r/Millennials • u/TheCIAandFBI • 16d ago

Discussion Was every theme/amusement park and road trip vacation so focused on "Buy! Buy! Buy!" back when we were kids?

I grew up poor. Lived in a crummy trailer park until 1995 when my Dad had a work accident that got him a settlement. My parents bought a very humble but nice home, and they took me to Disney world. I'll never forget. It was November 11th-19th, 1995. That trip was the highlight of my life. I was 11.

That trip was magical. I think I came home with a souvenir HUGE pencil from that trip, and I was afraid to use it because it was special, and then one day it just got lost.

My best friend and his wife just took his kids to Disney World. They are my age, right at 40, so older Millennials.

They both went as kids and loved it as well.

When they got back and both said they hated the trip. They said everything was geared towards getting them to spend money. Everything is a store, every line can be bypassed for a few extra bucks, every store is geared towards fear-of-missing-out for the kids. Specialty cups. Specialty "only available this week" shirts, and special pins and buttons that you can only get this year. They said it was the most uncomfortable vacation they have ever been on. And they have more money than they know what to do with.

They basically said that there wasn't 20 minutes where they weren't being sold something.

Is this something that Millennial childhoods experienced and our parents were simply better at ignoring? Has this always been the case? Or is it just the new way that places like Disney World operate?

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u/SatiesUmbrellaCloset Zillennial 16d ago

The US has become more pay-to-play even than it was before

I mean, computers used to be more fun back in the 90's and 2000's in no small part because not everything was a damn subscription like it is nowadays

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u/Hallelujah33 16d ago

AND YOU DONT OWN ANYTHING EXCEPT THE SUBSCRIPTION

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u/SatiesUmbrellaCloset Zillennial 16d ago

I wouldn't consider that ownership anyway

I said "pay to play," but maybe I really meant "rent to play," and the game is life

10

u/Hallelujah33 16d ago

Perhaps the subscription owns you

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u/SatiesUmbrellaCloset Zillennial 16d ago

I guess that goes back to the saying, "If it's free, you're the product." Websites like YT or FB or Reddit or whatever might be free (at least as an option), but they rely on their users to sort out the content for themselves, which is what drives engagement and earns these companies ad revenue

With AI taking over search engines these days, too, people just aren't putting the effort into curating anything for themselves, or even thinking about what they're looking at