Here are 23 things this years’ freshers are younger than to fill you with existential dread

How is High School Musical old enough to drink?


2005 and 2006 might seem like yesterday to you but it was actually nearly 20 years ago. For me, I wasn’t even fully conscious during those years, being two, but there are nevertheless things invented and songs and films that came out during those years that fill me with existential dread at the never-ending passage of time.

One thing that fills me with even more dread, perhaps, is the fact that people who were born after these things are not only grown up, but they are about to go to uni and be freshers in 2024 which in itself is icky. So, here’s a list of the most shocking things that the 2024 freshers are younger than which is bound to make you feel absolutely decrepit.

Here are 23 things that this year’s freshers are younger than:

1.Coke Zero being released

2. Facebook being launched in 2004, and was actually called The Facebook until August 2005

3. The first YouTube video, titled “Me at the Zoo”, posted in 2005

4. The launch of Twitter, in 2006 in San Francisco

RIP little blue bird

5. 2005 was the year that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston divorced, before he famously began a relationship with his co-star Angelina Jolie

6. Google Earth being released

7. And Google Translate

8. The first High School Musical film coming out. It was released in 2006, with the sequel coming out the next year

9. The first Hannah Montana episode airing on Disney Channel

2024 freshers

via Disney Channel

10. Taylor Swift’s debut album, which came out in North America in 2006. Also known as the invention of music

11. Jamie Oliver being turkey twizzlers’ biggest opp – he famously campaigned against junk food in schools to the outrage of many parents and pupils

12. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

13. The banger that is Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson

14. Ice Age: The Meltdown. Not even the first Ice Age movie, the sequel

15. Nintendogs was released in 2005

16. The first episode of The Office US aired in 2005. Again, not even the earlier UK version – the remake!

17. The paragon of modern gaming tech, the Xbox 360 wasn’t released until 2005 as well

18. Madagascar coming out

via DreamWorks

19. The formation of the Jonas Brothers

20. Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses, a true emblem of cinematic excellence, was released in 2006

21. Similarly iconic film The Devil Wears Prada was released the same year

22. So was Cars

23. And Revenge of the Sith. This years’ freshers are younger than the birth of the Dark Side

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