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25 Things Born in the 2020s Will Never Understand

Michael Beausoleil
6 min readApr 26, 2022

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Thinking of having a child soon? Their world is going to be very different than the one you grew up in.

This isn’t a bad thing: We should expect the world to change and technology to advance. Just like elementary school children have no idea what an answering machine tape looks like, children born in the current decade will age out of some aspects of life.

This is mostly just speculation based on current trends and observances. In fact, we can’t confidently say what children born in the 2010s will continue doing as they age, let alone children born this decade. So I’m prepared for this list to age like milk, but this is mostly just written in good fun.

2000s glasses
Ringing in the “two thousands” with cheugy glasses. Photo via The Daily Telegraph

1. “The Two Thousands”

Babies born in the 10s might have been born in “two thousand twelve,” and they certainly have parents who reminisce about “two thousand three.” The 20s will be called the “twenty-twenties” and babies born in this decade will talk about grandpa’s stories from “twenty-o-three.”

2. Ordering at the Counter

Customers will still want to eat out, but they won’t want to talk to an employee at the counter. They’d rather tap an app a few times, customize everything, and get their food without saying a word out loud.

3. DVR

Cable television is on the way out, and most kids will grow up with an emphasis on streaming. While they might know about DVDs or Blu-ray, DVR will become a thing of the past. Anything worth watching will be released on streaming first anyway.

Car with pin in parking lot.
Yup. That’s your car.

4. Remembering Parking Spaces

Cars will just drop pins. After a trip to the mall (if they exist), technology will just take them to their cars.

5. The Absence of Preferred Pronouns

As the world becomes more progressive, including pronouns is becoming more common. Kids born in the 20s will still make assumptions, but when they see name tags with pronouns directly under the name, they won’t bat an eye.

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Michael Beausoleil
Michael Beausoleil

Written by Michael Beausoleil

User Analytics | Digital & Brand Marketing | Productivity … hoping to explore topics that interest me and find others with similar passions

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