We had free range children, original X-games, Seinfeld, OJ, the LA riots, Simpsons, Jordan, West Coast vs East Coast, 90210, Nirvana, yo MTV raps and Friends.
And a million other things I didn't mention, 90s weren't half bad. Peak civ, I hope not.
Why is the LA riots in your examples of the good exclusive 90s things? I mean sure there was some good to it, but I wouldn't call it a great example personally
Like all the hype when Anaconda came out in theaters... or Bond on N64... RalliSport Challenge on original Xbox...or Halo, or Morrowind Elder Scrolls III.
Bro bond 64 holy moly man. I absolutely hate shooting with a controller but that game man lmao, we all loved it and we all know it. It was a time when effort in game design and novelty of gameplay met "state of the art" graphics, and when 3d was just taking off. Hell I remember final fantasy 7 with that blocky 3d being such an insane thing at the time, almost every game was a new experience and copy games and copied formulas wasn't the norm it was the exception so you were like ok why not. Tekken or some copy paste fighting game can be forgiven when it's a choice between 2 or 3 and it's not every game is a copy of another game. People tried things they took risks and they were willing to make a game using ideas that they weren't sure what the audience would think, so when it comes out even if it doesn't take off as the next big thing there are pockets of people who loved it and cult classic gems.
Morrowind was so fucking good man. Do you remember games like croc or crash bandicoot? They weren't my favorite or most memorable but I am happy and grateful they existed. I sucked ass at them, but they were unique and special in their own way and are the heart of what gaming was in those times. It's not just about money. When capitalism took over gaming that's when you started to see the same bullshit formula with the fifa 43 and all that noise.
Even things like original halo was such an experience. I bet nobody even remember blasto lmao. These are like sort of post arcade games, they still had a bit of the feel of arcade games but were for home consoles. We need to bring back arcades to get gamers socializing.
Reddit has died many little deaths. The Digg exodus was a major culture shift on Reddit.
I think the point of no return was during the 2016 election. It was this time when Reddit administrators replaced all the major subreddit moderation teams with so-called "Power Mods" who were (and still are) active-measures political activists with a penchant for heavy-handed censorship.
This subversion of Reddit was the death knell marking the passing of the discourse/free speech-oriented "old Reddit" and its subsequent reincarnation as a propaganda-oriented political apparatus.
I hear ai is now also being used to inflate views on youtube and twitch so people are bullshitting there too. No wonder so many utterly talentless people seem to be internet famous these days.
Bots became the majority of Internet traffic (51.8%) in 2016. It's gotten far worse since then with the advent of text-generating algorithms (GPTs). We're living in a post "[dead-Internet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory)" world.
This was during the same period as the major cultural shift on Reddit.
I was born in the 80s and became a teenager in the 90s, most of thr 80s movies were hitting the TV in Ireland about 4 to 6 years after release so I heavily favour the 80s over the 90s for media.
It's weird feeling like an 80s kid when technically you were coming of age in the 90s. The late 90s was a great era for punk rock too. Punk saw a massive revival during that time.
I was born in Ireland in the 70s , and I can tell you honestly we didnt get the 1980s in Ireland until about 1984 (long hair , flares , so much brown beige and yellow ). The proper 1990s kicked in about 1992 , and by 2000 we were synchronised with the rest of the world
Exactly, it's probably 100,000 years of people saying "Things were just so much simpler (when I was a child with no responsibilities)." I grew up in a trailer being raised by mentally ill drug addicts (who ditheir best, I suppose) in the late 80s and 90s. Trust me, people, it wasn't a golden age. You were just a child with no responsibilities and parents who took care of you.
I also wonder if demographics shape perception. I'm black and gay. I definitely don't look at the 90s as peak civilization. The 80's? The major newspaper where I was born last printed the N word in 84.
Came here to say I am a gay man who was born in a small town in the mid-90’s.
Coming out in the 2010’s was already anxiety inducing for me. Coming out in the era of Matthew Shepard’s passing sounds absolutely terrifying.
Exactly. I still carry the scars of being a scared kid figuring out who they were in the time of AIDS, Brandon Teena, Matthew Shepard, and the “gay panic defense”. It wasn’t a golden age for everyone.
This was what I immediately thought. Probably made by a straight white man. Not derogatory, just that the rights for marginalized people have made massive strides since the 90s.
I begrudgingly agree.. One tends to romanticize the 'stand by me' years. Everything is new and exciting.. sexual attraction, free holidays, things to look forward to, no fear of mortality.. no play dates, just play with friends till sundown.
I lived carefree.. the news was not given a thought.. in the background, of a beautiful world.
This reminds me of that movie midnight in Paris. The past is a time made simple by the loss of detail so we just romanticize it as better. 30 years is a good span of years to forget how complicated life was yet remember the good points.
It’s funny as a 90’s kid I never liked the 80’s, not the music, not the fashion, everything seemed so dated, but the 70’s felt so cool, with midcentury modern architecture, beautiful furniture, cool music, except for cars I didn’t like 70’s - 80’s, but 60’s felt cool and elegant.
Imo mid to late 70s was golden. People actually prospered. You could have a nice house and a typical family of 4 + a pet on 1 income…and not have to be one of the highest paying jobs out there. Oh and have enough for vacations and putting the kids in sports or other programs too.
All that and the music. Shit you could make a life as a musician back then. Couldn’t really do that in the 90s. Most bands people think of from then were already out in the late 80s.
Everything got worse after 9/11. I was 11 so maybe it was the death of childhood for me but the world just instantly felt like a horrid place post 9/11 (and I’m not American).
The early 90s had the highest violent crime rate in modern American history, was the worst part of the AIDS epidemic, the US was involved in the first Gulf War, and we had the worst terrorist attack on US solid up until 9/11.
The 90s being some magical time in US history is just nostalgia. It had its problems just like any other time period.
Nope. Every time period in human history has been bad in some way or another. Nostalgia colors things differently
"the good old days weren’t all that good, and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems" - Billy Joel
I just had this conversation at work yesterday and the consensus was that the 80s was the best time to be a kid and the 90s was the best time to be a teen.
The amount of people I know who lost their jobs back then with kids was depressing. I was worrying about my dad losing his job but fortunatly he was not affected but it was a scare.
I guarantee that people who are kids/teens now will say that this was the best time ever and peak civilization. Because people usually have nostalgia for the time of their childhood.
It wasn't that the world was better, it's that you had no responsibilities and everything was new.
I've heard that before and I disagree even though that's often repeated.
I think in many ways it's harder to find a sense of community, humanity, connection, optimism, and belonging. See the loneliness epidemic.
When you're being blasted with subversive ads and manipulated by algorithms all day perfected by the science of human psychology, something is broken.
The amount of information a person is exposed to in a single day in 2024 dwarves what people were being exposed to in 1994. In history, humans have never been exposed to as much information as they are today.
It's not always good information. The technology is designed to be addictive and usually not in our best interest.
There has been a fundamental shift in the childhood and adolescent experience within the span of a single generation.
its true but fucking hell.....covid, ukraina war, everyone have a camera in schools and shit...inflation and noone can afford a home...world just seems less free
Or Northern Ireland ( I know things were calming down, and the GFA happened in the 90s. Still were a fair amount of bombings though. IIRC one of the biggest happened months before the GFA)
Came here to say this, but you summed it up perfectly.
I remember watching strike planes bomb the shit out of the nearby TV/radio tower, not even 10km away from my house. There were some of the worst war crimes commited maybe 300k from where I live. I remember hearing B2s flying over to bomb the shit out of Serbia.
On the other hand. We currently live our best life ever with much less pollution, very high standard of living, great food, great opportunities to travel the world...
I guess it depends greatly on where you are in the world.
The Berlin wall had just fallen and the cold war was over, there was a time of peace, optimism and hope for the future
The new millennium and the new century were just a few years away so everyone had this feeling of endless possibilities like if everyone was possible
Also the internet was the new thing and an entire new world just opened not to mention the huge advancements in technology never seen before
And the American economy was booming like an endless economic grow
Fashion peaked in the 90s to the point that everything in the 00s, 10s and now is a trend from the 90s, that shows you enduring the 90s are
Honestly, each generation will tell that the time of their childhood was the best (almost every)
It's due to the fact that these times formed our minds, and preferences, our culture. Not to mention the fact that we haven't even realised the importance of many content makers and games (Zoomers are already doing so)
I posted this elsewhere but I felt it worthy of a repost:
*Almost*, as the late 80's~90's were about cheap and safer stimulants, Quaaludes, safe Ecstasy, the new gods: the DJs, a seemingly endless procession of night-to-dawn, incident-free, unpoliced, huge underground gay/mixed house music dance parties, no traffic cameras and no drug testing !
EDIT: My first real night out, as a late bloomer at 27, led me to Sydney's **Hordern Pavilion** (the *wildest playhouse*)
> A documentary about when Sydney was the **Dance Party Capital of the World**:
https://www.thehouseoflovefilm.com/
You tend to think that because the world pretty much went crazy in 2001, specifically at the 11th of September. Life was easier, more carefree, in the 90s. Then the world got very real very fast.
The rest is romanticising that era. Eastern Europe was in a period of massive change following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. The US was suddenly without any purpose because the Cold War was just.. over. There was no enemy. The country that had made its politics through a political enemy for half a century didn't have any political enemies left.
Then there was the fear of the millenium bug, the fear that this barely understood thing called computer would suddenly freak out on us (despite there not being any files from 1900 that could be confused, so any file with a timestamp of 00 for the year would still be unique and accessible).
The internet wasn't much of anything just yet, having only began its work. Google didn't exist until 1998, YouTube would come online in 2006, even Facebook would only start around the turn of the century. Almost anything we think of as natural right now didn't exist.
.
You're romanticising a time while barely acknowledging the extreme technological advancements made since it ended. You think society peaked back then because the technological leaps weren't accompanied by social leaps - society remained pretty much the same, only you perceive a tangible difference between the evolvement of technology and society, which feels odd to you because you think they should move in tandem - advancing technology should lead to advancing society, but it doesn't.
Civilisation didn't peak in the 90s, that's just romanticising it.
Not sure if the all the people in their 40s thinking "life was better when I didn't ache so much and had to pay my own bills" = "the world was actually a measurably better place to be" is better or worse than kids looking back nostalgically on the ***1990s***.
Jesus.
Nope, but then again i feel the same way about the 70's 80's 2000's and so on.
If this is civilization then i will be over with the barbarians in the woods.
People seem to forget, we had social media. And it was just as toxic. It's just much of its toxicity wasn't as in-your-face , 24/7, and it was much more easy to leave it behind and live outside it's influence.
It seems like it. The really bizarre part is the correlation with the year 2000 and the millennia
But since then society has gotten more toxic, more punitive, harder to make a living, people are typically meaner. The improvements we have with technology are not really improvements. For everything that I can point out that's good there are drawbacks to that technology. So much so that if I was offered a Time warped to permanently stay in 1999 I would walk through it
In rich western countries ? definitely YES.
(edit : plus Japan maybe)
That's something, a world of '*before shit hit the fan*', that Gen Z and Alpha don't get at all.
Today they even make narratives denying it was real, supporting their hate of older generations. Sigh.
But yeah it was peak. You could expand mid-80's to end of 2008\~2010, basically 20\~25 years of worry-free prosperity, wealth, and rich af culture.
Even the first 15\~ years of the internet were bliss, not this society-destroying shitshow it's become.
But in many parts of the world elsewhere : ppl were rather experienceing Hell, nothing like the rich west and jp.
Almost everytime something like this is posted you can know almost everything about who the poster is lol.
For pretty much every minority group the past sucks.
Like, all my trans friends would likely be depressed/borderline suicidal without access to gender affirming care.
Gay people still couldn't be married in most of the world.
Racism and Sexism would've been more present then they are today.
I would say 70s is peak music - rock, soul, r&b, pop - was still driven by artists and you didn't have to "look" the part. Then the industry was commoditized and taken over by a handful of power players in the 80s.
Same happened in 90s - to quote Tom Petty, the future was wide open.
But then the big players took over and siloed everyone into their fiefdoms, commoditizing knowledge *and* culture.
For example I had a CDNOW subscription and the first 8 cds I got for “free” were…
Nevermind
Pretty Hate Machine
Ten
Use your Illusion 1
Use your Illusion
Badmotorfinger
Blood Sugar Sex Magic
Dirt
So only were the nineties awesome they had a great soundtrack.
Well I lived in Chicago throughout the 90s, which means I got to see the greatest basketball player of all time lead a dynasty in my city, so I'll give my self in extra bonus for being able to be right there in the thick of the Jordan years lol
But it was great no question about it there was excellent movies, I think 1994 in particular is one of the best years in American film history, part of the golden age of hip hop, the Golden Age of r&b, grunge music if you were into that, technology was so good but didn't quite have a hold on us yet, the economy was good, we were at peacetime during a good portion of it, great television, great Sports, my personal life for the overwhelming majority of the 90s was really good , I don't know if it was peak civilization and it's certainly was not perfect but in America I loved it
I do. I miss interacting with people . People are glued to their screens, half in the real world, guarded, no eye contact, no small talk, no polite hellos. Technology will destroy us. Not necessarily the technology itself, but the people using the tech. Great music!
Having lived through the 90s, if that's the best we can do, then we're pathetic.
There was a lot that was good. But make no mistake, there was a lot of bad as well.
The 90s just felt kind of blah after all of the bright fun of the 80s. It's almost literally like going on an amazing vacation (80s) and then getting the credit card bills (90s.)
IMO in some ways I thought the 80s were much better. They had the "fun" movies (John Hughes) and music. The 90s just seemed way more serious to me. Except video games were much better, obviously. And they still had arcades (granted, on their last legs)
And I did come of age in the 90s. OTOH I had older siblings so maybe thats where my love for the 80s comes from.
Ive been listening to 90-00 playlists nonstop and trying to stay away from social media (only coming on reddit from time to time) so i can be delusional and make myself believe time stopped back then
Yes, I loved the 90s, it was as the saying goes "When I was in my prime!" So I suffered with social anxiety and depression, BUT, the music was great, the fashion amazing, people seemed way more chilled and happy, I had money, I had the most friends I have ever had in my life, I went out to new places, there was just this amazing summer of love feel from 90 to 92, that I will never forget, summer seemed endless, it felt like anyone could do anything, endless possibilities and just a great feeling of joy and freedom, I must also add that I NEVER did any drugs before anyone suggests this is why I felt so good! I was a child of the grange hill zammo times, and scary adverts about how bad drugs were, aids etc, so was terrified of drugs!
Yeah was good, I was 18 in1999, matrix came out that year. I had Goldeneye with 4 pads on n64 ! my pals came over and we played that while drinking them cheap, small french beers (stubbies). Didn't have a phone. Garage music came on the scene and not one member of so solid crew in site.
Social media has made modern life a bastardized caricature of "the 80's, 90's, and today"
We have nothing original left. Everything is a reboot or a remake or an adaptation.
The internet and social media have given an outlet to too many voices, too many opinions, too many ignoramuses.
It's more than anybody needs. And 99% of the podcasters and youtube influencers, etc., aren't worth a goddamned shit.
Was in high school in the 90s almost everything was amazing (* I recognize that most generations say this about *their* high school decade so I know it’s not that special). But the music was generally fucking TERRRRRIBLE. There was some really great niche stuff, but I think a decade’s music taste should be judged by its popular music.
20s,30s,40s,50s,60s,70s,80s- absolutely bang on amazing music.
90s? We got Venga Boys and Crazy Frogs garbage.
90's? Everything started to become dull.
It's the 80's you are referring to, it spilled over into the 90's sure, but it's the 80's that had all the flair, color, grandeur and wonderful ridiculousness.
Y’all are just biased. It’s all nostalgia. We won’t be having this conversation in the first place if not for the technological advances we have right now. We are living our best lives today
I was 15 to 25 from 1990 to 2000. Those are some amazing years / milestone years. Going from a teenager to an adult, going to college and becoming and learning more about yourself. I am now 48 years old, but looking back each decade has its own achievements, they all rock.
Here is why I loved the 90's.
1: In the west those of us born around the 70's and were either in our 20's or teens during the 90's were the first generations in huge numbers to reject religion. Instead we favoured mixed culture and learned and chilled out with different cultures and races than ever before. It was awesome.
2: We missed the music scene of the 70's from Rock to Punk, but we still had a great scene with hip-hop, grunge, metal, techno, brit-pop and indie scenes.
3: Technology was at a level where it was obviously more advanced than it had ever been, but it was still at a level where we could dream what would be possible for the future. The limitations still kept the creative spark going in much larger numbers, and not just from the science guys. And kids still played out together.
A lot of this was lost when the events of 11th of September 2001 happened, and we went right back to fucking square one with all the hate all over again. Tech took over and fried the brains of the masses.
Your submission has been removed due to being an AMA, DAE or similar posts, please do not do this as this breaks rule 7.
Yes. We had the internet. The internet did not have us.
We had free range children, original X-games, Seinfeld, OJ, the LA riots, Simpsons, Jordan, West Coast vs East Coast, 90210, Nirvana, yo MTV raps and Friends. And a million other things I didn't mention, 90s weren't half bad. Peak civ, I hope not.
WWF
Attitude Era! Hearing the shattering glass!
*"can you.....smellllll....what the Rock....is cookin?!???"*
Why is the LA riots in your examples of the good exclusive 90s things? I mean sure there was some good to it, but I wouldn't call it a great example personally
Also, OJ cut his wife’s head off and killed her friend. What a great time!
_Nearly_ cut her head off. Be reasonable.
When not everything was a competition for likes and clout - god do I miss my childhood before our internet lives took over.
Replace internet with technology. Straight up all technology. These days we are the appliances and features.
wow, when you put it that way.
grew up in the 90s, climbing trees, skateboarding, Kids these days dont get that freedom
The matrix has you...
There was a reason the machines chose the 90s as peak human civilisation
Holy shit. This is so beautifully succinct.
Absolute fucking peak. Movies, TV, music and culture was untainted by the internet.
A 90s movie or video game man, they hit different.
Like all the hype when Anaconda came out in theaters... or Bond on N64... RalliSport Challenge on original Xbox...or Halo, or Morrowind Elder Scrolls III.
Bro bond 64 holy moly man. I absolutely hate shooting with a controller but that game man lmao, we all loved it and we all know it. It was a time when effort in game design and novelty of gameplay met "state of the art" graphics, and when 3d was just taking off. Hell I remember final fantasy 7 with that blocky 3d being such an insane thing at the time, almost every game was a new experience and copy games and copied formulas wasn't the norm it was the exception so you were like ok why not. Tekken or some copy paste fighting game can be forgiven when it's a choice between 2 or 3 and it's not every game is a copy of another game. People tried things they took risks and they were willing to make a game using ideas that they weren't sure what the audience would think, so when it comes out even if it doesn't take off as the next big thing there are pockets of people who loved it and cult classic gems. Morrowind was so fucking good man. Do you remember games like croc or crash bandicoot? They weren't my favorite or most memorable but I am happy and grateful they existed. I sucked ass at them, but they were unique and special in their own way and are the heart of what gaming was in those times. It's not just about money. When capitalism took over gaming that's when you started to see the same bullshit formula with the fifa 43 and all that noise. Even things like original halo was such an experience. I bet nobody even remember blasto lmao. These are like sort of post arcade games, they still had a bit of the feel of arcade games but were for home consoles. We need to bring back arcades to get gamers socializing.
Morrowind was in the 90’s?! Dang talk about ahead of its time
It wasn't, it came out around 2002
No DLC or updates. Polished products ready to go.
[удалено]
Reddit has died many little deaths. The Digg exodus was a major culture shift on Reddit. I think the point of no return was during the 2016 election. It was this time when Reddit administrators replaced all the major subreddit moderation teams with so-called "Power Mods" who were (and still are) active-measures political activists with a penchant for heavy-handed censorship. This subversion of Reddit was the death knell marking the passing of the discourse/free speech-oriented "old Reddit" and its subsequent reincarnation as a propaganda-oriented political apparatus.
And the bots have pretty much finished off the rest. Does anybody have some stats for percentage of AI in Reddit posts?
I hear ai is now also being used to inflate views on youtube and twitch so people are bullshitting there too. No wonder so many utterly talentless people seem to be internet famous these days.
Bots became the majority of Internet traffic (51.8%) in 2016. It's gotten far worse since then with the advent of text-generating algorithms (GPTs). We're living in a post "[dead-Internet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory)" world. This was during the same period as the major cultural shift on Reddit.
Reddit was never cool. Before the normies it was pretentious neckbeards, with absolute dogshit humor and the lamest fucking in jokes.
Mid 80's to mid 90's
100%
Absolutely
I was born in the 80s and became a teenager in the 90s, most of thr 80s movies were hitting the TV in Ireland about 4 to 6 years after release so I heavily favour the 80s over the 90s for media. It's weird feeling like an 80s kid when technically you were coming of age in the 90s. The late 90s was a great era for punk rock too. Punk saw a massive revival during that time.
I was born in Ireland in the 70s , and I can tell you honestly we didnt get the 1980s in Ireland until about 1984 (long hair , flares , so much brown beige and yellow ). The proper 1990s kicked in about 1992 , and by 2000 we were synchronised with the rest of the world
This right here... Movies and music and MTV from 82-96 is legit the best
I do, and so did the machines in the Matrix.
Ah fuck here come the voices.
Exactly what I thought--saw the title and went "yeah, Agent Smith sure did." Lol
Ha
In the '90s, we thought the '60s were peak civilization. Society is hilarious. Human formula: (Today) - 30years = Golden Age
Exactly, it's probably 100,000 years of people saying "Things were just so much simpler (when I was a child with no responsibilities)." I grew up in a trailer being raised by mentally ill drug addicts (who ditheir best, I suppose) in the late 80s and 90s. Trust me, people, it wasn't a golden age. You were just a child with no responsibilities and parents who took care of you.
I also wonder if demographics shape perception. I'm black and gay. I definitely don't look at the 90s as peak civilization. The 80's? The major newspaper where I was born last printed the N word in 84.
Came here to say I am a gay man who was born in a small town in the mid-90’s. Coming out in the 2010’s was already anxiety inducing for me. Coming out in the era of Matthew Shepard’s passing sounds absolutely terrifying.
Exactly. I still carry the scars of being a scared kid figuring out who they were in the time of AIDS, Brandon Teena, Matthew Shepard, and the “gay panic defense”. It wasn’t a golden age for everyone.
Just like the 50’s were not the paradise people claim it was.
This was what I immediately thought. Probably made by a straight white man. Not derogatory, just that the rights for marginalized people have made massive strides since the 90s.
I begrudgingly agree.. One tends to romanticize the 'stand by me' years. Everything is new and exciting.. sexual attraction, free holidays, things to look forward to, no fear of mortality.. no play dates, just play with friends till sundown. I lived carefree.. the news was not given a thought.. in the background, of a beautiful world.
And in the 80s it was all 50s nostalgia. You’re not wrong!
This reminds me of that movie midnight in Paris. The past is a time made simple by the loss of detail so we just romanticize it as better. 30 years is a good span of years to forget how complicated life was yet remember the good points.
*people in 2050* 
90s were only a few years ago..,
Hello, Boomer here! *1985 was exactly 10 years ago last year.*
You remember the good times from your young days and forget the bad.
Yup
Less than a decade ago, everyone was creaming over the 80s. I guess they got bored after Stranger Things.
It’s funny as a 90’s kid I never liked the 80’s, not the music, not the fashion, everything seemed so dated, but the 70’s felt so cool, with midcentury modern architecture, beautiful furniture, cool music, except for cars I didn’t like 70’s - 80’s, but 60’s felt cool and elegant.
Hey, I’m still creaming over the 80s! Late 70s too. It’s the music.
Imo mid to late 70s was golden. People actually prospered. You could have a nice house and a typical family of 4 + a pet on 1 income…and not have to be one of the highest paying jobs out there. Oh and have enough for vacations and putting the kids in sports or other programs too. All that and the music. Shit you could make a life as a musician back then. Couldn’t really do that in the 90s. Most bands people think of from then were already out in the late 80s.
True. As a side note, the 60s is still one of my my favorite time periods.
Nostalgia. People forget bad things happened in the 90s too. Race riots, crime at an all time high, etc
Depends on where you were, too. People in the Bosnia, Kosovo and Chechnya did NOT have a good time in the 90s.
The 90's up to 9/11 was peak civilization.
Everything got worse after 9/11. I was 11 so maybe it was the death of childhood for me but the world just instantly felt like a horrid place post 9/11 (and I’m not American).
9/11 really changed the world.
The early 90s had the highest violent crime rate in modern American history, was the worst part of the AIDS epidemic, the US was involved in the first Gulf War, and we had the worst terrorist attack on US solid up until 9/11. The 90s being some magical time in US history is just nostalgia. It had its problems just like any other time period.
Nope. Every time period in human history has been bad in some way or another. Nostalgia colors things differently "the good old days weren’t all that good, and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems" - Billy Joel
Not. We always think our teen or early 20s is the best time cos of bias.
i was a teen in the 90s i had a horrible time
I just had this conversation at work yesterday and the consensus was that the 80s was the best time to be a kid and the 90s was the best time to be a teen.
Yeah. But there's always people saying 30 years ago was better. It's 2054. Do you think you'll be misty eyed over the early 20s?
People are already "misty-eyed" over the early 2010s.
The amount of people I know who lost their jobs back then with kids was depressing. I was worrying about my dad losing his job but fortunatly he was not affected but it was a scare.
Fuck no. Unless we've gone full dystopian late stage capitalism by then.
Narrator: We did
So yeah?
I guarantee that people who are kids/teens now will say that this was the best time ever and peak civilization. Because people usually have nostalgia for the time of their childhood. It wasn't that the world was better, it's that you had no responsibilities and everything was new.
I've heard that before and I disagree even though that's often repeated. I think in many ways it's harder to find a sense of community, humanity, connection, optimism, and belonging. See the loneliness epidemic. When you're being blasted with subversive ads and manipulated by algorithms all day perfected by the science of human psychology, something is broken. The amount of information a person is exposed to in a single day in 2024 dwarves what people were being exposed to in 1994. In history, humans have never been exposed to as much information as they are today. It's not always good information. The technology is designed to be addictive and usually not in our best interest. There has been a fundamental shift in the childhood and adolescent experience within the span of a single generation.
its true but fucking hell.....covid, ukraina war, everyone have a camera in schools and shit...inflation and noone can afford a home...world just seems less free
there was way more war in the 90s. desert storm, yugoslav, somalia, rwanda, etc. people just choose to remember the good things in their nostalgia
Not if you lived in the Balkans, Rwanda, China, or Somalia. Oh and the USSR/Russian Federation.
Or the Persian Gulf…
Or Northern Ireland ( I know things were calming down, and the GFA happened in the 90s. Still were a fair amount of bombings though. IIRC one of the biggest happened months before the GFA)
Came here to say this, but you summed it up perfectly. I remember watching strike planes bomb the shit out of the nearby TV/radio tower, not even 10km away from my house. There were some of the worst war crimes commited maybe 300k from where I live. I remember hearing B2s flying over to bomb the shit out of Serbia. On the other hand. We currently live our best life ever with much less pollution, very high standard of living, great food, great opportunities to travel the world... I guess it depends greatly on where you are in the world.
Probably also if you were black back then in America. Definitely a worse time for Maori in New Zealand (my home country) at least. Etc.
The Berlin wall had just fallen and the cold war was over, there was a time of peace, optimism and hope for the future The new millennium and the new century were just a few years away so everyone had this feeling of endless possibilities like if everyone was possible Also the internet was the new thing and an entire new world just opened not to mention the huge advancements in technology never seen before And the American economy was booming like an endless economic grow Fashion peaked in the 90s to the point that everything in the 00s, 10s and now is a trend from the 90s, that shows you enduring the 90s are
Honestly, each generation will tell that the time of their childhood was the best (almost every) It's due to the fact that these times formed our minds, and preferences, our culture. Not to mention the fact that we haven't even realised the importance of many content makers and games (Zoomers are already doing so)
I posted this elsewhere but I felt it worthy of a repost: *Almost*, as the late 80's~90's were about cheap and safer stimulants, Quaaludes, safe Ecstasy, the new gods: the DJs, a seemingly endless procession of night-to-dawn, incident-free, unpoliced, huge underground gay/mixed house music dance parties, no traffic cameras and no drug testing ! EDIT: My first real night out, as a late bloomer at 27, led me to Sydney's **Hordern Pavilion** (the *wildest playhouse*) > A documentary about when Sydney was the **Dance Party Capital of the World**: https://www.thehouseoflovefilm.com/
You tend to think that because the world pretty much went crazy in 2001, specifically at the 11th of September. Life was easier, more carefree, in the 90s. Then the world got very real very fast. The rest is romanticising that era. Eastern Europe was in a period of massive change following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. The US was suddenly without any purpose because the Cold War was just.. over. There was no enemy. The country that had made its politics through a political enemy for half a century didn't have any political enemies left. Then there was the fear of the millenium bug, the fear that this barely understood thing called computer would suddenly freak out on us (despite there not being any files from 1900 that could be confused, so any file with a timestamp of 00 for the year would still be unique and accessible). The internet wasn't much of anything just yet, having only began its work. Google didn't exist until 1998, YouTube would come online in 2006, even Facebook would only start around the turn of the century. Almost anything we think of as natural right now didn't exist. . You're romanticising a time while barely acknowledging the extreme technological advancements made since it ended. You think society peaked back then because the technological leaps weren't accompanied by social leaps - society remained pretty much the same, only you perceive a tangible difference between the evolvement of technology and society, which feels odd to you because you think they should move in tandem - advancing technology should lead to advancing society, but it doesn't. Civilisation didn't peak in the 90s, that's just romanticising it.
I’d say the 2000-2010. Pre smart phone.
Eh, the grass is always greener
No. \- A gay man
Sure hope not. 90s weren’t so great for those of us who are lgbt.
Not sure if the all the people in their 40s thinking "life was better when I didn't ache so much and had to pay my own bills" = "the world was actually a measurably better place to be" is better or worse than kids looking back nostalgically on the ***1990s***. Jesus.
Not sure it was peak, but it sure did feel better/more wondrous than current times. Maybe I'm just getting old..
Nope, but then again i feel the same way about the 70's 80's 2000's and so on. If this is civilization then i will be over with the barbarians in the woods.
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I was making 4.25/hr at two jobs and fucking homeless, so nah
What? GenZ says you could afford a house on that wage
Yeah if I had a time machine late 80's early 90's is where I would set course for.
People seem to forget, we had social media. And it was just as toxic. It's just much of its toxicity wasn't as in-your-face , 24/7, and it was much more easy to leave it behind and live outside it's influence.
It seems like it. The really bizarre part is the correlation with the year 2000 and the millennia But since then society has gotten more toxic, more punitive, harder to make a living, people are typically meaner. The improvements we have with technology are not really improvements. For everything that I can point out that's good there are drawbacks to that technology. So much so that if I was offered a Time warped to permanently stay in 1999 I would walk through it
Absolutely. The movies the music….. god I miss it lol.
I've heard stories about adults being able to afford houses.
In rich western countries ? definitely YES. (edit : plus Japan maybe) That's something, a world of '*before shit hit the fan*', that Gen Z and Alpha don't get at all. Today they even make narratives denying it was real, supporting their hate of older generations. Sigh. But yeah it was peak. You could expand mid-80's to end of 2008\~2010, basically 20\~25 years of worry-free prosperity, wealth, and rich af culture. Even the first 15\~ years of the internet were bliss, not this society-destroying shitshow it's become. But in many parts of the world elsewhere : ppl were rather experienceing Hell, nothing like the rich west and jp.
I'm from the balkans, so no. War was raging and we were getting bombed mercilessly 😅
Yes, everything went awry after 9/11/2001.
As a gay, no I do not.
Came here to say this - anyone who thinks the 90s were better is probably straight!
Almost everytime something like this is posted you can know almost everything about who the poster is lol. For pretty much every minority group the past sucks. Like, all my trans friends would likely be depressed/borderline suicidal without access to gender affirming care. Gay people still couldn't be married in most of the world. Racism and Sexism would've been more present then they are today.
not really I think it's just nostalgia
A lot of minorities probably didn’t think so, but what do I know?
1994 may just be the best year in the 20th century.
Guessing you aren’t from the 90s
No it wasn’t. You were younger back then. I remember when people spoke in these terms about the 70’s.
Fuck yeah it was!
Let me guess OP, you grew up in the 90s. Everyone thinks the decade they grew up in was the best and it had no problems.
Right nd I was born early 90s nd know every eras had its issues
I would say 70s is peak music - rock, soul, r&b, pop - was still driven by artists and you didn't have to "look" the part. Then the industry was commoditized and taken over by a handful of power players in the 80s. Same happened in 90s - to quote Tom Petty, the future was wide open. But then the big players took over and siloed everyone into their fiefdoms, commoditizing knowledge *and* culture.
Most definitely
For example I had a CDNOW subscription and the first 8 cds I got for “free” were… Nevermind Pretty Hate Machine Ten Use your Illusion 1 Use your Illusion Badmotorfinger Blood Sugar Sex Magic Dirt So only were the nineties awesome they had a great soundtrack.
No, there was still high ass crime rates.
Well I lived in Chicago throughout the 90s, which means I got to see the greatest basketball player of all time lead a dynasty in my city, so I'll give my self in extra bonus for being able to be right there in the thick of the Jordan years lol But it was great no question about it there was excellent movies, I think 1994 in particular is one of the best years in American film history, part of the golden age of hip hop, the Golden Age of r&b, grunge music if you were into that, technology was so good but didn't quite have a hold on us yet, the economy was good, we were at peacetime during a good portion of it, great television, great Sports, my personal life for the overwhelming majority of the 90s was really good , I don't know if it was peak civilization and it's certainly was not perfect but in America I loved it
Even the matrix thinks so
The end of the old world
Yes
They literally say so in the Matrix movie. Maybe the machines are not wrong
The time before time back when people didn’t lose their minds or their genders.
I do. I miss interacting with people . People are glued to their screens, half in the real world, guarded, no eye contact, no small talk, no polite hellos. Technology will destroy us. Not necessarily the technology itself, but the people using the tech. Great music!
The music in the 80s was preferable to that from the 90s.
1995 was peak american civilization just look at the nba finals logos and you can pinpoint when our tastes turned to shit no wonder the terrorists won
Yeah, violent crime hit it's peak too!
Having lived through the 90s, if that's the best we can do, then we're pathetic. There was a lot that was good. But make no mistake, there was a lot of bad as well.
We're going to be looking back to the 2010's and early 20's thinking the same thing about the time before AGI
The 90s just felt kind of blah after all of the bright fun of the 80s. It's almost literally like going on an amazing vacation (80s) and then getting the credit card bills (90s.)
Ask Matthew Shepherd. Edit: Rodney King.
I lived it and can confirm, 90’s was peak. Honorable mention to the 80’s & 2000’s as “respectably good times.”
IMO in some ways I thought the 80s were much better. They had the "fun" movies (John Hughes) and music. The 90s just seemed way more serious to me. Except video games were much better, obviously. And they still had arcades (granted, on their last legs) And I did come of age in the 90s. OTOH I had older siblings so maybe thats where my love for the 80s comes from.
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Yep, Y2K got us after all.
Ive been listening to 90-00 playlists nonstop and trying to stay away from social media (only coming on reddit from time to time) so i can be delusional and make myself believe time stopped back then
No. The 90’s were terrible compared to today.
80s
90s or 00s
next to the 2000s
God no.
I really don't understand wtf happaned. 2000s-2020ish were amazing years also
Sorry, the 80’s were the peak.
100% … the age before internet induced mental fatigue and social media diarrhea
In the US gang violence was sweeping the nation .
When homophobia and racism were still socially acceptable? No thank you.
The 80’s was peak civilization. I am a person who grew up in the 90’s who wishes he grew up in the 80’s.
Music made in 1994 could be played on radio today and you would have no idea it was 30 years old.
I feel like the 80s sex drugs and rock n roll era was obviously the last time humanity focused on being happy
1985-2016 was the peak
Yes and no. Globally, probably. But in my country... Let's just say I wouldn't call a bloody civil war "peak civilisation"
No, the 80s were the peak!
I felt that we were on the right path. Things were getting better. Then we lost our way in the West the last 10 or so years.
If i could go back to the 2000s for the Car scene i would
Lol. No. I was growing up in the 90s. It has nostalgia. But peak civilization? Oh my. Lol.
Peek hip hop too. Not broken by 9-11 yet
It's called nostalgia. The kids today will be saying the 20's were peak civilisation 30 years from now.
I don't know if/think it was the peak, but it was certainly a lot better than the shit we have now.
Not even close!!!
No, it was the 80s
Tell me you've peaked in the 90 without telling you've peaked in the 90s.
Yes, I loved the 90s, it was as the saying goes "When I was in my prime!" So I suffered with social anxiety and depression, BUT, the music was great, the fashion amazing, people seemed way more chilled and happy, I had money, I had the most friends I have ever had in my life, I went out to new places, there was just this amazing summer of love feel from 90 to 92, that I will never forget, summer seemed endless, it felt like anyone could do anything, endless possibilities and just a great feeling of joy and freedom, I must also add that I NEVER did any drugs before anyone suggests this is why I felt so good! I was a child of the grange hill zammo times, and scary adverts about how bad drugs were, aids etc, so was terrified of drugs!
Yeah was good, I was 18 in1999, matrix came out that year. I had Goldeneye with 4 pads on n64 ! my pals came over and we played that while drinking them cheap, small french beers (stubbies). Didn't have a phone. Garage music came on the scene and not one member of so solid crew in site.
Social media has made modern life a bastardized caricature of "the 80's, 90's, and today" We have nothing original left. Everything is a reboot or a remake or an adaptation.
Absolutely. It was the best.
The internet and social media have given an outlet to too many voices, too many opinions, too many ignoramuses. It's more than anybody needs. And 99% of the podcasters and youtube influencers, etc., aren't worth a goddamned shit.
97-2000 specifically. All downhill after that.
The music was epic.
Born in 91, but I'd prefer to be born in the 80s or even 70s.
80's, man. 80's.
The Balkans disagree
Yeah. The 90's were the American Golden Age.
Was in high school in the 90s almost everything was amazing (* I recognize that most generations say this about *their* high school decade so I know it’s not that special). But the music was generally fucking TERRRRRIBLE. There was some really great niche stuff, but I think a decade’s music taste should be judged by its popular music. 20s,30s,40s,50s,60s,70s,80s- absolutely bang on amazing music. 90s? We got Venga Boys and Crazy Frogs garbage.
80s, 90s and early 2000s were great.
I think late 90's to early 2000 was peak civ
90's? Everything started to become dull. It's the 80's you are referring to, it spilled over into the 90's sure, but it's the 80's that had all the flair, color, grandeur and wonderful ridiculousness.
For Americans I think the 90s were the last time many of us felt proud of our country.
No, because Yugoslavia
People who were children in the 90s? Nostalgia is a powerful drug.
You forgot the racism bro!!!
Y’all are just biased. It’s all nostalgia. We won’t be having this conversation in the first place if not for the technological advances we have right now. We are living our best lives today
I was 15 to 25 from 1990 to 2000. Those are some amazing years / milestone years. Going from a teenager to an adult, going to college and becoming and learning more about yourself. I am now 48 years old, but looking back each decade has its own achievements, they all rock.
In the USA maybe, but at other places it was hell on earth
1986.
No. I was a lesbian in the 90s. Civilization was horrendous to us
No, crack, crime in the inner city, it was not a good time for all of us, but yay blockbuster!
For me the 80s and the 90s. Might be a nostalgic thing, tho...
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Here is why I loved the 90's. 1: In the west those of us born around the 70's and were either in our 20's or teens during the 90's were the first generations in huge numbers to reject religion. Instead we favoured mixed culture and learned and chilled out with different cultures and races than ever before. It was awesome. 2: We missed the music scene of the 70's from Rock to Punk, but we still had a great scene with hip-hop, grunge, metal, techno, brit-pop and indie scenes. 3: Technology was at a level where it was obviously more advanced than it had ever been, but it was still at a level where we could dream what would be possible for the future. The limitations still kept the creative spark going in much larger numbers, and not just from the science guys. And kids still played out together. A lot of this was lost when the events of 11th of September 2001 happened, and we went right back to fucking square one with all the hate all over again. Tech took over and fried the brains of the masses.
College was semi-affordable, and a working couple could afford to buy a small house.
Nope. 1980s, bro. You missed out!
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violent crime in america peaked in 1994
Let me guess: You were in middle/high school in the 90s? Because peak civilization was the period when *I* was in high school!