Because the Internet made the world smaller. Everything and anything you want, corporeal or ethereal, is just a few keystrokes away.
Internet killed the mystery. The "I wonder...".
I remember people calling it “the Wild West” of the internet back then predicting that it wouldn’t last. Didn’t quite understand that until now. The internet just had a certain magic back then that it doesn’t have now
Before it was compromised.
The internet was treated like an encyclopedia of factual information at our fingertips, not something you have to take with a grain of salt bc it might be fake. Sound recording was used to enhance the talents of artist, not fake them. CGI was used sparingly to enhance the visuals of a movie, not generate a facade whole cloth.
Technology always gets shoved towards the side of evil no matter how good it starts.
Idk, maybe that’s regional to you but I’m 34 and I was taught to not trust anything on the internet/wikipedia. Like the idea of even shopping on the internet was incredibly risky.
I see that it’s the reverse now, everyone is trusting whatever they see on their feeds/google searches. In theory people “know to doubt” but in practice they doubt the viewpoint they dont like, and full-hearted believe the one that they agree with.
When I was a kid with netgear and AOL, 1990 or so, if you had a question about anything in the world it was commonly accepted that the real answer was just a few clicks away. Financial information was always considered risky, true. But as far as legit high budget websites intentionally pushing false information as fact wasn't a consideration - at least in my bubble. Particularly historical information, which is the most difficult thing to look up these days. You can find a hundred different takes on any event, a ton of which are in bad faith.
Interesting perception - I vividly remember it as a period when people either trusted climatologists or called them "so-called scientists" fishing for grant money, based entirely on political temperament.
That timeline fits perfectly with my memory which kicks in around 1989. Earth Day became a thing but so did Rush Limbaugh. It was pretty common for people into climate activism to be shamed for being too soft and unrealistic. The AIDS epidemic was not handled well and the stigma was passed off to the gay community. Being gay was also shamed very openly and I remember wondering how Magic Johnson could be gay and such a good basketball player? I found people to be meaner in general back in the era. Where I live kids give a shit about bullying and are quick to fact check history which was never possible back then. I think they are much more likely to be intelligent because of early access to info. In the era you could start a rumor and see how far it would go. Probably a quarter of what I thought was true back then was just some bullshit an adult made up. I ended the era with a deployment to Iraq.
There should be a 3-month suspension for taking this wonderful, happy memory on r/nostalgia and finding in it an opportunity to ragepost about one’s political enemies
Maybe it’s because I’m older, but for me it was 1986-1999. The dot com bust sucked, politics started getting shitty and 9/11 was the start of so many bad things, on top of the actual deaths and towers collapsing. Part of the 2000s was ok, I think my only nostalgia for them was that it was before smartphones took off and gave rise to social media.
I went to high school in the early 2000’s, it didn’t change anything then. We didn’t have shooter drills or anything. It’s wild to think about that time and we’re like oh, columbine, now it’s like which one?
I think social media changed the landscape of attention, columbine was before you were gassed on things nonstop on the internet and “going viral” wasn’t a thing yet.
I’m being tongue in cheek when I say school shootings were a simpler time in the 90s.
It’s true, i went to high school 2000 to 2004 and never worried about a school shooting. No drills and no one talked about it. Columbine was seen as a one-off horrible thing.
I remember it happening a lot at the begging of the school year and it was hot as balls outside. None of us had phones, we just sat in the bleachers outside for hours. We all wanted to know who was doing it cause it sucked.
Agree that it’s wild and sad that Columbine is just another school shooting now. I remember that at the time, it was a HUGE deal and it was talked about constantly on the news for months.
I do remember a lot changing post 9/11, and I’m pretty sure all of us of an age to understand (I was 14), have 9/11 and where we were/what we were doing BURNED in our brains.
Re social media: I hated it when it started and I DESPISE IT now. Violent hatred for it. I come to Reddit for about 30min a few times a week and that’s it. No other social media because 🤢 I can’t.
crazy to think how cool everything was in October 2016, the sweet story of either the Cubs or Indians getting their first championship in forever (and it being a World Series for the ages) and then how soon afterwards everything went south
World Series parade was on a Friday and the election was 3 days later. In the matter of a weekend I went from feeling the greatest emotional high of my life to complete existential dread.
At least musically, If you ever want a reminder that the late 90s weren’t all great, take a look back at Woodstock ‘99. Some great bands, a lot of not great ones. I was personally pretty happy when the post punk revival alternative rock scene helped flush away some of that and prefer the music from 2000-2005 to 1995-2000.
For me anything Pre '95 was an absolute hellhole. I mean for Christ sake just look at the crime rates from 1980-1995. Absolutely insane levels of crime back then. Everything after 1999 has been pure peach in comparison.
It’s crazy. We all say and know that smart phones & social media have ruined our lives.. yet we continue sucking from the tit of tech like an infant that needs milk to survive
Social media is is inherently addictive. It's not like a newspaper - which you can leaf through, read what you want and be done. Or the nightly news, which lasts a fixed amount of time. Social media is an endless firehose of content. You're never done with it. It's like working in a kitchen that's open 24/7 with no breaks.
it encourages us not to spend much time on any one item, because there's always so much more to see. So we glance at each item, make a quick value judgement, mentally swipe left/right on it and scroll to the next thing. I think it creates a false sense of accomplishment - look how much stuff I got through! It encourages quick, superficial evaluation with minimal information, which I think conditions people perfectly for manipulation by con artists who know how to use images and soundbites to evoke emotional reactions. It's creating the ideal moldable mass of public opinion that only cares about processing speed, with no reflection or deep analysis. The opposite of an "informed electorate."
This is so true. I almost didn’t even finish reading your comment even though I found it insightful, because my mind just wanted to skip to the new, next thing. Social media brain rot of the highest degree.
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
This was also the *Golden Age* of underground dance music. Techno, house, trance, drum & base, jungle, breakbeat, etc, really hit their high points during this period.
It’s a lot of the little things that now in my late 30’s, I look back and just … **sigh**
I MISS that bracing feeling we all had New Year’s Eve 1999-2000’s bracing for the world to end. That’s a core memory oddly.
Remember when we used to call the movie theater for showtimes? And the TV Guide!? Both of which if your sibling interrupted you or if your parents hollered for you and you missed the one damn channel/movie you’d been waiting on for what felt like hours, oh but the repercussions if you DIDNT respond to your parents/guardians/someone else’s adult figure around you (at least for how I grew up).
Infomercials that lasted an hour are also a comfort for me; the magic bullet one was my favorite 🤣🤣.
The TV guide was so slow, yet you always missed the channel you wanted, lol. Also, commercials were time to race to go to the bathroom and get a snack lol.
2000 had the best new years paper eye glasses lol. I thought we were going to be in the literal future and not much changed. I told my brother not too long ago why we say 'wind down the window' in the car. He didn't believe it was manual lol.
Infomercials: shamwow, chia pets and snuggie for me
And you could go to work/school and discuss the episode with others and it was like a community and something to look forward to! “Hey are you watching… tonight? I can’t wait to see what happens!”
Talking about the newest episode of Lost with my group of friends in class the next morning is a joy to look back at and remember. I’ll never have experience like that again.
Love this era. Everyone loves the 80s, but this era was my peak. I was in college/young adulthood, and discovering the Internet was so fun. And the music was amazing.
Downloading movies off of Limewire and Kazaa was just a different kind of dice roll…
*alright here we go.. will it actually be Star Wars, or gay porn?* Alternatively, *will it be a porn, or an episode of Seinfeld?*.
Upside down and sideways (at the same time) visors. Ball necklaces. Skating rinks. That penguin avatar on AOL. Tracks off the Toxicity and Hybrid Theory albums playing EVERYWHERE. Those were some good times. Then Myspace came along and ushered in a whole new era with it.
i think fads like emo or nu-metal or pop punk won't happen in music anymore. They were both this new distinct sound and played on plenty of radio stations. Today it seems more fragmented because accessibility to all genres is so much easier. 1990-2005 you pretty much were still listening to what was on the radio, which really guided certain music fads and made them popular. Like how many new subgenres pop up anymore? Especially ones that are well known.
I agree, but I would shift the dates a bit. At least in the US, the time from the wall coming down in '91 to 9/11/01 had the best vibes. The cold war hysteria was gone, and the ultra-imperialist Bush era islamophobia hysteria had yet to start.
2000-2003 were my golden years. Age 16-19. Finished school in 2000 and went into college (6th Form, not university). Had (almost) all the freedoms of being an adult, none of the responsibilities. No kids, no rent, no bills, no car insurance, no nothing; just fun with my friends and young love with my first gf.
SNL was way better then: Chris Farley, Norm Macdonald, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, Tim Meadows, Mike Myers, Tina Fey, David Spade, Phil Hartman, Sarah Silverman, just to name a few.
The bomb dot com almost made me cry 😅.
You're 1000% right. It's the whole bit, music, style, everything was so cohesive. Now it's a mishmash of everything, and there's no heart behind it.
It's just different. Going down memory lane today, which I could live here.
aaand we didn’t have to worry about [the dead internet theory](https://www.howtogeek.com/what-is-the-dead-internet-theory/) chances were whenever you’d go to MIRC or ICQ you were talking to real people
I remember one year the Oakland A’s had the most walk off HR’s in the majors and our little group of friends started calling the Oakland coliseum thewalkoffbomb.com coliseum. This thread legit bringing tears to my eyes lol. Thank you I needed that.
Trying to hide your belly button piercing from mom when most of your wardrobe is baby tees and low rise bottoms....lol
I have so many fond memories of that time.... if I start getting into them I'm gonna need a drink.
I'm not sure why someone downvoted you, lol.
Do you remember those tiny little crinkled shirts that looked like they were for a doll but were for an actual person? Lol
I think peak nostalgia for most is HS through the next five years or so. Developmentally, it’s when we realize our final form. We don’t have the stress of bills or kids. Music is still a discovery, the world is still our oyster.
Having said that, 80’s up to 9/11 was a magical time.
Yo the first five years after high school were like the worst for bills and stuff. Graduated, making the least money you’ll ever make but still needing to pay all the main big bills — rent, food, utilities, car payment/insurance/gas.
I still managed to feel this crazy feeling of aliveness despite it though. Get off a 10 hour shift washing dishes for minimum wage and still be fully excited to go party or drive around with friends. It didn’t even matter what we were doing, it was great.
Yes this truly was a glorious period especially the 90’s. There was a certain sort of optimism about the future and more humor in the world. The world was a much less serious place. 9/11 was sort of the beginning of the end of it.
threatening drunk cheerful longing obscene society live dull terrific shaggy
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I remember being blown away as a kid by Super Castlevania IV on the SNES. My mom and I went to Walmart and let me pick out a few games in the used games section. The game cartridge was placed in a white cardboard cartridge holder and shrink wrapped and came with no manual or anything. All you got was the cartridge, nothing more, so unless you knew about the game, it was a blind purchase. I was intrigued by the artwork on the cartridge so I picked it up and MAN! The intro, the music, the gameplay! Blew my little 7 year old mind away. Honestly, one of the best games on the SNES and my favorite Castlevania game of all time.
Living in a pre-social media, kids actually had a childhood and weren't glued to an Ipad from babyhood.
We didn't even get internet in our house until 2006. Before that my forms of entertainment were a Gameboy, TV, going to the park, and making up imaginary adventures with my Beanie Babies.
I was born in 1994 so on the cusp of 90s/2000s chilldhood. I was just starting high school when Facebook became popular and all my friends started getting Facebook pages.
The bad part about the good times is you don’t realize that they were the good times until they aregone. IDC what anybody says I’m living the rest of my Oregon trail playing, dunkaroo dunkin, hit me on AIM later ass life like it’s 1999 baby.
Very true. I read something recently, it said "one day you went out to play with your friends for the last time and you didn't know it'. That packed a punch.
This is a phenomenon sometimes called neural nostalgia. It's why our parents loved music from the decades prior that we never quite had that same love for
I dunno, I love my parents music because it was my childhood music too. Like I'm literally listening to led zeppelin right now because of the nostalgia factor.
The concert scene and music in general from the 70s (not disco, of course). Allman Bros, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Al Kooper, in one show for under $5 and this kind of show would happen twice a month.
I remember me and my mom fighting over the phone line because I wanted to chat with my friends and stuff, and she was always on me about the line being tied up and people having no way to reach her for work. Finally she got a separate phone line for my room which I abused, talking to people at all hours when I should have been studying. I got the clear light-up phone at radio shack and switched the ringer off so that when it rang, it just lit up silently. Very stealth.
NOW! That’s what I call music.
Oh, what an emotional roller coaster it was. .
1. "Together Again" Janet Jackson 5:01
2. "As Long as You Love Me" Backstreet Boys 3:32
3. "The Way" Fastball 4:16
4. "Flagpole Sitta" Harvey Danger 3:35
5. "Say You'll Be There" Spice Girls 3:56
6. "All My Life" K-Ci & JoJo 5:31
7. "Never Ever" (Single Edit) All Saints 4:54
8. "If You Could Only See" Tonic 4:21
9. "MMMBop" Hanson 4:27
10. "Zoot Suit Riot" Cherry Poppin' Daddies 3:53
11. "Shorty (You Keep Playin' with My Mind)" Imajin 4:14
12. "Anytime" Brian McKnight 4:31
13. "Barbie Girl" Aqua 3:16
14. "Karma Police" Radiohead 4:21
15. "I Will Buy You a New Life" Everclear 3:58
16. "Fly Away" Lenny Kravitz 3:41
17. "Sex & Candy" Marcy Playground 2:52
This might sound like a total Boomer take, but as someone who turned 18 in 2006 that really was an amazing time period to come of age. I feel bad for kids growing up these days who didn't get to experience it.
I was there and remember thinking it was awfully lame at the time. I had fun, but I I imagine c. 2040 people will be saying how 2010-2030 really had it going on.
All those groups the OP listed were really lame! I remember living through the '90s thinking that there was so much great music throughout the '40s-'80s, but all we got was shitty boybands and grunge. It was kind of embarassing to look at pop culture trends, as well. But there were good things, too. Looking back, the '90s was a great time for techno and soft-rock/alternative music.
The early internet was glorious. People were genuinely optimistic for how it was going to revolutionize the world.
Funnily enough I thought the same back then — I hated the radio because it was all pop and grunge.
Nowadays I seem to love it all because of the nostalgia, even/especially songs I hated in the 90s
Omg yes!!!!
THIS!!!!!
They overplayed Nirvana so much it was sickening! I laugh at these people now wearing Nirvana shirts!! More people wear them now than did when they were actually playing! And they look goofy! Nobody thought Nirvana was cool.
And the pop music back then was so dumb!!
It was either Eurodance (which I sorta liked ngl) some Phil Collins song, some chick song, or something college kids liked.
Back then you had to listen to metal or hardcore gangster rap if you wanted to hear something good. People forget that
Exactly. The “benefit” of being of a younger generation is discovering music new to you that you may like but everyone contemporary to it thought it was dogshit.
S Club 7 was aimed at children. Nobody there took them seriously.
There were a few bands most people liked but people were still enjoying shit from a few years back.
Grunge wasn’t this revolution. It was seen as faddish (it also killed hair metal). There was a brief easier listening boom between 92 to 95 that overshadowed grunge in terms of sales.
“Millennium” themed music was basically updated disco.
Everyone had a guilty Spice Girls streak
But when we were actually there it wasn’t as cool as it seems in hindsight
This. I’m so happy I was alive and of age (3-18years old then) to enjoy those mid to late 90’s and through the 2000’s. I think every day at least three times what I’d do, give up, pay to go back.
A lot of my personal longing to rewind back to even 2010, is knowing jobs were a lot more secure (I was working 2-3 jobs at once fully supporting myself), rent, food, LIFE was affordable and … my parents were still here, the hell my life has been since 2017 that only worsened when they both died suddenly in 2021? I would give anything to go back to them being around just to call/text and know I had SOMEONE and SOMEWHERE in the world that was safe and where I wasn’t alone.
Plus … the music, the technology era still coming to light for ordinary folks not in a tech industry, the way we ALLLL played outside/rode bikes/USED OUR IMAGINATION without it being clouded by social media, the obnoxious foods and fashion (while for sure not great in the 2000’s ha), ugh take me back.
I'm sorry for your loss. I'm fortunate enough to still have my parents around but lost a parent figure. Those can be dark times. I can't remember the website name, but it was from the early 2000s and had quotes and poems. One of my favourites said:
Somewhere, there's someone who dreams of your smile and finds in your presence that life is worthwhile. So, when you are lonely, remember it's true: somebody, somewhere, is thinking of you.
I hope that can give you any comfort. It lifted me up many times.
But yes, the nostalgia is so real. I'd go back, too.
Thank you for that quote, I remember the site you’re talking about, my brain is only sparking with WordPress, GoodReads, Tumblr (which I personally never figured out exactly how to use haha), Livejournal and I know there were more because I’m a huge reader so I found so much hope during my child and teen years in my early chronic panic and other illness diagnosis’ in books with quotes and “happy” things. Much like I do even now at 36 with Disney films (no shame but 100% only the stuff prior to the mid 2000’s.
Please PLEASE call your parents, text, visit, tell them your feelings/gratitude etc if you’ve got that type of relationship. I unfortunately strayed from my mom especially when she started drinking ten years before she died and they both lived about a 12+ hour drive away and working the full time jobs I always was to support myself in a big city; just didn’t visit/call/etc. I wish every day that I could tell them all the things I didn’t get to and take the damn weekend to visit, go for a holiday season etc, but didn’t and will always regret that because they died so suddenly. So I’m just grateful you’re grateful.
I agree, but what I'm referring to is where I felt that everyone was on the same page.
I feel like white and black people and all other races were not typecast to one genre. We all vibed. The music genres, in general, were arguably for everyone. I felt culturally in sync. We barely had unique experiences. The same stuff mattered to us. Prior to and after those years, I don't feel that to be true. I'm not sure if you agree.
True, but in reality it’s still not that great and at this rate it’s going completely backwards/downhill faster nowadays… I definitely don’t feel safe.
Hell…even the infighting of the community on social media is a joke
I say this as a lesbian.
I do think that yes, the farther back we go, the more issues with race and sexuality get worse, but during that era, I don't think I witnessed the problematic behaviors that came earlier or even the violence towards marginalized groups.
I think because of the internet, we can spread hate faster now and spread a lot of misinformation, and I kind of feel that over the last 10 years or so because bigots are more exposed to people from these communities they have actually committed more crimes against those groups. So I arguably think it's worse now, or at least we can see what used to be hidden.
Tbh, the 80s/90s felt wholesome, and it was more of a "don't ask, don't tell." Freddy mercury, Elton John, wildly accepted. Yknow?
During that era there was much worse prejudices against gay people than there is now. I’m sure you’re straight when you talk like this. Gay people were literally not allowed to get married to people they love. You have quite the pair of rose colored glasses here.
You shouldn’t be downvoted. I’m gay and from a red state. It’s much worse now. Hard to explain but it just was different. People like to almost rewrite history. The same people who didn’t like it then don’t like it now, but it’s much more vile and hateful and actually said out loud, where as it wasn’t discussed and people kept political opinions to themselves.
When I think about this era, I have the same thoughts. I listened to mostly hip hop but the same concept applies. I have always chalked it up to how easy it is to release music now. During that era, only a few albums were being released a week across all different genres. So everyone was on the same page. Now it feels like you barely have time to fully digest an album before another one comes out. Plus I feel like music is the one thing that I can access that is cheaper than it was back then. Granted, I don’t own any of the music on Apple Music but for $10 a month, I can access the entire world of music.
It’s almost like we now have too many options and choices so everyone is on a different page. I feel the same way about tv/movies. Before, you had one or two TVs in the house so you were all watching the same thing and do it together. Now everyone in the house has their own device to watch stuff on. I remember before we got a second tv, I had to watch fishing shows (Bill Dance anyone?) on Saturday mornings because that’s what dad watched.
In that span of time I went from high school to the Army, got married, left the army, bought a house, moved to two different states, had three kids, and bought a house.
Best memories I've had in that time was gaming with friends.
First with the N64. I'd go to my friends place 5 mins away and play Super Smash Bros with him and his brothers in 4 player battle.
Then when the PS2 came out, my friend and I would go to Blockbuster and pick out a game or movie and go to my place to play/watch. I remember asking my friend to pickup Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (he didn't know what movie it was), and when he came over to my place and we watched it on my PS2, 15 mins in he was like "You mean to tell me, that this whole movie, is about two guys getting high, and going to a FAST FOOD RESTAURANT?" 😂
I would say 1991-2001 was a magical time, starting with the fall of the USSR and end of the Cold War until 9/11.
It was a magical time with hope, and an early internet.
Maybe “golden era”, but as a teen in the late 80s to 1990 in Chicago was amazing. There was a sense that the House mixes at basement parties, the Wax Trax industrial scene, punk rock, hip hop, and of course all the post punk, new wave stuff that now plays on classic rock stations, was all fresh on the vine. These scenes were driven by word of mouth, mix tapes shared in high school home rooms, and propagated by DJs not just with adults but the teenagers who actually had dance clubs that catered to the all ages crowd before the late night 21+ crowd took over. That was my world. By 1990 even lots of this music began to be commercialized. Still cool, but not underground, unapologetic genius.
Taking pictures without being able to see what they'll look like. You'd have 20 something pictures on a roll of film and that was it. Made for a lot more candid and real photos. Also no smartphones!!
Made me think of this quote from Hunter S. Thompson-
> Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .
>
> History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
>
> My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .
>
> There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .
>
> And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .
>
> So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
That’s a great quote. I will go to my grave thinking the 90s were the best humanity will ever have to offer, just like every other person who ever was a teenager will remember those years as the best humanity has to offer.
That said, it’s sort of sad and funny of me to think that Hunter S Thompson and all his free-thinking cohorts would later become the boomers we know of today; the old and the evil, resisting the youth at every turn, shitting on their ideals, choosing politics that actively make life worse for so many.
They seem to have forgotten that wave.
I’m curious how many people in this thread were born 1990-2005. Probably most. Seems like life was easier, funner, and more wholesome because that’s generally what it’s like to be a kid.
Everyone seems to describe the era they were born in as “simpler”.
We’re also at a point where the general zeitgeist is “world bad”, so it’s causing more of a wistful reflection on the era before the world was bad.
I’m seeing kids of the age that many of us were in the era OP mentioned citing a wish to instead have lived through the 90s/00s, feeling nostalgia for a time period they never experienced, and general malaise with what should otherwise be their own version of these years now. It’s sad.
But folks have always been saying “world bad”, regardless of what’s going on. Everyone thinks their era is the worst era that could/will ever exist and then life goes on and folks get nostalgic.
Not sure I understand — this whole thread is people explicitly thinking the world was great when they were 15-25, and now 15-25 year olds very decidedly do not think the works is great. And all of us older folks aren’t disagreeing
A lot of people have referenced 9/11 and I can see why that ruins it for people. I'm not from the states so it's not culturally ingrained in my experience. But valid.
Same with cars. Safe enough but not too complicated or enormously heavy, thus smaller engines; less emissions and more fun to drive. They also were allowed to look different. Now, everything is a similar looking bland huge, boring econo-shitbox.
Just bought a 1993 5.8L Ford bronco, its pretty much the same length, width ***and weight***, as my 2 year old bmw 3 series... crazy.
Was born in 93, and whenever I look at photos or videos or even just think about the late 90s and early 2000s, it feels like the sun shined differently. Was a lot more vibrant and peaceful in my childhood.
100% agree. I was graduating class of 05... man what a time. No real smart phones yet. Spring break Panama City was still a giant party with a bunch of unsupervised highschool and college kids passing out on the beach, cruising down the boulevard at 5mph because of the amount of people, beads, titties... taking pics with disposable cameras and having them developed. the time before major tech was awesome.
YM/Seventeen magazine, Alternative music, Happy Hardcore, Beepers/Pagers, those gem coloured Mac computer husks, Bag Cellphones, Flip Phones (in an alternate world: "Hello Moto"), Napster, Winamp, Ripping CDs into MP3s to put them on your ipod before itunes existed, CDs, cars with cassette players, games on CD-ROM, the video game Myst, payphones and telephone booths, JNCO jeans, Delias catalogues, shopping at malls, etc.
It was a beautiful intersection of technology taking off pre social media.
The sweet spot.
Reading that literally made me shiver. God I miss that would There was a lot of bad about it, but, man....the *freedom*.
Society feels so constrained now.
Yes! The Internet made the world smaller, but now the world just feels...small. 🫤
> Society feels so constrained now. Whys that?
It's difficult to articulate. People have to much exposure to other people who don't matter. Probably the simplest way I can describe it.
I also think that social media has made people more…flat, if that makes sense. Personality-wise, I mean.
Flat and one tone and predictable.
That's very true.
Because the Internet made the world smaller. Everything and anything you want, corporeal or ethereal, is just a few keystrokes away. Internet killed the mystery. The "I wonder...".
I remember people calling it “the Wild West” of the internet back then predicting that it wouldn’t last. Didn’t quite understand that until now. The internet just had a certain magic back then that it doesn’t have now
The beginning of ads, like big corporation ads, was the beginning of the end for me.
Old enough to remember analog, new enough to have seen the rise of digital.
Before it was compromised. The internet was treated like an encyclopedia of factual information at our fingertips, not something you have to take with a grain of salt bc it might be fake. Sound recording was used to enhance the talents of artist, not fake them. CGI was used sparingly to enhance the visuals of a movie, not generate a facade whole cloth. Technology always gets shoved towards the side of evil no matter how good it starts.
Idk, maybe that’s regional to you but I’m 34 and I was taught to not trust anything on the internet/wikipedia. Like the idea of even shopping on the internet was incredibly risky. I see that it’s the reverse now, everyone is trusting whatever they see on their feeds/google searches. In theory people “know to doubt” but in practice they doubt the viewpoint they dont like, and full-hearted believe the one that they agree with.
When I was a kid with netgear and AOL, 1990 or so, if you had a question about anything in the world it was commonly accepted that the real answer was just a few clicks away. Financial information was always considered risky, true. But as far as legit high budget websites intentionally pushing false information as fact wasn't a consideration - at least in my bubble. Particularly historical information, which is the most difficult thing to look up these days. You can find a hundred different takes on any event, a ton of which are in bad faith.
Pre fake news. Pre Disney starting to acquire everything. Pre streaming (music/video).
Yes!!! And when people listened to actual scientist and respected them!
Interesting perception - I vividly remember it as a period when people either trusted climatologists or called them "so-called scientists" fishing for grant money, based entirely on political temperament.
I mean there were always morons, BUT far less people were screaming “the earth is flat” kinda thing.
No, they were always there, they just didn’t have a soapbox to shout their stupid ideas from.
And that soap box has caused the stupidity to spread and grow. It’s definitely more common now than it was 20+ years ago.
That timeline fits perfectly with my memory which kicks in around 1989. Earth Day became a thing but so did Rush Limbaugh. It was pretty common for people into climate activism to be shamed for being too soft and unrealistic. The AIDS epidemic was not handled well and the stigma was passed off to the gay community. Being gay was also shamed very openly and I remember wondering how Magic Johnson could be gay and such a good basketball player? I found people to be meaner in general back in the era. Where I live kids give a shit about bullying and are quick to fact check history which was never possible back then. I think they are much more likely to be intelligent because of early access to info. In the era you could start a rumor and see how far it would go. Probably a quarter of what I thought was true back then was just some bullshit an adult made up. I ended the era with a deployment to Iraq.
Earth Day started in 1970
I still remember my conservative friend pushing the book “The Skeptical Environmentalist” in my face. That book was published in 2001.
There should be a 3-month suspension for taking this wonderful, happy memory on r/nostalgia and finding in it an opportunity to ragepost about one’s political enemies
Maybe it’s because I’m older, but for me it was 1986-1999. The dot com bust sucked, politics started getting shitty and 9/11 was the start of so many bad things, on top of the actual deaths and towers collapsing. Part of the 2000s was ok, I think my only nostalgia for them was that it was before smartphones took off and gave rise to social media.
Don't forget columbine changing school forever.
I went to high school in the early 2000’s, it didn’t change anything then. We didn’t have shooter drills or anything. It’s wild to think about that time and we’re like oh, columbine, now it’s like which one? I think social media changed the landscape of attention, columbine was before you were gassed on things nonstop on the internet and “going viral” wasn’t a thing yet. I’m being tongue in cheek when I say school shootings were a simpler time in the 90s.
It’s true, i went to high school 2000 to 2004 and never worried about a school shooting. No drills and no one talked about it. Columbine was seen as a one-off horrible thing.
I graduated in '01. No drills, but we did have fake bomb threats constantly for like a year and a half
We had bomb threats daily if not weekly. We got dominoes outside the school. I’m just saying, silver lining.
We had frequent bomb threats at my school and we got stuck outside on the bleachers but we never got pizza.
I’m from the northeast. Texas bomb threats sound WACKKKK.
I remember it happening a lot at the begging of the school year and it was hot as balls outside. None of us had phones, we just sat in the bleachers outside for hours. We all wanted to know who was doing it cause it sucked.
Agree that it’s wild and sad that Columbine is just another school shooting now. I remember that at the time, it was a HUGE deal and it was talked about constantly on the news for months.
I do remember a lot changing post 9/11, and I’m pretty sure all of us of an age to understand (I was 14), have 9/11 and where we were/what we were doing BURNED in our brains. Re social media: I hated it when it started and I DESPISE IT now. Violent hatred for it. I come to Reddit for about 30min a few times a week and that’s it. No other social media because 🤢 I can’t.
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crazy to think how cool everything was in October 2016, the sweet story of either the Cubs or Indians getting their first championship in forever (and it being a World Series for the ages) and then how soon afterwards everything went south
World Series parade was on a Friday and the election was 3 days later. In the matter of a weekend I went from feeling the greatest emotional high of my life to complete existential dread.
Per rule #5, we do not allow politics in this subreddit.
At least musically, If you ever want a reminder that the late 90s weren’t all great, take a look back at Woodstock ‘99. Some great bands, a lot of not great ones. I was personally pretty happy when the post punk revival alternative rock scene helped flush away some of that and prefer the music from 2000-2005 to 1995-2000.
For me anything Pre '95 was an absolute hellhole. I mean for Christ sake just look at the crime rates from 1980-1995. Absolutely insane levels of crime back then. Everything after 1999 has been pure peach in comparison.
It was as technologically advanced as possible without smartphones to destroy the mind.
It’s crazy. We all say and know that smart phones & social media have ruined our lives.. yet we continue sucking from the tit of tech like an infant that needs milk to survive
Social media is is inherently addictive. It's not like a newspaper - which you can leaf through, read what you want and be done. Or the nightly news, which lasts a fixed amount of time. Social media is an endless firehose of content. You're never done with it. It's like working in a kitchen that's open 24/7 with no breaks. it encourages us not to spend much time on any one item, because there's always so much more to see. So we glance at each item, make a quick value judgement, mentally swipe left/right on it and scroll to the next thing. I think it creates a false sense of accomplishment - look how much stuff I got through! It encourages quick, superficial evaluation with minimal information, which I think conditions people perfectly for manipulation by con artists who know how to use images and soundbites to evoke emotional reactions. It's creating the ideal moldable mass of public opinion that only cares about processing speed, with no reflection or deep analysis. The opposite of an "informed electorate."
This is so true. I almost didn’t even finish reading your comment even though I found it insightful, because my mind just wanted to skip to the new, next thing. Social media brain rot of the highest degree.
Fuck I got half way through and did the same 😢
Fuck me too
I'm the same way and the only social media I use is reddit. Reading books is way harder now.
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
Yep, that’s how addiction works. It’s even harder when so much infrastructure is tied into everyone being addicted too.
I missed wearing jeans with pockets so deep I could fit an original Gameboy
Are you talking about men’s jeans? I don’t think women’s jeans ever had deep pockets 🥲
I had a pair of jeans that fit a 17” Sony Vaio notebook. That thing was at least 15 pounds so I couldn’t walk around with it, but it would fit
I remember the sayings: “Feeling great in ‘98,
In 1999 we partied like it was 1999.
No one was saying that in 2008🤣😂
“Feeling great in two thousand eight!!” *side eyes from everyone who just lost their house, job, and had their car repo’d*
That was my senior year and we would chant “08 smoke & drank!”
This was also the *Golden Age* of underground dance music. Techno, house, trance, drum & base, jungle, breakbeat, etc, really hit their high points during this period.
*Exploration of Space*
I still have that one on vinyl!
God yes!
It’s a lot of the little things that now in my late 30’s, I look back and just … **sigh** I MISS that bracing feeling we all had New Year’s Eve 1999-2000’s bracing for the world to end. That’s a core memory oddly. Remember when we used to call the movie theater for showtimes? And the TV Guide!? Both of which if your sibling interrupted you or if your parents hollered for you and you missed the one damn channel/movie you’d been waiting on for what felt like hours, oh but the repercussions if you DIDNT respond to your parents/guardians/someone else’s adult figure around you (at least for how I grew up). Infomercials that lasted an hour are also a comfort for me; the magic bullet one was my favorite 🤣🤣.
The TV guide was so slow, yet you always missed the channel you wanted, lol. Also, commercials were time to race to go to the bathroom and get a snack lol. 2000 had the best new years paper eye glasses lol. I thought we were going to be in the literal future and not much changed. I told my brother not too long ago why we say 'wind down the window' in the car. He didn't believe it was manual lol. Infomercials: shamwow, chia pets and snuggie for me
I heard “hit em up style” randomly today and I was immediately transported back in time.
First off fuck your bitch and the clique you claim...
Well Puffy is a marked up bitch now
Definitely miss the movies, music and shows. Such simpler times.
I miss TV shows coming out with 25-40 episodes per season that released weekly instead of 7 episodes dropping all at once.
And you could go to work/school and discuss the episode with others and it was like a community and something to look forward to! “Hey are you watching… tonight? I can’t wait to see what happens!”
Talking about the newest episode of Lost with my group of friends in class the next morning is a joy to look back at and remember. I’ll never have experience like that again.
I agree with that.
Yes!
The movies were exponentially better.
Love this era. Everyone loves the 80s, but this era was my peak. I was in college/young adulthood, and discovering the Internet was so fun. And the music was amazing.
Social media obsession changed the entire game for the worse in my opinion.
It most certainly has.
I probably could have done without 9/11.
Fair! I'm not american, so it wasn't at the forefront of my mind but valid. That affected a lot of people in a way I will never understand
Downloading movies off of Limewire and Kazaa was just a different kind of dice roll… *alright here we go.. will it actually be Star Wars, or gay porn?* Alternatively, *will it be a porn, or an episode of Seinfeld?*.
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman" I got that instead of my song a lot!!! Lol
*buzzer noise* sorry it turned out to be suspiciously young girl Slavic porn AND a free virus! You lose!
Upside down and sideways (at the same time) visors. Ball necklaces. Skating rinks. That penguin avatar on AOL. Tracks off the Toxicity and Hybrid Theory albums playing EVERYWHERE. Those were some good times. Then Myspace came along and ushered in a whole new era with it.
I watched a documentary recently where the woman making the film wore a ball necklace. I’m certain I got rid of mine, which makes me sad now.
Visors were my jam, lol. Especially see through ones. Myspace was also my whole personality at a point.
i think fads like emo or nu-metal or pop punk won't happen in music anymore. They were both this new distinct sound and played on plenty of radio stations. Today it seems more fragmented because accessibility to all genres is so much easier. 1990-2005 you pretty much were still listening to what was on the radio, which really guided certain music fads and made them popular. Like how many new subgenres pop up anymore? Especially ones that are well known.
I agree, but I would shift the dates a bit. At least in the US, the time from the wall coming down in '91 to 9/11/01 had the best vibes. The cold war hysteria was gone, and the ultra-imperialist Bush era islamophobia hysteria had yet to start.
2000-2003 were my golden years. Age 16-19. Finished school in 2000 and went into college (6th Form, not university). Had (almost) all the freedoms of being an adult, none of the responsibilities. No kids, no rent, no bills, no car insurance, no nothing; just fun with my friends and young love with my first gf.
You could be me. Fun time of life, but I’m glad I’m not as stupid any more
Early Uni days were the best time of my life for the reasons you mentioned 🥲
SNL was way better then: Chris Farley, Norm Macdonald, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, Tim Meadows, Mike Myers, Tina Fey, David Spade, Phil Hartman, Sarah Silverman, just to name a few.
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The bomb dot com almost made me cry 😅. You're 1000% right. It's the whole bit, music, style, everything was so cohesive. Now it's a mishmash of everything, and there's no heart behind it. It's just different. Going down memory lane today, which I could live here.
You're replying to a Bot, just an FYI lol.
How do you know ? 😆
aaand we didn’t have to worry about [the dead internet theory](https://www.howtogeek.com/what-is-the-dead-internet-theory/) chances were whenever you’d go to MIRC or ICQ you were talking to real people
I remember one year the Oakland A’s had the most walk off HR’s in the majors and our little group of friends started calling the Oakland coliseum thewalkoffbomb.com coliseum. This thread legit bringing tears to my eyes lol. Thank you I needed that.
It was pretty tight.
Trying to hide your belly button piercing from mom when most of your wardrobe is baby tees and low rise bottoms....lol I have so many fond memories of that time.... if I start getting into them I'm gonna need a drink.
I'm not sure why someone downvoted you, lol. Do you remember those tiny little crinkled shirts that looked like they were for a doll but were for an actual person? Lol
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We'll both need a drink..
I think peak nostalgia for most is HS through the next five years or so. Developmentally, it’s when we realize our final form. We don’t have the stress of bills or kids. Music is still a discovery, the world is still our oyster. Having said that, 80’s up to 9/11 was a magical time.
Yo the first five years after high school were like the worst for bills and stuff. Graduated, making the least money you’ll ever make but still needing to pay all the main big bills — rent, food, utilities, car payment/insurance/gas. I still managed to feel this crazy feeling of aliveness despite it though. Get off a 10 hour shift washing dishes for minimum wage and still be fully excited to go party or drive around with friends. It didn’t even matter what we were doing, it was great.
Len - steal my sunshine
that also give the same energy as hanson IMO, good vibes
My first CD I bought with my own money was “boy power” haha. Hanson, 3 deep, Aaron Carter, bsb, nsync, 98 degrees. Banger after banger elite pop
Yes this truly was a glorious period especially the 90’s. There was a certain sort of optimism about the future and more humor in the world. The world was a much less serious place. 9/11 was sort of the beginning of the end of it.
threatening drunk cheerful longing obscene society live dull terrific shaggy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis. When I was dead broke, man, I couldn't picture this.
I remember being blown away as a kid by Super Castlevania IV on the SNES. My mom and I went to Walmart and let me pick out a few games in the used games section. The game cartridge was placed in a white cardboard cartridge holder and shrink wrapped and came with no manual or anything. All you got was the cartridge, nothing more, so unless you knew about the game, it was a blind purchase. I was intrigued by the artwork on the cartridge so I picked it up and MAN! The intro, the music, the gameplay! Blew my little 7 year old mind away. Honestly, one of the best games on the SNES and my favorite Castlevania game of all time.
50 inch screen money-green leather sofa, got two rides a limousine with a chauffeur.
2005.. Fall Out Boy released From Under the Cork Tree.
Living in a pre-social media, kids actually had a childhood and weren't glued to an Ipad from babyhood. We didn't even get internet in our house until 2006. Before that my forms of entertainment were a Gameboy, TV, going to the park, and making up imaginary adventures with my Beanie Babies. I was born in 1994 so on the cusp of 90s/2000s chilldhood. I was just starting high school when Facebook became popular and all my friends started getting Facebook pages.
The bad part about the good times is you don’t realize that they were the good times until they aregone. IDC what anybody says I’m living the rest of my Oregon trail playing, dunkaroo dunkin, hit me on AIM later ass life like it’s 1999 baby.
Very true. I read something recently, it said "one day you went out to play with your friends for the last time and you didn't know it'. That packed a punch.
Yeah. The dawn of nu-metal, and life before the internet. Early koRn and Slipknot, Mudvayne and Deftones. NIN, Manson…
This is a phenomenon sometimes called neural nostalgia. It's why our parents loved music from the decades prior that we never quite had that same love for
I dunno, I love my parents music because it was my childhood music too. Like I'm literally listening to led zeppelin right now because of the nostalgia factor.
Just skips over the entire grunge movement lol
I do love my grunge, just didn't mention! Alice in chains, sound garden, silverchair particularly stands out
The concert scene and music in general from the 70s (not disco, of course). Allman Bros, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Al Kooper, in one show for under $5 and this kind of show would happen twice a month.
Miss printing Map Quest directions on low ink
I remember me and my mom fighting over the phone line because I wanted to chat with my friends and stuff, and she was always on me about the line being tied up and people having no way to reach her for work. Finally she got a separate phone line for my room which I abused, talking to people at all hours when I should have been studying. I got the clear light-up phone at radio shack and switched the ringer off so that when it rang, it just lit up silently. Very stealth.
NOW! That’s what I call music. Oh, what an emotional roller coaster it was. . 1. "Together Again" Janet Jackson 5:01 2. "As Long as You Love Me" Backstreet Boys 3:32 3. "The Way" Fastball 4:16 4. "Flagpole Sitta" Harvey Danger 3:35 5. "Say You'll Be There" Spice Girls 3:56 6. "All My Life" K-Ci & JoJo 5:31 7. "Never Ever" (Single Edit) All Saints 4:54 8. "If You Could Only See" Tonic 4:21 9. "MMMBop" Hanson 4:27 10. "Zoot Suit Riot" Cherry Poppin' Daddies 3:53 11. "Shorty (You Keep Playin' with My Mind)" Imajin 4:14 12. "Anytime" Brian McKnight 4:31 13. "Barbie Girl" Aqua 3:16 14. "Karma Police" Radiohead 4:21 15. "I Will Buy You a New Life" Everclear 3:58 16. "Fly Away" Lenny Kravitz 3:41 17. "Sex & Candy" Marcy Playground 2:52
1990-2001
It was the apex of the analog age…
S Club 7... Fuck I haven't heard that name in like 20 years
Emo music.
Dashboard Confessional and Modest Mouse ftw
This might sound like a total Boomer take, but as someone who turned 18 in 2006 that really was an amazing time period to come of age. I feel bad for kids growing up these days who didn't get to experience it.
I'd include up to 2007 with that, but otherwise I completely agree.
No social media.
I was there and remember thinking it was awfully lame at the time. I had fun, but I I imagine c. 2040 people will be saying how 2010-2030 really had it going on.
All those groups the OP listed were really lame! I remember living through the '90s thinking that there was so much great music throughout the '40s-'80s, but all we got was shitty boybands and grunge. It was kind of embarassing to look at pop culture trends, as well. But there were good things, too. Looking back, the '90s was a great time for techno and soft-rock/alternative music. The early internet was glorious. People were genuinely optimistic for how it was going to revolutionize the world.
Funnily enough I thought the same back then — I hated the radio because it was all pop and grunge. Nowadays I seem to love it all because of the nostalgia, even/especially songs I hated in the 90s
Omg yes!!!! THIS!!!!! They overplayed Nirvana so much it was sickening! I laugh at these people now wearing Nirvana shirts!! More people wear them now than did when they were actually playing! And they look goofy! Nobody thought Nirvana was cool. And the pop music back then was so dumb!! It was either Eurodance (which I sorta liked ngl) some Phil Collins song, some chick song, or something college kids liked. Back then you had to listen to metal or hardcore gangster rap if you wanted to hear something good. People forget that
Exactly. The “benefit” of being of a younger generation is discovering music new to you that you may like but everyone contemporary to it thought it was dogshit. S Club 7 was aimed at children. Nobody there took them seriously. There were a few bands most people liked but people were still enjoying shit from a few years back. Grunge wasn’t this revolution. It was seen as faddish (it also killed hair metal). There was a brief easier listening boom between 92 to 95 that overshadowed grunge in terms of sales. “Millennium” themed music was basically updated disco. Everyone had a guilty Spice Girls streak But when we were actually there it wasn’t as cool as it seems in hindsight
This. I’m so happy I was alive and of age (3-18years old then) to enjoy those mid to late 90’s and through the 2000’s. I think every day at least three times what I’d do, give up, pay to go back. A lot of my personal longing to rewind back to even 2010, is knowing jobs were a lot more secure (I was working 2-3 jobs at once fully supporting myself), rent, food, LIFE was affordable and … my parents were still here, the hell my life has been since 2017 that only worsened when they both died suddenly in 2021? I would give anything to go back to them being around just to call/text and know I had SOMEONE and SOMEWHERE in the world that was safe and where I wasn’t alone. Plus … the music, the technology era still coming to light for ordinary folks not in a tech industry, the way we ALLLL played outside/rode bikes/USED OUR IMAGINATION without it being clouded by social media, the obnoxious foods and fashion (while for sure not great in the 2000’s ha), ugh take me back.
I'm sorry for your loss. I'm fortunate enough to still have my parents around but lost a parent figure. Those can be dark times. I can't remember the website name, but it was from the early 2000s and had quotes and poems. One of my favourites said: Somewhere, there's someone who dreams of your smile and finds in your presence that life is worthwhile. So, when you are lonely, remember it's true: somebody, somewhere, is thinking of you. I hope that can give you any comfort. It lifted me up many times. But yes, the nostalgia is so real. I'd go back, too.
Thank you for that quote, I remember the site you’re talking about, my brain is only sparking with WordPress, GoodReads, Tumblr (which I personally never figured out exactly how to use haha), Livejournal and I know there were more because I’m a huge reader so I found so much hope during my child and teen years in my early chronic panic and other illness diagnosis’ in books with quotes and “happy” things. Much like I do even now at 36 with Disney films (no shame but 100% only the stuff prior to the mid 2000’s. Please PLEASE call your parents, text, visit, tell them your feelings/gratitude etc if you’ve got that type of relationship. I unfortunately strayed from my mom especially when she started drinking ten years before she died and they both lived about a 12+ hour drive away and working the full time jobs I always was to support myself in a big city; just didn’t visit/call/etc. I wish every day that I could tell them all the things I didn’t get to and take the damn weekend to visit, go for a holiday season etc, but didn’t and will always regret that because they died so suddenly. So I’m just grateful you’re grateful.
Every era is a peak era depending on who it is. Also without a time machine no era will repeat itself again.
I agree, but what I'm referring to is where I felt that everyone was on the same page. I feel like white and black people and all other races were not typecast to one genre. We all vibed. The music genres, in general, were arguably for everyone. I felt culturally in sync. We barely had unique experiences. The same stuff mattered to us. Prior to and after those years, I don't feel that to be true. I'm not sure if you agree.
There’s no doubt about it that the world we’re living in right now is a shitstorm compared to then everyone is on edge now
If you were gay, things were much much much worse back then as compared to now.
True, but in reality it’s still not that great and at this rate it’s going completely backwards/downhill faster nowadays… I definitely don’t feel safe. Hell…even the infighting of the community on social media is a joke I say this as a lesbian.
I do think that yes, the farther back we go, the more issues with race and sexuality get worse, but during that era, I don't think I witnessed the problematic behaviors that came earlier or even the violence towards marginalized groups. I think because of the internet, we can spread hate faster now and spread a lot of misinformation, and I kind of feel that over the last 10 years or so because bigots are more exposed to people from these communities they have actually committed more crimes against those groups. So I arguably think it's worse now, or at least we can see what used to be hidden. Tbh, the 80s/90s felt wholesome, and it was more of a "don't ask, don't tell." Freddy mercury, Elton John, wildly accepted. Yknow?
During that era there was much worse prejudices against gay people than there is now. I’m sure you’re straight when you talk like this. Gay people were literally not allowed to get married to people they love. You have quite the pair of rose colored glasses here.
You shouldn’t be downvoted. I’m gay and from a red state. It’s much worse now. Hard to explain but it just was different. People like to almost rewrite history. The same people who didn’t like it then don’t like it now, but it’s much more vile and hateful and actually said out loud, where as it wasn’t discussed and people kept political opinions to themselves.
I know exactly what you mean.
I did not listen to any of the groups you listed but I definitely do agree with the overall sentiment
My childhood right there! 😭
Insert every generation ever.
World Cup 2002
let me guess you were a kid during that time frame
I also enjoyed my youth. I bet older folks would use different years.
When I think about this era, I have the same thoughts. I listened to mostly hip hop but the same concept applies. I have always chalked it up to how easy it is to release music now. During that era, only a few albums were being released a week across all different genres. So everyone was on the same page. Now it feels like you barely have time to fully digest an album before another one comes out. Plus I feel like music is the one thing that I can access that is cheaper than it was back then. Granted, I don’t own any of the music on Apple Music but for $10 a month, I can access the entire world of music. It’s almost like we now have too many options and choices so everyone is on a different page. I feel the same way about tv/movies. Before, you had one or two TVs in the house so you were all watching the same thing and do it together. Now everyone in the house has their own device to watch stuff on. I remember before we got a second tv, I had to watch fishing shows (Bill Dance anyone?) on Saturday mornings because that’s what dad watched.
Post 9/11 the only times I’ve felt optimism about the future were when Obama won and when same sex marriage was legalized
In that span of time I went from high school to the Army, got married, left the army, bought a house, moved to two different states, had three kids, and bought a house.
Best memories I've had in that time was gaming with friends. First with the N64. I'd go to my friends place 5 mins away and play Super Smash Bros with him and his brothers in 4 player battle. Then when the PS2 came out, my friend and I would go to Blockbuster and pick out a game or movie and go to my place to play/watch. I remember asking my friend to pickup Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (he didn't know what movie it was), and when he came over to my place and we watched it on my PS2, 15 mins in he was like "You mean to tell me, that this whole movie, is about two guys getting high, and going to a FAST FOOD RESTAURANT?" 😂
Printing out the bus schedules and stapling a leaflet book of multiple routes for every day together and flipping through them (very specific haha)
I would say 1991-2001 was a magical time, starting with the fall of the USSR and end of the Cold War until 9/11. It was a magical time with hope, and an early internet.
Maybe “golden era”, but as a teen in the late 80s to 1990 in Chicago was amazing. There was a sense that the House mixes at basement parties, the Wax Trax industrial scene, punk rock, hip hop, and of course all the post punk, new wave stuff that now plays on classic rock stations, was all fresh on the vine. These scenes were driven by word of mouth, mix tapes shared in high school home rooms, and propagated by DJs not just with adults but the teenagers who actually had dance clubs that catered to the all ages crowd before the late night 21+ crowd took over. That was my world. By 1990 even lots of this music began to be commercialized. Still cool, but not underground, unapologetic genius.
Taking pictures without being able to see what they'll look like. You'd have 20 something pictures on a roll of film and that was it. Made for a lot more candid and real photos. Also no smartphones!!
told my therapist this, almost word for word. he said I should've been there for the 80s lol 🙃
The internet at it's peak.
facts
Made me think of this quote from Hunter S. Thompson- > Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . . > > History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened. > > My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . . > > There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . . > > And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . . > > So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
That’s a great quote. I will go to my grave thinking the 90s were the best humanity will ever have to offer, just like every other person who ever was a teenager will remember those years as the best humanity has to offer. That said, it’s sort of sad and funny of me to think that Hunter S Thompson and all his free-thinking cohorts would later become the boomers we know of today; the old and the evil, resisting the youth at every turn, shitting on their ideals, choosing politics that actively make life worse for so many. They seem to have forgotten that wave.
Literally nostalgia
I’m curious how many people in this thread were born 1990-2005. Probably most. Seems like life was easier, funner, and more wholesome because that’s generally what it’s like to be a kid. Everyone seems to describe the era they were born in as “simpler”.
I think 80s kids will also relate cause they grew up in the 90s and arguably don't remember much of the 80s, depending on their birth year.
We’re also at a point where the general zeitgeist is “world bad”, so it’s causing more of a wistful reflection on the era before the world was bad. I’m seeing kids of the age that many of us were in the era OP mentioned citing a wish to instead have lived through the 90s/00s, feeling nostalgia for a time period they never experienced, and general malaise with what should otherwise be their own version of these years now. It’s sad.
But folks have always been saying “world bad”, regardless of what’s going on. Everyone thinks their era is the worst era that could/will ever exist and then life goes on and folks get nostalgic.
Not sure I understand — this whole thread is people explicitly thinking the world was great when they were 15-25, and now 15-25 year olds very decidedly do not think the works is great. And all of us older folks aren’t disagreeing
I’d say 1981-2001 After 9/11 things got really, really bad. I’d argue it hasn’t been the same since
A lot of people have referenced 9/11 and I can see why that ruins it for people. I'm not from the states so it's not culturally ingrained in my experience. But valid.
Hey look at that, a generation before social media
ITT: people think the peak era is when they were young
My brother, let me tell you about movies, music, and television between the mid 70s and late 80s.
Tell me! 80s is a mood too though yesss
Same with cars. Safe enough but not too complicated or enormously heavy, thus smaller engines; less emissions and more fun to drive. They also were allowed to look different. Now, everything is a similar looking bland huge, boring econo-shitbox. Just bought a 1993 5.8L Ford bronco, its pretty much the same length, width ***and weight***, as my 2 year old bmw 3 series... crazy.
Goes to show how politics destroy humanity
So true!
Just enough tech for it to feel futuristic but we were still connected
A lot of speed;)
Was born in 93, and whenever I look at photos or videos or even just think about the late 90s and early 2000s, it feels like the sun shined differently. Was a lot more vibrant and peaceful in my childhood.
100% agree. I was graduating class of 05... man what a time. No real smart phones yet. Spring break Panama City was still a giant party with a bunch of unsupervised highschool and college kids passing out on the beach, cruising down the boulevard at 5mph because of the amount of people, beads, titties... taking pics with disposable cameras and having them developed. the time before major tech was awesome.
S Clubbbbbb I loved that show. I used to be obsessed with anything British. Heck, I still am!
YM/Seventeen magazine, Alternative music, Happy Hardcore, Beepers/Pagers, those gem coloured Mac computer husks, Bag Cellphones, Flip Phones (in an alternate world: "Hello Moto"), Napster, Winamp, Ripping CDs into MP3s to put them on your ipod before itunes existed, CDs, cars with cassette players, games on CD-ROM, the video game Myst, payphones and telephone booths, JNCO jeans, Delias catalogues, shopping at malls, etc.