Being a Teen in the Mid-Noughties ✨

Sometimes I think the mid-noughties was the most gloriously awkward time to be a teenager. We didn’t have TikTok or iPhones yet, but we had enough tech to feel like the future was right there in our bedrooms — buzzing, blinking, dial-up loading…

MSN Messenger was life.

Every night I’d log on, change my status to something deep like “Asten is bored lol” or “listening to S Club <3”, and wait for my besties to nudge me. The drama of who you put in your screen name or whether you went “appear offline” just to get attention… unmatched.

Myspace and Bebo were our personality tests.

Daisy-pink backgrounds, Jonas James (or Jonas Brothers 😅) lyrics scrolling across the page, Top 8 wars, and glitter graphics everywhere. On Bebo, you could even pick an “other half.” It was basically public friendship politics and we loved it.

Fashion was questionable, but we owned it.

Layered tank tops, skinny jeans with ballet flats, chunky belts, and of course the iconic Livestrong bracelets. If you didn’t spray half a can of Impulse body spray before school, did you even exist?

Music came on shiny discs.

I still remember running into Woolworths to buy CD singles, or waiting by the radio with a blank tape ready to record the Top 40. Limewire was there too, but let’s just say half the time you’d end up downloading something sketchy instead of the song you wanted.

Phones were bricks but we loved them.

Pink Motorola flip phones, Nokia ringtones, endless games of Snake. Ten texts would fill your inbox, and we thought we were so cool.

Looking back, it was messy, colourful, and maybe a little cringey — but it was ours. The mid-noughties was a time of glitter layouts, dodgy internet connections, and friendships that felt bigger than any Atlantic Ocean between us. 💕

#ADN #MidNoughties #MSN #Myspace #Bebo #Nostalgia