Is it just me or do middle schoolers now a days look like they’re 24 years old? While surfing through Instagram last week I came across my cousin’s profile. She’s only 13, yet in every single picture she looked well past puberty. How is that fair? Where did the awkward stage go? I started to compare my middle school years with hers, and differing Instagram pages were just the beginning.
1. Facebook vs. VSCO
As a girl in middle school circa the 2000’s, uploading pictures to Facebook was the sh**. Everyone’s albums were creatively titled something along the lines of, “$eventhh GrAd3!!”, and consisted of excruciatingly awkward pictures of lanky friend groups. Now, middle schoolers upload their pictures on the chic photo app, VSCO. Their feeds are so aesthetically pleasing, unlike those Facebook albums.
TBT to Picnik, anyone?!
2. Gauchos vs. Flowy Beach pants
Remember those oversized, unpleasantly cropped cotton pants we used to wear? Yeah, well they just got an update:
Smh.
3. Justice vs. Victoria’s Secret
Throwback to begging mom for the t-shirt with “Justice: Just for Girls” sprawled across the front in glitter. Now, 6th graders are strutting down the hallways head to toe in Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie- and no, not the logo t-shirts.
4. Kidz Bop vs. Top 40
Long gone is the era of listening to Kidz Bop CD’s on our Sony Walkmans (the giant ipod that plays CDs) walking home from school. Now, middle schoolers are listening to Drake, The Weekend, and Queen Bee on their iPhone 7s.
5. AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) vs. iMessage
In 5th grade, it was practically a competition to have THE BEST signature on AIM. AIM was the only way you could communicate with your friends after school, because no one had a cell phone *gasp*. Now with iMessage, middle schoolers can talk to each other anytime, anywhere.
6. Selfies with digital cameras vs. Selfies with iPhones
“Back in the day” if you were going anywhere, and I mean anywhere, you brought your digital camera. There was no shame in pulling out that clunky piece of technology and snapping a selfie in the middle of Limited Too. Middle schoolers still have no shame in the selfie game, but their cameras are a bit more discreet than ours were.
Long live 2006.