Posted 2 hours agoSubscribe to Screen Time NewsletterCaret Down"How Rare And Exciting": People Are Sharing The Wildest Misconceptions About Culture In The Y2K Era, And It's Genuinely Fascinating"How rare and exciting it was to order something off of the internet and have it arrive at your house. What a magical concept!"by Stephanie SoteriouBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink Somebody recently asked a Reddit forum: "What are some misconceptions about pop culture during the Y2K era that you want to address?," and the answers took me on a trip down memory lane that I genuinely wasn't expecting. Here are some of the best responses: Responses have been edited for clarity. 1. "I don't think it can be properly conveyed just how remarkable and novel reality TV was. The first season of Survivor?! We did not get assigned homework the night of the finale! It was such a huge deal. Season 1 of Big Brother? The idea that we could watch them 24/7 by going online? Absolutely revolutionary. American Idol, voting contestants off in real time? All of the things that feel tired and overdone and crass now were the talk of the country, and there was so much concern for how TV would be changed forever..." - violetmemphisblue CBS / Via youtube.com "Remember when Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? was on like six days a week?" - cranberrylimeade420 2. "Being 'not like the other girls' is seen as ultimate 'pick-me' behavior today, but that actually was the feminist movement of the early 2000s. Women and girls were all expected to be hyper-feminine and have stereotypical interests (the color pink, makeup, shopping, etc) and it was 'cool' to put down women that conformed to those ideals. Being viewed as 'one of the boys' or rejecting those feminine interests was a way to rebel against that societal norm. P!nk's 'Stupid Girls' and Avril Lavigne's 'Sk8er Boi' are good examples of this. Neither of these songs would fly in mainstream media if they were released today, but the underlying messages behind them absolutely were seen as progressive at the time." - deathtonormalcy SME 3. "How rare and exciting it was to order something off of the internet and have it arrive at your house. What a magical concept! I miss not being overwhelmed with choice and not having as many physical stores to go in and try clothes on at." - Latter_Table193 Owen Franken / Getty Images 4. "Post 9/11 Islamophobia was so mainstream it was considered socially acceptable." - thatplaidhat Massimo Borchi / Getty Images "For sure, every villain in the show 24 was some sort of 'middle eastern,'" - ungido"Jeff Dunham was the most popular comedian in the country because of his racist dead terrorist puppet. The punchline was always about suicide bombing." - Madame_Trash_Heap"Great answer. I remember a story years after 9/11 that some people were trying to build an Islamic community center a few blocks from Ground Zero, and it was a legitimate controversy." - weaver787 5. "Homophobia was INSANELY normalized in all levels of culture. I was in a screamo/metal band in '03 and started wearing tight pants like 5 years too early. Got called the F word literally every day of my life all of high school until Lil Wayne put skinny jeans on in '08 and all of a sudden everyone was cool with me." - FrodoFan34 GLSEN "Lmao they tried to tell us that if a man washed his ass he was 'metrosexual.' What does that even mean???" - taylorbagel14"People used to say 'that's so gay' to insult something." - ohmybuddhaa 6. "Stan culture was basically just listening to your favorite artist's CDs on repeat, going to their concerts/movies and/or reading about them in magazines when you could, putting up posters, and daydreaming. As someone born in 1986, I was aware of fan clubs you could write letters to but they weren't super mainstream. Definitely less parasocial overall than it is today." - TacosBeansGuacOhMy Aftermath / Via youtube.com 7. "I've been rewatching Lost but with my kids, and it's strange trying to convey how much of a phenomenon certain TV shows used to be. Not to mention that when they whine about having to wait until the next day to watch another episode, I get to say 'back in my day' like an old person explaining that at least it's not a whole summer!" - TrimspaBB ABC 8. "While I'm glad there's more media out there, I kind of miss the monoculture. It was nice to have something basically everyone watched." - HearTheBluesACalling Frank And Helena Herholdt / Getty Images 9. "IMO social tech has devolved since the Y2K days. Back then, anyone who wanted a good MySpace or Tumblr page had to know at least the basics of coding or befriend someone who could make a sick template. We were more engaged and shared stuff more extensively because algorithms didn't exist to tell us where to go and what to look at. It was far more social and easier to have a unique voice back then and the current social media spaces feel really regressive." - caffeinatedspiders Soundsnaps / Getty Images 10. "As bad as you