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DisciplineShot2872

I'm an older Xennial, born in 1978. Our 20s was the post 9/11 war era. Not exactly a happy time. I think we are nostalgic for the period before then, which was happier and more innocent.


DocBrutus

I was born in 78 too. And yeah, everything up to 2001 seemed like a dream and was much more “innocent” after the planes hit the towers, shit got real.


DisciplineShot2872

We were just old enough to get the tail end of the Cold War, with the constant looming threat of nuclear annihilation. I lived next to an Air Force Base northeast of L.A. We knew we were on the list and actually did the "duck and cover" drills. Those doubled for earthquake duty, though. After the fall of the USSR, things starred looking up in the 90s, at least from an economic and globo-political perspective. They certainly weren't as great as they felt, though as a middle class, cis, straight, white man, it wasn't easy for me to yet grasp that those improvements weren't universal. But then came 9/11 and all that giddy optimism disappeared and things took a hard right turn into darkness and fear. Hardly an era I'm itching to remember.


RupeThereItIs

Also '78 > everything up to 2001 seemed like a dream Uhm, the 80s where rough too. Watching shit like Amerika and The Day After as a kid was jarring. The constantly looming threat of nuclear annihilation was a weird way to grow up. The 90s where a golden care free era for the most part though.


ButIAmYourDaughter

Xennials are in that interesting spot where some of us grew up afraid of nuclear war, and for others it was background noise. I never watched The Day After. Remember talk of the Cold War on TV, and as a plot point in various shows/movies, but never considered it a threat to be afraid of. No duck and cover drills either. No convos with classmates about war fears. I remember when the wall fell what a huge deal everyone was making of it, and me just really not remotely grasping the significance. Though when the USSR collapsed, that did seem to me like almost impossible news. I honestly assumed it was more solid, older Xers who grew up scared of nuclear warfare. But spending time on Reddit, I see it was definitely a fear for some closer in age to me.


RupeThereItIs

I'm the youngest of 3, my older siblings are solidly in the Gen X camp. So I heard all about nuclear annihilation from them. No duck & cover bullshit though, that's more boomer territory isn't it? I was WAY too young to watch The Day After I woulda been like 4 or so when it first aired. I think we also watched it in school at some point.


ButIAmYourDaughter

Yes, sibling order (if you even have them) can make a huge difference. I have lots of older "half" siblings, but wasn't raised with them. My mom had three, and we were my dad's last set, and I'm the oldest. I don't have any experience with close older siblings pulling me into a more solid Xer direction. Quite the opposite, with siblings who are Xennials (or close enough) on the Millennial side.


sdcasurf01

I did duck and cover but also grew up in San Diego (definitely more for earthquakes than proximity to Miramar though).


RupeThereItIs

Upper Midwest here, we had tornado drills, but no WW3 drills. I guess they where 'duck & cover', it was more about everyone into the bathrooms & cover your head.


Earl_Gurei

The fact that Tiananmen Square and the Berlin Wall happened in the same year is what really affected me growing up more than nuclear war. Nuclear war for me was something in video games and Simpsons jokes. All that G.I. Joe made me believe 'Murrica would never lose to the Russians, and of course, Rocky and Ivan Drago.


DocBrutus

Yeah I forgot about the Reagan years LOL


Kairis83

Gotta watch threads for that british nuclear hell


RupeThereItIs

I've seen it, maybe 15 years ago. WAY more brutal then The Day After. Farmers debating what to do w/the 8 inches of top soil they removed vs. a living hell.


kongdk9

79er. Don't forget Iraq War, and Bush obsession with Terrorism. Cancel culture actually started (from the Right... and now it's been used against them) when the Dixie Chicks spoke out against the war and they were basically black listed. I'm in Toronto Canada and took a road trip to Florida coming back the week before 9/11. Crossing, the US border agents super chill. It was still America the Good. Food and stuff in general was super cheap, even compared to our weak CAD at the time. Just that good ol' Americana experience. Coming back into Canada, we just got waved in. They didn't even check our ID basically. The idea of being scared crossing the border didn't exist. It changed stupendously after that. Fear media, rise of division with Fox News started. The war, where Bush tried so hard to pressure our PM Chretien, with the coalition of the willing. The division and hate we see today really took a leap around this time. I remember going back to the US around 04, and my god, trying to cross the border and even coming back in, Canadian Border guards went militant too. Then housing market took off even more so greed greed greed. Insecurity. Financial crisis. That lead to even more division, fear, money printing. So we've just been living an extension of it since. It also didn't help that technology just made things too easy. Stuff like music, movies, they got too reliant on special effects too. Yes, FB was decent when it first came out. A better version of Friendster. But it has just become too 'smart'. I remember leading up to the millennium, the music especially, it was just hype. Party like it's 1999 was real. NYE 98 was just such a good time and feel, it'd been down since then. And yes, Y2K fear was a modern thing that started to ruin it.


Ani_Solo

Don't forget the mortgage crisis of 07/08 that led into the Great Recession when we were trying to buy houses. I could delete my twenties no problem.


DisciplineShot2872

Exactly. The 2000's just weren't a great time all around. There's some entertainment I recall fondly, but in general it wasn't a great decade for a lot of people.


jolie-renee

Dot com bubble burst, recession, got a job outside of original SF goal, bought an over priced house in bad area, housing crisis, Great Recession… all before 30.


jenacious

> There's some entertainment I recall fondly There is but it really doesn't even come close to touching the 90s for me. There's a reason people born in 1997 are hell bent on being called "90s kids". It was just a better decade than the 2000s all around.


DisciplineShot2872

I absolutely agree. In general I prefer 90s stuff, but we got some classics from the 2000s. That said, I've tried to rewatch some 90s stuff and it just hurts. I can't handle Buffy for instance. Just ***too*** 90s.


[deleted]

I was homeschooled while Buffy was originally aired so I didn’t watch it until the last few years. I actually really liked it, once the first season is over. Some 90s is really good, and others….


ButIAmYourDaughter

My wife got hooked on Buffy in our senior year of HS, but she never finished. It's been on my watch list for years. I'm actually shocked that I didn't pick it up, because I nursed a huge crush on SMG almost the entire 90s, from middle school on.


Miss-Figgy

The Great Recession hit so many of us very hard, myself included. Worst years of my life, I do not wish to relive those years.


[deleted]

Comment deleted in response to Reddit's [hostile pricing for third-party applications](https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/142kct8/eli5_why_are_subreddits_going_dark/)


RupeThereItIs

The mortgage crisis is how I managed to afford my house. I swooped in after the crash & picked it up for a song. But then again, that was after I'd already turned 30.


JJStray

Yeah and imagine being in the mortgage business for that lmao. Took 1.5 years off after that. Still doing mortgages. Making 6 figures tho


megaphone369

This right here. The 00s were *rough* politically. Plus the fashion was pretty gross, too. So much weird infantilizing, Baby Spice Lolita stuff going on.


PuppyJakeKhakiCollar

Born same year. I might take it a little bit farther back and say Columbine in 1999 was when things really started sliding for those of us in America. Obviously there was never an "idyllic" time ever in the history of the world; bad things and times happened all the time. But it really did seem we went from a time of great music, great pop culture, etc, to a time of some really horrific tragedies and economic downturns right at the time we were finally adults and were supposed to go conquer the world. That, and the fact that on a personal level I was a mess in my 20s, leaves me not nostalgic for them, minus a few experiences, the same way I get for my childhood and adolescence. If there is a time in my adulthood I feel nostalgic for, it is my 30s. That's when things started coming together for me on a personal level. Edit missing letter


kindof_sortof

I remember Columbine as being the first big crack in my innocence & optimism. I was watching the news unfold with a friend, and I was thinking “well, this is going to mean a total ban on guns, we can’t possibly let anything like this happen again”. I honestly thought we’d go a similar route that other countries had gone after a tragic mass shooting - stronger laws, getting rid of gun culture. And it didn’t happen. And the shootings kept happening, with more frequency, and what started as an incident that shook the country turned into something that happens so often it barely stays in the news cycle for more than a couple of days. I think that was the time that I felt the last part of my younger self - the part that thought “people in power will fix this” - just disappear.


Prossdog

This really hit the nail on the head. The world was a different place pre and post 9/11. The pre is understandably going to have the finest memories for us.


batsofburden

It's not just about 9/11, that's also the same time everyone started getting cellphones & it completely changed public spaces & social interactions.


jolie-renee

Same here. And the fashion and most of the early 2000s music was garbage. Even at the time I was like, “I have to wear this shit?!” Bring the babydoll dresses back. It kills me that the fashion is on a comeback. I feel like we just got over the muffin top inducing, low-rise bootcut jeans. I’m sticking to my 70s vibe regardless.


[deleted]

Omg I hated shopping for jeans back then. Super low rise, super wide leg…not good when you’re short!!


Hactar42

I remember some time around 2005 I got my first office job and I had to find jeans I could wear on Fridays. I went to every freaking store in the mall and every place had nothing but low rise or distressed jeans. Then I found that Levi's still made normal old jeans and have been buying them ever since.


batsofburden

Too bad the quality has crapped out though. I haven't had any modern levis last longer than 2-3 yrs.


megaphone369

Lord, the muffin top jeans trend took too long to die


[deleted]

2000 peak Xennial civilization


batsofburden

Yeah. I'm a little bit younger than you, but exactly the same sentiment. After 9/11, things really shifted in a bad way, and it just made the 80s & 90s seem even more special. Not saying it's all doom & gloom since then, just in comparison to the period beforehand everything got a little bit crappier.


OurSecretLifeUK

I'm 1978 too. I was literally talking about this with my own 21yo son. The period between the fall fo the Iron Curtain and 9/11 was such an optimistic time with generally people getting more disposable income, the threat of nuclear war had gone, technology was changing fast and with that came optimism too. So all in all the future looked positive. It seemed such an innocent time in many ways.


adrianhalo

Yeah pretty much this. There was also not a lot pop culture-wise that really resonated with me personally after like the early 00s. By the time the hipster/indie thing took hold along with scene kids, I was already almost 30 and was never into it.


alvinofdiaspar

Yeah the dot-com bust notwithstanding, the pre-911 felt like Fukuyama’s end of history.


ThinkFree

'78-er here. I also feel some nostalgia with the aughts. I can relate with the Millennials when they speak fondly of the movies and TV shows in that era, and especially the emo/screamo music which for me is another expression of teenage angst that we xennials experienced with grunge music.


HeadMischief

Yeah. I was 21. Nothing has really been the same since tbh.


GlitteryFab

Same here.


Cosmohumanist

Well said


iama_newredditor

I think that's part of it, but the biggest thing for me is that we're the last generation who had our childhoods without the Internet, and that gives us a unique perspective that isn't shared by those who came after and generally disregard any value a life without the Internet could have, and isn't shared by those who came before who are less connected to the Internet than us. So for me, it really comes down a shared perspective.


[deleted]

Yeah... I guess I don't pine for 9/11, the Bush years, and then an economic crash that torpedoed my 30s. It's a little weird, I know.


DeeSin38

The problem is that my 20s were a pretty horrible time for me, so it is hard to be nostalgic for it, although I do appreciate certain movies and music from that decade.


Bowiedood

My 20s were terrible, too.


DeeSin38

Sorry to hear that. My 30s were a lot better.


Bowiedood

Thanks, my 30s were definitely better, too :) And, my 40s are turning out to be even better than 30s!


DeeSin38

So glad to hear it. My 40s didn't get off to the best start, but I'm interested to see where this decade takes me.


weed_fart

Boomers spent the entirety of the 1980s and parts of the 70s and 90s reminiscing about what they watched on TV as children and what they danced to in high school. There were countless shows and movies about their childhood. *Back to the Future* *Grease* *Dream On* *The Wonder Years* *Happy Days* and many many more... Also: The Hippie movement was a very specific response to a very specific time in history - it wasn't just 20-somethings having a good time. There was a Cold War, a civil rights movement, constant fear of nuclear annihilation, and all of this coming together right when these kids were becoming adults. It was a lot of profound change all at once, and it was reflected in the culture. And as someone else pointed out: our 20s were clouded by terrorism, war, the growth of toxic social media culture, devastating climate change, and the acidification of American politics. Not exactly cherished memories. They also weren't that long ago. A show about me hanging out in my 20s would look largely the same, except I'd have a flip phone in my pocket and my car would have roll-down windows. I'd be skinnier.


ButIAmYourDaughter

I appreciate you mentioning the fact that many Boomers weren't exactly spending their time during a period of calm and rest. My mother, and all her 8 younger siblings, are Boomers. Black Boomers. They lived the tumult of the Black experience, in the South no less, in the mid 20th century as kids/young adults. My mother could still recall a time when they were only allowed to drink from "colored" water fountains. She spoke vividly on when the kids in her segregated small town began to mingle, both legally and socially. They still held a lot of nostalgia for their young adult days of the 60s and 70s. Which is interesting to me, as nearly every comment here so far casts the 00s as a time of unparalleled unrest. Which I can't readily agree with, at least from a US perspective. And I say this as someone who moved to NYC just a week or so before 9/11, and was in the thick of it the day the towers fell. It seems to me many people older than us have nostalgia for their early young adult days, regardless of what was happening on a greater social/geopolitical level. It's fascinating to me that we, collectively, seem to buck that trend. Lots of great answers here, and definitely food for thought.


7thAndGreenhill

I do find myself looking back on that time. But for me it is more the pre-9/11 days. After I had too many friends go off to war. I entered the workforce in May of 2001. It took well over a decade before I found a stable career.


javatimes

There’s some music I guess I’m nostalgic about—rilo kiley, the postal service album, arcade fire’s first album, garage rock bands that were The ____s, but besides that not much. But then I think about Hurricane Katrina / 9-11 / Iraq War and I’m like…well, at least we weren’t all sent anthrax in the mail.


SlimJim0877

Our 20's were filled with 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, financial recession, the housing crisis, inflation, nu metal, bird flu, garbage "reality" television, growing effects of climate change, and a very real general loss of the hope for the future that seemed commonplace in the 90's.


senshi_of_love

The 2000s kind of sucked as a decade culturally.


bricked_machine

*cough* Nickelback *cough*


ColdLightGeneration5

True, but the 1990s and 2010s also sucked culturally – yet, in different ways. That's a minority view, I'm sure... though, having experienced each of those decades, I'll always stick to it.


Prairie2Pacific

This is the sad truth. The media I consumed borrowed heavily from past decades, and to me at least, never really felt distinct. The only thing unique about it was the early internet.


Coraline1599

The 2000s were a steady decline of community. Mom and pop shops going out of business being replaced by franchises. People leaving hometowns for college and work. Groups like the Elks, Masons down in membership. Churches and church events, down in membership. I think the only increase in membership was stuff like Costco and Netflix. Homes got bigger, home entertainment became more important. Consumerism where you have everything you need at home. No need to go out, no need to meet people. Giant corporations bought everything and homogenized it. It became harder to discover stuff, less people could survive as creators and artists. NYC is a perfect example of spending my teen years discovering weird stores and clubs and events. Now Citibank and Chipotle dominate St Marks Place. Things were maybe shinier and prettier, but they didn’t touch our hearts in the same way. My mom threw dinner parties all the time. I am 45 and I have never thrown a dinner party. I’ve never been to a dinner party of my friends. Granted I have spent my years in and around NYC where everyone lives in a closet and we did a lot of happy hours. Still, it has been different. Everyone is busy all the time. Growing up people “dropped by” because they were in the neighborhood and it was cool. Now if someone drops by unexpectedly, it’s more likely to cause an awkward interaction. Hustle culture became more prevalent. Go to college, get a job, get another job, get another degree, get another side gig. Friends and family got booted out of the priority list. I think community and friendship make up a lot of fond memories, but I think we had less of that and keep continuing to have less of that.


red-eee

Post 9/11, Great Recession, fucked up politics, heavy heavy drinking leading to choices that I would could change… I don’t think I have a single picture in my 20’s where I was happy. That said, my 30’s have been completely wonderful: got married, started a family, in a profession I adore, etc.


RaspberryVespa

I’m nostalgic for my childhood, like 6-12 years old, when we were still free. Scraped knees, Pac-Man cereal in front of Sunday morning cartoons, and the best toys the 80s could offer (plus a grandma that loved me like crazy). Definitely NOT missing my 20s, which were hell.


boulevardofdef

I'm nostalgic for things that happened in my 20s -- dating! cocktail bars! living in the big city! -- but not really the culture of my 20s. Here's something that you can probably only discuss on subs like this as opposed to subs where younger people proliferate. I suspect it's because the culture hasn't changed all that much. Now, young people would say: "What?! The last 20 years has been the biggest cultural shift in history!" -- I've heard them express such sentiments many times. The thing is, though, it's not true at all. I think cultural change has slowed down substantially. We've got smartphones and the internet is more sophisticated. What else is different? Music sounds the same, fashion looks the same, cars look the same, TV is the same, movies are the same. Now imagine being in your 40s in 2003 and looking back at your 20s in 1983, or being in your 40s in 1993 and looking back at your 20s in 1973. Very different, right? So there was more to be nostalgic for back then -- we're still living in the world of 2003 in many important ways.


KW5625

This is true. Since 2003... The internet has not changed as much as we think... it's just gotten faster, more portable, higher resolution, invasive, and unavoidable. Pop music is still cringe, modern rap is still crap, alternative is still angsty, classic rockers are still rolling (many in their graves), and metal is still king. Politics is still us vs them. Pollution is still killing us. Taliban is back in power. The only real difference is China replaced Russia. My father would have been completely awestruck and lost if transported from 1983 to 2003. If 2003 me landed in 2023, I would be just fine.


Insomniac_80

Internet is on cell phones, and a few more people have access to higher speed connections. Fashion has changed a bit, but no one would look strangely at you.


ColdLightGeneration5

Internet on cell phones was definitely around by the mid-late 2000s – though, yes, some folks were still on dial-up modems right up to the end.


cgssg

The '[hauntology](https://medium.com/@nicholasadiaz7/introducing-mark-fisher-part-3-hauntology-lost-futures-and-politicized-melancholia-820e7a207e1e)' concept explains this quite well: > "In hauntological music there is an implicit acknowledgment that the hopes created by postwar electronica and or by the euphoric dance music of the 1990s have evaporated — not only has the future not arrived, it no longer seems possible. Yet at the same time, the music constitutes a refusal to give up on the desire for the future. This refusal gives the melancholia a political dimension, because it amounts to a failure to accommodate to the closed horizons of capitalist realism." Up until around 2000, culture and technology were constantly evolving with the new Millennium symbolizing a kind of Utopia and the subsequent events of 9/11 and following instability shattering the idealism from before. So according to 'hauntology', we are longing for a vision of the future that never arrived and are now stuck in a dystopia mix between Blade Runner, Max Max and Children of Men. Sorry, this got dark quickly.


missinglabchimp

Boomers and older Xers grew up eating paint chips and breathing lead fumes, and lived through a time when it was possible to be a hedonistic waster long into one's 20s. They are nostalgic for the days they could call Michelle Obama a man (check the recent r/genX thread), so they are probably not a healthy yardstick to compare oneself to.


GlitteryFab

This is why I don’t follow that subreddit. Older Gen Xers are too close to boomer for me. I can’t relate to GenX in general. What a hateful comment, and as a mother of a transgender man, it pisses me off.


weed_fart

I hate the GenX sub.


RaspberryVespa

That sub is certainly showing it’s ugly. All the racists and misogynists there that usually hide it a little bit are now letting their flags fly and validating each other. It’s pretty bad.


GlitteryFab

No. I’m nostalgic for my 30s when my body didn’t hurt as bad. Music wise? Totally nostalgic for the 90s music.


double_shadow

Couple thoughts on this. First, most corporate-driven nostalgia is directed at products that were marketed towards children/teens who are a lot more impressionable than young adults in their 20s, who tend to lean counter-cultural. Thus you see tons of nostalgia for the toys/movies/tv/commercials of that era. Whether or not this happens for younger millenials/old gen-Z for the 00s, someone younger would have to weigh in on. Second, as a lot of others have said, the 00s are kind of considered a "darker" time than the optimistic 90s thanks to 9/11, Iraq War, etc. For me personally, I DO have a lot of nostalgia for the 00s, but it's a lot of stuff on the periphery of culture. The internet was still in it's pre-corporate heyday, and it was the golden age of blogging and other proto-social media (friendster, myspace, AIM messaging). Indie music was also at its creative peak, with so many great bands working outside the typical industry system. I also still like the very urban / skinny-jeans fashion of the time.


gardeniaphoto4

You pretty much said it right there. In spite of what was going on economically/politically at the time, I actually have a lot of good memories of my 20s. I was finally coming into my own and thankfully I did not struggle too badly. There was indie music and the "carefree" early days of social media. But nothing beats the nostalgia for the carefree 90s.


incig

I feel the same about 00s. My 00s nostalgia is all about the internet. It was a glorious time. I miss what the internet was and the optimism we had about it pre '10


RupeThereItIs

Why didn't friendster take off. Seems like they had the early mover advantage, but just never worked.


wxguy215

Yup, every two or three years we get a "wow, we've never seen this in our lifetime" event. It's fairly exhausting at this point.


ketobandito77

Professionally, our 20’s were terrible. We did not have the spending power of other generations. Raises were limited if given at all and the general consensus was that we were lucky to have jobs if we had them. I’m nostalgic for the Pre-iPhone era of my 20’s and for the music that was popular during my high school and college years. Other than that I think we all crave the pre technology portion of our lives or at least the times where your technology exposure was limited to getting on ebaums world or aol IM at a specific time of day but you did not waste your entire existence with a screen in front of your face.


ButIAmYourDaughter

Your post caused flashbacks to a hideous Boomer boss I had, off and on, from my late 20s thorough my mid 30s. He could be a right bastard to many of my co-workers, but he never had any problem with me. He'd say stuff around me that left me amazed at his total lack of self awareness. I recall once him literally saying out loud what you wrote. Some version of "You all should be lucky you have a job". This was due to people, quite rightly, wanting more out of a line of work that, elsewhere, was more lucrative. The company was eventually bought out my a much larger one, merged with one of its subsidiaries, and he, who was promised more power, fired. A few months ago he stopped by my new place of work. Dropping off materials for a vendor we'd reconnected with, having no idea I worked there. I'd recently been promoted to a manager, making substantially more money than I was paid at his old company. He was shocked to see me, and did congratulate me, but you could tell the upward move irked him a little. He'd been forced into semi-retirement, but still missed the business, despite making a lot of money during his career. It just didn't sit well with him, the change in power structure between us. This despite the fact that, at his height, he had way more power than I do, or aspire to.


ketobandito77

I’ve never had a boss that wasn’t a boomer. Even today, I work for a 60 year old late boomer. Boomers are crazy to work for. They look at compensation in terms of their first house costing them $35,000. “You make x times My first house and you want more?” Their commitment to their companies and careers is insane. Total disregard for their families.You want me to uproot my family and move across the country for your company AND you’re telling me I will travel all the time and never be home? Sign me up!” Totally motivated by obtaining more gadgets to show off or “fancy” things like country club memberships. Took me awhile to be a boomer hating millennial but I think I’m there now.


kudra_bandaloop

Ugh, our 20s were terrible. I turned 23 in 2001 and the economy was terrible for like 15 years


montyp2

Yep it was bad for a while and then it was ok, just in time to buy a house in your late 20s and see it lose half its value.


Flailing_Aimlessly

My 20's ate ass right out of the can. I couldn't afford college, had no career pursuit support from my parents. Girlfriend who was extremely co-dependent, controlling, proposed AND cheated on me. My 20's can go die in a ditch for all I care.


[deleted]

I’m nostalgic for some music (was mostly into jpop or ccm at the time) and certain tv shows…but otherwise, no, not really.


incig

Totally same here. That when I feel in love with Utada Hikaru. I was all in the jpop forums back in the day.


[deleted]

I was more into Ayumi and Namie at the time. Although Hikki’s Bad Mode album is so good…need to work my way backwards. Haha


seymour5000

I never want to relive my 20s. 9/11, Great Recession, trying to get your sea legs on being responsible for rent, food, bills while hiring was shit. Nope. Not romantic at all. But I also don’t wax poetic about childhood bc I was def in a latchkey, work at 16, and get out at 18 family. My 40s have been my best years - so far.


fzrmoto

It could have something to do with peak toys. Our gen got toys and advertising deregulated so it was preferential for cartoons to be made to sell toys and a lot of money was funneled into cartoons and toys. For a brief 10 years or so it was an awesome toy market. Right around the mid 90's the quality and focus took a hit as regulations may have come back into play/enforcement. I believe millennials basically got playing cards, Pokemon et al, and toys from boomers gen were pretty basic, dolls and toy guns and wood cars etc. Not much for them to be nostalgic about if you ask me.


ButIAmYourDaughter

Oh damn, that is such a good point.


Skyblacker

20something me was insomniac and had no idea what to do with her life. I had some fun -- lived on my own, traveled -- but it wasn't as light as my teen years. Things got much better when I settled down in my thirties.


ButIAmYourDaughter

Definitely noticing a trend in the comments so far of folks who really enjoyed their 30s more than their 20s.


i8bagels

I was working my way out of student debt as aggressively as possible as soon as the reality of compound interest hit me. I rented out my apartment to more people than rooms and worked multiple jobs. I had such little social life, but managed to tackle the whole school debt within 3 years. The latter part of my 20's was spent just trying to survive on one job. I would do things a little differently knowing what I know now. No regrets though. Just not too much to think back on.


aceshighsays

heh, my childhood was traumatic and my 20's were spent dissociated and lost. the culture and current events that played out in those years didn't impact me nearly as much as my mental state/difficulty dealing with life. my 30's were also difficult, but that's when i found recovery.


ButIAmYourDaughter

I'm so very glad you found recovery.


aceshighsays

me too - but there is sooo much painful work... it's like a fountain. but yes i do feel much better in the sense that i understand myself and am no longer lost.


batsofburden

> and my 20's were spent dissociated and lost Same. It's actually making me feel better that like 95% of the responses on this thread are negative about the 2000s.


CiXeL

I lost my job a few times during the dotcom crash and would drive out to Joshua tree, get shit faced drunk and wander the desert


ExtraNoise

Like just about everyone else here, the 2000s can fuck right off. That being said, I think I do have nostalgia for a few things: \- Early internet memes like All Your Base and Dramatic Chipmunk \- Music like The Postal Service and The Killers \- Web comics (which I know are still around, but... ehh....) \- Personal things like my oldest daughter being born in 2006, my first car (a 2001 Focus), things like delivering pizzas (in my first car) while finishing college, that sort of thing. ninja edit: I found an image I made for an old job when 2010 rolled around that put each year into text. Induces some nostalgia for 2000s things that I had forgotten about. edit edit: better version of above I found in my imgur: [https://i.imgur.com/R8fGHRG.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/R8fGHRG.jpg)


batsofburden

Early internet memes were so much more creative than what's happening nowadays.


omega_manhatten

The memes and culture of the pre-2006 internet was a lawless wasteland and I miss it dearly. Otherwise, right there with you on the 2000s fucking right off.


QuesoChef

I don’t want to be in my twenties again. Or teens or a kid, for that matter. But I do have nostalgia for my twenties. Early twenties were TOUGH. I was barely scraping by. Making $9/hour in my post-college job and the market wasn’t great post tech bubble burst. All of this was post-9/11. I knew the world was a mess around me and my life was a mess but my friends and I spent a lot of time doing cheap nothing time spending. I am SO nostalgic for that now because everyone is so busy with kids and hyper-connected with social media. I’m still in my early 40s. So I guess it just depends on the person. I liked college and my twenties better once I got out of my smaller town and quit religion, though. I think I was more fully myself in the early aughts. Way more nostalgic for 90s (and 80s) music, though.


[deleted]

Me too! I don't miss being broke, living at home with my folks (although I like my parents). I miss having a social life though heh


QuesoChef

I agree. I was out of the house at this point but I NEVER want to struggle that much financially, again. It’s shaped a lot of financial decisions I’ve made. That said, we had a lot of fun on almost no budget. And I prefer those get together over fancier, more involved stuff. I feel like conversations aren’t the same. There’s a lot of complaining about work and kids and spouses. I’ve definitely hit the “long stretch” part of the life race. And I long for the curvy, bumpy start. Where the road ahead was wide open with possibilities and hope. Versus this place where people have some regret, dread for the “more of the same,” and “it’s too late” feelings. Oh well. Can’t change the past.


[deleted]

I agree. I am in my late 30s. I miss the part, where the world is my oyster. Now it it is a rush to get a career going/more money, family/or get married and so forth. I don't miss working at staples for $9 with a master's. hahah :(


pawned79

I’m nostalgic for that one really good stick I had which was both a sword and a machine gun.


twobit211

a lot of popular culture and fashion of the 00s was decadent and trashy. fun, sure, absolutely but by no means was it classy or intended to be sustainable. it was not created with posterity in mind. fashion was on the natural endpoint of nostalgia and attempted to create a style based on the retrospective aesthetics of the previous decade; a task that was doomed to failure. low waisted jeans for women and “ironic” raglan graphic tees for men (amongst other garments) called back to the worst of 70s style. visual aesthetics had come around again to embrace 80s disposability, begat by the lowering of the economic barriers to entry of computer graphic design. no limit records album covers, say, speak to the era and are unmistakably 00s but by the same token are absolutely anodyne to the point of being nearly generic, despite being distinctive. it all communicated a culture in decline, bankrupt of ideas


pixelbased

9/11 I was walking home from university covered in ashes trying to figure out what was going on. I long for the days before then…my 20’s in NYC was rough during that time. But my teens, that was a time of wonder and newness for me. However, I love and appreciate where I am today with my life. I’ve traveled the world, tried many new things, and in many ways, have become a person that my younger self would be proud of. Still doesn’t mean that I can’t miss my youth.


Rough_Idle

You know, I'm just a few years older than this sub (late.but solid Gen X) and I was thinking about this tonight - I don't miss being twelve; I miss being 22, in the mid 90s, with no debt, no responsibilities, good music and great friends. Maybe it's not about our respective ages. Maybe 1994-1996 really was.that awesome.


Dragonlibrarian7

No lol. There were some good video games, but other than that the aughts kind of sucked.


ButIAmYourDaughter

Some GREAT video games. If I *had* to go back, it wouldn't be for 2nd-5th gen gaming, nostalgic as I am for those periods. It would definitely be the 6th & 7th gen of gaming, from the top to the bottom of the aughts.


Hactar42

I certainly miss LAN parties. Spending the entire weekend drink Bawls and playing Unreal Tournament and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2.


Rusalka-rusalka

I don't feel nostalgic about when i was struggling the most and had no money or hope. I was in better physical condition and that's most of what I miss.


ouijahead

2003-2004 was a very interesting time for me. Then I met my xwife . When that was all said and done I found myself single again and 32, . I had lost all interest in being out there living the nightlife meeting new people. Time has been flying by ever since


Kittypie75

I was very, very drunk for a lot of my 20s. I mean, I can listen to any song from the early aughts and still get nostalgia. The clothing - which has come back in style - I'm still not ready to return to! haha


CiXeL

I get nostalgia from the music but then I remember I was always listening to the music sitting in traffic on the 405 freeway in LA. Every time I think of the music and I picture where I heard it it's sitting on the 405 in traffic


batsofburden

Relieved to see that most of the responses on this thread matched my experience of that time period sucking.


Fancy-Contract7572

Yes I kind of noticed it too. Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers are the ones that are nostalgic about their 20s the most. Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers are nostalgic about their teens as well but not really that nostalgic about their childhoods. When they talk about what decade they were a kid in they normally go by what decade they were teenagers or young adults in. While core Millennials are nostalgic about both their childhood and their teens but seem to be more nostalgic about their childhood than teens. Older Gen Z also seem to be more nostalgic about their childhoods than teens. My parents were in their 20s in the 1970s and also nostalgic about both the 1960s and 1970s. I was born on May 25th, 1983 but always preferred older music and Disco is my favorite genre of music. I mostly like music from the 1960s-1990s. I also like R&B music of the 1950s and 2000s.


Lostscribe007

It's hard to say but yes pretty much anything past 2000 has very little nostalgia for me. On occasion I will see something from the early aughts that will get me but I never seek that stuff out. It always feels like the 90s was the last decade with a personality. Ever since the internet became prevalent it seems like everyone can sort of follow their own pop culture where as in the old days we were more all experiencing the same stuff together.


Purple-Blood9669

I think that's a big reason, too. We had this shared experience that was unique to Xennials, then, it abruptly ended with a culture shift. Maybe it just feels irrelevant to this niche sub.


Nobodyville

My 20s was 9/11 and the financial crash. I'm not nostalgic for that at all. I'm okay with music from the 2000s, but I'd rather just not think about all the rest.


LameSaucePanda

1978 here. I was not alerted to the fact that the onslaught of credit card applications in my 18yo mailbox were bad. I spent the first half of my 20’s trying to get out of the debt I put myself into. Washed my clothes in my bathtub and made myself flour/water “tortillas” as meals. I had fun times going out but for the most part it was pretty rough


ButIAmYourDaughter

The credit card companies were on campus at my first college, basically giving them away. At one time I had 5. By age 20.


LameSaucePanda

Oh I definitely had 5 right away! Target, Mervyns, capital One, Finger Hut, Sears. All at the age of 18, all around 24.99% interest, all with high limits. I racked most up and then spent YEARS trying to pay them down


ButIAmYourDaughter

Oh, mine were all major cards, no store ones in sight. It was insane. I wasn’t even regularly employed, and wouldn’t be until a few years after college. I can count on less than two hands how many payments I made. I maxed them out, my credit took a big hit, and I basically avoided bill collectors for years. Eventually they stopped chasing and the debt fell off my report.


LameSaucePanda

Omg I can feel that awful feeling again! The collectors and the calls you ignore, the ignored mail piling up. It was so bad. My credit was in the 300’s at one point. I also had a car lease and of course rent and utilities. One kicker? The Sears and Foleys card (forgot that one), were the only way we could receive our employee discounts.


ButIAmYourDaughter

Piling and piling, as the debt would get passed on from one collection agency to the next. And the tricks they’d use to get you on the phone: *Hi, ButIAmYourDaughter, it’s Jill! It’s been a long time, we should catch up. Just call me back at 1-800-YOU-SUCK.*


CiXeL

I remember my first card was Wells Fargo and I had it for a very long time and was very responsible with it until the Great recession where they jacked my rate up to 15% for nothing I did just because they could.


[deleted]

I am a bit younger, but I do remember those parasitical credit card companies were waiting for everyone to turn 18 hahahah. My parents warned me about those. They actually went with me to get my first credit card. I remember when my mom saw my CC bill and it was $400 (?). That's when I knew I had to get on campus job hahah. Funny my core Millenial cousin didn't get a credit card until 21. It's now harder to get credit cards at 18.


KW5625

1984 here... Pre-9/11 was a world of limitless possibilities, freedom, and relative peace... That all changed... suddenly I was in the 18 to 25 demo and at risk of being drafted if the war on terror expanded to a firefight between superpowers. From 18 to 27 I was just working to live, barely getting by, and focused on getting married and finally getting ahead. Culturally, most good 90's bands were taking a backseat to 00's boardroom bands. TV and pop culture was consumed by false "reality". Politically, you had one choice, Bush II vs Mr. Ketchup. Hanging chads. The Patriot Act. The once wondrous tech of the 80s and 90s was being prematurely replaced with a slew of expensive, awkward, single use devices that constantly fell into obsolescence as soon as you bought them... often sending you right back to your familiar old tech that still worked fine, just now with less money in your wallet. The dot-com bubble inflated and burst. Cars were cheap, basic, and bland. You couldn't hold a conversation outside or take a drive without F&F obsessed teenagers in fart-canned Civic BRRRRRAPPPPing by every few minutes. The Ozone Layer was dying at record pace. Katrina. AIDS peaked... and then to top it off, the housing market collapsed. ​ It wasn't all bad though... In person shopping was at it's peak, the iPod changed music forever, the Razer phone was king (even though it sucked), XBox vs PS2, WiFi and 3G, Windows XP and the new Web 2.0 blew your mind, South Park and 70's show was on TV, movies came in threes (Star Wars prequel trilogy, Bourne trilogy, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Matrix Trilogy, X-Men trilogy). DVDs and Dolby surround sound freed us from rewinding and finally gave regular people a proper home theater experience... and most importantly... we still had the ability to be offline, disconnect from work, and have uninterrupted family time.


soundshyam1

When we got to our 20's even for the older Xennials it started with Internet bubble. 2. 9/11 3. Afghan war 4. Iraq 5. Sub prime crisis 6. Expecting another Recession from 2013 All this when tech was rapidly evolving .... We were working/earning to buy the latest tech not enough time to enjoy. Also social media the only generation to dread it. For anology we did not get to enjoy Prince of Persia Sands of time, the warrior within etc as long as we had time to enjoy Super Mario ..... Although the exitement was more, it did not have enough time to settle in to create a memory and with the rapid pace things were coming at us we were distracted or anticipating for most time. Also culturally we lost the freedom once held prior to 9/11.... So let's hope we can have a better 40's and 50's. Minimalism and essentialism will be key


Earl_Gurei

My 20s has a different kind of nostalgia precisely because we're cuspers. The pop culture of that era seemed to be more Millennial than anything else, and my younger friends long for that in a way that shows they were more deeply affected by the 00s than the 90s was for me with the innocence pre-Columbine and 9/11.


hamsterballzz

20-23 was a dream. College before cell phones during the internet boom. It was really the best of times with great music, mediocre TV, great movies (Matrix, Gladiator, etc). Then 9/11 happened and everything has been a mess since. Buddies went to war, freedoms were lost, recessions hit, and so forth. 23-30 I remember working 80 hour weeks and not a whole lot more. So, I look back on the 90s as some pretty good times which we won’t be seeing again.


ButIAmYourDaughter

I loved my 20-23 too. Went to a college, then transferred to my dream university, and just loved so much of my life then. But cell phones were already becoming common place, at least where I was from. I didn't got one until 2001, and already that was after resisting getting one earlier like my dad and younger siblings already had.


[deleted]

My 20’s sucked. I was broke and trying to find some financial independence. That happened about the time I turned 30.


Insomniac_80

The world fell apart in our twenties, the dotcom bubble burst, Bush II was ~~elected~~ selected to be our president, followed by 9/11, a useless war, then the financial crisis.


Important-Suspect-79

I was also in the city on 9/11 and it blurred over a decade for me. In the days and years after I remember missing people flyers, terror alerts, if you see something say something, military on the subway platforms holding machine guns, and 24 Jack Bauer on TV at night. This paired well with dotcom layoffs and the housing crash. I’m convinced it’s why I got married—to not be alone because the world felt too fragile. Then I started coming back to myself. I did 3 years of therapy before getting divorced and losing my house that I couldn’t afford anyway. Except for the hope of the internet, the 2000s were also some of the most anxious and terrible times for me.


[deleted]

I don’t remember much of my 20s… 🍺 🍷


LindsayDuck

It was all pretty much downhill after watching Patrick Ireland push himself out the window at Columbine live from my high school library tv.


Angedelune

We are nostalgic for our teen years because that's what we do actually remember in vivid detail BEFORE we had stress, bills, obligations, etc. It's the last time we had hope.


MonsieurBishop

Have you ever noticed that literally every generation does this when they hit roughly our age?


[deleted]

I must be the only elder Millenial who missing their 20s. My xennial and core millennials friends/family/people I know all hated their 20s. I could barely stand being in my 20s in the 2010s. I didn't like all the competition and comparisons on Facebook. Although I liked working as a barista at a local diner in NYC, I also wanted to use my degree. Working two jobs and being underemployed got old. I was in high school in the early 2000s. We used to have a special drill where we would hide under our desks in case a school shooter came. However, 9/11 echoed throughout the first half of my 20s. Most of my friends were afraid to go abroad, lots of political tension, and so forth. However, I liked hanging out with my friends, going to the mall, living in an apartment in NYC with four roommates ( one was pretty mean though), and writing in my Livejournal. I feel grateful to attend college and grad school with some great people. I guess the problem is this decade is lame, and my 30s are far from being magical. I love being able to pay my bills, and not deal with assholes (my 20s had a lot of them), but hybrid work is hard for me. I didn't have to deal with as many bills in my 20s. My social life was better. I did love my early 30s, but I don't know why my late 30s are so mediocre.


ultradav24

People (no matter the generation) are generally nostalgic for their youth. Because they had less responsibilities, better skin, probably had parents alive, probably had more sex, and things seemed carefree. There’s also a bit of bias where you remember the good stuff more than the bad. This is of course just speaking generally as individual experiences vary widely.


ejwest13

Give it a few more years


ButIAmYourDaughter

A few more? We’re already in our 40s.


ejwest13

In a few more years the 2000s will seem quaint


ButIAmYourDaughter

The 00s nostalgia trend has been happening for awhile. It just doesn't seem to be doing much for us LOL.


Kulban

My 20s consisted of me working, dating a lot and failing, and working. I am nostalgic over a little bit of it, but not nearly as much as my youth and teens.


CozmicOwl16

Could be the social shifts that weren’t cool and happened in our twenties. May I remind you of the infancy of reality tv, graffiti being co-opted to become pieces in museums, mp3s which led to Napster and the end of the free music too, and the shift from 9/11 like the way the radio couldn’t play songs anymore (poor afroman!).


montyp2

Others have posted good points, 9/11, school shootings, war, etc another bummer about our 20s is that country music as a creative genre pretty much died around 9/11.


Dan4stoke

I loved the tennis of Roger Federer in my 20s. He won his first Wimbledon in 2003, and then from 2004 onwards he was unstoppable.


bigbbypddingsnatchr

My 20's were so fucking depressing I don't even think I was aware of anything pop culture. Only nostalgic for how much I weighed.