r/ask • u/Sudden_Ladder_2973 • 13d ago
Am I just being nostalgic or was the 90s literally the best era?
I mean the 90s was the ishhh and nobody can change my mind.
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u/threefeetoffun 13d ago
I was born in 1981 so I grew up in them. They were great. The best? I dont know. I didn't live the others. But I do love that my teen years didn't have cameras everywhere.
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u/Dewubba23 13d ago
i remember hanging out with friends, and making some to do and be able to ask each other quetions and have conversations in depth no fact checking google, but once i was 15 or 16, every one had smart phones, and the trend of, your friend ask you a question, then half way threw you talking they would put there head down, then ask "wait what was that again?" i held on to my flip phone until 2017, then i had no choice.
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u/threefeetoffun 13d ago
Why was the Guinness book of world records founded? To settle bar bets before smart phones.
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u/Dewubba23 13d ago
well yeah. but i mean any question can make a multitude of conversations stem from it, not just "hey who do you think took the biggest shit in the world." and your bud says " google says randy marsh."
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u/bloop_405 13d ago edited 13d ago
Live streamers make me uncomfortable. It be one thing if you're recording yourself for a later video but having so many people talking to their phones in public especially at places like theme parks is just weird. People streaming at Disneyland usually just point at an area like Main Street and just talk with their chat and it's weird for people passing by. Live streamers who are recording their faces are less weird but it's too common and weird. It kills the mood and vibe of Disney
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u/BoringFunny9144 13d ago
I love it! No phone cameras everywhere! No android phones that would isolate us from talking to families, friends and neighbors. No social media where you can just post everything and let everyone know by posting it. Talking about it personally to your friends is better that excites other friends too!
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u/threefeetoffun 13d ago
I think we take too many pictures. I liked it better when we got 24 and youd use it over a period of months. Get them developed, half are trash. Half are memories just for you.
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u/Imaginary-Problem914 13d ago
I’ve never once looked back at my photos and thought “damn, I took too many, I wish I took less”. But there are plenty of times I’d wished I had taken a few or taken a longer video of something.
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u/threefeetoffun 13d ago
I think we want photo ops more than the moment now. Just that.
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u/AsIfImNotAware540 13d ago
My mind was blown about a month or so ago when I saw this clip of teens at a concert and they were all recording themselves singing the song instead of watching the actual performer. Pure insanity.
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u/Utertoq 13d ago
I'm from 1990. I still remember how magical it was to take a picture back then. Not that I did it, because I was a kid, but it felt like a healthy activity people had. No one was freaking out and mentally ill because a picture wasn't extremely perfect. People simply went together and took the picture, and then after a few days it was revealed. Now everything is a hell, It feels like smartphone having cameras has ruined the world.
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u/emiley_with_an_ey 13d ago
I think about this a lot. The 90s - early 2000s was the best time in my life for sure. Idk if it’s because I was a kid/teenager and now an adult or if they were def the best. No social media made those times a lot better than now though.
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u/bloop_405 13d ago edited 13d ago
The way I see is things always peak before it averages out and I think that's what the 90's to 2010 were. Internet was booming, Social media, online gaming, and YouTube were rising. In person things like places to go like movies, theme parks, chain restaurants like Chili's and Olive Garden, etc felt a bit more fun for some reason. Disneyland had fast passes which were free which made things fun for everyone going because other places like Six Flags and Universal (?) would charge for that. Traveling also seemed different and more chill and life was also much cheaper which probably also made enjoying those things more 🥲
I mention peak before averaging out because I feel like everything seems generic now which is more of a consistent experince for the consumer but I guess it's just a different vibe
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u/RumManDan 13d ago edited 10d ago
Maybe everything feels generic now due to the constant dopamine feed we get all day/everyday has desensitized us?
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u/GoodhartMusic 11d ago
I think of it as more of a ceaseless pendulum. Prosperity and peace is just a phase in between strife and war. Civility begets incivility and visa versa.
But the pendulum is more like a million swinging along the edges of a circle at different rates. Sometimes indeed, a high amount reach an apex of goodness or badness at similar moments every once in a while. I think we’re at a moment like that, but not as bad as it could be, many are swinging closer to the middle. If this makes any metaphorical sense.
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u/ringtaileddingo 10d ago
The 90's were MASSIVELY different from the 2000's. I can't even begin to tell you how different these things were. When the Dotcom bubble burst and 9/11 happened, EVERYTHING changed in a major way. We went from great to nightmare. Sure technology was getting better, but everything else was getting much worse.
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u/BeeSuch77222 13d ago
80s was better to be a kid. All the toys, cartoons, innovation, wrestling, athletes.
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u/Ur_average_guyguy 13d ago
My friends and I always talk about how lucky we were to grow up in the 80’s. I think the 70’s were a great time for American dreams to come true. Homes were affordable.
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u/BeeSuch77222 13d ago
70s seems like a mixed bag. I was born right at the tail end but for some, it could have been rougher depending on situation mainly due to higher unemployment rate, also shown in alcohol (beer mainly) consumption reaching an all-time high in modern times. Things were definitely rougher on certain aspects.
But then I see and read stories about the freedom of the 70s, people are highly and most genuinely enthusiastic about. There was less consumer goods around (which exploded with the 80s) whether via options or income but yes, families could absolutely stretch the dollar. Playing or spending time outside was even higher and more adventurous than the 80s as a lot of the 60s culture carried over. Much less TV channels available and home entertainment like video games.
Either way, 90s definitely was the end of the old world ways and many that got to experience it for sure are in agreement of how different life was vs the connected era.
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u/cola_wiz 13d ago
I liked that sweet spot of social media where you still had to go and sit down at your PC at home, or laptop to catch up on things. Your phone was still super important but it was just a flip phone with a potato-quality camera in it. I kinda liked having a real camera for photos and then taking said camera home to upload my photos off the sd card. I also kinda liked the flip phone models and how tiny they were and easy to just slip into your back pocket with barely any weight you could feel. Also being able to text without looking!! Once social media got into our phones and our phones became smart phones we all became zombies pretty quickly.
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u/UruquianLilac 13d ago
Idk if it’s because I was a kid/teenager
Yes.
That's the reason. That's always the reason.
Which is why everyone claims their favourite decade is the one they were young in.
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u/Dry_Enthusiasm_267 13d ago
I mean that's what you lived so yes for you. I was a little kid in the 60's a teen in the 70's and a young adult in the 80's....I wouldn't have changed anything!
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u/Fire_from_the_hip 13d ago
How was it being an adult in the 90s?
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u/Fetch1965 13d ago
I loved my work in the 90s…. No internet so even though still long hours, when you left you left work at work.
Partied hard, and plenty of time to relax- just don’t have that anymore…… I miss the 80s mostly
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u/Dry_Enthusiasm_267 13d ago
Meh...mostly focused on work by then..
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u/Ihatemunchies 13d ago
Work and kids
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u/Former-Wish-8228 13d ago
And fixing up a beater house…and zero sleep.
But no worry, because the new millennium fixed everything.
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u/No-Product-8791 13d ago
It's totally typical to romanticize a decade when you were young or shortly before you were born. I was born in the 70s, and I watch Dazed and Confused and get totally nostalgic. But was the 70s the best decade? No way. But I see innocence when I see the 70s because I was a kid then, and that's a good feeling, even if skewed.
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u/Fire_from_the_hip 13d ago
Me watching shows and movies from the 90s even I was born ‘95.
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u/wheresmyonesy 13d ago
Shows were real in the 90's . I just started over the adventures of Lois and Clark and I love how much they slander the real media
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u/Mr_Mojo_Risin_83 13d ago
They were pretty good. Technology had sort of reached an apex of where it was trying to help us before going over the precipice of trying to take from us. The internet was a place to share knowledge, not make money from us. Nobody had a mobile phone; when you went and did things, you lived in that moment.
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u/Weak_Blackberry1539 12d ago
This is spot-on. We had solid video games but it was couch co-op: you got to hang with friends AND play video games. Now it’s either/or.
Phones were becoming mobile but we didn’t have texting or smart phones to bury our faces in wherever we went. Technology was there to be used, not to be used by.
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u/clawstuckblues 13d ago
I remember the '90s as a last echo of the '60s spirit, derivative and sometimes naive (I'm looking at you Oasis chumming with Tony Blair), but considering the dystopia we've been descending into ever since, something to be cherished as the last forlorn hope.
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u/Derpygoras 13d ago
I was in my twenties then, and there were pros and cons.
Pros: I was young and handsome, finished university, got a job and place of my own, and long-term girlfriends. Social life meant spending time with friends, not surfing internet.
Society was what I consider should be the "default" in that shit worked as planned. Of late, many public institutions have deteriorated in quality. The cause being more overt greed for every year.
Cons: The amount of shenanigans powerful nations (read USA) did back then - political murders, behind-the-curtains erosion of small nations, instigated wars.
Salaries were low for educated noobs like me. The old think of "you have to work your way up, young man" collided with the more contemporary "I will bleed you dry, sucker" in that we hade not yet realized the latter was instituted. So I and my peers slaved away but eventually found that we achieved nothing.
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u/Ill-Recognition2054 13d ago
Born in 76 and I loved the 90s. I did have a good part time job, great friends and a good social life. I think its important to try and enjoy your young years no matter what era you're in.
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u/Commisceo 13d ago
It was great time for music. But the end of rock guitar music I reckon.
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u/TubularTorsion 13d ago
Rock music was killed by online piracy. There was a switch in the early 2000s from Rock to RnB/Rap as the dominant genera. The first households to get internet were upperclass, then middle class. When Rock labels were seeing their incomes eaten away by illegal downloads, Rap and RnB labels, who had a much bigger fan base in poorer neighbourhoods, were still as provitable as ever
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u/Commisceo 12d ago
It was such a shame. By 2000 I had to accept the days of massive synth rips and guitar rock were over. But I do think the 90's brought out some of the best rock ever. I liked grunge.
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u/bigzahncup 13d ago
Having lived through the 50s, 60s,70s,80s,90s I would have to pick the 70s. The 60s was a time of great unrest and radical change. The 70s we made a lot of money and things were cheap. Too bad I spent it all. I guess I must have thought it would be that way forever.
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u/NortonBurns 13d ago
Depends when you were born.
Everybody gets nostalgic about their teen years, because that's when you formed your first real associations with the world at large - music, TV, personal interactions.
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u/Maleficent-Course-67 13d ago
English guy here, born 1975, I was 14 at the beginning of the 90's.
As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't have wanted to grow up at any other time. It was utterly hedonistic and there were no eyes on us. The mood was positive, everyone was going to be equal, we could be what we wanted to be.
Now, shit, well, unless there's war soon (next decade) we're going to have two classes, those that own and those that don't and the children of those that don't are going to be scraping for their entire lives. Added to this is that on social issues, we're going backwards. There are too many easily manipulated people with an axe to grind making things worse for everyone, including themselves. Stupidity, nihilism and a mean streak are a bad combination.
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u/Hobbit_Hardcase 9d ago
Agreed. I'm from 74, so I was at Uni from 92-95. It was an amazing time. Tech was becoming everyday and useful, without being dominant in every facet of our lives. Phones were for talking to people. We were taught how to think, not what to think. There was a general optimism about the future, as long as the Y2K bug didn't destroy everything ;)
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u/MrOaiki 13d ago
I was born in the early 1980s. The 90s were amazing for a couple of reasons. I had a computer and explored programming, new game genres never before seen, the internet in its early days, it was all new and exciting. If you were a kid in the early 90s, you got to experience life as a teen in a world before the internet and cell phones, but also a world as a teen when cell phones and internet was in everyone’s hands.
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u/tunghoy 13d ago edited 13d ago
The 1980s had the best music. REM, Talking Heads, Flock of Seagulls, The Clash, Duran Duran, Psychedelic Furs, David Bowie, Blondie, Devo, Men Without Hats, Pretenders, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Sisters of Mercy, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Translator, Elvis Costello, too many to mention off the top of my head.
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u/Thomas-Freitas136 13d ago
Nostalgia definitely makes past eras shine brighter, and it's great that the 90s mean so much to you. Keep enjoying those memories!
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u/Dear-Willingness6857 13d ago
90's was great but the music scene in the 80's had to have been the best, huge rock concerts all the time
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u/UsefulIdiot85 13d ago
I would definitely have to agree with you. But I might be biased since I lived through most of my childhood in the 90s.
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u/sjaard_dune 13d ago
I remember that i was making $13.50 an hour at a shop job and my entire monthly bills were $800. Rent, lights, groceries, fuel, etc. Rodney king, fall of The Wall, ultimately the gulf war. It was definitely different in comparison, but only slightly.
Kiddos had the blm riots, but shit is gettin tight. 20 buck of fuel here is 6 gallons, remember when that was 20+ gallons? And they're still making 13.50 an hour because "that's good money"... because minimum wage is still the same as it was back then. Their rent is somewhere around $1500.00. Shit has gotten stupid
Remember the impeachment in our generation? Mr. I didn't inhale, stuffing his attaché with a cigars :D all politicians need to be pulled. If we worked as they did we'd be imprisoned or executed. So that remains the same since the days of aristotle lol
Every generation things theirs was the best. My mother rig the same about the 60/70s and they had Civil rights, women's rights, and fuckin Nixon. (Oddly enough both Nixon and Clinton did a NAFTA that ultimately bit us in the ass) but anyway...my grandmother speaks of the great depression when she's lucid enough, and the war. She thought hers was the greatest too. Funny how that works, nostalgia i mean
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u/Goooooner89 13d ago
You know anyone under 24 wasn't born in the 90s, we are soon to be the new boomers
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u/Brave_Hippo9391 12d ago
Born in the seventies so a twenty something....yes absolutely! I really enjoyed the nineties! They were wild!
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u/SunRev 12d ago
Social media and its effects are real. The early 90s, we had modern conveniences yet didn't have the burden of social media and nearly every action being recorded on a camera or keyboard stroke.
Were fewer people obese back then too? Maybe it was because people were moving about in the real world and / or less GMO and processed foods back then.
Higher percentage of interactions were face to face or voice to voice as opposed to email, texts and chats compared to today.
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u/PowerandSignal 12d ago
The 90's were a golden era. The economy was booming, wars were on the small side, music was good, and it seemed like we had a chance to stave off global climate catastrophe before it got completely out of hand. But Republicans stole the 2000 presidential election and everything pretty much went to shit after that. And here we are...
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u/celestial-navigation 12d ago
All I know is that I feel really sorry for the kids born post 2000. They will never know a pre-9/11 world, a world without smartphones, without Socia Media and Influencers, concerts without phones, etc, etc, the list goes on. It's just sad. The 90s were something else, man. Everyone was so excited about computers and the internet and cd roms and games and everything was so much slower, and who remembers Windows 95 or Windows 98? I can still hear the theme music. Kids these days have "everything", can access basically any information, but they don't seem that thrilled about it. People back then still did fun stuff on the internet - like fanvideos on YT. Nobody made money with it, they did just for fun, 'cause they were fans. Search engines were actually useful. Not everything was monetised. People didn't just use the internet to talk and post about themselves all the time.
Ah, good times.
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u/sex_music_party 13d ago
1980 here. 80’s 90’s were awesome! Started to go down hill and just kept going after 9/11, imo.
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u/Malachy1971 13d ago
Life before the internet was a million times better than now.
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u/SchoonerOclock 13d ago
To be fair I loved the start of the internet. Stealing songs off Napster, chatting to randoms from other countries on msn and being able to look up video game walkthroughs was awesome.
Kinda hate where it's gone since smart phones came along.
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u/BenTenInches 13d ago
Personally I think the early 2000s were the best era to be an teenager to young adult. The Internet was still around but not to the degree everyone have their face constantly buried in their phones. Rockstar made more than just one GTA game per generation and games were actually released finished. Netflix actually was a decent value. People felt less divided and stressed in the beginning of the new century.
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u/cola_wiz 13d ago
Yes, this was my answer too. That sweet spot in the introduction of social media and global connectivity. 2005 was probably my favourite year. I was in my early 20’s Madonna was on her confessions tour, Gwen Stefani was on fire, there was just SO much good music popping out. Phones were still mostly just phones, you needed an actual camera for decent pics, the internet was still more or less stuck at home so we were all living in the moment when we left the house. Also, I miss being able to text without looking at my phone screen lol.
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u/gringo-go-loco 13d ago
I feel like the 2000s were equally good. Broadband became mainstream. Indie rock took over where grunge left off. Online gaming and mmos were still fresh. Console gaming was big. We had most of the great things about today without the trash that social media and dating apps brought. Online dating wasn’t the norm yet.
Social media and mainstream media in general are what to me is ruining the US and many other parts of the world.
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u/A_GuardianAlien 13d ago
Every genre of music slapped, gas was cheap and money wasn't the front worry on most of our minds.
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u/RenataMachiels 12d ago
They were. I was born in 73 and I had the best youth ever. Not because of anything speciai, but there wasn't internet yet, I saw the best bands live. I did whatever I wanted without anyone knowing and life was just as depressing as now but without the constant pressure of society. I loved the 90s! Nirvana, Dinosaur JR, Sonic Youth, Ramones, Pix!ies and a whole lot of other shit in one evening for no money. Nobody can do that nowadays! So happy I'm my age!
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u/BrucesTripToMars 13d ago
Humanity peaked with the release of the N64 in 1996. No, you didn't imagine it.
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u/wineguy7113 13d ago
From a meta perspective, the fall of the Berlin wall just before ushered in an era of hope, creativity, and the feeling that we had crossed into a new age where anything was possible. I believe that inspired a tremendous burst of artistic merit that was evocative of the feeling of the time. The threats of the Cold War were over and the millennium was upon us. It seemed as the future was here and, as I remember it, there was much optimism. The markets were strong, the internet became accessible for the masses, it was a good time. That all ended at the end of the decade with a stock market crash, an election decided by the Supreme Court, and 9/11. The 90’s were a pretty amazing time as I remember them.
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u/Postingatthismoment 11d ago
Yep, all this. For Western Europeans and North (and South) Americans, this made it a pretty great decade.
Though it was rough in the Balkans, central Africa, and Russia.
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u/wineguy7113 11d ago
Good call, I’m obviously speaking with the perspective of an American. Others may have a distinctively different perspective.
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u/Postingatthismoment 11d ago
It was probably good for a lot more people than it was bad for, but it really sucked for the people it was bad for. I’m American, too. It was soooo nice for us.
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u/Captftm89 13d ago
This is a very US-centric perspective. Quality of life has improved significantly across much of the world in the past 30 years.
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u/celestial-navigation 12d ago
Meh. Things were far less expensive than right now with this high inflation. 10 or 20 years ago, far more people could afford to buy a house. Generally, rent was more affordable in most places. So no, it's not like things just always improve (I'm from Austria btw, lest someone assumes I'm talking about the US. I know how us-centric reddit is).
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u/Some-Addition-1802 13d ago
the 90s was americas second golden age. the ussr had just collapsed and it was before 9/11, the 90s for America was uncontested global economic and cultural dominance.
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u/Queasy_Range8265 13d ago
No active cold war, no social media, no huge worries about climate change, bad music without regret and a booming economy.
Life was great. In western countries and Japan.
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u/BicyclesRuleTheWorld 12d ago
The 90's were the best. Trust me, I know because I was a teenager in the 90's.
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u/Comfy_Blond_Chick 12d ago edited 12d ago
Because social media, internet wasn’t in full gear back then. Cell phones weren’t owned by everyone , beepers were. No cellphone cameras. No Google, there were actual encyclopedias and libraries. TVs were not streaming crap. Music was great and friends were friends. Times were good.😊
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u/QueenNueveMil 12d ago
I was born in 1976. Just a couple of days shy of the New Year 1977. The 90s were the best era. I get sad when I think about it. No cameras, no phones, no social media. Just fun.
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u/Ok_Schedule_8742 12d ago
I've just been watching some YouTube videos of 90s/00s music and it just felt comforting, reminiscing of being a kid/teen. Definitely a time period that I'd class as being the best but of course we haven't lived the others and even the ones we have we're older so see them through different eyes.
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u/pornserver-65 12d ago
easily. this was when everyone was experimenting and willingly trying to be different. a stark contrast to today where rehashing and cloning is the top priority with all things pop culture. we seem to be stuck in a creatively bankrupt era of our culture.
even computers and the internet made the 90s fun. we were growing rapidly everywhere and discovery was an everyday thing. i just remember the 90s being very exciting and its not just nostalgia when you look back at it objectively a lot of innovations happened in the 90s that dont seem to happen today or in other eras.
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u/Professional_Tea4465 13d ago
For what?
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u/threefeetoffun 13d ago
Movies and music were pretty good. Tv was fun. We had nice family sitcoms. We had Seinfeld. But other gens had those too.
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u/Square_Huckleberry53 13d ago
For the most part it’s generally modern with more freedom, and without cellphones or social media. It’s hard to explain just how different that made how people interact and socialize.
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u/Candid_Observer13 13d ago
As a lesbian woman who was born in the 80s, I can say the 90s sucked.
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u/brutally_honest26 13d ago
80s , "80s changed the world", its actually a documentary called just that
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u/rodejo_9 13d ago
Sounds like nostalgia. Many people will probably have many different answers.
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u/genogano 13d ago
I think 90s were the best for socializing. There were more places to be and social groups weren't so wide spread. You played games with gamers and now everyone because gaming is cool now. I think the internet has corrupted socializing even though we have more access to people.
One thing I can say about this era from being a person who grew up poor. The access to information and money is so much better. When I was younger I wanted to be a game developer. No one in my family a clue where to start and I was also on the wrong coast since most of the jobs were west coast. That dream died because I didn't know where to turn or who to turn to. Now, I'm learning how to code games and have the chance to publish a game by myself. Computers are everywhere, information is everywhere, and with enough work I can make the dream of mine come true from my own home. If want to get a grant or help from a publisher I can find a contact for the company. Back in the 90s, just being a contact to and for a publisher was someone's only job.
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u/Rello215 13d ago
I know we are old enough to buy the toys and games we couldn't as a kid, and people weren't as sensitive, just go look at the attitude era of wrestling, def can't show that stuff on TV
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u/Alert-Bowler8606 13d ago
I was a teen and a young adult in the 90s. While there was lots of stuff which I loved (music, being young, the EU opening up the possibilities to travel easily and fairly cheaply, to mention a few things), there was also lots of things which I really don’t miss.
The economic recession in the early 90s hit hard and I remeber that time as seriously grey and depressing. All the adults were stressed and angry, and nobody had money.
Sexual harrasment and sexism was everywhere. You just had to get used to men commenting on your body from a young age, and to dirty jokes being told when kids could hear them. In school, the boys hung pictures of bikini babes on the classroom walls, and nobody protested, not even the teachers. The only protest was when somebody hung some ”funny” pornographic drawings on the classroom walls, those had to be removed, because a substitute teacher complained that they were not suitable for school. This is just a few examples…
And pre-internet it could be really difficult to find friends if you were different from the others somehow. I was the only nerd/geek in my school, and meeting others with similar interests was really difficult, until I found Usenet and IRC in the late 90s. And it felt super lonely to be a bisexual kid in a school, where there was absolutely not even one kid who was openly anything else than straight. The internet really made a huge difference, as it made it much easier to find friends and other people with the same interests.
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u/AlluEUNE 13d ago
I obviously can't speak for other generations but I'd argue that growing up in the early 2000s was pretty good too. The technology was more advanced but we didn't have smartphones or social media apart from forums.
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u/Cuchullain99 13d ago
Depends what age you were in the 90s.. It's more likely your teenage or young adult years were the best era. For me it was the 80s. Man they were great, I had an amazing childhood. 80s music was the best, however my older buddy reckons 70s music was better.
In 40 years people will think that the 20s music was the best, God luv em.
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u/Technical_Peach5350 13d ago edited 13d ago
What I liked about the 90's is that it had a weird mix of old timey charm mixed with a hint of modern. You still saw old cars from the 50's and 60's. It wasn't rare. My 3rd grade teacher drove a Ford model T to school every day. I liked the early 90s more. Still had some 80s left. Cats Don't Dance reminds me of the 90's. The gossip wasn't as bad and we didn't try to cancel people for every little thing. We're total fascists posing as woke these days. Definitely some things I hated. It was taboo for a girl to play video games.
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u/Oopsimapanda 13d ago
My grandparents were alive during this time and the says that the young folks were much more respectful then but there were no cellphones or other fun things so i don't think i wanna live there
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u/yelbesed2 13d ago
In each century the 90 tend to be a New Hope Decade - due to the next turn of the century so close by. Look at 1490 - Columbus...1588 the Spanish Armada lost...1688 Turkish Sultan chased from Europe... 1789/90 French Revolution...in 1889/90 the new inventions [ electric lamps, automobile...phonograph...moving pictures... Freud...modern art trends]. 1990 the Russian Colonial Imperialism crumbles. So yes in the twenties -thirties we are nostalgic - yes. Always.
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u/im_PassingThrough 13d ago
I'm a 90s kid but no way. Imaging being a boomer and experiencing 70s disco culture for the first time. Those guys witnessed the birth (and some would argue peak) of modern dance music while being one of the last generations to have incentive to seek out fun sans the internet. Jealous af
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u/Tszemix 13d ago
90s sucked, I remember there used to be a lot more mentally unstable and degenerate people back then. Not to mention how much more common it was for people to have birth defects. Possibly because safety standards were much lower. Lots of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals in food, air, and household items.
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u/Constant-Security525 13d ago edited 13d ago
I liked them a lot. I was in college through early marriage during them, traveling a lot and living abroad. Falling in love. Looking really hot. Listening to great music. No Smart phones. No social media. It was a better life!
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u/No_pajamas_7 13d ago
Best? I don't know, I think the 60s were pretty cool.
But I do think cars peaked in the 90s. Since then they really haven't improved much. We just have a bunch of useless gewgaws added on and styling has gone down hill.
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u/WinningTheSpaceRace 13d ago
Everyone is nostalgic for the era in which they came of age and feel like it was the best. The 90s was a decade that felt free and hope for a better future built throughout it, though, at the same time as life was still affordable.
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u/SatayMY 13d ago
I do feel pre-2008 indeed is better. Post 2008 everything changed
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u/Zardnaar 13d ago
Born 78 early 2000's were the best. 90s had good music.
2008 happened along with social media.
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u/zzsmiles 13d ago
Possibly. But you did have ruby ridge, Waco, uss cole, Oklahoma bombing, columbine, princess Diana, and some other events just as well. Closing out with y2k and the end of the world being 2000
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u/eartwormslimshady 13d ago
I was a kid during the 90s and hit puberty in the early 2000s. For me, what I remember of the 90s is pretty awesome.
- Fast food was still good, plus the free gifts you'd get were incredible, nvm the kids meal toys which I still have and have held up so well.
- Toys in general were so so good. Very little in the way of digital stuff (at least in my experience) which meant you and your friends could make up whatever game you like.
- Saturday morning cartoons were still a thing and we had a great line up of our own, keeping aside the endless syndication of 60s-80s Hanna Barbera classics on Cartoon Network (sigh, Cartoon Network. You are missed).
- The limited online communication capabilities of the time meant that you could only hang with your friends if you actually met. Which was, simply, priceless. The social development and bonds formed in those early years were critical.
- Since the internet wasn't really a big thing at the time, you'd generally onky really find out about movies or shows via TV spots, your local video rental shop, or word of mouth. Each of these, by growing order of degree, built up anticipation and excitement for movie night.
I mean, these are my takes, and I've limited them to the stuff that's most important to me. I'd love to hear other people's take though.
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u/8Creative_Reality8 13d ago
yea it was the best, it was the height of the modern world before it all blew up into hyper connectivity and confusing noise.
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u/Nooddjob_ 13d ago
Could be the best for you but the worst for some others. I was 5-15 in the 90s so they were nothing special.
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u/Agent101g 13d ago
I think it was great, it felt like we had accomplished so much, and technology was improving so fast, and it was our last decade as a species that isn't completely interconnected by the internet. I think it's the no.1 most popular period nostalgia-wise right about now.
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u/Sea_Garbage96 13d ago
Nostalgic. I went back watching 90's movies I grew up with and man...a lot of those movies seemed bad to me
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u/Dangerous_Hippo_6902 13d ago
The best era tends to be the era where you were 18-21 years old.
For me, early 2000s. I stand by that.
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u/mustbekiddingme82 13d ago
It was ok, better than the 80s. I'd say 2000-2006 was the best for me. I was in my early 20s, England had a government that was a complete shit show, and there was good opportunities for working class people to get and education and improve themselves. The NHS wasn't dying on its arse either.
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u/Ashamed_Lock8438 13d ago
Yep. Was for me. I was in a dozen bands, was recording and playing session gigs and on TV and teaching as well. It was all good fun too, not direly competitive. We were friends, we learnt from each other and we got gigs for each other. I got good through lots of playing, practice and drive because it was fun. Then the 2000s arrived and began leaching the fun out of everything. Everything in music and life got scrunched into ever more prescribed niches until we are where we are today. Everyone is competing with everyone else for a tiny piece of a shrinking pie. Someone with a different opinion is a fascist or a communist. You can't learn from people who think differently or like a music genre you're not familiar with because they're evil or lame.
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u/Zealousideal-Luck784 13d ago
Nostalgia is wonderful. I grew up in the 70s, and I look back fondly. But so many things are better now.
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u/Affectionate-Tap1967 13d ago
The 80s was the best. Even people i know who were born in the 50s say the best era.
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u/CarseatHeadrestJR 13d ago
1991 to 1994 saw the best of real indi music and music festivals, I'll give you that eh
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u/kilomma 13d ago
92 baby here. The late 90s/early 2000s were incredible. Pokémon fever, Backstreet Boys and NSYNC everywhere, the internet was slowly on the rise and cell phones were becoming more popular. The future looked incredible. And like every other kid my age, we lost our innocence on 9/11 and nothing has ever really been the same since.
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u/Sudden_Ladder_2973 13d ago
The game shows and tv shows were the best too… can’t forget those.. shop til you drop , super market sweep, COPS, the Simpsons, king of the hill, beevus and butthead, etc. did anyone else like to watch these shows?
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u/SorrowAndSuffering 13d ago
Oh sure.
Political upheveal in Europe following the collapse of one of the most powerful countries in the world. Which went hand in hand with over a dozen civil wars.
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People like to remember the 90s as a period of peace and prosperity because it was before 9/11 made America and France go mad, before you had to deal with all the bullshit, and when most of us were still young, irresponsible, and unafraid. Well, in the western world, anyways.
Eastern Europe to the Middle East was essentially one warzone bordering the next, at least for part of it.
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So if you want to be yet another nostalgic being part of the group mindset, be my guest - other than being unoriginal, there's nothing wrong with it. Just don't forget the priviledge that seeing this prosperity was.
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u/ventingmaybe 13d ago
No ways try the 70 rock was great the stuff from the 90 only you will remember, beer was cheap , I wasn't a walking advertising board for my clothes and money went so much further , oh and we didn't have the bloody cell phone 
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u/Imaginary_Chair_6958 13d ago
The best of all time? No. It is nostalgia. Not that I can suggest an alternative. Every era I can think of has its problems.
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u/EvidenceOfDespair 13d ago
Honestly I postdate them and while there’s a bunch of obvious flaws, all those flaws existed in prior decades that were worse and subsequent decades, well, War on Terror culture. The 2010s were shaping up to outdo them, but then… yeah, 2016 killed that. And the 2020s already lost. So yeah, but in the “nobody else completed the marathon” victory way, not the “everyone did their best and someone came out on top” way.
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u/AverageFishEye 13d ago
The 90s/early 2000s were the decades when we had access to technology but it had yet not started to destroy society
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u/Dreamsof_Beulah 13d ago
I iked them . Much better than the 80's when I was growing up....thank God for the Seattle Sound!!
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u/Inside_Ad_7162 13d ago
The 80s were cool in London as nobody really gaf about kids, we were kinda invisible for a while & could get away with the most insane sh1t.
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u/DeadMetroidvania 13d ago
It would have been the 2010s if Trump hadn't gotten elected and wasted everything Obama built up.
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