couldn't make phone calls or surf the
15:48web on it but that didn't matter when you were able to soundtrack your life like never before
15:53and who can forget the sound of the click wheel as we looked for the perfect song the ipod reminded
15:58us why we love music all over again number three watching trl appointment viewing has changed a lot
16:09since the 2000s now we're binge watching thought-provoking shows like squid game but back in the day we raced
16:17home to see brief snippets of music videos play while a studio audience screamed and i'm joined
16:23now by the one and only britney spears mtv's total request live or trl was a daily countdown show where
16:33the top 10 most requested videos of each day were played plus all the hottest celebrities came to
16:39promote their new releases and who didn't love watching when they left the studio for spring break
16:50and summer episodes we always dreamed of making it to times square to be in the audience but at least
16:55we did our part to vote our favorite videos to the top number two using razer phones before the iphone
17:10the most desirable cell phone was a motorola razer
17:18hello moto it might have looked like an ordinary flip phone but its ultra thin design gave it a
17:24sleekness that outshone its clunkier competitors and it wasn't just looks the razer was also ahead of
17:31the curve when it came to front facing cameras the line between form and function just became
17:36razor thin the motorola razer and there was no better way to feel stylish than with a hot pink
17:42razer motorola brought back the razer as a smartphone in 2020 but the poor reviews and
17:48ridiculously high price suggests that this phone is best kept as a fond memory of the 2000s
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18:11your phone make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications number one talking on aim
18:19aol instant messenger was the most important communication platform for so many millennials
18:25i poured so much time into making my profile icons cute my away messages were just so emo and you know
18:32maybe the person i'm thinking about would know that this lyric from the smashing pumpkin song is about
18:38them it was hardly anything more exciting than creating your first screen name which was no doubt
18:43something incredibly cringy and chatting with your friends when you should be in bed i would sneak down
18:48from my room and like get on my family's computer and just like make sure that the sound was turned
18:53off so like none of the aimed sound effects would wake up my parents we would obsess over our away
18:59messages get nervous about messaging our crushes and work through our problems one message at a time
19:05we learned what lol brb and ttyl all meant from aim there are other messaging platforms available now but
19:13none fill us with the same warm feelings as this one if we knew there was ever going to be a world
19:19without aim we would have shown it more appreciation did you enjoy this video check out these other
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