What defined middle school for you?

[SolVanderlyn]

I'm teaching it now and seeing an entire new generation of kids is making me feel the generation gap hard. They all play phone games, identify themselves through what Youtubers they watch, love Fortnite, and listen to artists I've never heard of.

For me it was:

-Early internet slang, terms like "rofl" "XD" "noob"
-IRC
-Homestar Runner
-Disney Channel/Nickelodeon
-Sleepovers with friends on the weekend where we'd all play PS2 games and then later hook up XBoxes to play Halo (the first one)
-Razor Scooters
-Extreme sports like skateboarding and inline skating becoming extremely popular
-Hoobastank
-Ragnarok Online

What was it like for you?

 

[TaySan]

non stop bullying, family fighting, getting into trouble with law.
just a bad time in my life that i wish to forget

 

[Vas]

Late 90's

It was:

1. JRPGS on PS1
2. Skateboarding
3. Nu Metal/Punk
4. Bass Guitar

 

[Ruck]

AIM, early awkward dating, everybody being shitty to each other.

 

[thekonamicode]

Middle school was basically Lord of the Flies for me in the early 90s.

 

[adj_noun]

Torture. I loathed every second of it to the point where I've blocked a lot of it from memory.

 

[subpar spatula]

sleeping on the school roof

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Ridiculously baggy Billabong t-shirts.

 

[Laevateinn]

My teacher treating me like shit all year for not believing in god.

 

[Alanood]

Being edgy.

 

[louisacommie]

Bunch of kids being unintentionally creepy

 

[xxracerxx]

• Met lifelong best friends
• Lots of biking around
• Shenanigans

 

[Mahonay]

Pimples
Braces
Severe awkwardness
Hiding my boner

 

[Wingfan19]

Guess and Girbaud jeans

EDIT - For reference, I was in middle school from 93-96.

 

[jml]

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, nu metal, Ed Edd n Eddy, and pro wrestling

 

[Doggg]

Bullying. That, and Josta

Cause of course Mountain Dew shrinks your dick

 

[Beedig]

Newgrounds, Adult Swim, limewire, and PC gaming. Not much lol

 

[Mahonay]

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, nu metal, Ed Edd n Eddy, and pro wrestling

Click to shrink...

Oh yeah

THPS and pro wrestling were much of my life during middle school

 

[Squarehard]

Newgrounds, Adult Swim, limewire, and PC gaming. Not much lol

Click to shrink...

Ah, Newgrounds.

Good ol' times when sprite remakes were king of the internet. ;D

 

[peppermints]

AIM
Not being able to talk to girls
LAN parties
GameCube
Toonami and Adult Swim

 

[subpar spatula]

truth or dare with the theatre kids

 

[Horp]

Being bullied.
Changed school and things got a lot better.

 

[fanboi]

Losing my virginity.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Bullying. That, and Josta

Cause of course Mountain Dew shrinks your dick

Click to shrink...

lol, for me it was these.

 

[Wilsongt]

Being bullied.
Pokemon
SNES/NES/Genesis games.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

The less I think about it the better

Same with high school

And college

And uni

 

[julia crawford]

I have near to no recollection of that time.

 

[melikefishnchips]

Yoyo fad
Gigapet fad
Jansport fad
Gang culture

 

[Ziltoidia 9]

Death of my father, old friends stopped talking to me, and last two friends moved away in one year.

I've been alone ever since.

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

Gundam wing and choosing your favorite pilot. GNTsquid

It's always going to be Duo that's the best.

 

[Zero-ELEC]

what the heck is a middle school?

 

[boxter432]

Carmel apple suckers.

 

[Svadhyaya]

Getting relentlessly bullied, figuring out that my parents sheltered me to an extreme degree, 9/11, Pokémon, Smash Bros. sleepovers.

 

[MIMIC]

Yo-yos, PlayStation, wrestling, and Jordans.

 

[Blue Skies]

insecurity
friend zone
endless search of being cool
never being cool
skipping class to be cool
trying to grow my hair into a blowout

just bad time man
I was a straight A student in elementary, and I just wasted that in middle trying to be cool

 

[sfedai0]

Pencil fights

 

[Rhomega]

-My sexual awakening
-My time in the Boy Scouts
-The hype around Star Wars: Episode I
-The hype around Y2K and the new millennium
-Boy bands, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera
-Rise of the mp3 and Napster
-Command & Conquer

 

[turbobrick]

For me it was late 90's/early 2000's.

nu-metal/punk music
ps1 games
counter-strike
diablo 2

Probably a few other things.
Jr high/middle school was garbage and I'm glad its over.

 

[Cross-Section]

Finding out for the first time how shitty some "friends" could be
Meeting a surprising number of folks that I wouldn't become good friends with until college
Nearly flunking math
Cafeteria nachos
Scoliosis
Getting beat up but taking the lion's share of the punishment for it
Halo LAN parties in my friend's mom's class
The Star Wars prequels

 

[TaterTots]

I started 6th grade in 97 and left middle school in 00. So everything from nu metal, puberty, wrestling, PS1 games, sports, to Y2K.

 

[Osa15]

One of my very attractive teacher staring at me during class. I didn't know if I should have made eye contact or not. Else, I would say my first detention for skipping class and sitting by myself in cafeteria. I was not a cool kid unfortunately. Even though, a cheerleader asked me to sit with her during cafeteria, I was to concerned with cooties at the time and I would have been so awkward.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

what the heck is a middle school?

Click to shrink...

My city didn't have them back then (it was just elementary and high school) but I think they're typically grades 6 to 8. They seem to be widespread in the US but not as common in Canada. I'm not sure about other placs.

 

[Tawney Bomb]

Wrestling, video games (FF VII and multiplayer N64 games), Korn and Limp Bizkit were the most popular bands in my school, everyone started smoking, and everyone owned a pair of JNCOs.

Cringy times to be sure, but they were fun.

Edit: Toonami after school and TRL were daily habits too

 

[Guarenz]

PS1/N64
The Internet
Family Problems, Girl Problems
Band
Bullied, Trying to fit in

 

[Dead Guy]

Middle school is kind of a blur for me.

- I remember club penguin got huge for like 1 year
- Internet Flash games because smartphones weren't a thing
- IPods were just starting to get popular
- Disney channel shows like Icarly and Hannah Montana were big
- My first discovery of dodgy internet porn
- Everyone being general dicks to each other.

Wasn't a great point in my life

 

[NESpowerhouse]

2009-2011 for me so the Wii, YouTube Poops, jackin it, and early modern meme culture

 

[Deleted member 4367]

Desperation for acceptance, cripplingly low self esteem and confusion at who I was.

 

[Sunster]

Crafting an artificial personality to make people laugh and fit in but in so doing alienating all of my actual friends.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

Warcraft 2, Doom, getting into music and buying my first CDs, pogs, being really into liking girls, and a lot of overnight videogame playing with my friend who lived next door.

edit: oh, and then-undiagnosed crippling depression.

 

[Lmo2017]

Bullying

"Just smile and they'll be your friends!"

Bullshit, by the way.