The 90's were such an amazing decade, maybe one of the most perfect in the past 100 years(at least for the US).
You had a outstanding job market for all professions with tech jobs still around if you chose. No wars(besides smaller conflicts in desert storm(91) and Bosnia(98)). Politicians/politics during that time were very moderate, George HW Bush and Clinton both governed from the right and left center respectively. Housing was extremely affordable and if you worked a half decent job you could expect to buy a house in most markets, My Wife's family bought a house in Redwood city and her Dad was in the trades, and Mom worked in printing. A house in the mid-90's in Palo Alto CA would run about $350-400k.
Music was outstanding in grunge(Nirvana, STP, Peal Jam) and hiphop was in its golden age(Wutang, Biggie, Tupac). For TV such classics like Seinfeld, Friends, and Star trek TNG were around. Movies like great sci fi and action movies - Matrix, T2, Jurassic Park and many many others were coming out all the time.
Having been a teenager during that decade I feel really lucky compared to the following decades and how bad they have turned out. The only downside to the 90's was crime was relatively high compared to today, but almost every aspect of life was superior unless you miss social media and glued to a phone(I don't).
What I mostly miss from the 90s is a kind of optimism. Stuff like TV shows and music is pretty banal IMHO, and there's still plenty of good stuff around today (and there was plenty of bad stuff in the 90s too – we just don't remember it as clearly).
But this idea that we might get peace in Israel with the Oslo accords, that the USSR/Russia would no longer be the big "red scare" enemy, that China would be our friend and we could slowly convince them (and Russia) that freedom and democracy was good for everyone, and The Troubles were finally over. Well ... 1 out of 4 held.
Maybe I was just younger, and sure there were going to be problems and challenges, but everything just seemed so much more ... hopeful.
> almost every aspect of life was superior unless you miss social media and glued to a phone(I don't).
That's probably pushing it a bit too far though; trying being gay in the 90s – depending on where exactly you lived that was hugely harder than today. And you could smoke everywhere – it was just accepted. I remember family birthday parties as a child and I would "flee" upstairs because all the smoke just got too much. All the pubs and restaurants: full with smoke. Trains and buses: people smoked. Unthinkable today – that changed very quickly in the early 00s.
And the state of software ... have you seen real-world code from the 90s? Good lord...
There's probably other things I'm not recalling offhand that really were worse in the 90s.
About CDs being "nicer tech", even quite a few people growing up in the CD era disagree with that. Vinyl is more tactile, has bigger album covers, demands more focus in the music (like how it takes more effort to skip). CDs are like an awkward in-between phase between vinyl and downloads/streaming.
Besides it's absolutely not vinyl VOCs that will get you. Compared with health low hanging fruit, from diet and exercize, to stress, bad sleep, to BS substances in modern industrial food and city air pollution, it's beyond insignificant.
As someone who has spanned eras, I don't really disagree. I embraced CDs because they were a lot more practical in many ways, but we did lose something in the process--physicality, album art, etc. The same is true with photography or writing for that matter. Ultimately I've always pretty much embraced the new but I understand why someone wouldn't--especially if forced to live through it.
Yeah, Seinfeld is my go to mental reference for the perfect time period... and I'm not even a huge fan of the show, having only watched bits and pieces
Eh, I think the early days of broadband and wireless routers were it for me. Being able to have multiple devices in the house use an Internet connection was great for school work and such....but before you had the internet in your pocket at all times via a smartphone.
The thing I remember most about the tech is how unreliable it was. Windows 3.1 through to me were terrible compared to what we have now. Also we had to pay for tools like compilers.
subsubzero|2 years ago
You had a outstanding job market for all professions with tech jobs still around if you chose. No wars(besides smaller conflicts in desert storm(91) and Bosnia(98)). Politicians/politics during that time were very moderate, George HW Bush and Clinton both governed from the right and left center respectively. Housing was extremely affordable and if you worked a half decent job you could expect to buy a house in most markets, My Wife's family bought a house in Redwood city and her Dad was in the trades, and Mom worked in printing. A house in the mid-90's in Palo Alto CA would run about $350-400k.
Music was outstanding in grunge(Nirvana, STP, Peal Jam) and hiphop was in its golden age(Wutang, Biggie, Tupac). For TV such classics like Seinfeld, Friends, and Star trek TNG were around. Movies like great sci fi and action movies - Matrix, T2, Jurassic Park and many many others were coming out all the time.
Having been a teenager during that decade I feel really lucky compared to the following decades and how bad they have turned out. The only downside to the 90's was crime was relatively high compared to today, but almost every aspect of life was superior unless you miss social media and glued to a phone(I don't).
arp242|2 years ago
But this idea that we might get peace in Israel with the Oslo accords, that the USSR/Russia would no longer be the big "red scare" enemy, that China would be our friend and we could slowly convince them (and Russia) that freedom and democracy was good for everyone, and The Troubles were finally over. Well ... 1 out of 4 held.
Maybe I was just younger, and sure there were going to be problems and challenges, but everything just seemed so much more ... hopeful.
> almost every aspect of life was superior unless you miss social media and glued to a phone(I don't).
That's probably pushing it a bit too far though; trying being gay in the 90s – depending on where exactly you lived that was hugely harder than today. And you could smoke everywhere – it was just accepted. I remember family birthday parties as a child and I would "flee" upstairs because all the smoke just got too much. All the pubs and restaurants: full with smoke. Trains and buses: people smoked. Unthinkable today – that changed very quickly in the early 00s.
And the state of software ... have you seen real-world code from the 90s? Good lord...
There's probably other things I'm not recalling offhand that really were worse in the 90s.
unknown|2 years ago
[deleted]
coldtea|2 years ago
Besides it's absolutely not vinyl VOCs that will get you. Compared with health low hanging fruit, from diet and exercize, to stress, bad sleep, to BS substances in modern industrial food and city air pollution, it's beyond insignificant.
ghaff|2 years ago
gosub100|2 years ago
I know, it's playing them backwards :o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTpK87Eqzbs&t=10s
airstrike|2 years ago
sylens|2 years ago
Early 2000s
Cthulhu_|2 years ago
csdvrx|2 years ago
Gross
I don't like the values I see in the 1990s TV shows.
However I love the tech, like CDs:
> CD audio is a little bit nicer tech. They
I love CDs! I even got a CD player in my car!
After trying them, I've found I really don't like vinyles or mechanical keyboards so maybe it's not just every 1990s tech I like, just some of it
wannacboatmovie|2 years ago
You think the world is better off now that we've traded Family Matters and Step by Step for the likes of Euphoria?
tonyedgecombe|2 years ago