I think we massively over-romanticize the 90s and early 2000s.
By @hollyfr · Nostalgia
My younger coworkers keep talking about the 90s like it was some perfect utopia. I actually lived through it as a teen and I think they're forgetting a lot of the bad parts.
The full story
I'm a manager at my job (41F) and most of my team is in their early-to-mid 20s. We have a good relationship and usually our age gap is just funny, but lately their obsession with the 90s/Y2K is driving me up a wall. It's all 'the fashion was so cool!' and 'music was real back then!' and 'I wish I grew up without the internet.' I finally had to say something. Do they not remember how hard it was to get information? If you missed an episode of a show, that was it, you just missed it. You had to physically go to a library and use an encyclopedia for school projects. If you got lost, you had to find a pay phone and hope you had a quarter. My first job paid like $5.15 an hour and that was normal. A pay phone! My niece didn't even know what I was talking about. And the fashion? We have all collectively agreed to forget the ultra low-rise jeans, the crunchy hair gel, the terrible frosted tips on guys. It wasn't all cool grunge and cute little butterfly clips. A lot of it was a mess. They see these curated TikToks of the best-of-the-best and think that's how everyone walked around every day. It's like they've built this entire fantasy world around a decade they didn't even experience as sentient beings. I feel like a crazy person trying to explain that while, yes, some things were simpler, a lot of things were just...worse? Or at least way more inconvenient. My one coworker told me I sounded bitter, but I think I'm just being realistic.
How people voted
- Facts — 30% (85 votes)
- Depends — 40% (115 votes)
- No Way — 30% (85 votes)
Readers are split: “Depends” leads with 40% — 285 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@tessee — Why do they care so much about a decade they weren't even alive for?
@oscarmaybe — bruh
@tateactually — Nostalgia is just a liar.
@coleyy — Soft.
@ashagain — nah let them have their fun lol its not that serious
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