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We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

chris.pagecord.com

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Re: We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

#111

Post by wookmaster »

t-3 wrote: post #109
pier25 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure it's not the other way around? That all of this is happening because of social media, phones, etc?

Helicopter parents and keeping kids "safe" by isolating them started before social media and smartphones. Back then, heavy metal, rap music, video games, Dungeons and Dragons were all ruining kids lives and driving them crazy, not social media.

Doesn’t sound right. I play D&D with my kids and play heavy metal which they hate. I’m scared of trafficking and abductions. That’s what social media trained me on putting it in my face all the time. The TV news did similar. Fear sells and we’ve created a fearful society for profit.

Re: We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

#112

Post by wookmaster »

techblueberry wrote: post #55
narrator wrote: post #33

As an old-timer, the biggest difference between now and the 80s and 90s is that in the 80s and 90s entertainment was relatively scarce. An album cost $20, which was a lot in those days. You could get movies, but you had to go to the video store and remember to return them, and the selection was often limited. If you liked some weird band, most record stores didn't have it. In the 80s TV was very limited and you had t…

I've summarized this in some ways as there's nothing weird anymore. Nothing counter-culture. There's this notion some people who grew up in that time have who have become old and cynical which is like "How can anyone who grew up in the 90's be offended by anything. We had South Park!" I was a teenager when The Spirit of Christmas came out, and the great thing about South park is how strange and transgressive it was.…

I think counter culture now is going retro tech, no smart phone, no social media.

Re: We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

#113

Post by pseudalopex »

wookmaster wrote: post #111
t-3 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helicopter parents and keeping kids "safe" by isolating them started before social media and smartphones. Back then, heavy metal, rap music, video games, Dungeons and Dragons were all ruining kids lives and driving them crazy, not social media.

Doesn’t sound right. I play D&D with my kids and play heavy metal which they hate. I’m scared of trafficking and abductions. That’s what social media trained me on putting it in my face all the time. The TV news did similar. Fear sells and we’ve created a fearful society for profit.

Their comment was about the past.

Re: We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

#114

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

anon291 wrote: post #5
adw wrote: post #3

The author is in their forties or fifties. They’re forgetting one important thing; they were young and the world was in front of them.

Every single 'it was better in the X0s' is actually 'i want a tween/young teenager in the X0s'. Everything else is post hoc rationalization I'm jealous of my kids since they are so much better off in every way

College grads have it worse in every way than I did graduating in 1996 from a no name state school in South GA in CS.

I had a job waiting for me in Atlanta after graduating based on an internship that was easy to get. I was able to get a house built at 28 for $170K. Even fast forwarding to 2016 I had a 5/3 3500 square foot home built in the northern burbs of Atlanta built for $335K in the good school system. 8 years later we sold it for $700k and downsized to a condo in Florida for half the price. It would be a stretch for me to buy a $700K home now.

For non college grads in my hometown, there were four or five factories that employed plenty of people with good jobs, all but one is gone.

Re: We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

#115

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #76
verdverm wrote: post #28

Your perception of the best decade is correlated with your age https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/53769-what-are-the...

I've seen a few people point this out in this thread, but, seriously? There's a generation that are going to say the 2020's were the best decade? I think that suggests: 1) Things are getting worse from decade to decade and, 2) If you weren't alive in an earlier decade you don't know how great it was. (Personally, I saw the creek start running with shit when cable TV exploded and at the same time trash AM talk-radio b…

Black people in the South may disagree with you that were still feeling the remnants of Jim Crow - which my still living parents grew up in. I can guarantee you a lot of people “hated them”.

Ask Ruby Bridges - 71 years old - how much people hated her for just going to elementary school.

Re: We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

#116

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

tim333 wrote: post #110
ghusto wrote: post #97

What can we do about it? Genuinely want to know your thoughts. I'm in agreement with everything he says, but I've struggled to see eye to eye with anyone not in my age group. How can we have a constructive conversation about this, come to a consensus that things are not okay now, and move forward?

I guess try to improve stuff? There are experiments going on with banning social media to kids for example. I'm a member of actionforhappiness.org and figure we should emulate societies that people are happy with.

Yes let’s give the governors more power in our lives. What could possibly go wrong.

Re: We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

#117

Post by hubber »

tim333 wrote: post #107
direwolf20 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain

I'm not sure about hubber but in the UK monoculture white english is still there is some places. Like Hertford where I grew up is kind of like that. But it's a bit boring - I prefer London which is all sorts of cultures and nationalities. (Hertford https://metro.co.uk/2023/02/07/hertford-is-the-fifth-happies... )

[flagged]

Re: We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

#118

Post by JKCalhoun »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #115
JKCalhoun wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen a few people point this out in this thread, but, seriously? There's a generation that are going to say the 2020's were the best decade? I think that suggests: 1) Things are getting worse from decade to decade and, 2) If you weren't alive in an earlier decade you don't know how great it was. (Personally, I saw the creek start running with shit when cable TV exploded and at the same time trash AM talk-radio b…

Black people in the South may disagree with you that were still feeling the remnants of Jim Crow - which my still living parents grew up in. I can guarantee you a lot of people “hated them”. Ask Ruby Bridges - 71 years old - how much people hated her for just going to elementary school.

Of course we can always find a marginalized people for any generation. I am speaking as a white male though and not for everyone else.

Re: We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

#119

Post by JKCalhoun »

cal_dent wrote: post #84
JKCalhoun wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen a few people point this out in this thread, but, seriously? There's a generation that are going to say the 2020's were the best decade? I think that suggests: 1) Things are getting worse from decade to decade and, 2) If you weren't alive in an earlier decade you don't know how great it was. (Personally, I saw the creek start running with shit when cable TV exploded and at the same time trash AM talk-radio b…

But this implicitly assumes everyone experiences the 2020s in the same way which is not true. Yes it's a shitshow for many people but for an a not insignificant proportion the 2020s are pretty great.

Wondering who those people are.

Re: We (As a Society) Peaked in the 90s

#120

Post by NoGravitas »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #44
oncallthrow wrote: post #10

This is true, and I think a good indicator of its truth is that basically all generations agree about it. Even Gen Z, who weren’t alive at the time.

Yup that's the thing: it's not only people who lived that era who do wish they could live in it today. I never wanted to live in the post-WW II late 40s/50s: maybe the sixties though. For honestly the late 40s and 50s looked incredibly dull. Just dull: movies were dull, acting was dumb, music was mostly pathetic save for a few exceptions. The boomers really lived the absolute dullest, naive, era and nobody fantasizes…

There was '50s nostalgia in the '80s, though: Happy Days and Back To The Future.

There was some interesting counterculture in the '40s and '50s, but how could there not be when the dominant culture was so conformist and bland. You have to dig at least a little for that stuff today, because those countercultures didn't really become legible until the '60s, when they were already changing into something less interesting.

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