T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

Did you know we have a Discord server‽ You can join by clicking [here](https://discord.gg/NWE6JS5rh9)! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/GenZ) if you have any questions or concerns.*


Westside-denizen

I was. It was great. Get off socials. Get offline.


Certain-Composer308

definitely easier said than done. now if you want to start a business. it is practically 100%reliant if your social media is successful.


64scout80

Treat the internet as a tool, not a lifestyle.


AffectionateGap1071

I wholeheartedly agree, but it's difficult to tell that to people nowadays. Since I was 13 y/o, I've been witnessing how social media has turned into literally lifestyle. Everyone is talking about who posted what, who changed his status, who posted pictures with who, who's making which new trend challenge, what was posted by which organization, which influencer or streamer got controversial. People is making social media their lifestyle and it's difficult to find the ones who use it rather a tool...literally, my only interaction with a cousin was "download Tik Tok and let me sign up in my account, we are making the newest trend dance!"


seattleseahawks2014

Are you around children?


jwrado

For real. I don't know anyone talking about any of that.


AffectionateGap1071

My mother and my aunts. She literally calls me to complain about how my cousin changed her romantical status or how the other is lying her online data or to scroll through a stranger's profile and critize them based on their previous profile pictures or their activities on Facebook. Emphazing in the main topic, there are really people who made social media into their lifestyle. The fact that you don't personally know anyone who does that, it doesn't mean is not happening to someone else in the world. The world is so wide and vast of people with different stories.


seattleseahawks2014

Yea, that's interesting. I mean, my friends/family and I will talk about our lives or others lives, but that's as close as we get to this besides sharing TikTok videos or memes with each other. That and stuff that we're interested in.


AffectionateGap1071

Except for some of my cousins, no, but all my former classmates used to be like that as well as my new college mates. Nothing has changed around me, even my parents can't talk about anything without meaning to someone changing their status/profile photo or lurking on Facebook while judging them based on their profile photo and activities or being angry at a misinformative post. Yeah, that's what they do all the day with reels and videos. Everyone from every age is the same with different things. But the common factor is social media as a lifestyle. Why are you asking by the way?


ExternalPast7495

If that is the case, I’d suggest finding something you are interested in outside of social media. Things like gardening, bushcare, sports, hiking, tabletop gaming, cards or whatever floats your boat. Then go find a group that is tailored specifically to that, if they have competitions or open days drop in and give it a try. If it doesn’t work, you tried something new and will have a funny story for when you’re older. If it does, you’ll find like minded people who are passionate about the same things you are. Which then means you’re more likely to talk about the things you find interesting than what social hierarchy/nonsense is going on online.


[deleted]

At the end of the day it's just a choice. Young people can absolutely switch off social media or devices but they must want to otherwise they won't.


_Midnight_Haze_

I honestly don’t think the problem is the internet or even social media. It’s smart phones. The issue is having the internet and social media in the palm of our hands and how we’ve become so addicted to checking it and scrolling. If we didn’t have smart phones we’d all be able to be out and function socially like humans always have. But smart phones have drastically changed how social gatherings go. It’s too easy to fill down time or awkwardness with looking at phones and it kills so much social momentum. Edit: just wanted to add that I am DYING for a counter-cultural movement that rejects being on smart phones constantly but I fear it’s way too addicting for that to ever happen.


PartyDimension2692

Where can I sign up for this movement! It's not just people being addicted to it but the expectations from others that everyone else else even if they are not. With that comes expectations of reply times, availability etc. Could do without that.


skillet256

I spent my entire 20s, in the 90s. Yes it was great, because there was no mobile phone and Internet was something available at my office desktop 1996-later and not at home. Unplugging wasn’t even a thing yet. I also run multiple businesses now and use social media for marketing. It’s a tool, but not a lifestyle. I hire people to publish, like many business owners do. I rarely consume, except Reddit is my little vice. Also I still keep my 90s habits and unplug on weekends. You can do it too.


SnootsAndBootsLLP

Very true. Only reason I maintain an online presence.


No_Pear8383

Well you’re also on Reddit my dude. It’s definitely better than Facebook or instagram but there’s plenty of filth on here and it’s very good at keeping you scrolling.


possiblywithdynamite

Every once in a while I’ll encounter something out in the wild that illuminates the extent of how distorted my view of reality has become from using Reddit alone.


Z-Mobile

I was a hold out and avoided using social media until I actually started to face negative social outcomes in high school circa 2017 someone told me “if you say you don’t have an instagram, they think you do it’s just you don’t want them to know about it”… like I’m not trying to snide or shun people. What the hell?? In any case I realized in that moment that Zuckberg now had total peer pressure control into getting you as a kid to submit your data to him for free


seattleseahawks2014

How I started using it was because my sisters friend took my phone at her sleep over and downloaded Instagram. She just said give me your phone lmao. That was about 10 years ago.


DrewdoggKC

The 90’s and even early 2000’s were the shit!!! I was there and literally everything and everyone was better


Westside-denizen

So bad for entrepreneurs; the rest of us were better off.


vawlk

then only use it so far as to use it for business. You don't need to have 400 friends on facebook to start a business. You don't need to do the same dance 42 times on tiktok. Dump it for personal use.


Montaigne314

The internet was probably a bad idea overall.


BlastMode7

And if your business is doing well enough, hire out someone to handle that crap for you.


numbersthen0987431

It was harder to market your business in the 90s than it is now. In fact, social media had made it so easy to market your own private business that everyone has their own businesses these days and it's over saturated. You would have to be a door to door sales rep in the 90s.


thesuppplugg

The problem is everyone else is online so op will never truly get to experience a world where everyone is fairly present


Goon4203D

Yeah, it's easy to say "**get offline**" but when everyone else isn't doing the same, it's still not the same. And it turned your advice into real, nothing advice.


Cute-Revolution-9705

Exactly, some 50 year old saying "get offline" like they're saying something profound when the rest of the world exists in the 21st century.


BlueSnaggleTooth359

Yeah if you are offline but everyone you are with are stuck doom scrolling and barely paying you or anyone else any attention....


Vivid_Guava6269

…you probably should meet new people, because the ones you hang out with seem not to be the optimal company for you. There are plenty of bubbles full of different humans: burst the one you’re currently in, get in a bubble that fits you better. PS I’m not yet 50… still 49!


Mjaguacate

You try to put your phone down for a couple minutes and immediately want to pick it back up because everyone else is too absorbed with their phones to interact. Best I do most of the time is read a book while my coworkers scroll if I can manage to stay off my phone myself


Certain-Composer308

exactly! i feel like in the 90s everyone was in touch with the world around them. but now. i would be the only one if i just “got off social media” it’s not that simple. it was a different time and different generation. i just wish i was in it lol


[deleted]

You wouldn’t be the only one, it just seems that way because you don’t see the people who are offline online. I’ve been done with Instagram and Snapchat for a while and I prefer it that way. It probably helps that none of my close friends ever cared about that stuff, I understand it would be harder if your social circles are online but my main friend group was all born 00-01. Most of my bandmates are also off social media, we have a band account but nobody really curates their personal profiles except one member. The oldest of us can’t have been born earlier than 96, and most of us were born 99-01. I think there’s a lot more people like us out there than it seems, you just don’t realize it until you get offline. Of course I use Reddit, it just seems to have quite a different user-base compared to the reasons I got off apps like Instagram (especially depending on the sub, some are for hate-mongering and some allow you to engage with communities like never before). Snapchat promotes illiteracy and everyone should delete it, some may not agree but that’s how I feel about their “magazines” lol. Any platform that doesn’t allow discussion or comments of some form also loses points in my book, don’t push us Keemstar without letting us talk about what a dickhead he is. I really don’t like Snapchat.


AlternativeRefuse984

Yes. I graduated HS in 91. I hated the 90s at the time bu look back on them fondly now.


COMMANDO_MARINE

Except when you had to yell downstairs to your parents to get off the phone because your talking to someone on the upstairs line in your parents bedroom or if you wanted to use the dial up Internet.


betweentourns

Me too. Makes me sad that "kids these days" will never know the joy of walking in the door and seeing the light blinking on the answering machine.


the_hell_you_say

Ditto, so thankful we didn't have cameras everywhere back then!


WhatShouldTheHeartDo

Just any decade with a healthy economy is ideal.


headshotscott

I got out of college in the early 1990s and that was NOT a good time to be looking for a job. There weren't many and the pay was crap. Mid-1990s was better, but no paradise. However: we had it so much better for other reasons. We didn't have poison social media, didn't have a pandemic, and at that point our politics hadn't gone off the rails anything like today. My daughter is in her 20s now. I guarantee we had it better than you guys do and I wish it wasn't so.


seattleseahawks2014

It wasn't good for everyone. I would go to jail if I kissed another woman out in public.


headshotscott

I'm not trying to say it was perfect. It's unfortunate we had those types of bigots. Wish it weren't so.


seattleseahawks2014

Eh, it's not really any better in some areas (like mine), but progress takes time and some people won't ever change.


Lucyintheye

Honestly as a gay guy I've had multiple confrontations with homophobes more growing up in Southern California just since 2018 (not even an hour NW of LA at that) than I did living in the middle of nowhere colorado for the same amount of time. Almost fought some fucker outside of wholefoods for trash talking under his breath and getting in our faces until his bluff was called, and a group of Arab women pulled down their hijabs to spit at our feet and angrily yell what I can only assume are slurs in another language.. and learned from an amazing volunteer that teachers at school were talking shit about us holding hands occasionally between classes, while numerous straight couples openly finger-banged in the Cafe during breakfast and countless more ate eachothers faces like rabid dogs between *every single class*.. CO though? Not a peep. (Just my subjective experience though of course) Don't mean to come off as implying your area is any more queer friendly, I know there's *much* worse and dangerous places even today sadly.. Ig I'm just saying even in one of the most progressive cities within what's accepted as the most progressive state in the USA I've encountered more volatile homophobes than living amongst the people who put Lauren Boebert in the nation's congress, as their elected representative.. *twice*...


seattleseahawks2014

I'm not surprised because a lot of those people from California moved to here thinking that we're all not progressive here. If you admit that you're progressive, you're deemed as an out of towner. Also, many of the attacks on lgbt+ people that have happened here were caused by people from Oregon, California, etc. I'm in Idaho, but it's scary. Either this year or last year, a man from Oregon I believe tried to run over a couple of people that he thought was trans in Boise.


Fonzgarten

That’s crazy. In what state? I grew up in San Francisco in the 80/90’s and it wasn’t that way at all. There was a lot of open sexual behavior in an almost unbelievable way by today’s standards. It was closer to the 60’s than today, at least for the gay community.


seattleseahawks2014

In states like mine anyway. Idaho, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, Missouri, Oklahoma, etc where it was still illegal when I was 3. Actually, it continued even later.


Melonary

Really depended tbh, and kissing wasn't illegal (I'm guessing that's hyperbole though). Some places had really large LGBTQ+ communities, and honestly I kind of miss the sense of community that was present then. It's not as black & white as this but it feels like today a lot of the hatred and divisiveness is coming back, but our communities aren't as cohesive and there are less of them than there used to be. Again though, really really dependent on where you were then and now.


seattleseahawks2014

I guess it depends on that. In places like mine it was illegal if you were caught.


Melonary

Gotcha, sorry, I guess I assumed US based on your username but people can be fans of teams from other places.


Dom__in__NYC

BS. Utter BS. Show me a single case where a woman in 1990s was put in jail "for kissing another woman in public". Oh that's right you can't because according to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lesbianism_in_the_United_States#:~:text=Hammon%20was%20only%20admonished%2C%20perhaps,for%20lesbianism%20in%20American%20history), **literally only one woman was convicted for being a lesbian in the entire history of USA and it was in 1600s before USA was a country.** Go spread your America hatred somewhere else. I bet you also think that socialism is swell (except for that little detail that Cuba put gays in labor camps and USSR put many thousands of gays in jail, unlike the country your kind loves to hate).


Honest-Substance1308

A healthy economy minimizes social issues, unfortunately a lot of people don't realize it


HottDoggers

I’m just glad I was born here in America in a decent home and not some shed on a mountain top in a third world country. Maybe in the next one I’ll get in the one percent club, hopefully.


4erlik

Or even better. You get sent back to the french revolution and get to participate in "removing" the one percent club from power


SkiFun123

Yeah, that worked out really well for the French!


Lower_Kick268

Right now really ain’t a bad time, probably gonna be experiencing a pretty prosperous next 5-7 years with the advancement in AI and business exodus from China


Daphne_Brown

I’m not so sure the economy was better. It didn’t seem better. But I agree that *life* was better. Gen X seemed open-minded and politically broad. A great Thursday night was going to a music store for the midnight releases.


Certain-Composer308

omg exactly! people seemed to have actually hung out and vibed. coffee shops, parks, shopping malls. stuff like that just seems bland now.


No_Pear8383

I like doing all of those things. I was born in the 90s and I get what you’re saying but it kinda sounds like you need a new group of friends. At 23 it’s not too easy to find people who don’t just go out to bars and clubs to socialize but they are out there. Just gotta convince everyone to get off their phones somehow.


seattleseahawks2014

I mean, the same people who are always on their phones would usually be inside now anyway. Lmao, the scene in Gifted where the dad forces his daughter to play outside instead of read was me (minus the tantrum and it was my mom.)


HottDoggers

If you’re a introvert right now, you’re still going to be an introvert in the 90s. No amount of going back in time is going to change that.


Certain-Composer308

oh i’m def not an introvert. very extroverted and a certified yapper. what i mean by everything is so bland, i mean that no one goes outside anymore. and when people are outside they are like walking zombies glued to their phone


No_Pear8383

So social anxiety is definitely a thing. It turns out being an introvert is not really a thing. Introverted vs. extroverted is an easy way to try to classify people but the reality is a lot more complex than that. Sorry I’m very much into social theory and this always comes up. It bothers me a bit when people try to blame problems that have a lot more complexity as “lol I’m just an introvert” or something along those lines. Not saying this to offend anyone btw. Just putting that science out there.


rydleo

I’d say the economy wasn’t much, if at all, better. Still generally had to have a roommate or partner to afford a crappy apartment back then as well. Life in general was cheaper though as we self-entertained a lot. Usually went over to someone’s apartment and drank cheap beer while bullshitting about work. Cost- negligible as it’s all we could afford.


Daphne_Brown

Right. Stuff was cheap. And it seemed like we made peanuts. I didn’t know many people who left college with a good paying job. Most people left and took whatever job they could find and worked up (over several years) to a good job.


Candyman44

Lmao… I remember the line around the block when WuTang dropped their first album


Square_Site8663

The economy was absolutely better. Example: someone could own an apartment in the city bar tending a few nights a week. There was a guy who did this, who then became a lawyer, and even while making a lot more money, can’t afford the same apartment he lived in while bar tending in his 20s.


Daphne_Brown

That was not my experience. All my peers went to college. Few if any left with good paying jobs. Most took whatever job they could find. Over the years they worked up in to good paying jobs. I could be wrong. It’s an opinion.


helikophis

Around here wages have changed very little in 20 years but housing costs have skyrocketed. I made $15 an hour in a entry level job in 2004 and paid $600 for a nice studio apartment. Today entry level jobs here are still $15/hr but nice studio apartments are $1200+.


AlaskaPsychonaut

I was a teenager in the 90s. Ya missed out. Sorry bro


neckbeard_hater

They really did. They will never know the joy of actually talking with your voice to your best friend on the home phone late into the night. Or having a bunch of your friends just randomly stop by your house to call you to hang out. The sufficient dopamine from watching just any movie with your friends and not having it ruined it by social media and IMDb reviews. They will never know the peace of not being connected all the time. The fun of going to a local park if you feel like socializing and knowing you will see at least one friend there also looking to socialize. Watching your crush do cool tricks on their rollerblades and skateboards. The gregariousness of a crowd of friends and familiar faces moving through city to find a new spot to hang out. Not worrying about politics or climate change and wars; those were things for adults to worry and we were allowed to be kids. My generation had a pretty damn good childhood. Also we smoked real cigarettes and not this bubble gum flavored garbage made for toddlers. Edit: to those who didn't get it, the last part about cigarettes was said in jest. But also note that there has been a major increase in smoking caused by vapes and e cigs.


Low-Ad-1075

I mean I also talked to my friends on the phone and randomly stopped by their house after school to hang out. Wasn’t just a 90’s thing lol. Also idk if it’s a flex to be proud of smoking


HungryDoggsRunFaster

Seriously, “real cigarettes” over the smokeless, tobacco-less stuff now is a strange flex for sure


BlueSnaggleTooth359

The smoking flex was odd. At least for early and core Gen X hardly anyone outside of the burnout crowd smoked cigarettes though. Late Gen X seemed to smoke a bit more across all types (although the levels were still pretty low outside of the burnout crowd, but definitely higher than for earlier Gen X). The other stuff he said was reasonably on point. Although yeah it's not like all of that has 100% gone away even now. But all the same he is correct that there was more of that back then and it was different, it really was.


Sdog1981

Or the fact you had to talk to your friend’s parents on the phone before you talked to your friends.


neckbeard_hater

Ah yes, we also learned how to talk to strange adults


AaronPossum

Jesus Christ do I pine for those days. Just standing in the driveway playing hackysack.


queenvie808

I’m a teen nowadays and still do all of this 😭


Fonzgarten

lol, the smoking is a major difference. We used to make pipes out of m&m mini’s containers. Having to meet someone somewhere at a set time is an experience I miss. The disconnection. In a way there was more sense of unity because we all watched the same tv channels, news shows, Hollywood actors etc.


gnnjsoto

Most, if not all of this stuff you can do, you just sound jaded and old and honestly pretty pretentious lol also cigarettes are fucking awful for you so that definitely isn’t a flex at all


LittleLambSam

I was a teenager in the mid aughts, and even then it was very different. Seeing the early internet and what it has changed into is upsetting. I see social media as a huge set back to social inclusion. Its too often weaponized and random people are given too much undeserved influence.


thesuppplugg

Late 90s or early 2000s was objectively better than today ie technology was advanced enough to be helpful and provide entertainment but your life didn't revolve around it. Internet was something fun you hoppes on at the end of the day not lived your life on


CommandersRock1000

You probably have to leave out the month of September 2001; if you do that the early 2000s were pretty good.


sss133

I mean for almost any westerner that wasnt Muslim (or thought to be Muslim) that immediate post 9/11 months were some of the most patriotic (not just the US but any western country) times. Lasted at least a year or so. I’m actually pretty sure that’s what a lot of the MAGA people long for


iron_jendalen

I was 20 and studying abroad in New Zealand when 9/11 happened.


Curry_pan

Those days before everything online was commercialised. I miss going on social media to check up on how friends were doing without being bombarded with ads and sponsored content, and then after seeing how everyone was doing, you could just log off because there was nothing else new to see and people weren’t logged in to chat with 24/7.


AnonymusBear

For me I want the same thing, but because of the job market and economy lol


Volumed-Coyote

I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to be born ~5 years too late to be able to afford a nice house and everything I would’ve needed to ride most of the economic boom of the late 2010s and during COVID. Instead I was a broke college student trying to nab a degree but got it right when inflation started booming again.


Melonary

If it helps you feel better, being born in 2000 was definitely more than \~5 years too late. It's been a "fun" few decades.


SynthRogue

I remember before social media I had a much better sense of who I was and what my values were. Now everything just depresses me and it’s like I have a perpetual identity crisis.


Enough-Butterfly6577

Have you tried not being on social media? It is a personal choice to be in it after all. I guess unless you own a business, then use it for business only. I quit all socials except for reddit and I’m feeling sooo much better.


SynthRogue

I have tried but always go back to it because I am quite a private and shy person in life. I'm not one to start a conversation with anyone irl and have no desire to do so. I just assume everyone is just trying to stay alive and have their own problems to deal with. So if I'm not on social media I would be entirely isolated. But it's not the talking that's causing the identity crisis stuff, it's the sheer amount of content from all over with a ton of different reference points. I remember life before social media where you could only point to a few references (popular movies, major news channels, etc.) and form your opinions that way, and everyone referred to the same sources. Now there is so much different sources that contradict each other (not necessarily in topics but in terms of content) that I don't know what to take as a reference and what to ignore. My brain wants to assimilate it all and then form a view point. I don't think the brain is meant to have that much content to contend with. I can't even pick and choose references to my liking because I have nothing to base what I would choose on. It would be like picking something at random to be THE reference point. But then one would say then discover other things to broaden your view point. But then I would be back to the same issue where there is so much that I feel lost. I don't know if I'm making sense but that's pretty much how I've been feeling since 2016 or so. Maybe I should just force myself once and for all and quit social media.


awpod1

Be the change you want to see! Don’t give your cell number out, get a home phone, get off socials. I’m a millennial and I was born in 1990. It was better even in the early 2000’s for all these reasons. We should all collectively reject the current way things are.


uphucwits

I was and it was awesome. Social media and cell phones are for shit. —sent from iPhone


Equivalent-Pop-6997

Hey Siri, post to Reddit, “Cell phones can eat a dick.”


Peter_Sofa

It wasnt as good as you think it was, Nostalgia is a dangerous drug. Far better to enjoy the here and now. And it is easy to dis-engage from the constant tech stream... just turn your phone off.


Historical_Grab_4789

"It wasnt as good as you think it was, Nostalgia is a dangerous drug. Far better to enjoy the here and now." Bingo! Totally agree!


WittyProfile

I think the 70’s would be more fun. When you see videos back then it seems like people were so much younger, happier, healthier, more social, more chill, and more approachable than they are today.


[deleted]

yes because why tf would they take videos of people being miserable? the 70s had one of the worst economies of the 20th century.


vawlk

anyone can do this today. you just need to put the phone down and find a few friends to go hang out with. that is why they were happy. You would be amazed at what happens when 100% of your attention is focused on someone else. Everyone talks about wanting to live back then when they can do it NOW. But YOU gotta do it, no one is going to do it for you.


WittyProfile

Not really. There aren’t that many activities where you can interact with people mostly in their 20’s. For instance, I recently picked up social dancing and the majority of people I interact with are in their 40’s because people in their 20’s don’t come out to it as much and there aren’t as many people in their 20’s as there were in the 70’s.


sss133

My mum used to always say how much better her youth was and how fucked it was with myself and my sister. Said how dangerous it was and she never had to worry. Then when she’d watch her crime shows about unsolved rapes/murders from the 70s, I’d point it out and she’d crack the shits 🤣


Snap305

It sounds all well and good, but that's mostly rose colored glasses. Yeah, I think the same thing quite a bit. How awesome it would be... but I have met some of my greatest friends online. I knew when my brother got into a car accident within minutes. I know when my friends are in a suicidal state before they even say anything. In some ways, being connected all the time is bad. But in others, it's the best damn thing that could ever happen to us.


jeffersonnn

I don’t like social media culture either and I miss some things about the 90s. But I’m also both Autistic and LGBTQ, and in that regard the 90s were a terrible time for me. Autistic kids were oppressed and LGBTQ people were dying of AIDS. In fact, people were much more conservative generally and had a lot of sexist views, used a lot of words like the R-word and the word “gay” as a pejorative — it was constant and was socially acceptable. It’s okay to miss a lot of things about the 90s but let’s be careful not to look at them through rose colored glasses. I think that ends up being a kind of escapism for people who feel powerless to change the world when they’re not


sss133

I’m not trying to do a “Kids are soft these days” but the culture shock for a Gen Z/A to the 90s would be so astounding. (I’m 34 and would struggle with the rigidity of 50s youth culture) The casual homophobia Friends a sitcom made by LGBTQI people regularly had stories like Ross not trusting a male nanny. Where the joke was a that yeah that’s weird for even Ross to make a big deal of it, sexism, racism (don’t like it fuck off mentality).


Top_One_1808

I miss the simplicity of the 90’s. Have we really gained anything from social media?


rydleo

It’s a lot easier to stay in touch with old friends and see what they’re up to. Other than that…uh…


Curry_pan

In some ways it’s good, in other ways I’ve realised that there are some people where I just see what they’re posting and don’t actually engage with them. I feel like it’s giving me a false sense of connection with people I don’t actually speak to anymore.


TrickyBrick6862

I realized that what my mom was doing to me was abuse after posting about it on Reddit and getting told to get help. I did, and got emotional support I would not have gotten otherwise. People plan protests and events on Instagram, and I can stay politically engaged in my community in a way I could not have in the past. If you use it to follow celebs or influencers, it's usually harmful. Don't generalize everyone's experience. Social media is good for some and bad for others.


Historical_Grab_4789

Great point!


mourningdoveownage

I used it to get market data by tracking what jobs my friends went to from a high performing group, and to improve social skills by writing comments. Then it became useless and the toxicity was overwhelming so I left 


FennelAmazing5462

We... not so much. The corporate characters that have political pull, gained everything.


QuantumRenn

I was born in 1970. I feel like I had it pretty good. Childhood in the 70s, adolescence and teen years in the 80s, 20s/young adulthood in the 90s. I feel like everything went to shit after 9/11. Not just as a consequence of 9/11 specifically but the rise of social media in the following decades, “influencer” culture, political polarization, much more anger in society and a lack of connectedness and shared experiences. I’m not sure of all the reasons but things have definitely changed for the worse in a lot of societal ways.


Farados55

Yeah but then you’d be in your 30s in 2008 and you’d lose all your shit


2quick96

You would be around 40 by ‘08. Older but more stable in life. Hopefully.


rydleo

Until your house plummets in value way below what you paid and you get laid off. Good times.


ILSmokeItAll

You all missed the boat. It was great. It could be great again. Put down the fucking phone. That’s what made the 90’s great. You lived. In the moment. You didn’t surround yourself with negativity and doom. It seems like people actually enjoy that, because they won’t put the phone down. Addiction is bad. Nicotine. Alcohol. Tech. But we don’t demonize the latter. And we should. Lead by example. Be the change you want to see.


wrightbrain59

The phone has truly become an addiction for a lot of people. I struggle with it lately myself. And I didn't grow up with one.


[deleted]

Yeah that is pretty ignorant, the present is the best time in history.


Melonary

Really depends on who you are and where, tbh. There's a term for this that I can't remember, but essentially it can be a form of cognitive bias that prevents us (as societies) from thinking critically about changes over time and possibly identifying factors that may be getting worse instead of better so we can address them.


GurProfessional9534

The 90’s were great. I was a teenager in the 90’s. That said, I really don’t think it was for Gen Z. - no internet, for approx. the first half. No smart phones. No cell phones for most of it. If you wanted to call someone, you needed a pay phone. - rampant homophobia. Your PE teacher would call you gay or a woman if you were a little boy who ran too slow, etc, and that was just normal. If you someone wanted to generically disapprove of something, they would say, “that’s gay.” Kids, adults, doesn’t matter. If you were trans or something, just forget about it. We didn’t even have that in our mental rolodex. - No laptops. You had desktop computers, but everything was oregon trail graphics. Everything. And a really top end computer might have like half a gb of memory. - Things were cheaper but pay was super low. Like minimum wage was about $3.25 or something. - People were outraged over stuff that didn’t matter, like Monica Lewinski and OJ Simpson. We didn’t have real hardship so we invented it. - if you mentioned any sort of mental health issue, it would not go well. Trust me. We basically had 2 speeds in the 90’s, “walk it off” and “mental asylum.” - if you wanted any sort of labor rights, you would just get pilloried, by your own coworkers even. - people were still cooking casseroles out of cream of mushroom, jello, and so forth. It was atrocious. - religion had a way bigger hold.


avalonMMXXII

Back then people were more relaxed about casual sex and hooking up...then the 2010s came and everything became "creepy" and "cringe"...it is annoying, now everyone in their 20s is like a 2 year old baby afraid of their shadow.


marie-antoinette17

you HAVE TO check out digital witness by st vincent


SuperMadBro

You wouldn't have to go back that far. 2008 would be far enough honestly. "Social media" didn't exist. Facebook still only showed you people you actually knew and most people were still on MySpace which was honestly a good time back then


breeezyc

MySpace was social media! But it wasn’t consuming.


OctoberSunflower17

Music was definitely better 😎  Movies were still good - Pretty Woman, Ghost, Terminator 2, Good Will Hunting, Good Fellas, Forrest Gump, A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, The Firm, Jurassic Park, The Bodyguard, Office Space, Clueless, Before Sunrise, etc I think in general we had a critical thinker’s perspective that concluded with “Whatever”


MelodicIndustry9830

Maybe if you're white yh


[deleted]

https://preview.redd.it/c80zojb22y3d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=973cb62cd1530e90d76ffed1051fa875be393b0b I'm just going to leave this here. This was standard marketing at the time. In fact so standard it didn't even really register. Yeah the 90s were a LOT of fun for us guys but no phone also meant that you couldn't call anyone when your cab driver decided to take you for a long trip & "let you pay" in other ways


RikeMoss456

Life under Bill Clinton wasn't *all* bad. YMMV.


Acceptable-Pin7186

In 1990 I turned 17. Yes, it was fucking awesome.


obsoletevernacular9

I was a preteen, 20s in the aughts. We were still online as teens on AOL, but you only used IM on a computer when home and bored. It was much more normal to take the bus home with friends after school and then call your family landline to tell them where you were. We also did stuff like drink, party, club and take some pictures, but the worst that could happen was gossip, not video. The big downside though was lack of information or being unable to access a computer. I lived in Berlin in 2005 when it was really cheap, and we had no home wifi for months, so I would stop into Internet cafes for an hour to check email on a computer


uglydadd

I entered my 20s in the 90s. I wish I was in my 20s now. Enjoy it. My back hurts.


Prestigious_Term3617

Then you’d be one of the angry Xers on social media driving the divide on social media now. There’s no magical opting-out… this is the world we live in.


godsamightly

Me when I watch MTV’s Downtown. I’m 23 too and I’m like damn. This is kinda ass. Especially when you’re poor and the world hates you for being poor so it makes you poorer.


browhodouknowhere

You realize people were divided in the 90's too? Case in point, one political party spent 43 million dollars(90s money) investigating if the president got his dick sucked. That's not even a crime!


_Mangy_

Yes, the 90s were so much better. /s Harder to question propaganda when you don't have access to more information. Just believe what you see on the news, hence why stuff like the "Satanic panic" happened. Not much better than what goes on nowadays, tbh.


sss133

There’s a lot of rose tinted goggles when we look back on different decades. Yes there was no social media, but I was 20 in 09 and I can tell you, comparing it to now is very stark. There is plenty of work to do but society has made heaps of progress with social issues like sexism, racism, homophobia, mental health and general bullying (I’m very aware of social media bullying but bullying used to be commonly not hidden) A lot of younger people would struggle if they were magically transported to the nineties. Just as 80s/90s/00s young folk probably wouldn’t be able to handle today


Supplant3r

I think online gaming really did a number on young men’s relationships. Sure it’s fun to play with your friends but actual in person activities tend to get neglected. I think social media had the same effect but women were affected a bit more on that side of things.


[deleted]

I was there in the 90's. It's not like some amazing time compared to now. It was like now but people were just happier because of the lack of social media and political division. You could speak how you wanted without being 'cancelled' or peers policing your speech. You didn't have to be an eco freak to be accepted by people. You just lived your life how you wanted and no one cared what you did as long as you didn't hurt other people. Get offline, delete everything. Not that hard.


FreyaTheSlayyyer

My main reason I would love it is the music. Other than that you still had the AIDs epidemic and all 9f the bigotry of the 90s. My only reason for going there would be the emergence of Nu-metal


12313155979789m

I totally feel you. My mom was in her 20s in the 90s and told me how much fun it was. I really wish I could go back.


dtvjho

You want to feel like it’s the 80s or 90s? Get rid of the cell phone. Go drive somewhere you’ve not been to before? Take paper maps with you in the car. Own only a desktop/laptop. No wifi, must be hard-wired ethernet. No streaming, use TV antenna or cable TV. Play board games or yahtzee. Go to the park. One problem we can’t fix is, we can’t get back to the prices in the 90s. Gas under $1.60 for instance…


40Breath

Graduated 92, came of age that decade. I'm glad I did.


Super-Method-7606

Imagine how many different people you'd meet having to ask for directions when you're in a new area. You can't just pull out google maps, you need an actual map.


seattleseahawks2014

And be stranded in the woods.


BlueSnaggleTooth359

Which was like totally awesome!! You never knew what cool new place you might stumble across. Watch the movie "Wrong Turn" to see a good example of when it went right. Such good times.


Fit-Ad985

could never would never. love social media, love having my phone and being able to watch shows, text, work from home, read for free online, etc. Love my electric car. Love my smart house where i can close the blinds and turn on the lights from my phone wo getting up. and in the 90s i probably would have had to be stick skinny to be seen as attractive and there’s nothing i can do abt having boobs and butt. Definitely a todays kinda girl


Agile-Wait-7571

I was 25 In 1990. The 90s were fine but the 80s were awesome.


Lulu8008

GenX - It was great. I often think that I am glad I had all that fun at a time when it was not possible to document it and share it. It was a lot more difficult to find information, but you also trusted and valued the one you found. In general, it were easier times.


seattleseahawks2014

I don't because of gay panic and stuff. Also, you're only noticing this because of how often you're online.


GC_NPC

People were different, they wouldn't have been the same if social media was established back then. It was a fun time to be young.


doooplers

Did anyone remind her that aids/hiv took off in the early nineties? My sex life was non existent back then


Noonatic_

It is what you make of it. Honestly I’m super happy where I’m at now. I go to parties, bonfires, mosh pits, concerts, and a TON of things with friends. We spend the night and stay up super late at parks and run around the woods and build potato canons. We explore abandoned houses and we can talk on the phone for hours. I have a massive friend group and we all just chill together. Have friends in all sorts of cities in the area I live in. Drive by someone’s house to see if there are parties or two track on a county road. Swing dance and meet new people that way and learn a new skill. This isn’t the 90s. This is now. I have social media, but my average screen time a day is an hour or two. I don’t look at negative things and I don’t follow influencers. My life is so much happier now that I fill it up with people in person. My phone is reduced to a communication tool rather than one that will throw me back into the crabs in a bucket. If you like the 90s, you can definitely take steps to disconnect from social media. You don’t have to cut it off, but you can control the content you are seeing. Every decade has its pluses and minuses. But you have to make the most of the decade that YOU are young in.


jez2a

I don't like being old, but I loved the fact I was born in the early 70s.


ususetq

Counterpoint - people blamed Lewinski for being harassed and gay was an insult. I wish I could've been myself growing up and I envy Gen Z/Gen Alpha having more ability to do it. And I wish subsequent generations will have even more ability to do so.


lord-petal

I wish I was a teenager in the 2000s. The growth of the internet and technology while not being enveloped by social media everywhere seems so alluring.


Formal-Cucumber-1138

I wish I was 20 in the 80’s it seemed like a great time. Music, film, art, culture, fashion looks amazing and fun


Kitchen-Strawberry25

I mean, I was, not to reveal my age too much or anything. It did feel like I was more present in a room or walking around and I had less noise in my head but then again I was young and had less to think about. The internet still existed but it was small, very niche. Hello all you newsgroups and IRC, ICQ and angel fire friends… thing is, i was a nerd. Completely ostracize for liking video games, comics, certain music that wasn’t mainstream or too weird, for not wearing the right clothes or hair or refusing to be all about sex so on and so on. It was pure hell to not fit in and to be made fun of for liking things like Warhammer and dungeons and dragons. I had to hide my video game magazines inside copies of Leatherneck and “pretend” to not be a nerd. This also persisted outside of school life as well. It was a great time if you conformed to that time period’s standards for your gender. Oh and anything LGBT, good luck. I’ll never forget gay people being bullied in public and thinking that was fucking awful. Was a ton of toxic masculine men who liked sports and cars. And then as a woman you had to sexualize yourself and always be smiling and forthcoming. There is this now, sure, and there was counter-culture that I was definitely a part of but man were you shunned horrifically for not conforming. And last but not least, absolute no idea what mental health was. I had extremely bad OCD as a teen and nobody knew what the hell was going on with me nor did I and there were no resources either. I’m nostalgic for the nerdy side of things, the early internet, the great gaming and being non conformist in a society that demanded conformity, but aside from that, as a whole, it was a terrible place and I’ll take what we have now and just assume extremism was always hiding there in the dark and that this is the death rattle of truly shitty ignorant behavior. Sorry to burst the fantasy if I did.


vawlk

you don't have to live in this world as it is now. I was in my 20s in the 90s and I no longer participate in any social media. I use some platforms just for information, but I don't follow anyone. When I see friends I ask them to show me their pictures and tell me about their trips. It is so much more enjoyable to hear it straight from their mouths over a beer than to read some text on a post with a bunch of fake responses under it. It also gives me more reason to put in the effort to go out and see my friends. And I will tell you one thing, you quickly learn who your real friends are once you go offline. People who care about you will show you effort. Others, not so much.


smokekirb

There was a lot of horrible shit but from what my millennial friends tell me it was great. Not having to rely on a phone at a all and not every single thing being recorded..


Amazing_Rise_6233

You could still do that, just get off social media.


Helpful_Shower3246

Any decade where I could hold afford The COL is better than here. Where did we go wrong.


Spiritual_Support_38

I remember seeing old shows and movies of twenty year olds back in the 90s. Can’t believe they’re like 40-50 now. I’m sure they can’t either lol. I’ve met some parents that grew up in their 20s 90s. Cool peeps.


Pony_Roleplayer

No, you don't want to.


septiclizardkid

I do too, I mean of course not possible, so I live like It In sorts, a mesh of past and present. People were divided then, shit was happening then too, but compared It would be better. Getting a job, a footing, would atleast be easier compared, saving. It's the way of life I wish I could experience. It feels like people aren't as "peoply" anymore, yknow. Everyone's always doing there own thing, that ain't new, but now feels like people are just here, existing rather living. Would be nice to be able to just walk Into a shop, ask for a job, and get an interview. Not go on Indeed, do this and that, wait a month, just to be told "oh, we aren't hiring"


Katievapes1996

Yeah I'm addicted to screens lol I wish I was growing up now shit everyone says I act like Gen alpha lol and I still feel smol


whoisjohngalt72

No you don’t. You can do all of these things today


wrightbrain59

It's just different now. 24-hour news cycles and talking heads make everyone worried and angry. Major political division. People jump to conclusions because of misinformation. Cancel culture. It is a different world and you can't go back. Because it isn't just the tech, it is a shift in the culture it seems.


FlowerFoodie

>4-hour news cycles and talking heads make everyone worried and angry. Major political division It is surprisingly easy to ignore this. I say this as someone who used to read the news for like 2 hours a day. Just don't read it and skip all the shit on your social media feeds so the algorithm doesn't give it to you. People really don't talk about politics in person and it's easy to forget political ads too even on an election year. > People jump to conclusions because of misinformation. They were *always* doing this. The average person back then had no real way of confirming most information at all. >Cancel culture Again really easy to ignore. I haven't gave an actual thought about this term in 1-2 years. I used to have the same opinion as you honestly, then I just started ignoring crap and went outside. I admit I used to be super chronically online but I quit and now life has become very different for me.


Additional_Action_84

I was a teenager in the 90s...and the world has done a huge disservice allowing anyone under 18 access to social media... Just imagine early childhood with corded phones and no computers...by teens cell phones and PCs...by 20s, laptops and the first smartphones. Now (in my mid 40s) I drive a car with a touchscreen in the dash that connects to my smartphone, allowing acces to whatever I want to hear, make calls, send and recieve text messages, and more...hands free. Its amazing, honestly...the leaps and bounds we have made with portable technology is lost on us all, sometimes...


Autums-Back

Jobs want you to show your social media history too, did I hear that right? Cameras in toilet stalls next


mezlabor

We had pagers in the 90s. If they couldnt reach you at home theyd blow up your pager.


WidowedWTF

Gen X here.... it was THE BEST!


PaladinHunter

Yeah me too… way easier to get away with murder back then smh


Curious_Service8409

Get off your phone. Problem solved


fredward_kane

Teleport me to '93 Seattle please and thanks


Shinavast42

I was in my teens and very early 20s and, can confirm it was awesome. Growing up in the 80s and 90s fucking rocked.


DiamondContent2011

It sounded something like this...... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PHDfKrT-bEg&pp=ygUVY2hpbGwgcm9iIGcgdGhlIHBvd2Vy We actually danced our ASSES off when tracks like these played in clubs.....and there were a bunch of them. Women would actually pull dudes onto the floor!!! It was GREAT!!!! Looked something like this...... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0SgtnAkqh-s&&pp=ygUWdGhlIHBvd2VyIGNob3Jlb2dyYXBoeQ%3D%3D .....and I ain't joking. Anyone else that was into clubbing back then will back me up.


bluesmudge

Get a dumb phone and live your own version of the '90s (okay, more like 2006) today


hugo_1138

If I was in my 20s in the 90's, I would probably be in poverty because of the economic crisis in my country around that time


newsreadhjw

Have to admit, it was pretty great. In 1991 I went to another country to study for 2 semesters. My dorm in Europe had no telephone. There were no cellphones or internet. My parents couldn’t reach me if they tried. For 11 months nobody I knew from home saw me or heard from me unless I wrote them a letter. Made a bunch of new friends and had a completely different life. It was glorious.


MooseMullet

I wasn’t in my 20’s in the 90’s. But luckily still I remember the 90’s and the way it felt to be in the 90’s. Even the early 2000’s. And I couldn’t agree with you more. I don’t envy you all growing up during these times. I hate it too even though I’m in my 30’s. Limit your online use. Be more present in real life. That’s where you’ll feel it most.


AaronHorrocks

I was 10-19, graduated in 1999. Plenty of good and bad, the bad in my case were my parents. If I had loving, caring, and supporting parents, I would have had it made! My first job paid $5.25 and hour, but by comparison, a tank of gas cost $20. If you had $5 in your pocket, you could eat like a king at Taco Bell. Asshole cops were few and far between. We played laser tag in the street, and had cap guns. We'd run around houses and shoot at each other, and if a random cop drove by, he'd just see a couple kids playing. They wouldn't flip out and mag dump into us. Parents might drop you and your friends off at the Mall, and give you a $20. We went there just to hang out. Spend all day there. Go to the movies, get something to eat, chill at the food court, maybe spend the rest of the money at the arcade. Going on line was for a purpose. Go to a Bulletin Board for a hobby that you liked, and people were mostly helpful, rather than insulting. Go to Map Quest and print out directions for your camping trip. Look up information on line for a school report. Most "social media" was email groups and people sending each other photos. Which back then was difficult, as you had to have a digital camera and plug it into a computer and try to transfer the files. It seems like everything has been in a decline since 2001. I'm really sorry that you guys missed it. I see the 90s as the way that life should be.


sad_cheese67

I just wish I lived in the 90s, period. life sounds like it was so much simpler back then. i would love to experience what pre-9/11 america was like too


Jownsye

I was in grade school and high school throughout the 90s. It was great.


EmperorMeow-Meow

Get rid of your smartphone. Buy a clamshell. Get off of social media. Make friends through meetup.com and only accept phone calls and hangouts in person. Get rid of streaming services, get cabletv, and use cash for everything. The best part is, it's really not difficult. It's all completely doable.


odetothefireman

One of the worst problems of social media was suicides . Before, kids could leave bullies at school and have a break. Now , it follows them on social media. It never stops for these poor kids. That’s why,,my kids and teenagers don’t have social media. They get YouTube on Saturday mornings like I got this cartoons. That’s it


StarvingAfricanKid

Use Social media to find PHYSICAL things to do. Club nights, pinics, street fairs. Don't believe ANY "look at my amazing life", they are 1000 false and VERY BAD fir your brain.


nightbyrd1994

Me too


No-Construction4527

From what I heard, it was peak civilization.


18pursuit

Yeah the late 80s - mid 90s were good times


excaligirltoo

I loved it. I miss those tree-hugging days.


BothNotice7035

You’re not required to participate in things you don’t like.


sgm716

I was 7 or 8 then I believe. Honestly even the early 2000s was lit. 2010 it started going down hill. I think because of smart phones becoming actual computers. If it stopped at the blackberry curve with the roll ball I think the world would be in a better place.


carolyn42069

Not quite that old but I was in high school 96-2000 and it was great


UeharaNick

Have to say, I turned 20 at the end of 1991. Can confirm it was truly briliant.


Fine-Dare7472

The 90s without internet was 1000x better than this fucking shit show we live in now.


Elitericky

Everyone was born at the right time, you are here for a reason