Older millenials nostalgic for the good ole' days
From Redditor The_Law_of_Pizza in the "older millennials of reddit: what was life like in the 2000s?" thread:
The 90s and 2000s were a perfect blend of comfortable analog life and the tantalizing promise of a digital future.
It was a time when you could go to the mall and literally be disconnected from everyone but the friends you met there. Your parents couldn't call you. Your work couldn't call you. None of you were staring at a screen texting people who weren't there. It was just you mall rats, your shopping, and the food court.
But it was also a period when you might have a beeper, or an early cell phone, or a palm pilot - things that were amazing at the time, and made you feel like you were living in the future. It's hard to convey that feeling to somebody who has grown up in the digital era; but try to imagine living in a world where getting separated from your friends at the mall meant an hour of searching for them store by store - and then suddenly having a small flip phone you call them on.
The technology was just advanced enough to be incredibly useful without being advanced enough yet to consume you.
It was a time when every year brought insane leaps in technology - jumping from 2D graphics to fully 3D Voodoo-powered wonder.
Think about it. This period literally went from Super Mario World to Batman Arkham Asylum.
These were real, genuine and exciting things to look forward to rather than just the year's new iPhone with a slightly enhanced camera that you only pretend to see the difference in.
The internet itself was still a new, wild frontier. It hadn't been captured by huge corporate interests yet, and wasn't overrun by the lowest common denominators spamming social media for clicks and dollars. There simply wasn't a big financial incentive yet, so everybody who was surfing those digital waves was just there to have fun.
It's a time that will probably never come again.
Millenials have officially reached the age of nostalgia for our childhood. This rings very true to my feelings of that era, but also I'm keenly aware of the overlooking of the problematic portions (anti-LGBTQ masked in the most measly of willingness to acknowledge gay people, as just one example.)
Regarding the framing for technology of the era, it's 100% true. I had a pager in high school, then a cell phone, and a palm pilot. I yearned for more and more technology in my life. I learned HTML as I became addicted to the Internet and its possibilities. I started blogging in this time. I was on IRC more than I am on Twitter these days.
Wild stuff to think back on. And oh god I feel older and older every day.
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