Today’s adolescents might sport flared jeans and groove to Fleetwood Mac, but they’d still feel like fish out of water in the 1970s. To witness the stark differences in the high school experience over the past five decades, take a look at the video above.
Uploaded by Vampire Robot on YouTube, this footage offers a glimpse into a typical day for students at Andover High School in Bloomfield, Michigan, circa 1977. The vintage cars, attire, and hairstyles unmistakably reflect the era. Instead of the crisp quality of modern iPhones, the scenes are depicted in grainy film, serving as a reminder of the technological limitations of the time. The sheer number of students who can’t resist glancing at the camera further emphasizes how uncommon such recording devices were outside of professional film sets during that era.
Beginning in the school parking lot, the video takes viewers through Andover’s corridors, gymnasium, and indoor pool. For those who lived through the period, the tour offers a nostalgic journey down memory lane. However, for those born in the 21st century, the sight of so many teenagers gathered without a smartphone in sight may come as a shock.
The 1970s isn’t the only decade that feels like a different world compared to today’s teenage experience. The 1990s also had their own unique characteristics. To get a sense of what it was like to be a teenager at the close of the previous millennium, check out a “day in the life” video from a high school student in 1990.