idk. i wasn't that happy.

well yeah some people are gonna be happy and unhappy and i'm sorry that you weren't! just mean in general

I was a kid, it was a happy time for me. But in the case of society? I could not tell you.

... nope.

I was just a little goober pooper playing with my Thomas train sets and that's why it was better

From what I know from my dad he said it was a slower time. Floppy disk was still a thing and it holds almost no data compared to today. And before dvd there were CDs that were played on the PS1. As for movies they were played on VHS. If you managed to get a dvd player before the year 2000 then you were stacked.

I felt a shift in vibes from the 90s to the 00s, but yeah 90s were alright.

the origin of my question is i watched a documentary on the beanie baby craze and made me wonder

I do miss my bean bag

Nostalgia up to a point (80s kid/90s teenager, for reference). Things weren't perfect, and we definitely had our share of problems, but the world seemed to be headed in a positive direction with the fall of the Berlin Wall, dissolution of the USSR, and general economic health of the US and most of our trading partners at that time.

But that's all macro stuff.

The things that I think most people miss are how relatively uncomplicated our lives felt before the advent of social media. MySpace wasn't even a thing until I was in college; Facebook launched for university students the year after I graduated. We had the internet, sure, but most online contacts occurred through platforms like AIM or Yahoo Chat. For the most part, folks used the internet for information--it didn't leak into literally every aspect of our lives, and we weren't bombarded with constant "your life isn't good enough" comparisons to "influencers" who curate the ♥♥♥♥ out of every shot they show.

Given, we did have celebrities and advertisements on cable, but the scale and consistency of the "you're doing it wrong" message just isn't comparable.

In many ways, our personal worlds were smaller, but they were more focused--and felt more genuine for it. I'm glad I can easily keep in touch with friends halfway across the globe, or former students who reach out, but the loss of focused, local connection is not worth the tradeoff, I think.

Oh, one other thing: life felt like it still held surprises back then. This bit, in particular, may just be "old man perspective" talking, but having to wait on a magazine to find out about new games, or films, or music might feel obnoxious today, but back then it felt exciting; there was an anticipation in going to the mailbox that just doesn't exist in this era of constant leaks and instant announcements. Driving to the mall to pick up a game was an adventure in itself; you'd pile your buddies in the car, head out, grab the game, grab lunch, and maybe cruise a bit before going home to play.

Now? Now I just click "purchase" and wait on a download that would've taken a year or more on my old 28.8 modem--or even the "super fast" 56kFlex.

It just feels like some of the life has gone out of the world in the name of instant access and convenience--and the *constant* stream of doom and gloom from online news sources doesn't help.

Also, our music was better--largely because not everything was a "sample" overlaid with some goofball who's been autotuned to within an inch of their lives. The number of remakes/"remixes" of stuff I listened to thirty years ago just beggars belief.

Pitbull, in particular, can take a long walk off a short pier for what he did to Bon Jovi's "It's My Life."

better times than now

Originally posted by An Irate Walrus:

Nostalgia up to a point (80s kid/90s teenager, for reference). Things weren't perfect, and we definitely had our share of problems, but the world seemed to be headed in a positive direction with the fall of the Berlin Wall, dissolution of the USSR, and general economic health of the US and most of our trading partners at that time.

But that's all macro stuff.

The things that I think most people miss are how relatively uncomplicated our lives felt before the advent of social media. MySpace wasn't even a thing until I was in college; Facebook launched for university students the year after I graduated. We had the internet, sure, but most online contacts occurred through platforms like AIM or Yahoo Chat. For the most part, folks used the internet for information--it didn't leak into literally every aspect of our lives, and we weren't bombarded with constant "your life isn't good enough" comparisons to "influencers" who curate the ♥♥♥♥ out of every shot they show.

Given, we did have celebrities and advertisements on cable, but the scale and consistency of the "you're doing it wrong" message just isn't comparable.

In many ways, our personal worlds were smaller, but they were more focused--and felt more genuine for it. I'm glad I can easily keep in touch with friends halfway across the globe, or former students who reach out, but the loss of focused, local connection is not worth the tradeoff, I think.

Oh, one other thing: life felt like it still held surprises back then. This bit, in particular, may just be "old man perspective" talking, but having to wait on a magazine to find out about new games, or films, or music might feel obnoxious today, but back then it felt exciting; there was an anticipation in going to the mailbox that just doesn't exist in this era of constant leaks and instant announcements. Driving to the mall to pick up a game was an adventure in itself; you'd pile your buddies in the car, head out, grab the game, grab lunch, and maybe cruise a bit before going home to play.

Now? Now I just click "purchase" and wait on a download that would've taken a year or more on my old 28.8 modem--or even the "super fast" 56kFlex.

It just feels like some of the life has gone out of the world in the name of instant access and convenience--and the *constant* stream of doom and gloom from online news sources doesn't help.

Also, our music was better--largely because not everything was a "sample" overlaid with some goofball who's been autotuned to within an inch of their lives. The number of remakes/"remixes" of stuff I listened to thirty years ago just beggars belief.

Pitbull, in particular, can take a long walk off a short pier for what he did to Bon Jovi's "It's My Life."

as hard it is for people to believe me, i grew up without social media being 19 now, and i do wonder if thats why i'm different lol

Gas was cheap.
Paying more than $1 for a 20 oz Mt. Dew was unthinkable. And you often got a prize bottle cap for a freebie.
Game developers were true wizards and master storytellers.
The Internet was still a wonderland where everything wasn't consolidated into a few nosy spyware-filled platforms.

I didn't see much point in Myspace, and even less point in any of the ♥♥♥♥ that came after. ♥♥♥♥ social media.

Originally posted by Electric Cupcake:

Gas was cheap.
Paying more than $1 for a 20 oz Mt. Dew was unthinkable. And you often got a prize bottle cap for a freebie.
Game developers were true wizards and master storytellers.
The Internet was still a wonderland where everything wasn't consolidated into a few nosy spyware-filled platforms.

Dude. Gas was 88 cents a gallon when I first started driving; feels like 9/11 was really the precipitating event for a lot of things, including gas prices rising and then refusing to come back down below a certain point.

Remember being able to walk to the departure gate with a friend at the airport without needing a ticket/security check?

...also, we had Jolt back then. And Surge. How any of us survived without significant heart rhythm problems, I'll never know.

Yes it was pretty damn nice. World was full of hope and things seemed to get better and move towards better future. Games were good, music was good, movies were ok.
Soviet Union broke apart, Cold War seemed over etc.
Then after 2010 everything started to go to hell and now here we are with nothing but multiple extinction variations.