Millennial explains how differently people used to watch movies in the early 2000s

Back to the 2000s is a trend that has garnered a lot of appeal in recent years. The constant pressure of social media and technology is so overwhelming that it leaves people wishing for simpler times. Therefore, videos highlighting some staple features of that era are garnering so much popularity. One such viral video posted by Cara Patricia—who goes on TikTok by @carapatriciasf—showcased how before the advent of the internet, people used to put effort while searching for the movies they wanted to watch. Today, there are so many streaming sites where people can watch any movie they want at any time without any hindrance. However, this was not the case in the early 2000s.

Patricia refers to herself as an "aging millennial" in her bio. She lived at a time when watching a particular movie, people needed to search through a newspaper meticulously. Patricia explained the whole process by saying, "You know, back in my day, if you wanted to see Miss Congeniality, you had to go through the newspaper and you had to find the local movie directories and then you had to go through and find that theater and be like, 'Well, they are playing Miss Congeniality on two screens.'"

The video features Patricia flipping through the pages of a newspaper, where information about theatres where a particular movie is going to play is printed. Today, there is no end to the options people can easily make a choice when it comes to consuming movies and shows. But then, the options depended on which movies were playing at the time in the nearby directories. She narrates how apart from "Miss Congeniality," the other alternatives were "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Or the Emperor's New Groove," not hordes of other movies like today.

This clip surely transports back to the era of the 2000s when things might not have been easily available, but their value was paramount. The TikTok user enhanced the nostalgic effect by zooming in on the date in the newspaper. The date printed was December 31, 2000. At the time when the world was on the cusp of change but still attached to its roots, people wanted to connect and not get immersed in their cellular devices. As the video showcases, efforts are what counted during that era, with people having to search for venues to arrange meetings. There was more meaning attached to things. Today, things have become fickle with Google and Alexa, making everything easy to plan.

Moreover, it is not the first time nostalgic videos of the 90s and 2000s have garnered popularity. Videos about the woman who found a JCPenney purse full of 1994 goodies sitting in her mom's attic or the TikTok user who stunned viewers with relics from her 2000s teen bedroom have also made a place in lots of people's hearts.

The comment section also took a walk down memory lane with the "aging millennial." @contentabsorber mentioned a detail that was missed by the video, "Don't forget to call the theater and listen to the recording of them reading the showtimes movie by movie." @__alliebruh reflected on her emotions seeing the video, "It's like life before the Internet was a fever dream."