Page 7 | Need your help with pre smartphone youth photos for new Rage Against the Screens campaign

JustineMumsnet · 2026-05-12T14:05:23+00:00

Hi all, We’re looking for real photos from Mumsnetters’ gloriously pre-smartphone youths for a new Mumsnet ad campaign about getting kids off screens and back into real life (part of our wider Rage Against the Screen campaign). We’re calling it *Your Mum Thinks You Should Live a Little* and the basic message to teens is: 1. Your mum was actually quite cool once 2. There’s more to life than staring at a screen and your mum wants you to go out and live it It’s a celebration of the slightly chaotic, occasionally misspent, entirely offline lives we were living before social media arrived. Think: * blurry disposable-camera nights out * giant trousers and tiny tops * first festivals * dodgy fringes * snogging behind the bike sheds * actual hobbies * friendship groups that existed in 3D * rave/goth/indie/skater/grunge pics * terrible fashion choices * chaotic holidays * badly decorated teenage bedrooms * anything that screams “1990s” _[[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSetsfsHfdIgHSIv3YiF35lbWhUxBEGG9qaaA0jPd1VYEOORCg/viewform?usp=dialog If you’d like to contribute, upload your photos here]]_. If we’d keen to use any as part of the campaign, we’ll of course contact you directly first. We’ve shared a few examples below to get everyone started. Let us know what you think? Thanks, Justine

ApplebyArrows · 21/06/2026 08:39

I'm seeing both "the problem there is there is nothing else to do!" and "there was nothing much to do" posts here. I would tend personally towards the latter side - I don't remember any of these mythical youth clubs and things when I was growing up pre-smartphone. We just went to each other's houses or to the park (or the landscaped green bit on the new build estate we mostly lived on). Is this a big city vs small town thing?

But also: going to the park or walking round town really wasn't that bad. I see plenty of teenagers still doing these things today! (Despite protestations on the internet that it's now too dangerous for anyone under the age of 16 to go outside.) Young people don't actually need their social lives to be mediated by phones or by adult-organised activities. I'm not saying the latter is a bad thing, but plenty of us grew up without either. And looking back historically, youth clubs and the like are a very recent development.

MyOtherProfile · 21/06/2026 09:11

And looking back historically, youth clubs and the like are a very recent development.

I was at secondary school in the early 80s and the school youth club ran an evening a week for each age group. Village not far from a city.

YouHaveAnArse · 23/06/2026 07:44

ApplebyArrows · 21/06/2026 08:39

I'm seeing both "the problem there is there is nothing else to do!" and "there was nothing much to do" posts here. I would tend personally towards the latter side - I don't remember any of these mythical youth clubs and things when I was growing up pre-smartphone. We just went to each other's houses or to the park (or the landscaped green bit on the new build estate we mostly lived on). Is this a big city vs small town thing?

But also: going to the park or walking round town really wasn't that bad. I see plenty of teenagers still doing these things today! (Despite protestations on the internet that it's now too dangerous for anyone under the age of 16 to go outside.) Young people don't actually need their social lives to be mediated by phones or by adult-organised activities. I'm not saying the latter is a bad thing, but plenty of us grew up without either. And looking back historically, youth clubs and the like are a very recent development.

We mostly hung out in pubs on Friday night at 15. Kids can't do that now, and can you imagine the threads on here if parents were OK with them doing so...

Jane379 · 13/08/2026 13:53

Ormally · 13/05/2026 10:33

Your mum was actually quite cool once

If that was ever briefly true, it would have been by '90s standards. This would be the core of the reaction, and incite pity, from my 2026 teen, with or without photographic evidence.

Lots of subcultures like goth etc have followings among Gen Z, or at least fans of the music & look. And raves still happen too.

But I don't think this campaign hits the mark. I as a teen didn't think my mum was uncool from what she told me of her teen years : but I also wanted to carve out my own space, not do & like all the same things she did at my age.

Jane379 · 13/08/2026 13:54

ApplebyArrows · 21/06/2026 08:39

I'm seeing both "the problem there is there is nothing else to do!" and "there was nothing much to do" posts here. I would tend personally towards the latter side - I don't remember any of these mythical youth clubs and things when I was growing up pre-smartphone. We just went to each other's houses or to the park (or the landscaped green bit on the new build estate we mostly lived on). Is this a big city vs small town thing?

But also: going to the park or walking round town really wasn't that bad. I see plenty of teenagers still doing these things today! (Despite protestations on the internet that it's now too dangerous for anyone under the age of 16 to go outside.) Young people don't actually need their social lives to be mediated by phones or by adult-organised activities. I'm not saying the latter is a bad thing, but plenty of us grew up without either. And looking back historically, youth clubs and the like are a very recent development.

'I see plenty of teenagers still doing these things today! (Despite protestations on the internet that it's now too dangerous for anyone under the age of 16 to go outside.)'

this.

Jane379 · 13/08/2026 13:58

YouHaveAnArse · 13/05/2026 11:59

Exactly this. As a 15yr old we used to go into town on a Friday night and hang around pubs to meet people. Teenagers can't do that now, and if I were their mum I'm not sure I'd want them to (especially given how girls were routinely harrassed or assaulted).
They're not seen as old enough to travel to the places we did on public transport, to go to gigs and festivals, or even be left home alone. They have fewer opportunities to find jobs to fund things, especially before they turn 16, and many families have less money to go round. Third places basically no longer exist. How is any teenager in 2026 meant to do the things we see here?

Show quote history

'They're not seen as old enough to travel to the places we did on public transport, '- a lot of teens do use public transport though. The issue is often more the lack of it outside London.

Jane379 · 13/08/2026 13:59

ProfessorBinturong · 13/05/2026 11:48

The only bits of the suggestions list that make even the slightest bit of sense are 'actual hobbies' and 'friendship groups that existed in 3D'.

Bad fashion choices and holiday snaps are totally irrelevant to smart phone use - both happen in all time periods, and images can be captured with any technology. It's not as if selfies are unknown to the current generation.

Nostalgia only works on those who were there - and they're not the target of the campaign. You might get somewhere with one based on 'You could be doing ....' using current teens putting down their phones and going out to do things; you won't with one on 'What we did'.

As for the nudity. Words fail me. The picture is inappropriate, the strapline makes it worse if anything, and no teenager in history has ever wanted to think of their mother as a naked teenager.

Completely misjudged.

This : 'You might get somewhere with one based on 'You could be doing ....' using current teens putting down their phones and going out to do things; you won't with one on 'What we did'.'

Jane379 · 13/08/2026 14:03

LittleMissClutter · 13/05/2026 11:35

Thinking about it now, the 90s was over 30 years ago.

I was an 80s teenager.

There is no campaign on earth that could've encouraged me to 'be more 1950s'.

I can't imagine me and my friends swapping dancing round our handbags to Wham in the local nightclub, for a nice waltz around the floor with Brian and Nigel at the local tea dance.

And had my parents encouraged me to do so, it would've made the generation gap between us wider than the Gulf.

1950s was more different from the 1980s than the 1990s from now though, I think, at least in some ways. But agree overall.

In the 90s in US there were elements of 50s revival (eg. Rockabilly revival) but arguably the 50s (at least late 50s) had more of a cool image there than here due to Elvis etc. 1990s US also revived some 60s fashion etc (trend 30 year cycle) but that's different from people directly copying their parents.