Remember when friendship lived in scribbled slam books and landline calls? Grab your favourite buddy (or group chat!) as we flip through the pages of friendship then vs. now – from secrets spilled in notebooks to memes that just get you.
Hey there! Today marks Friendship Day, and so, it’s got us thinking how we connect with our ride-or-dies has done a full 180. Seriously, the way we shared secrets, inside jokes, and pure nonsense with our besties back in the day feels almost ancient compared to now. Let’s take a fun trip down memory lane, shall we?
BRB sending pictures of their pages to all the friends to embarrass them or make them cringe maxx 😂#SlamBooks pic.twitter.com/31nzd0hGRS
— Priyanka D (@absolutelyPri) January 8, 2021
(@absolutelyPri/X)
Imagine it’s the early 2000s (or maybe even the 90s for some of us!). The ultimate symbol of BFF trust? The Slam Book. That colourful, often glitter-covered notebook passed around like sacred text. Filling it out felt like a ritual.
The Questions
"Your crush?" "Your favourite band?" "What makes you cry?" Spilling your guts onto those lined pages felt thrillingly dangerous. Would your secret crush stay secret? Hope so!
The Handwriting
Deciphering your friend's messy scrawl was part of the fun (and sometimes the frustration!). That unique script was them.
The Wait
Oh, the agony! Waiting days, sometimes weeks, for the book to do the rounds and finally land back with you. The suspense was real! And let’s not forget the sheer panic when a teacher almost confiscated it.
The Calls
Coordinating a chat meant being glued to the family landline after dinner. "Mom, get off the phone!" was a common battle cry. And those epic, whispered conversations after lights-out? Pure magic (and a serious test of your cord-stretching skills). Missed them? You left a message on their family answering machine. Super awkward sometimes!
Fast forward to now! The core of friendship - trust, laughter, support - remains rock solid. But the tools? Totally upgraded.
Always On, Always Connected
Forget waiting for the slam book. Our group chats (WhatsApp, Discord, iMessage – take your pick!) are the 24/7 lifeline. Inside jokes fly faster than you can type "LOL." Planning a Friendship Day meetup? Sorted in seconds. Need immediate venting? Your squad is right there.
The Language of Memes
Forget lengthy descriptions. A perfectly timed meme says it all. That feeling when your coffee spills? There’s a meme. When your boss is being extra? Meme. Celebrating a tiny win? You guessed it – meme! It’s instant understanding, shared humour, and cultural glue rolled into one image or GIF. It’s how we say, "I get you," without typing a novel.
Voice Notes
Heartbeats in Your Ear: This might be the biggest game-changer. Typing can feel cold. A call needs scheduling. Enter the glorious midnight voice note. It’s raw, it’s real. You hear their laugh, their sigh, the emotion cracking in their voice after a tough day. That 3-minute ramble about their weird dream? It’s intimacy delivered straight to your earbuds. It’s the digital equivalent of leaning over in class to whisper gossip.
Honestly? The need to connect hasn’t budged an inch. We craved knowing our friends' crushes then; we crave knowing how their date went now. We passed notes to make them laugh then; we spam them with memes now.
The difference is instantaneity and intimacy on-demand. We don’t just share what happened; we share the tone, the immediate reaction, the sound of our lives, often as it unfolds. Voice notes capture nuance texts can’t. Memes convey shared cultural understanding instantly. Group chats keep the vibe alive constantly.
Sure, we might miss the tactile joy of a filled slam book page or the illicit thrill of a late-night landline call. That nostalgia is real! But the essence? That’s timeless. Whether it’s a carefully penned message in a notebook, a meme that nails your mood, or a sleepy voice note saying "Thinking of you," it all boils down to one thing: connection.
This Friendship Day, whether you dig out an old slam book for laughs, spam your group chat with throwback pics, or send a heartfelt voice note, celebrate the incredible, evolving ways we say, "Hey, you’re my person." Because no matter the era or the tech, true friendship always finds its voice. Now, who’s up for a meme battle?
