Limited Access
“If a song you loved came on the radio, that was your only window. You couldn’t replay it. You couldn’t save it. You just took it in.”
Growing Up in the Sweet Spot
I was born in ’99, and honestly, that feels like one of the luckiest years to come in on. I’m Gen Z on paper, but everything about the way I grew up lines up more with millennials. I remember what life felt like before everything went digital.
Before timelines. Before every moment got recorded and uploaded. It was simple… not perfect, but simple.
And I didn’t realize until I got older how much those little moments shaped me.
When Access Wasn’t Instant
Back then, if you wanted to see your favorite artist, you had to be in the right place at the right time.
106 & Park.
Award shows.
A random guest appearance on a sitcom.
Punk’d.
My Super Sweet 16.
And especially MTV Cribs — that was a whole experience by itself.
There wasn’t this constant feed of their lives. No stories. No livestreams. No “here’s what I had for breakfast.” They felt bigger than life because you barely saw them.
Catching Songs However You Could
And the music? Man… the music was a whole different mission. If a song you loved came on the radio, that was your only window. You couldn’t replay it. You couldn’t save it. You just took it in.
I used to record songs on whatever phone I had — hand-me-downs, flip phones, an Obama phone — anything. The quality was terrible, but I’d still play those recordings like they were MP3s.
And deep cuts?
You had to pray somebody played them. It made the music feel like treasure.
When Artists Still Felt Like Mysteries
There was this one time I saw Lil Wayne on My Super Sweet 16, and I remember just looking at the screen like:
“Yeah… he got it.”
That presence. That energy. That larger-than-life feeling artists used to have.
Same with commercials — if a celebrity I liked popped up, I’d replay the commercial like it was a whole show. If they were on a magazine cover, I’d get the magazine or cut the picture out and put it on my wall.
That was the only way to keep them close.
Now, you see your favorite celebrity every day whether you want to or not. It’s not bad — it’s just not the same.
What Today Gets Right
But I won’t act like this era is all bad. There’s a lot to appreciate. If I want to hear something, it’s there. If an artist drops a visual at midnight, I don’t have to wait for a premiere. If I need motivation, it’s one search away. It’s convenient. It’s fast. It’s easy.
And sometimes that ease is exactly what we need.
What Gen Alpha Will Say About Us
The generation under me — Gen Alpha — is growing up where nothing is rare and everything is reachable.
I do wonder what their “back in my day” is gonna sound like. What moment will they look back on and say,
“This was our era”?
Every generation has that story. I’m just wondering what theirs will be when everything is available all the time.
Closing Thoughts
I’m grateful I grew up right in the middle — with one foot in the old world and one in the new.
I got to feel what it was like when access wasn’t automatic and moments actually felt like moments.
And now I get to see this new era too, where everything is instant.
Both sides taught me something.
Both sides shaped me.
And honestly… I’m glad I caught the end of that golden era before everything changed.