Last Updated on May 2, 2025 by Matt Staff
College life has undergone many dramatic changes over the decades. What once might’ve felt completely normal to Boomers now comes across as downright bizarre to Gen Z. From the typewriters and the payphones to hitchhiking and handwritten letters, the daily rituals of campus life in the mid-20th century are but relics from a vastly different world.
This collection of generational quirks can shine a light not only on how much technology has evolved, but also how student culture and the expectations that come with it have changed too. These are 19 things that Boomers loved in college that would genuinely leave most Gen Z students scratching their heads.
1. Using Typewriters for Term Papers
Boomers would crank out essays on comically loud and all-around unforgiving typewriters. There was no such thing as a handy backspace or auto-correct back then. Just some White-Out and a crossing of your fingers.
2. Waiting in Line for Pay Phones
Calling home or a date required that you wait in line for a campus payphone. You’d better have come ready with all the quarters and a boatload of patience as well.
3. Paper Course Catalogs
Scheduling classes oftentimes meant flipping through a thick catalog and filling out a form by hand. There weren’t such things as apps or online registration.
4. Dorm Room Landlines
Every dorm had a shared phone or a rotary phone set up in the hallway. Personal cell phones were an unthinkable idea.
5. Bringing a Record Player to College
Numerous students would pack up their bulky turntables and also their gargantuan crates of vinyl. Music portability itself was nothing short of a luxury.
6. Smoking Indoors—Even in Class
Smoking in dorms, lounges, or even in lecture halls wasn’t an unusual occurrence. Some professors could even be caught lighting up while they were teaching.
7. Living Without Internet
There was no Wi-Fi and no Google. The research that was carried out would happen at the library, and by using card catalogs as well as microfilm.
8. Dressing Up for Class
Plenty of Boomers would wear slacks, blouses, or even their ties to class. Sweatpants and hoodies just weren’t a part of the norm.
9. Attending All-Male or All-Female Colleges
Single-gender colleges were far more common, and some didn’t even go co-ed until the ’80s, or later.
10. Going to the library for everything
Study sessions, dates, and research. It seemed like all the roads ended up leading to the library. It was truly the pre-digital everything place to be.
11. Using Slide Rules in Math and Science
Before such things as calculators became as common as they are, slide rules stood as the standard tools for going about solving equations.
12. Mixtapes and Handwritten Love Letters
Boomers expressed their infatuation with cassette tapes and also with pen-and-paper letters. There weren’t such things as texts, DMs, or Snapchats.
13. Relying on Bulletin Boards for Campus News
Announcements were thumbtacked to the cork boards within the student unions. There were no such things as email blasts or even group chats. I’m really all for the lack of group chats if I’m being honest.
14. Hitchhiking
A shocker to Generation Z, but many Boomers actually insisted on hitchhiking across campus or even between states.
15. Polaroid Cameras for Instant Memories
Selfies meant that you had to ask a friend to take your picture. Then there was the whole matter of waiting for it to develop. This modern era is knee-deep in a perpetual desire for instant gratification.
16. Joining Frats for the Social Calendar
Yes, Greek life at one point in time was the unrivaled social hub. Nowadays, though, many of the Gen Z students are opting out of the Greek systems altogether.
17. Waiting Weeks for Grades by Mail
This could play to your benefit depending on how invested you were in your academic rigors. Final grades back in the day would arrive by snail mail. Sometimes, even weeks following the conclusion of finals.
18. Going to the Computer Lab for Homework
What a dark world that must’ve been. There were no laptops, and instead, you had to book a time slot at the lab and then just hope that the printer didn’t get jammed up.
19. Watching TV Together on One Dorm Room Set
There was only one TV per floor back in the day in those dorms of olden times. If you wanted to actually watch TV you had to gather, and there was no such thing as streaming or binge-watching solo.
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