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10 Things You Definitely Did If You Were a Teen in the 2000s

Diana Collins3 min read
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10 Things You Definitely Did If You Were a Teen in the 2000s — Leisure
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MSN

MSN kicked off in 1999 and lasted until 2014. It packed tons of fun features: you could show everyone what you were listening to, play Minesweeper together, and express your feelings or crushes with quirky characters and fonts. You could set your status or go incognito. Besides winks, you could annoy friends with animated icons—shaking the chat window was probably the most dreaded, especially when someone wasn’t replying. And if your crush was online, you’d log in and out repeatedly, hoping to catch their attention.

Video Rental Stores

Video Rental Stores
Though video rental stores were already popular a decade earlier, many still rented DVDs around the millennium. There was something exciting about wandering the aisles, hunting for the perfect movie to watch with friends. You often ended up at horror films, but somehow a chick flick usually won for the evening’s pick.

Winamp and Its Skins

Winamp and Its Skins
Everyone loved Winamp because with a bit of know-how, you could find cool skins to totally customize how your music player looked. It was all about personal style!
Before Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, these platforms ruled the scene. MySpace let you customize your profile with some HTML skills and pick your top 8 friends. Everyone who signed up automatically became friends with MySpace Tom. iWiW was a bit more serious, MyVIP had its own vibe, and HotDog stood out by letting you customize loads, collect badges, and even featured user leaderboards.

Teveclub

Teveclub
If social networks weren’t enough, you could also raise a virtual camel—and surprisingly, this site still runs today! You could choose your camel’s gender and color, and buy dates with SMS credits.

Burning CDs – The Ultimate Love Gesture

Burning CDs – The Ultimate Love Gesture
If you were brave enough, you’d burn your favorite songs onto a CD to give to that special someone at school who caught your eye.

Limewire

Limewire
This was the program where you probably caught the most viruses—but in return, you could download all your favorite songs for free (though not legally).

Rubber Bracelets

Rubber Bracelets
Colorful rubber bracelets were a must-have on every girl’s wrist, especially if she loved alternative, rock, or emo bands.

Flip Phones

Flip Phones
Every call was an experience with a flip phone, and if someone annoyed you, you could literally slam it shut. Stickers and rhinestones made them uniquely yours.

Profile Pictures

Profile Pictures
You took tons of profile pictures with your digital camera. They were often shot from above (especially if you were emo), brightened up, and sometimes decorated with text.
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