Middle school (6th-8th grade, or basically your life at ages 11-14) is interesting. It’s the intersection of both childhood and adolescence overlapped, and it isn’t the core of either. That’s because this is the early stage of puberty and you’re still new to all the moody hormonal behavior.

This is also usually when people are both into kids’ and adolescent culture at the same time, though it’ll vary between people (it allows for subjective flexibility when talking about “my childhood” or “during my time.”) At this age, you might be talking about your favorite Backstreet Boys member while also talking about the latest Spongebob episode.

With that being said, when did you go to middle school and what were your experiences?
1. What music did you listen to?
2. What TV shows did you watch?
3. What were you doing on the internet?
4. What games were you playing?
5. Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?

My Middle School years were from September 1991 to June 1994.

1.What music did you listen to?

My favorite singers/ bands at the time were: Karyn White, Xcape, SWV, Jade, Aaliyah,Toni Braxton, EnVogue, and Paula Abdul. I also liked Green Day, Real McCoy and Gin Blossoms. I listened to the radio FM all the time! I pretty much loved every song that was popular at that time.

2.What TV shows did you watch?

I would mostly watch VH1.

3.What were you doing on the internet?

There was no internet in 1991 - 1994. In school we had type writing class.

What games were you playing?

Every game there ever was on SNES. Also, Sonic on Sega/Sega Genesis. Loved Sonic!

Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?

I would say more adolescent.

My Middle School years were from August 2007 to May 2010.

What music did you listen to?

So many! Soulja Boy - Crank That, Rihanna - Umbrella, Shop Boyz - Party Like A Rock Star, Roscoe Dash - All The Way Turnt Up, Flo Rida - Low, DJ Khaled - We Takin Over, Lil Wayne - Lollipop, Gucci Mane - Lemonade, Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow, Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA, Jay-Z - On to the Next One, Rihanna - Rude Boy, Pitbull - I Know You Want Me, Drake - Over....... man there's way too much to list here!

What TV shows did you watch?

Sasuke (original Ninja Warrior), X-Play, Attack of the Show, Mad TV (before it ended in 2009), American Idol, Avatar (before it ended in 2008), Phineas & Ferb, Total Drama Island, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, South Park, Futurama, Robot Chicken, Boondocks, Naruto, Bleach, Inuyasha, Cowboy Bebop, Everybody Hates Chris, Family Matters (reruns on Nick@Nite), iCarly (sometimes)

What were you doing on the internet?

This was the start of me being on social media regularly like I still am today, but I never had a MySpace. I signed up for Facebook in 2010 when I was still in 8th grade. I made my first YouTube account in 2007 (towards the end of 5th grade!) and I started making more accounts on forum sites throughout middle school. I still played flash games on various sites for awhile.

What games were you playing?

Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros, Super Mario 64 DS, Mario Hoops 3 on 3, Star Fox Command, Nintendogs, Tetris DS, Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros Wii

Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?

Kid culture for video games. Adolescent culture with nearly everything else.

Oops, I forgot to share mine.
I was in middle school from June 2008 to March 2011.

What music did you listen to?
Fall Out Boy, We The Kings, Linkin Park, Paramore, Green Day, All-American Rejects, Boys Like Girls, The Maine, Simple Plan in 6th & 7th grade. Right after my emo phase (6th to mid 7th grade), I also had a huge Beatles phase, and then proceeded to classic rock like Boston.

What TV shows did you watch?
(I had been watching many of these since elementary, but continued in middle school) Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Phineas & Ferb, iCarly, Phil of the Future, Glee, Wayside, Chowder, How I Met Your Mother

What were you doing on the internet?
Yahoo Messenger was literally everybody’s go-to at that time. In fact, it would be considered unusual for someone not to have a Yahoo ID by then. MySpace wasn’t as popular here, not compared to Friendster. I used Multiply a lot in 6th grade, though. It’s a blogging site with social networking functions, and I customized the hell out of it with the HTML I learned from Neopets before lol. Middle of 7th grade, though, I abandoned these and moved to Facebook, which pretty much has everything I need lol.

What games were you playing?
Rock Band, Rock Band 2, The Beatles: Rock Band, Rock Band 3, Guitar Hero 3, Guitar Hero: World Tour, JamLegend, Club Penguin, some flash games, and a few PopCap games like Plants vs. Zombies.

Did you feel more connected to kid culture or adolescent culture?
I hit puberty at the beginning of 6th grade along with many of my peers, so by far, adolescent culture.

I was in middle school from 2003-2006.

1. What music did you listen to?

Pop-punk bands such as Avril Lavigne, Sum 41, Green Day, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects etc. I got into Japanese rock and Scandinavian metal towards the very end of 8th grade. Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Usher, Eminem, Kanye West, Ashlee Simpson, Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani and many others are what I remember being popular at the time. I either hated some of their songs or listened to them secretely. ;D

2. What TV shows did you watch?

My tastes changed greatly from Grade 6 to Grade 8 from more kiddy stuff to more mature stuff.

In Grade 6 I did watch Family Guy and Friends, but outside of that it was still mostly cartoons such as Spongebob, Fairly Odd Parents, Beyblade, Yu-gi-oh, Dragonball, Digimon and a few others.

In Grade 7 my tastes started maturing and I watched Lost, Desperate Housewives, Becker, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, and several others. I also watched a lot of reality television.

In Grade 8 I gave up all the kiddie shows and was really into Prison Break. I was also still heavy into reality shows, including my role model at the time Donald Trump's The Apprentice ;D ;D  :-3. What were you doing on the internet?

I was into Runescape (MMO) and Habbo Hotel (chatroom). I also liked playing text-based browser games such as Bootleggers and NY Mafia.

I liked reading the CIA World Factbook and learning about countries. There was also this pre-Wikipedia site called Aniki that compiled stats about different countries. When Wikipedia became popular I was absolutely obsessed with it. I've helped the article of my hometown reach Good Article and then Featured Article status (which it achieved in 2007), I created the "Geography of Ontario" page, and used to spend my weekends at the library editing the pages of several African countries, adding information I could get from the library books. I also stayed up late at night to watch Wikipedia hit the 1 million article mark in real time.

I think I discovered YouTube in late 2005 or early 2006. My brother had a Sonic X Abridged series going, which my voice featured in. It was removed from YouTube for excessive swearing. Other than that, I liked watching Dragon Ball Z AMVs with nu-metal songs for background music.

4. What games were you playing?

In 2003/04 I was still a Gamecube kid. I was addicted to Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Many fun all-nighters sleepovers were had with that game. I also had a GBA which I bought several games for, most memorable being the Dragon Ball Z games.

In 2004/05 I got a PS2, so I was mostly playing games on that. GTA: San Andreas was the game of the year.

In 2005/06 I remember playing mostly Need for Speed. Towards the end of that school year I got a DS and also upgraded my house to WiFi so I could play Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing online.

5. Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?

Kid culture in Grade 6, adolescent culture in 7 and 8.

We don’t have middle school in the UK, but from ages 11-14 (2006-2009)..

1. What music did you listen to?

This is when my love of trance and house solidified, so mostly that. I think my favourite song then was Another Chance by Roger Sanchez but I also liked Tiesto and Robert Miles. I liked the Gorillaz too.

Other artists I liked included Linkin Park, Akon, Rihanna, Basshunter, Leona Lewis, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Avril Lavigne, Scissor Sisters, Lily Allen.. honestly a pretty diverse list.

2. What TV shows did you watch?

I liked Skins, the Inbetweeners and Shameless. I was in high school when the Inbetweeners was on TV so I related to those experiences. Also watched Family Guy, the Simpsons, Futurama, American Dad and a lot of Discovery Channel documentaries (it’s a shame that channel went down the toilet). I watched a few cartoons at 11 but my interest was really waning and by age 12 I had pretty much lost all interest.

3. What were you doing on the internet?

Watching videos, posting on forums, using Bebo, MySpace and eventually Facebook. I was recently looking at my YouTube comments from 2008.. cringe is the best way to describe them. 😶

4. What games were you playing?

GTA 3 & SA Resident Evil 4, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Sims 1 & 2, Rayman, SimCity 4.

5. Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?

Adolescent culture. I started puberty around the end of 2006 and became a nightmare - I had bad anger issues, slammed doors, broke things, called my mum every name under the sun, skipped school regularly.. looking back I was just downright horrible. Really glad to put that time of my life behind me, but equally embarrassed that I ever behaved like that. I just feel bad for my mum because she went through the same thing with my sister.

My schooling for that time was many years ago, 1968 to 1973, oh for the memories of it!

1. What music did you listen to?
I was certainly into pop music, listening to the current charts of the time. Liking the Beatles and Rolling Stones, heavily influence with older sister, and doing my homework while listening to classical music.

2. What TV shows did you watch?
Sports programmes, Top of the Pops, comedy shows, and forced to be quiet when the news on.

3. What were you doing on the internet?
The ARPANET was available for those concern, not the general public, my research was done with books and at the local library.

4. What games were you playing?
Indoors: Monopoly, Cluedo, Scrabble, cards, etc.
Outdoors: in the park, football, cricket, and golf, but generally all sports that were available. Child games were played too, tag, hopscotch, etc.

5. Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?
It was so far back, I cannot say, and I was unaware at the time.

3. What were you doing on the internet?
The ARPANET was available for those concern, not the general public


I read about Arpanet yesterday. The early 1990s seem like a long time ago as well. There was no internet to use during our free time or at home. We started using America Online in 1995-1996 in school.

I read about Arpanet yesterday. The early 1990s seem like a long time ago as well. There was no internet to use during our free time or at home. We started using America Online in 1995-1996 in school.
Have you heard about this?

The Trojan Room coffee pot was a coffee machine located next to the so-called Trojan Room in the old Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, England, which in 1991 provided the inspiration for the world's first webcam. To save people working in the building the disappointment of finding the coffee machine empty after making the trip to the room, a camera was set up providing a live picture of the coffee pot to all desktop computers on the office network. After the camera was connected to the Internet a few years later, the coffee pot gained international notoriety as a feature of the fledgling World Wide Web, until it was retired in 2001.

For me, that would be 1977-1980

1.What music did you listen to?

Country, lots of "Easy Listening" and AOR.

2.What TV shows did you watch?

Sex Million Dollar Man, James at 15, NOVA, lots of PBS.

3.What were you doing on the internet?

No Internet yet for another 2 decades.  But I did a lot of Colossal Cave and similar text adventures on mainframes in that era.

What games were you playing?

Monopoly, Careers, was just getting into D&D and other role playing games.

Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?

Adult.  My weekends were mostly involved in skiing, sailing, and camping with my family.  Most of those I was hanging out with were middle aged or older.  My music taste was a generation off (I would rather listen to The Ventures than The Police), I was more into documentaries than the current pop TV show.  I spent my spare time reading books by say Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein and never teen magazines.

With that being said, when did you go to middle school and what were your experiences?
My little town didn't have a middle school.  I guess I would consider grades 7-8 as middle school, so September 1988 thru June 1990.

1. What music did you listen to?  I got my first Walkman in 1989 (it recorded too which was a huge thing), and listened to whatever was on pop radio.  Paula Abdul, Gloria Estefan, Technotronic, Jody Watley, NKOTB, Tom Petty, Expose.  I had 1 purchased tape, Fine Young Cannibals.  And some mix tapes I made.

2. What TV shows did you watch?  The good old days of TV.  Growing Pains, Perfect Strangers, Roseanne, Unsolved Mysteries, Macgyver, and my favorite show Our House.

3. What were you doing on the internet?  There was no internet except for rich kids who had modems and did text based communications.  Of course I only saw this on TV.

4. What games were you playing?  A Coleco Vision system which had the steering wheel piece along with 33 games.

5. Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?  Adolescent culture.  It was the period when I started doing my hair and clothes how I liked, choosing my music, didn't care for cartoons anymore.

With that being said, when did you go to middle school and what were your experiences?
My little town didn't have a middle school.  I guess I would consider grades 7-8 as middle school, so September 1988 thru June 1990.

1. What music did you listen to?  I got my first Walkman in 1989 (it recorded too which was a huge thing), and listened to whatever was on pop radio.  Paula Abdul, Gloria Estefan, Technotronic, Jody Watley, NKOTB, Tom Petty, Expose.  I had 1 purchased tape, Fine Young Cannibals.  And some mix tapes I made.


I remember those Walkman's. But I didn't get one of my own until 1993. Before that my siblings and I used one tape recorder/radio to listen to music and record on cassettes.

Middle school (6th-8th grade, or basically your life at ages 11-14) is interesting. It’s the intersection of both childhood and adolescence overlapped, and it isn’t the core of either. That’s because this is the early stage of puberty and you’re still new to all the moody hormonal behavior.

This is also usually when people are both into kids’ and adolescent culture at the same time, though it’ll vary between people (it allows for subjective flexibility when talking about “my childhood” or “during my time.”) At this age, you might be talking about your favorite Backstreet Boys member while also talking about the latest Spongebob episode.

With that being said, when did you go to middle school and what were your experiences?
1. What music did you listen to?
2. What TV shows did you watch?
3. What were you doing on the internet?
4. What games were you playing?
5. Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?
1. Drake, Ti, Lil Wayne, Lupe Fisaco, Keri Hilson, Rhiana, Keysha Cole
2.Zack and Cody, Icarly, Wizards of Wavely Place, Bakugan, 106 and park, Wwe.
3.Watching old wrestling clips and watching anime online.
4.Pokemon DP and Heartgold, Guitar Hero  Mario Galaxy, Naruto Clash of Ninja 2, DBZ Tenachi 2/3.
5. I say 6th and 7th grade was mostly kid stuff but 8th grade definitely teen stuff so I lean more kid even though my voice cracked pretty heavy at 12.

Well, 6th grade for me was still elementary school; 7th/8th grade were "Junior High".  This was 1970 to 1973.  Anyhow, here goes.

1. What music did you listen to?
Early 70's Top 40 Pop, Rock, Soul and/or Funk music.  There was so much great music, thankfully, to match my voracious music appetite.  Favorite kid-oriented acts included the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds but I got into "grown" acts too: Chicago, Elton John, Al Green, Seals and Crofts, Doobie Brothers, Sly and the Family Stone, ex-Beatles McCartney/Lennon/Harrison/Starr, the Carpenters, the Spinners, Alice Cooper, Stevie Wonder, Three Dog Night, America, and oh so many others to enjoy!

2. What TV shows did you watch?
The Early 70's was a golden age for TV.  Even though we only had a few channels, the quality of programming was outstanding.  Shows like All In The Family, That Girl, Sanford and Son, Mary Tyler Moore show, Chico and the Man, the Odd Couple, plus younger oriented shows like Partridge Family and Brady Bunch.  Variety shows were also popular; we watched our share of them.  Now must-watch TV on the weekends included American Bandstand and Soul Train.  In 6th grade I still watched some cartoons - I recall liking Josie and the Pussycats, the Archies, Scooby Doo and Wacky Racers.  After 7th grade I lost some interest in cartoons but sometimes watched Fat Albert, the Osmonds and the Jackson 5 cartoons, the latter two being great for music.

3. What were you doing on the internet?
We didn't even dream of any internet!  Now ask me what was I doing on the party line...  ::)

4. What games were you playing?
When indoors, we played board games - Monopoly and Scrabble got lots of play time.  Or when it worked, air hockey.  We played outside when the weather permitted - we sometimes played catch or football in the large yard, or played with the pets or animals, or basketball in the back (not sure, the hoop may have come a little later...)

5. Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?
After 6th grade, adolescent culture for sure - morphing quickly into adult culture (because as every 12 year old girl knows, a 12 year old girl is practically grown...)  ;)

Well, 6th grade for me was still elementary school; 7th/8th grade were "Junior High".  This was 1970 to 1973.  Anyhow, here goes.

1. What music did you listen to?
Early 70's Top 40 Pop, Rock, Soul and/or Funk music.  There was so much great music, thankfully, to match my voracious music appetite.  Favorite kid-oriented acts included the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds but I got into "grown" acts too: Chicago, Elton John, Al Green, Seals and Crofts, Doobie Brothers, Sly and the Family Stone, ex-Beatles McCartney/Lennon/Harrison/Starr, the Carpenters, the Spinners, Alice Cooper, Stevie Wonder, Three Dog Night, America, and oh so many others to enjoy!

2. What TV shows did you watch?
The Early 70's was a golden age for TV.  Even though we only had a few channels, the quality of programming was outstanding.  Shows like All In The Family, That Girl, Sanford and Son, Mary Tyler Moore show, Chico and the Man, the Odd Couple, plus younger oriented shows like Partridge Family and Brady Bunch.  Variety shows were also popular; we watched our share of them.  Now must-watch TV on the weekends included American Bandstand and Soul Train.  In 6th grade I still watched some cartoons - I recall liking Josie and the Pussycats, the Archies, Scooby Doo and Wacky Racers.  After 7th grade I lost some interest in cartoons but sometimes watched Fat Albert, the Osmonds and the Jackson 5 cartoons, the latter two being great for music.

3. What were you doing on the internet?
We didn't even dream of any internet!  Now ask me what was I doing on the party line...  ::)

4. What games were you playing?
When indoors, we played board games - Monopoly and Scrabble got lots of play time.  Or when it worked, air hockey.  We played outside when the weather permitted - we sometimes played catch or football in the large yard, or played with the pets or animals, or basketball in the back (not sure, the hoop may have come a little later...)

5. Did you feel more connection to kid culture or adolescent culture?
After 6th grade, adolescent culture for sure - morphing quickly into adult culture (because as every 12 year old girl knows, a 12 year old girl is practically grown...)  ;)



...party line?

...party line?


Hee hee!  During Junior High, our family lived on a rural farm, and had a "party line".  Meaning sometimes I'd pick up the phone receiver, ready to dial, but I'd hear another conversation going on, as the lines were shared.  (Not uncommon in rural America during the early 70's.)

Oh what mischief a pre-teen can conceive when presented with something as tempting as a party line!  :D

Hee hee!  During Junior High, our family lived on a rural farm, and had a "party line".  Meaning sometimes I'd pick up the phone receiver, ready to dial, but I'd hear another conversation going on, as the lines were shared.  (Not uncommon in rural America during the early 70's.)

Oh what mischief a pre-teen can conceive when presented with something as tempting as a party line!  :D


AG, growing up I also remember the teenage party lines when talking on the phone during the late 1980's.

AG, growing up I also remember the teenage party lines when talking on the phone during the late 1980's.


Hmm, I thought party lines were mostly eliminated in the U.S. by the late 1980's...  :-\\

Maybe you're thinking of teen "chat lines" which were popular in the 80's - something entirely different.  I don't remember anything about these, except what I discover on Google - I was too old for them in the 80's.  Interestingly enough, it seems these were advertised as "party lines".

The big difference is, for a "chat line" it seems you call it, i.e. "opt in", and you're connected to others who do the same.  Whereas if you had a (real) party line, you have no control over when the phone is being used; you simply find that someone else (often a stranger) is using the phone at the time you want to use it when you pick up the handset.  Thus the need to wait for the line to clear.  Now the polite thing to do in that case is quietly hang up and wait.  But if you're a giggly 12-year-old girl with mischief on the brain, well...    ;)