Greetings,
I just finished installing Debian 8.0 on my old laptop. I opted to install the GNOME desktop. After installation was finished, I noticed that it is the wonky and unfamiliar GNOME 3 desktop and not the more traditional GNOME 2 desktop environment. Being new to both Debian *AND* GNOME 3, I feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew all at once.
In light of this, I was wondering if there is a way to go about installing GNOME 2 ,or, alternatively, I could just install Debian 7.8 and maybe perhaps it has the more familiar and traditional GNOME 2 desktop with it by default?! This should ease my learning curve with using Debian and GNOME simultaneously...
Thank you

You could try the "GNOME Classic" interface instead -- click on the cog-wheel icon next to the "Log In" button to select a different desktop.

There's also the MATE desktop environment, which is a fork of GNOME designed to replicate the GNOME 2 layout.
https://wiki.debian.org/Mate

EDIT: Personally, I would recommend sticking with GNOME 3.14 and trying it for a while -- I find it to be an excellent desktop and by far the easiest to use, although it can be tricky to customise to the nth degree.

You can also boot in fallback mode under the gnome-tweak tool in your menu under activities tab on upper left-hand corner of screen.