On nostalgia for the 90s

I hear ya but "we had our first really bad school shooting" VS "there was a school shooting a month ago that killed 4 and injured 9 and no one even talked about it because they happen so often" only adds to the 90's being more positive and optimistic.

Good points. I think the biggest difference is there was greater hope in what technology could offer the future. The "gadgets" were life changing, and it seemed like we were going to take climate change seriously for a couple years. "Enshittification" has waned that hope

Zoomers could never understand “Steal My Sunshine”, “You Get What You Give”, “All Star”, and “Tubthumping” all being radio hits at the same time

Jason, how could you possibly be pessimistic during a decade where you could turn on a Top 40 radio station and hear ska music? Ska music sounds how a 8-year old feels when he finds out mom is making mac & cheese for dinner

I graduated in 1996. My friends who didn't immediately get a job all went back for some kind of IT/Y2K prevention. The times were booming back then up until the DotCom bust.

Climate change effects weren’t very acute then, the far right was still a distant fringe, no Covid killing millions and disabling millions more. No internet does play a role in perception, but the 90’s were empirically better across the board.

The 90's were optimistic for me. Computers, and then shortly after the internet, were becoming accessible to even a poor kid like me. I saw a road to create my own future and I took it. There were bad things around but there was hope that I could create a future for myself.

This argument has merit. But I think the other point is social media has objectively made the world worse. The amount of cancellations, embarrassing small things driving kids to suicide, mass organized mobs, and family destruction over social media posts has taken its toll.

This is a point that bothers me every time people say "Things are worst than ever". No, man. Things are considerably better now. The issue is that it used to be whenever something bad happened we'd hear about it weeks or months later if ever. Now we hear it instantly.