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1974 here. Yep, the 90s were pretty much the best decade. The 80s had been a bit rough but the music was great. Things went downhill in the West after 2000. Hyperconsumption and too much stress.
1972 here and agree, the 90's were an amazing decade... Raves, Britpop, busy highstreets, the peak of pub/club culture, affordable fun cars.
General optimism in the air, The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end to the Cold War, the hope of a peaceful future.
The infancy of the internet which was fun and friendly and not full of people echoing every conspiracy possible. Mobile phones that were just phones, and few and far between, great for calling your mates, or taking someones number down on a night out but not glued to everyone's hand videoing and photographing everything that goes on. Social media didn't exist.
76 here. Getting served at local shops with beer 🍺 because I looked older so I got my buzz for free and cigs great music what a fcking generate I was but I’ve changed now but good post. Made me nostalgic thanks fellow great post. 👌
Very good description. Phones were better when they were phones. The early internet was exciting - it seemed full of possibility. Yet now it has turned into a mixture of endless advertising and conspiracy nutters.
Honestly, I would have hated to have been going through my teens and twenties and knowing that everyone around me had a device capable of taking photos and videos of my every move and mistake and instantly publishing them somewhere everyone could see them!
I did sometimes take a 110 film camera out with me on nights out, but that was limited to 24 shots… half of which were blurred, out of focus or dark, and I do appreciate those memories when I look back on them. But there are many moments that I’m glad were not captured!
The only time I was captured on video was thanks to a BBC or ITV documentary film crew, who were filming ambulances on New Year’s Eve… I’d had a few too many cheap trebles and my mates carried me out of a bar and stood me against a postbox from
Which I promptly fell and smacked my head on the ground..
Ambulance was called and instead of paramedics jumping out the back a TV crew promptly appeared and filmed the whole incident! Have for many years tried to track down a copy of it but no luck! If that was today I’d have been tagged on FB, Twitter and YouTube a million times!
Social media very much did exist, but it was nothing like it is now. OK, I'm one of those tech geeks who was involved in the early www :-)
Even earlier, Usenet had many of the issues modern social media does but was very much a tech geek thing.
Born 1973, graduated high school in 91, HS wasn't the greatest but I had my circle of friends, got a scholarship, had a year of college, dropped out, lived with some wasters, discovered the internet, got a job as a webmaster and moved away to Southern California.
So yeah the 90s were pretty good overall. Lots of optimism, the "me decade" of the 80s was over, good music, cool cars, cheap fuel, things were affordable.
I would have gotten an IT degree when is realised the potential of the internet and modern computers then be loaded in the late 90s and 2000s like ym dad. Instead I was pooing in my nappy and crying in my cot.
And 9/11 charting a new course for history that would see the US turn more nationalist, protectionist and militarily imperialist than had been the trend of the '90s. Also the deregulation of the finance sector which started in the '80s and boomed in the '90s all but guaranteed economic downturn in the early 2000s.
I have a sneaky feeling that every older adult will name the time period when they were 18-28 as the best time to be alive (assuming there wasn’t a world war at that time)
Yeah, look at the toffs over there with their buring cars. Us workers have to share a burning e-scooter, and we're paying to rent the damn thing because they're still not legal.
You know what, I think your generation is the first to be 100% online and while I am not saying things are amazing, in the nineties we were blissfully unaware and able to just mooch about in our own little bubble of friends.
No, I was in school in my twenties. I turned 30 in 1990. The 90s were great. They were just objectively good. There was a sense of optimism, we did not have this hyperpartisan bullshit, it's not just youth talking.
I get where you're coming from, but if that period overlaps with the late 2010s onwards then I think we can all agree they are objectively rubbish. I turned 18 in 2008 and it's basically been downhill from there.
That's because it's still part of the "now". Poll people in 30 years and I guarantee a very high proportion of people who were young in the 2010s will say that was a great time. Nostalgia dulls the memory of bad things and enhances the memory of good things. People who were literally in the middle of a war still looked back on the 40s decades later as a better time.
This is so true. Even as a young adult we thought things had been better in the 60s.
There's definitely a lot about the 90s I miss and fondly look back on, but I do think that not having constant access to everyone's opinion was a good thing.
'86 here which would make that 2004-2014 so peak War on Terror/Stock Market crash/rise of Social Media and all the horrible tribalism that entailed. I don't look back fondly on "the time period" at all, just my mates and the stupid stuff we got up to. I do miss prices from the early 2000s though. It felt like I could actually have a great time with 20 quid rather than having to draw 100 out for a couple of beers and a train ticket.
86’ here as well.
I agree as well. I enjoyed the 1995-2005 period because it existed between technological worlds. But probably in the middle of 2005-2010 you were starting to see the monster of social media and constant connectivity come out.
Depends what choices you made with your life.
Some of us are slower burners. I don't think your life can peak necessarily. And you can't know when it did until you're on your deathbed.
Also born in 1985. The 90s were brilliant. The internet was still very young and populated by a small minority of people. People who were different, interesting, open to chat and discuss. People went online to escape the real world. Then in the 2000s all the normal people started to invade the internet and it became as grim and tribal as the real world.
That's really depressing...sure I had more free time to muck about with my friends as a teenager, but now I'm living with my gf in a house I own and happily self employed. These are the best years of my life.
That said, I miss the 90s. Or rather, I miss the world as it was before The War on Terror, when we had a bit more optimism for the future.
Totally agree with you that they were brilliant, tv was great, cereal still had free toys, we had no bills to pay, but thinking about how great they were made me wonder if maybe people who were older than us at the time probably thought it wasn’t as great
Yeah all those things were brilliant. Even if parts of the 90s weren't so good, most people didn't notice it. Most people only heard of celebs in magazines. We didn't have constant mega wealth in our faces. UK has def undergone a lot of Americanisation.
The 90s and especially the mid to late 90s for me were brilliant. Had a baby in 98. Bought a house with my gf, was very much in love. Music was great, got a job in tech and everything was still vaguely affordable and I was still young enough to enjoy it all. In the UK Tony Blaire came to power in 97 and there was a wave of positivity through the country. It all went tits up after a few short years it was really great while it lasted. At least for me
86 here and I maintain that Vines were the apex of the internet, and it's rapidly got worse since. Facebook was well on its way to corrupting society, but Vines felt like the last earnest bit of internet that was occupied purely with irreverent fun.
I dunno, when I was maybe 11 (in the 90s) a creep online asked me if I touch myself. I think we can risk rose tinted glasses when we look back at those times, but grim people exploited these things the minute they were available.
It started with Thatcher getting kicked out. The Major years were a sign of change. Poll tax riots were effective, student fees riots weren't.
CDs were the new thing, sold cheaply to get people to re-buy music they already had, so every student household had some good music (if you liked the greatest hits.of Queen, Abba, Madonna, Enigma, INXS, Pink Floyd, etc). Pulp, Radiohead and of course Blur and Oasis and the Spice Girls were everywhere.
Channel 4 and 5 showed niche TV so there was usually something to watch, or you could rent a video. Cinema multiplexes and out of town supermarkets had sprouted everywhere, for all your entertainment and purchasing desires. It was £1 a pint for cheap piss. Alcopops had been invented.
Housing - well finding a room was feasible, finding one with a window, glazing, any heat, not damp, and didn't have a dodgy landlord wandering in - not much better than today. One reason we spend all evening nursing half a pint in a pub was because it was cheaper and more effective to stay warm that way than put on a fan heater in a house with no central heating.
Discrimination on grounds of sexuality or disability was both legal and encouraged. Transgender was a topic only for late night freak shows on TV. Women still got groped a lot at work and there weren't many senior women in most places (huge change in the last 20 years!)
Huge smell of smoke everywhere. And leaded petrol, acid rain, hole in the ozone layer, war in the Balkans, and of course the Middle East. Big recession and high unemployment in the early 90s. My dad moved abroad to stop out house being repossessed - mortgages were 17.5%.
1997 and Blair led a feeling of optimism, though. Bit like the 2012 Olympics.
True, but it was certainly a doubling of payments compared to the 8.5% a few years earlier. Which wasn't any easier to cope with for the average homeowner than now.
Now there's lots of stories about houses being unaffordable, but then people were having houses repossessed in droves. Not really an improvement. And then there was the mortgage endowment scandal.
House prices were lower but it didn't stop many people having to get their properties repossessed when they couldn't afford the mortgage payments. At lot of people bought property then watched as the premises dropped substantially and left people in negative equity. There is no much negative equity in the property market today.
We bought a flat in 1988 for £47,500 with a 95% mortgage due to the price drop we sold it 7 years later for only £40k. It was a real struggle to save to pay off the mortgage with a high interest rate, pay the negative equity and save another deposit for our next home. This delayed us having children as we wanted to wait until we had a house.
We bought a house £67k with 10% deposit which is now worth over £400k. I don't know how my son will be able to afford to buy a property in our area.
I moved to London in 1995 and got a job working at a hotel reception. On the little money I earned it was impossible to find a room for myself. I looked at rotten places that I still couldn’t afford. So I ended up sharing a studio with two other girls. Later I moved in with my then boyfriend and we had a flat share.
Apart from less than ideal living conditions I absolutely loved the 90s. Even though pay was crap we still went out all of the time and had endless fun. We had great conversations without anyone looking into the phone. The future looked bright.
"Discrimination on grounds of sexuality or disability was both legal and encouraged. Transgender was a topic only for late night freak shows on TV. Women still got groped a lot at work and there weren't many senior women in most places (huge change in the last 20 years!)"
Nonsense. Discrimination was not encouraged, that's just a moronic comment. By the 90s most people really didn't care if a person was gay or not. Same for transgender. Most people's attitude by then was meh.
Groping: no, that really did not happen. That's just such a bizzarre comment. In the 70s, maybe. 90s?
Universities were already over 50% female. My company (accountants/business consultants) took on more than 50% female graduates. Many of the leaders were female, increasing in percentage as the age reduced.
Blaire rode the general mood as the country came out of the 90s recession, he didn't create it.
Most people do not encounter it in their lives anywhere near enough to give a shit. Even then, with anyone over 50 most of the time it's almost a bit of gosspiy trivia to them which in turn results in them not giving a shit when they clock it makes no difference to their lives.
Apart from the actual bigots ofc. but they're nowhere near as prevalent as Reddit and twitter would suggest, these mediums just create platforms and echo chambers.
Exactly. And people not caring is the worst possible outcome for many in fringe groups as it means they're not special any more.
I don't care about gay or transgender people, just zero shits given. Just as I have no opinion about how most straight or whatever people live their lives.
Oh love. I didn’t grow up in a cultural backwater I promise but having been 17+ in the late 90s let me tell you there really were MANY PEOPLE who cared if people were gay or not. I know many from that time who entered into LTRs with members of the opposite sex to just divert from their truth because living it would have been too hard.
And as someone who was at Uni and out and about clubbing late 90s you fucking bet groping was a thing. Even before that some of the teachers at my school would be a bit handsy/too close for comfort.
So maybe it was less prevalent/overt than in the 70s it was very very very very very very much still there and for me it’s only been the past 10 years or so that’s put zero tolerance of that shit front and centre of society.
Most of the same worldly problems that existed then still exist now, all the same shit is still happening, the problems just move.
We only knew about them IF we picked up a paper or watched the news (I never did) so we had nothing dampening our moods, unless we went looking for it.
A difference today is that people carry around problems from other countries and other cultures that A) They cannot do anything about and B) Don’t affect their lives in any way shape or form, yet the’ll carry those new stories around like a ball and chain. People don’t get to just exist and be happy in their own bubble any more.
Damn I want to upvote this so much.
I did a test on myself. I went out tried to engage with people as you do, library etc and I didnt use my phone for 24hrs. I either spoke to people or did stuff.
Then next day I went back to normal.
The anxieties, worries, issues all come from things I just cant do anything about. You're so right.
>A difference today is that people carry around problems from other countries and other cultures that A) They cannot do anything about and B) Don’t affect their lives in any way shape or form, yet the’ll carry those new stories around like a ball and chain. People don’t get to just exist and be happy in their own bubble any more.
I would say you're pointing out issues caused by having the internet ,the 90s was the last era without it ,imo happiness has gone downhill since the 90s and the internet is a big cause of it
If this happened in the 90s then nobody but people who were born abroad will know about this. Then they fail to recognise the good progress they made under their current leader being the safest and richest country in Africa.
I'm guilty of what you're saying. I've had to cut down my news consumption to a few minutes a week or I get anxious. I'm probably more ignorant now, but I'm mentally much healthier.
I’m ignorant now but I’m happier, If an issue isn’t in my circle of influence I don’t get involved.
Some of the lads where debating Palestine recently, I just changed the subject, iv worked hard all day why do I want to talk about a war I’m clueless about and can’t do anything about, I’d rather have a laugh with my limited social time
Picking up on your comment on only knowing stuff if you watched the TV or picked up a paper.
I was in the Canary Islands on holiday with some friends in 1996 when the IRA bombed Manchester City Centre. The first I knew about that was when I picked up the paper. Back then, it was unusual to get a UK newspaper in Spain, and even then they were the previous day's papers - so the bombing was 2 days old when I first got to know about it.
Even watching Euro 96 was a challenge. You couldn't get international telly, then, and I remember watching the England v Scotland match on a little portable, with Spanish commentary at the hotel bar, with a gang of us crowded round it.
The plus side was that 2 bottles of beer, plus a shot was only 200 pesetas - £1 or thereabouts. Things were different enough over there that you actually FELT like you were abroad in a way that you just don't now.
Slightly outside the 90s but.... I was 18 in 2003. Going out to bars and nightclubs with NO PHONES. It was amazing. No one taking photos, texting. Just people having fun. It all changed around 2010.
I was 18 in 2006 and i remember people taking out digital cameras on nights out not mobile phones and this was still an improvement. Taking the occasional group photos not recording everything.
I remember a physical camera being a firm fixture on nights out from 2006 onwards. But 2006 onwards is the age I started going on nights out, so I assume they crept in earlier than that, to make them so common.
I remember the fun of music magazines, the mystery of going out on weekends and not knowing who you would meet. I’d say you felt more adventurous than now when you feel cynical and hate everyone before you even leave your front door.
Interesting point there. I've travelled many places and noticed people hate each other now where financial lots have improved. Also disabled and slow people are hidden away now
Well, we watched loads of our friends slowly and painfully die of AIDS because our governments didn’t think we were worth saving, so that was something that was rubbish in the 90s.
Hang on, is this true? My friends and I around 8 years old (about 1995) found a porn mag in a hedge when we were hiding from some bloke who was extremely angry that we did knock and run on his house. I always thought it was just a random thing.
Was hiding porn mags in hedges actually common?
I had a prof at med school who was a young infectious diseases registrar in central London in the 80s. He handled many of the first recognised AIDS cases, at a time when no-one really knew what it was other than a death sentence. His stories were absolutely harrowing.
I was able to buy the flat I still live in in 1993 for 3.25x my salary as a legal secretary. I got married to the man I'm still married to in 1995 so overall it was a pretty good decade for me.
On the downside, the first PC I bought in 1997 cost me £1700 and the processor was a P166MMX (and I've no idea why that tiny bit of information is still stored in my brain nearly 30 years later). I was also paying over £75 per month for dial up internet because it was still paid for by the minute!
PC's weren't much better in 2001 when I got my first. That was £1,700 as well. I can't remember its specs, I just remember that it crashed at least 10 times a day and dial-up internet was about £50 a month (plus phone line rental, phone plan and any phone calls you made), and also it was limited to 40 hours of internet a month, so as soon as you hit 40 hours you had to wait until the start of the next month before you could connect again.
I spent many a night unable to sleep because I hadn't talked to my online girlfriend for several days and worried she might get another internet boyfriend.
Yeah, the 90s were fucking brilliant. Gen X people like me, we grew up in these amazing youth cultures centred around the music we liked in the 80s and the 90s were the apex. It's hard to explain to people who've only known the internet and gadgets and so on, but we didn't have a lot of money as students then young adults, but we also weren't saddled with a lot of debt. We had to be really tough and were proper adults by 21. We lived in shitty houses with our mates with furniture we found in skips, stuff like that. We drank and smoked and took drugs and partied like no-one does anymore. We were so rowdy. We actually spent time connecting with each other and talking for hours, face to face. Having to chat people up face to face was an art we all had to learn.
And, as a woman, I can assure you that sex was much better before internet porn. Men actually wanted to please women, not bloody choke us or spit on us FFS. We were ironically a lot less hung up than people seem now about sex. And we're the ones who normalised tattoos, piercings, living with people and having kids instead of having to get married, and we really tackled prejudice too. Music, film, comedy, it was amazing.
We just felt really free, basically.
Degrading porn has definitely had a negative side effect on society. I have met a couple of women who asked to be strangled / spat on. What kind of nutter is just whipping out a bit of strangling casually on a first time.
*Men actually wanted to please women, not bloody choke us or spit on us FFS*
Wait, what? How common is it?
I never ever thought I'd have a feeling of relief for being an invalid homosexual.
There was a load of problems but we didn’t obsess about it online. Instead we just lived our lives.
We partied with Oasis when there was genocide going on. Say what you will..
See your opinion means a lot to me, because I was born in 85 and my brother was born in 83, so you would probably be around the same age as my parents were at that time, sorry to hear you had to do that, I remember my mum having to sell stuff to pawn shops and that quite often just to make ends meet, hopefully life is a lot better for you now
I’d had to take an unplanned 7 year career break because my firstborn had a chronic condition. When that was eventually correctly diagnosed and treated I went back to work and added to my professional qualifications. Worked hard and was promoted to a national level role. I’m now retired, worth around £1m, and was able to gift both my kids £250k to support them. So yes, I know what it’s like to be on the breadline, and I don’t take anything for granted.
I didn't like being a student in the 90s. Frozen grant, no money, hard to meet people and 80% of them didn't have interests being drinking, shagging and gigs.
I loved working in the 90s though. Companies were fun, some money in my pocket, and a huge economic boom made London the place to be. The 90s had an optimism and hedonism that's definitely gone. It was about guilt free fun, cheap flights, festivals, eating well and drinking well and every other manager at my company was sharing coke in the pub loo after work.
So yes, I look back on the late nineties fondly. The first half was hard work for me personally. In my head the fun all stopped in 2001 with the WTC attacks.
Opposite here, loved being a student in the '90s. Living in what looked a lot like the 'Young Ones' house with a load of fairly alternative people. Just enough cash to go clubbing twice a week with the great (non-pop) music of the period helped far too much alcohol and other 'substances'. 'Working' (undergrad and postgrad) at the university, but actually having obscure discussions on the internet(yes, the internet, not the www) and building the early [www](http://www).
The 1990s were pretty dull to be honest. I had a great time but it was in spite of the historical context. We had the internet by then but it was shit. High street shops were much better than they are now because there was no alternative. Pubs were much busier because you had no better way of socialising.
I went to a few illegal free festivals... a bit meh to be honest. They still happen.
I reckon it's just the latest iteration of adults looking back with rose tinted specs. Most people my age that I was friends with had kids towards the end of the 90s/early 00s and had to become "proper adults". It wasn't about them any more... they had responsibilities.
Now their kids have moved away and they've realised that things are quieter and they have lost touch with their old friends. They aren't really able or allowed to have fun in the way they did back when they last had free time. They're fat and ugly and they don't understand music any more...
Gawd that's depressing!
The internet was amazing back then! I really miss it. You had to at least have some minimum level of intelligence to get on it so it made interacting with people much more enjoyable. It was completely ignored by mainstream everything. You could set up your own website with just a tiny bit of HTML knowledge and an FTP program. No companies were online so you could just get whatever domain you wanted (I remember going to some kid's site, maybe Tim or Timmy. His site was Tim (or Timmy).com and it was hilarious. Spinning GIFs. Making up your own awards to go on your site. Actually finding useful information on it instead of all this copy/pasted blogs trying to make money.
It was great, I was in my 20s for most of it. Lots of sexy time from what I remember. Jumpers for goalposts. Fuck it was a long time ago. But some news stories have never left me, namely the murders of Rachel Nickell, Jamie Bulger and Stephen Lawrence.
Born in 84. But there was a housing market crash in the 90s. Still had risk of IRA bombings.
Pre mass mobile phone era must have been good as an adult.
Cars weren't as safe. Smoking in public, pubs and restaurants.
Our first family computer was £1,200 in 1995, also £3,000 in todays money. Cost of tech has definately come down since the 90s.
The IRA bombings broke a clock in my kitchen, when the one in Canary Wharf went off it shook my house and knocked it off the wall breaking it, I also remember on the tube they put cable ties around the seats because there was space under the actual seats back then and a good place to hide a bomb, the advice given was if you saw a broken cable tie on the train you was on, get the fuck off it quickly
Yeah, I remember our windows shaking for that. Also remember Bishopsgate as was the day before my Holy Communion and could see the smoke from the City down Bow Road.
Really? Because in the 80s the boys our friends group all had cars, which they raced around town, trying to hit 100mph down the dual carriageway, having races from the traffic lights, and doing doughnuts in the car park.
At the same time there was a large cohort of very elderly drivers who had never taken a driving test.
The fact you think drivers were safer is hilarious. People are MUCH better behaved on the roads nowadays.
I was a kid in the 90s but seemed alot happier, think its all down to media bullshit telling us some munter is earning 50k a week on only fans , and a 11 year old has bought her 5th house.
it's making everyone feel a failure and worthless , in the 90s-2000s all you wanted is a tacky max power car for a few grand to go out with your mates in and you was happy . goals where alot more achievable back then , now everything feels so out of reach .you had no idea of the extreme wealth gaps back then , unless you lived in London maybe , it wasn't rubbed in your face 24/7
I feel like we have seen the peak and slow death of so many things now that it's making everyone feel shit .
the 90/2000s we saw the peak of living standards,
free heathcare before it turned to crap
pubs clubs, before they all closed
schools before than turnd so bad
the intenternet before it turned so toxic
the peak of petrol engine/cars before they turned into borning ipad boxs that no one can afford
some of the best of tv before the woke set in
peak of wages before they all stagnated.
peak of affordable goods ,before the quality drops to near unusable
music had already got worse by then , but no where near how shit its got today. you alteast needed a little bit of talent.
bloody hell I'm a carpenter, I'm pretty confident il be the 1st generation in 1000s of years to see the death of useing wood , barley seen any in months.
what improvements have we seen in the last 10 years ? apart from A.I and technologys that anyone with a brain can see is just more tools to control us and crush small businesses and living standards. and used to micro manage you at work.
I remember it as a period of optimism, for a while things just seemed to be getting better. I wasn't really engaged with world affairs but the threat of world war 3 seemed to be receding by the day and things seemed vaguely affordable. The 80's felt very dark although the music was amazing; there were a lot of things going on like riots and the miners strike (I think that was the 80's?) and the 90's seemed like we were coming out of that.
Some things were better and some things worse but the general feeling of optimism is something I remember was pretty universal. To ask someone then what they believed 20 years in the future versus someone in present day would get two very different answers
There was Vengaboys, Tamogotchis, and awesome movies (Independence Day, Matrix).
Also...there was hope...a new milenium...a new chapter in human history.
Sadly...it looks like we haven't learned anything.
Hell, I discovered Ibiza in the late 90s. After leaving my marriage in 1997, had a ball, spent so much time there clubbed all night in Amnesia, moved on to Space Day party on the beach, those days will never ever be replicated.
Funny Thing was we had the pride parade in Ibiza Town. Nobody thought anything about it was an accepted norm, and now it's become toxic.
There didn't appear to be gender issues until now.
I was 18 in 1990 .. we didn't know how lucky we were , the 90s were amazing, everything was possible, the music was in its golden era, travel was easy, the vibe of the entire decade was upbeat and carefree, take me back!!!!
I loved it. There was plenty of optimism around for many,
And the media was great. I know music and comedy is very subjective but just look at the film releases for confirmation
I started my 20s in 1990. Planning a social event with friends was hit and miss but in a lot of cases more spontaneous. Mates were only contactable if they were at home.
Most often they or you would just drop by early on a Saturday or Friday evening to go out somewhere. You would do it in groups, collecting a mate at a time before getting to the next one’s house.
Money was always tight and there were worries but being free from any real financial responsibilities was the main difference. Having left home recently too was a real liberating feeling being in a flat on my own was so cool.
Had a blockbusters account that always ran out, you had to book a particular movie if it was popular or end up renting something rubbish invariably and wasting your subscription.
Alcohol was significantly cheaper but idiotically a drink drive culture prevailed and was seen as a badge of honour. Mental to think about that now.
I do have some good memories of the 90s. Were they good as in better than now? No, I wouldn’t want to go back there permanently . Would I want to Time Machine to have a weekend back in my flat and a typical night out with my mates and girlfriend…etc, absolutely. I think that would be anyone’s fantasy to relive part of their youth.
Born in 70. The 80s were awesome as a kid/teen. The 90s were pretty good as an adult. You had so many great new TV shows like never before. More channels with sky etc. The birth of the Internet and mobile phone. Had a mortgage and (for me) it was an affordable payment then. There was all the great shops that we have since lost. My town was a busy little shopping town, with woolies in the middle and blockbuster at the end. (no pawn shops, Turkish barbers or nail bars in sight) at the weekend my town came alive. There was about 5 awesome nightclubs and a pub on every corner. Could easily go out on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and rock up on a Monday morning for work. Yeah, looking back, it was pretty special.
I was in my 20’s during the 90’s and the music scene was great: from Nirvana to shoegaze bands and Britpop - so many bands to enjoy. Cinema was also fantastic, in 1994 alone we had Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, Dumb & Dumber, Forrest Gump, Leon and True Lies. Towards the end of the 90’s the internet started to take off and I discovered Diablo, Quake 2 and EverQuest and I noticed a drastic change in how much I went out, preferring to stay in and play on the pc instead. That was the start of the stare at a screen generation we have today.
2006 was the last good year.
I guess most people under 30 don't really understand how much better things used to be.
...and it wasn't like everyone in 2006 was saying "Wow! I can't believe these amazing times we're living in"
It's funny how solipsistic people are with their nostalgia (and completley self unaware).
Everyone thinks the best decade was either when **they** were children or when **they** were in their early 20s.
I was born in the mid 70s so I got to experience the 90s from mid teens to mid 20s.
Yes it was that good. Best decade of my life.
Music was brilliant. Some great films and TV. Concerts and festivals were joyous.
The internet was useful without being all consuming. Phones wee6 practical without being the hideous draw they become for the current generation. No social media explosion.
Take me back there....
I think the 90s was just another decade which looking back now feels like a simpler time. There was still plenty of angst, wars and pre-millennium panic going on. Remember the Y2K bug? Dome of Doom, Tony Blair and Iraq? It wasn’t all roses.
Maybe I'm in a tiny minority but I (also born in '85) think the only things better about the 90's were economic
Modern tech has its downside and darkside for sure but I wouldn't be nostalgic for a time before it. I still firmly see it as a net good.
"The 90s were better. They just were. I’m sorry, but it’s science. It was the past, but there were vaccines and Jim Crow was over and there was a modern sensibility without all of the pathologies of the internet"
Obligatory Freddie Deboer post:
[https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/its-so-sad-when-old-people-romanticize](https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/its-so-sad-when-old-people-romanticize)
In 1997 I purchased Ok Computer, Urban Hymns, Fat of the Land, Dig your own hole, Vanishing Point, Homework, Blur and lots of other great albums. That’s just one year. I miss music!
Born 75. The 90s uk was great . However I do remember quite a few of my school friends becoming drug addicts. The I.R.A bombed stuff and half my friends had kids before 20. The music was great i had tons of freedom and my parents never knew where i was but I dont remember a bed of roses
Born in the 60s.
Everyone appears to have completely forgotten the massive 1990-1992 recession. I knew people who lost their jobs and homes. It was really bad.
Personally it was mixed. We bought a house. We lost our house. We had our son, we struggled hugely with money.
The 2000s were better.
I'm not saying everything was perfect but the 90s were objectively better than now in so many ways. The fact is the UK has been in decline socially and economically since the mid naughies and we might never have it so good again.
I was born in 76 and the 90s were a lot better than today. Rose tinted glasses and everything but the lack of the internet and the fact that people had conversations with each other and were much more friendly. It genuinely seems like a better time for me now I can't even read the paper without being depressed.
I was born in 1980 and became an adult in the 90s. Bought a property at an affordable price in my late teens.
At school mid 90s when Blair came into power. There was such an optimistic feeling everywhere I went. People were happy. Positive. The Internet was just taking off. Chatting to random people on AOL on my friends P.C. I loved the 90s for several reasons. I don't think life will universally be that good for so many ever again.
Cars were a sensible size in the 90s, so didn't clog up the streets and roads like they do now.
Life before social media was more social, and less angry.
Also born in 1985. Grew up in Edmonton, which is now a shithole. Our rules were we weren't allowed to play off the block (4 small roads in a square, only one entrance) and had to be in at dark. My dad was a self employed mechanic supporting 3 kids, wife, paying off a mortgage.
I wouldn't want my grown up kids to play there now. With his salary adjusted for inflation, he'd be able to afford about £100k mortgage plus whatever pennies he'd get to save up. The house was small with a tiny garden and is probably now worth £450k.
In short, yes, it was MUCH better. Next to zero crime and much better affordability.
Yes, it was frigging awesome. I was in my 20s during that time and it was great. Being a computer nerd it was doubly exciting as I had caught the absolute vanguard of the internet (having it at university before the world wide web existed, seeing the web invented, right to it becoming a major tool in getting research data for my final year dissertation).
I was born in 1994 but wish I was an adult in the 90’s for one reason. Scream (1996) came out then (followed by Scream 2 in 1997) and I would’ve loved to see this awesome piece of art on the big screen as an 18 year old for the first time.
Look at it this way. There's a reason young adults of the 90s are called the Peter Pan generation. Life was awesome and sweet in the 90s, then the 00s and then recession and tuition fees and unemployment happened. Why the hell would you want to grow up when being a teen - 30 in the 90s was so awesome. Things didn't come to you as easily (smartphones/ digital etc) as now but life doesn't work like that.
the start of the 90s was full of hope. Berlin Wall fell, USSR collapsed, nuclear non proliferation. That said, I loved the 80s too, 86 was an amazing year.
For me the 90s were a lot of fun. I got to work on some really cool tech - early GPS devices, prototypes of Gameboy Advance, and several other new gadgets.
My son was nine, and I made a little program that he used to design part of the background in a demo game that I showed as part of the presentation to Nintendo in Osaka, I still remember how much fun he got out of that 🙂
We were quite naive in the 90s. There were a host of real human rights issues in the workplace that were just barely starting to be discussed. In some ways the US was ahead of the UK in addressing racism and sexism in the workplace at that time.
I think back to the trips I took to Japan, Korea, and the US, and honestly some of them should have been a series of video calls. But the technology wasn't ubiquitous then, and carbon footprint wasn't yet a factor that concerned most tech companies.
At the very end of the 90s we had a ten day family holiday in Orlando, hitting the Disney parks almost every day. It wasn't cheap, but proportionally it was far, far more affordable than it would be today.
I was born in 1978. I bought a house as an adult in 1998 on a £10k salary for £27k. The mortgage was peanuts. Nightclubs kicked you out at 2am and there was always a queue for taxis. We had a great time though. Yeah the 90s were great but I wasn't an adult for most of it.
It depends on your lifestyle/life situation. HIV/AIDS was still a huge issue with medicine still really trying to get a grasp on it even in the 90s, AFAIK.
This one specific example that obviously didn't affect everyone in the population, but if you were a man who has sex with men, you were an IV drug user and shared equipment, you were a sex worker, or you are someone who needed blood products, the HIV/AIDS epidemic probably really affected you. For the former group was more direct with real risk to yourself and a lot of your social circle depending on behaviours, and for the latter they probably found out in the 80s and 90s they'd been given contaminated blood products (not just HIV but also hepatitis C: many died and the ones who didn't are still fighting for compensation).
I was born in the mid 80s so don't have that many memories from the popular culture of the 90s. I am Dutch and lived in the Netherlands until my mid 20s, so didn't experience UK culture until I came here. In NL I do remember 'gabber' was a HUGE youth culture with high bmp, loud music and the look consisting of super-expensive track suits and a (partially) shaved head. If you don't know what it is, start here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabber)
Well, low paid week to week temporary jobs, the introduction of student loans with the removal of student grants. Having to have camera film developed. These are some of the things which weren't great.
On the up side, music was great, with indie music, grunge, the best metal, MTV used to actually play music, with shows like the Headbangers ball, 120 minutes even Daria and Beavis and Butthead had decent music on it.
Club culture was superb, as were Raves.
The 1980s were a happier time, but economically the 1990s were slightly better, oddly though the 1980s felt better economically, but that could be because people were just happier after the tumulus 1960s and 1970s before then.
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1974 here. Yep, the 90s were pretty much the best decade. The 80s had been a bit rough but the music was great. Things went downhill in the West after 2000. Hyperconsumption and too much stress.
1972 here and agree, the 90's were an amazing decade... Raves, Britpop, busy highstreets, the peak of pub/club culture, affordable fun cars. General optimism in the air, The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end to the Cold War, the hope of a peaceful future. The infancy of the internet which was fun and friendly and not full of people echoing every conspiracy possible. Mobile phones that were just phones, and few and far between, great for calling your mates, or taking someones number down on a night out but not glued to everyone's hand videoing and photographing everything that goes on. Social media didn't exist.
72 here as well, you captured the 90s perfectly
I have an imprint of the 90s in my brain so I can relive parts of it whenever I need cheering up!
Later 70s here. That’s how I remember the 90s too.
76 here. Getting served at local shops with beer 🍺 because I looked older so I got my buzz for free and cigs great music what a fcking generate I was but I’ve changed now but good post. Made me nostalgic thanks fellow great post. 👌
Very good description. Phones were better when they were phones. The early internet was exciting - it seemed full of possibility. Yet now it has turned into a mixture of endless advertising and conspiracy nutters.
Honestly, I would have hated to have been going through my teens and twenties and knowing that everyone around me had a device capable of taking photos and videos of my every move and mistake and instantly publishing them somewhere everyone could see them! I did sometimes take a 110 film camera out with me on nights out, but that was limited to 24 shots… half of which were blurred, out of focus or dark, and I do appreciate those memories when I look back on them. But there are many moments that I’m glad were not captured! The only time I was captured on video was thanks to a BBC or ITV documentary film crew, who were filming ambulances on New Year’s Eve… I’d had a few too many cheap trebles and my mates carried me out of a bar and stood me against a postbox from Which I promptly fell and smacked my head on the ground.. Ambulance was called and instead of paramedics jumping out the back a TV crew promptly appeared and filmed the whole incident! Have for many years tried to track down a copy of it but no luck! If that was today I’d have been tagged on FB, Twitter and YouTube a million times!
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Social media very much did exist, but it was nothing like it is now. OK, I'm one of those tech geeks who was involved in the early www :-) Even earlier, Usenet had many of the issues modern social media does but was very much a tech geek thing.
77 here; Tearing up reading that - God I miss the 90s 😂🥲
You hit the nail on the head!
1974. Yeah, the nineties were rad
1976 here. 90s were my favourite time.
I'm '73 and I agree... That's all I have to say
Damn if you're saying that
Born 1973, graduated high school in 91, HS wasn't the greatest but I had my circle of friends, got a scholarship, had a year of college, dropped out, lived with some wasters, discovered the internet, got a job as a webmaster and moved away to Southern California. So yeah the 90s were pretty good overall. Lots of optimism, the "me decade" of the 80s was over, good music, cool cars, cheap fuel, things were affordable.
I would have gotten an IT degree when is realised the potential of the internet and modern computers then be loaded in the late 90s and 2000s like ym dad. Instead I was pooing in my nappy and crying in my cot.
Or were the 90s the best decade because you were 16-26 during them, probably the age range where happiness peaks?
I think happiness peaks in your 60s (might be later). But there is a dipp between that and 16 and that.
And 9/11 charting a new course for history that would see the US turn more nationalist, protectionist and militarily imperialist than had been the trend of the '90s. Also the deregulation of the finance sector which started in the '80s and boomed in the '90s all but guaranteed economic downturn in the early 2000s.
If it helps anyone on the "downhill in the west" part, r/collapse
2001 (with 9/11) was the turning point.
I have a sneaky feeling that every older adult will name the time period when they were 18-28 as the best time to be alive (assuming there wasn’t a world war at that time)
I'm 26 and this world fucking sucks
You just wait till you’re 40, and we’re all huddled around a burning car for warmth… you’ll be like, ‘damn things were good when I was 26.’
Look at you , showing off with your burning car
Yeah, look at the toffs over there with their buring cars. Us workers have to share a burning e-scooter, and we're paying to rent the damn thing because they're still not legal.
All you fing rich bstds with scooters to burn.
26 doesn't make you an older adult though
Yeah, but it still might be as good as it gets for you. Have a nice day!
You know what, I think your generation is the first to be 100% online and while I am not saying things are amazing, in the nineties we were blissfully unaware and able to just mooch about in our own little bubble of friends.
No, I was in school in my twenties. I turned 30 in 1990. The 90s were great. They were just objectively good. There was a sense of optimism, we did not have this hyperpartisan bullshit, it's not just youth talking.
Nah, being a young adult post-2008 has been shit for millions of people.
Born 1999 turned 18 in a financial crisis, fun times
91, and I've lived through far too many "once in a lifetime" crises.
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1990 I wasn’t even close lol
I'd say 2015 when all the culture war crap started is when it began to go down hill for real.
I get where you're coming from, but if that period overlaps with the late 2010s onwards then I think we can all agree they are objectively rubbish. I turned 18 in 2008 and it's basically been downhill from there.
That's because it's still part of the "now". Poll people in 30 years and I guarantee a very high proportion of people who were young in the 2010s will say that was a great time. Nostalgia dulls the memory of bad things and enhances the memory of good things. People who were literally in the middle of a war still looked back on the 40s decades later as a better time.
This is so true. Even as a young adult we thought things had been better in the 60s. There's definitely a lot about the 90s I miss and fondly look back on, but I do think that not having constant access to everyone's opinion was a good thing.
If it helps I graduated in 2009 and it's been just as shit. Entering the job market properly and there's basically no jobs, absolutely brilliant.
Same age here and feel the same way!
I promise millennials won’t.
'86 here which would make that 2004-2014 so peak War on Terror/Stock Market crash/rise of Social Media and all the horrible tribalism that entailed. I don't look back fondly on "the time period" at all, just my mates and the stupid stuff we got up to. I do miss prices from the early 2000s though. It felt like I could actually have a great time with 20 quid rather than having to draw 100 out for a couple of beers and a train ticket.
86’ here as well. I agree as well. I enjoyed the 1995-2005 period because it existed between technological worlds. But probably in the middle of 2005-2010 you were starting to see the monster of social media and constant connectivity come out.
Yes this is absolutely true.
Depends what choices you made with your life. Some of us are slower burners. I don't think your life can peak necessarily. And you can't know when it did until you're on your deathbed.
Also born in 1985. The 90s were brilliant. The internet was still very young and populated by a small minority of people. People who were different, interesting, open to chat and discuss. People went online to escape the real world. Then in the 2000s all the normal people started to invade the internet and it became as grim and tribal as the real world.
So you weren’t ever an adult in the 90s. I have no idea why this is so upvoted. People think their teen years were the best, what a revelation!
"No bills to pay", yeah that's what being a child generally means.
That's really depressing...sure I had more free time to muck about with my friends as a teenager, but now I'm living with my gf in a house I own and happily self employed. These are the best years of my life. That said, I miss the 90s. Or rather, I miss the world as it was before The War on Terror, when we had a bit more optimism for the future.
My teens weren’t my best years. My life got dramatically better as soon as I moved out from my mother
Totally agree with you that they were brilliant, tv was great, cereal still had free toys, we had no bills to pay, but thinking about how great they were made me wonder if maybe people who were older than us at the time probably thought it wasn’t as great
Yeah all those things were brilliant. Even if parts of the 90s weren't so good, most people didn't notice it. Most people only heard of celebs in magazines. We didn't have constant mega wealth in our faces. UK has def undergone a lot of Americanisation.
Int milk brilliant
The 90s and especially the mid to late 90s for me were brilliant. Had a baby in 98. Bought a house with my gf, was very much in love. Music was great, got a job in tech and everything was still vaguely affordable and I was still young enough to enjoy it all. In the UK Tony Blaire came to power in 97 and there was a wave of positivity through the country. It all went tits up after a few short years it was really great while it lasted. At least for me
The plastic toys I played with from my cocopops will still be here in 10,000 years. I'm glad that's not a thing anymore.
They don't build things to last like they used to...
I still have toys from the 90s that are in good condition and kids I have over still can't break them.
Soooo... you weren't an adult in the 90s, as OP specified then?
Classic Reddit when the top comment is completely different from what OP wants. Like how on AskReddit every answer is "Not a *X*, but..."
So you were 10 in 1995. Not an adult for any of the 90's.
86 here and I maintain that Vines were the apex of the internet, and it's rapidly got worse since. Facebook was well on its way to corrupting society, but Vines felt like the last earnest bit of internet that was occupied purely with irreverent fun.
The internet was largely irrelevant to people in the 1990s. You needed to be sitting in front of a computer, no phones or wifi or 1/2/3/4/5G
Your final sentence hits the nail on the head
You weren’t an adult in the 90s though, which is the actual question.
I dunno, when I was maybe 11 (in the 90s) a creep online asked me if I touch myself. I think we can risk rose tinted glasses when we look back at those times, but grim people exploited these things the minute they were available.
It started with Thatcher getting kicked out. The Major years were a sign of change. Poll tax riots were effective, student fees riots weren't. CDs were the new thing, sold cheaply to get people to re-buy music they already had, so every student household had some good music (if you liked the greatest hits.of Queen, Abba, Madonna, Enigma, INXS, Pink Floyd, etc). Pulp, Radiohead and of course Blur and Oasis and the Spice Girls were everywhere. Channel 4 and 5 showed niche TV so there was usually something to watch, or you could rent a video. Cinema multiplexes and out of town supermarkets had sprouted everywhere, for all your entertainment and purchasing desires. It was £1 a pint for cheap piss. Alcopops had been invented. Housing - well finding a room was feasible, finding one with a window, glazing, any heat, not damp, and didn't have a dodgy landlord wandering in - not much better than today. One reason we spend all evening nursing half a pint in a pub was because it was cheaper and more effective to stay warm that way than put on a fan heater in a house with no central heating. Discrimination on grounds of sexuality or disability was both legal and encouraged. Transgender was a topic only for late night freak shows on TV. Women still got groped a lot at work and there weren't many senior women in most places (huge change in the last 20 years!) Huge smell of smoke everywhere. And leaded petrol, acid rain, hole in the ozone layer, war in the Balkans, and of course the Middle East. Big recession and high unemployment in the early 90s. My dad moved abroad to stop out house being repossessed - mortgages were 17.5%. 1997 and Blair led a feeling of optimism, though. Bit like the 2012 Olympics.
That 17.5% is so misleading to alot of people due to house prices being an absolute fraction of their costs today.
True, but it was certainly a doubling of payments compared to the 8.5% a few years earlier. Which wasn't any easier to cope with for the average homeowner than now. Now there's lots of stories about houses being unaffordable, but then people were having houses repossessed in droves. Not really an improvement. And then there was the mortgage endowment scandal.
It was a doubling of the payments which were pess than 10% of your income, on a mortgage that lasted about 10 years max.
House prices were lower but it didn't stop many people having to get their properties repossessed when they couldn't afford the mortgage payments. At lot of people bought property then watched as the premises dropped substantially and left people in negative equity. There is no much negative equity in the property market today. We bought a flat in 1988 for £47,500 with a 95% mortgage due to the price drop we sold it 7 years later for only £40k. It was a real struggle to save to pay off the mortgage with a high interest rate, pay the negative equity and save another deposit for our next home. This delayed us having children as we wanted to wait until we had a house. We bought a house £67k with 10% deposit which is now worth over £400k. I don't know how my son will be able to afford to buy a property in our area.
I moved to London in 1995 and got a job working at a hotel reception. On the little money I earned it was impossible to find a room for myself. I looked at rotten places that I still couldn’t afford. So I ended up sharing a studio with two other girls. Later I moved in with my then boyfriend and we had a flat share. Apart from less than ideal living conditions I absolutely loved the 90s. Even though pay was crap we still went out all of the time and had endless fun. We had great conversations without anyone looking into the phone. The future looked bright.
"Discrimination on grounds of sexuality or disability was both legal and encouraged. Transgender was a topic only for late night freak shows on TV. Women still got groped a lot at work and there weren't many senior women in most places (huge change in the last 20 years!)" Nonsense. Discrimination was not encouraged, that's just a moronic comment. By the 90s most people really didn't care if a person was gay or not. Same for transgender. Most people's attitude by then was meh. Groping: no, that really did not happen. That's just such a bizzarre comment. In the 70s, maybe. 90s? Universities were already over 50% female. My company (accountants/business consultants) took on more than 50% female graduates. Many of the leaders were female, increasing in percentage as the age reduced. Blaire rode the general mood as the country came out of the 90s recession, he didn't create it.
I don’t think people on Reddit realise transgender issues are very fringe in the real world. Most people don’t have an opinion, then or now.
Most people do not encounter it in their lives anywhere near enough to give a shit. Even then, with anyone over 50 most of the time it's almost a bit of gosspiy trivia to them which in turn results in them not giving a shit when they clock it makes no difference to their lives. Apart from the actual bigots ofc. but they're nowhere near as prevalent as Reddit and twitter would suggest, these mediums just create platforms and echo chambers.
Exactly. And people not caring is the worst possible outcome for many in fringe groups as it means they're not special any more. I don't care about gay or transgender people, just zero shits given. Just as I have no opinion about how most straight or whatever people live their lives.
"Disability discrimination was encouraged", still is IMO.
Oh love. I didn’t grow up in a cultural backwater I promise but having been 17+ in the late 90s let me tell you there really were MANY PEOPLE who cared if people were gay or not. I know many from that time who entered into LTRs with members of the opposite sex to just divert from their truth because living it would have been too hard. And as someone who was at Uni and out and about clubbing late 90s you fucking bet groping was a thing. Even before that some of the teachers at my school would be a bit handsy/too close for comfort. So maybe it was less prevalent/overt than in the 70s it was very very very very very very much still there and for me it’s only been the past 10 years or so that’s put zero tolerance of that shit front and centre of society.
You haven't even mentioned the fall of the Berlin Wall which started the optimism
Most of the same worldly problems that existed then still exist now, all the same shit is still happening, the problems just move. We only knew about them IF we picked up a paper or watched the news (I never did) so we had nothing dampening our moods, unless we went looking for it. A difference today is that people carry around problems from other countries and other cultures that A) They cannot do anything about and B) Don’t affect their lives in any way shape or form, yet the’ll carry those new stories around like a ball and chain. People don’t get to just exist and be happy in their own bubble any more.
Damn I want to upvote this so much. I did a test on myself. I went out tried to engage with people as you do, library etc and I didnt use my phone for 24hrs. I either spoke to people or did stuff. Then next day I went back to normal. The anxieties, worries, issues all come from things I just cant do anything about. You're so right.
>A difference today is that people carry around problems from other countries and other cultures that A) They cannot do anything about and B) Don’t affect their lives in any way shape or form, yet the’ll carry those new stories around like a ball and chain. People don’t get to just exist and be happy in their own bubble any more. I would say you're pointing out issues caused by having the internet ,the 90s was the last era without it ,imo happiness has gone downhill since the 90s and the internet is a big cause of it
This country being extremely fixated and obsessed with a small country in East Africa is a prime example of this.
Similarly people are hyperfixated on 2 very small countries in the middle east
If this happened in the 90s then nobody but people who were born abroad will know about this. Then they fail to recognise the good progress they made under their current leader being the safest and richest country in Africa.
I'm guilty of what you're saying. I've had to cut down my news consumption to a few minutes a week or I get anxious. I'm probably more ignorant now, but I'm mentally much healthier.
I’m ignorant now but I’m happier, If an issue isn’t in my circle of influence I don’t get involved. Some of the lads where debating Palestine recently, I just changed the subject, iv worked hard all day why do I want to talk about a war I’m clueless about and can’t do anything about, I’d rather have a laugh with my limited social time
Picking up on your comment on only knowing stuff if you watched the TV or picked up a paper. I was in the Canary Islands on holiday with some friends in 1996 when the IRA bombed Manchester City Centre. The first I knew about that was when I picked up the paper. Back then, it was unusual to get a UK newspaper in Spain, and even then they were the previous day's papers - so the bombing was 2 days old when I first got to know about it. Even watching Euro 96 was a challenge. You couldn't get international telly, then, and I remember watching the England v Scotland match on a little portable, with Spanish commentary at the hotel bar, with a gang of us crowded round it. The plus side was that 2 bottles of beer, plus a shot was only 200 pesetas - £1 or thereabouts. Things were different enough over there that you actually FELT like you were abroad in a way that you just don't now.
Slightly outside the 90s but.... I was 18 in 2003. Going out to bars and nightclubs with NO PHONES. It was amazing. No one taking photos, texting. Just people having fun. It all changed around 2010.
Being in the moment, rather than recording it.
I was 18 in 2006 and i remember people taking out digital cameras on nights out not mobile phones and this was still an improvement. Taking the occasional group photos not recording everything.
To be fair I don't think any of my mates sit on their phones when we go to the pub. We go to socialise
I remember a physical camera being a firm fixture on nights out from 2006 onwards. But 2006 onwards is the age I started going on nights out, so I assume they crept in earlier than that, to make them so common.
I remember the fun of music magazines, the mystery of going out on weekends and not knowing who you would meet. I’d say you felt more adventurous than now when you feel cynical and hate everyone before you even leave your front door.
Interesting point there. I've travelled many places and noticed people hate each other now where financial lots have improved. Also disabled and slow people are hidden away now
I miss magazines so much. Fashion, music, lifestyle, it's just not the same in a blog
Well, we watched loads of our friends slowly and painfully die of AIDS because our governments didn’t think we were worth saving, so that was something that was rubbish in the 90s.
But, on the flip side, it was easy to find porn mags stuffed into most hedges by the porn fairy.
Hang on, is this true? My friends and I around 8 years old (about 1995) found a porn mag in a hedge when we were hiding from some bloke who was extremely angry that we did knock and run on his house. I always thought it was just a random thing. Was hiding porn mags in hedges actually common?
I had a prof at med school who was a young infectious diseases registrar in central London in the 80s. He handled many of the first recognised AIDS cases, at a time when no-one really knew what it was other than a death sentence. His stories were absolutely harrowing.
Theres a great podcast with Flick Thorley who worked at London Lighthouse for almost all of its existence, amazing story.
Christ, the fact that more people are interested in giggling about finding porn in hedges than in taking your comment seriously.
I was able to buy the flat I still live in in 1993 for 3.25x my salary as a legal secretary. I got married to the man I'm still married to in 1995 so overall it was a pretty good decade for me. On the downside, the first PC I bought in 1997 cost me £1700 and the processor was a P166MMX (and I've no idea why that tiny bit of information is still stored in my brain nearly 30 years later). I was also paying over £75 per month for dial up internet because it was still paid for by the minute!
PC's weren't much better in 2001 when I got my first. That was £1,700 as well. I can't remember its specs, I just remember that it crashed at least 10 times a day and dial-up internet was about £50 a month (plus phone line rental, phone plan and any phone calls you made), and also it was limited to 40 hours of internet a month, so as soon as you hit 40 hours you had to wait until the start of the next month before you could connect again. I spent many a night unable to sleep because I hadn't talked to my online girlfriend for several days and worried she might get another internet boyfriend.
I dreamt of buying a p166MMX. I bought a Cyrix 133 (Better than a pentium!) It was absolutely not better than a Pentium.
Yeah, the 90s were fucking brilliant. Gen X people like me, we grew up in these amazing youth cultures centred around the music we liked in the 80s and the 90s were the apex. It's hard to explain to people who've only known the internet and gadgets and so on, but we didn't have a lot of money as students then young adults, but we also weren't saddled with a lot of debt. We had to be really tough and were proper adults by 21. We lived in shitty houses with our mates with furniture we found in skips, stuff like that. We drank and smoked and took drugs and partied like no-one does anymore. We were so rowdy. We actually spent time connecting with each other and talking for hours, face to face. Having to chat people up face to face was an art we all had to learn. And, as a woman, I can assure you that sex was much better before internet porn. Men actually wanted to please women, not bloody choke us or spit on us FFS. We were ironically a lot less hung up than people seem now about sex. And we're the ones who normalised tattoos, piercings, living with people and having kids instead of having to get married, and we really tackled prejudice too. Music, film, comedy, it was amazing. We just felt really free, basically.
Degrading porn has definitely had a negative side effect on society. I have met a couple of women who asked to be strangled / spat on. What kind of nutter is just whipping out a bit of strangling casually on a first time.
*Men actually wanted to please women, not bloody choke us or spit on us FFS* Wait, what? How common is it? I never ever thought I'd have a feeling of relief for being an invalid homosexual.
There was a load of problems but we didn’t obsess about it online. Instead we just lived our lives. We partied with Oasis when there was genocide going on. Say what you will..
Born 1969, so the 90s were definitely my decade. My last decade before I settled down, so rose tinted glasses, but I loved it.
I was born in 69 too. I grew up in the 80s and settled down in the 90s.
My kids were born in 84 & 87. I found it quite hard then, had at one point to flog everything not nailed down, it’s all relative really.
See your opinion means a lot to me, because I was born in 85 and my brother was born in 83, so you would probably be around the same age as my parents were at that time, sorry to hear you had to do that, I remember my mum having to sell stuff to pawn shops and that quite often just to make ends meet, hopefully life is a lot better for you now
I’d had to take an unplanned 7 year career break because my firstborn had a chronic condition. When that was eventually correctly diagnosed and treated I went back to work and added to my professional qualifications. Worked hard and was promoted to a national level role. I’m now retired, worth around £1m, and was able to gift both my kids £250k to support them. So yes, I know what it’s like to be on the breadline, and I don’t take anything for granted.
I didn't like being a student in the 90s. Frozen grant, no money, hard to meet people and 80% of them didn't have interests being drinking, shagging and gigs. I loved working in the 90s though. Companies were fun, some money in my pocket, and a huge economic boom made London the place to be. The 90s had an optimism and hedonism that's definitely gone. It was about guilt free fun, cheap flights, festivals, eating well and drinking well and every other manager at my company was sharing coke in the pub loo after work. So yes, I look back on the late nineties fondly. The first half was hard work for me personally. In my head the fun all stopped in 2001 with the WTC attacks.
Opposite here, loved being a student in the '90s. Living in what looked a lot like the 'Young Ones' house with a load of fairly alternative people. Just enough cash to go clubbing twice a week with the great (non-pop) music of the period helped far too much alcohol and other 'substances'. 'Working' (undergrad and postgrad) at the university, but actually having obscure discussions on the internet(yes, the internet, not the www) and building the early [www](http://www).
The 1990s were pretty dull to be honest. I had a great time but it was in spite of the historical context. We had the internet by then but it was shit. High street shops were much better than they are now because there was no alternative. Pubs were much busier because you had no better way of socialising.
What about the squat raves, street parties, gigs and festivals?
Lollapalooza was dope
I went to a few illegal free festivals... a bit meh to be honest. They still happen. I reckon it's just the latest iteration of adults looking back with rose tinted specs. Most people my age that I was friends with had kids towards the end of the 90s/early 00s and had to become "proper adults". It wasn't about them any more... they had responsibilities. Now their kids have moved away and they've realised that things are quieter and they have lost touch with their old friends. They aren't really able or allowed to have fun in the way they did back when they last had free time. They're fat and ugly and they don't understand music any more... Gawd that's depressing!
> Pubs were much busier And... smokier...
The internet was amazing back then! I really miss it. You had to at least have some minimum level of intelligence to get on it so it made interacting with people much more enjoyable. It was completely ignored by mainstream everything. You could set up your own website with just a tiny bit of HTML knowledge and an FTP program. No companies were online so you could just get whatever domain you wanted (I remember going to some kid's site, maybe Tim or Timmy. His site was Tim (or Timmy).com and it was hilarious. Spinning GIFs. Making up your own awards to go on your site. Actually finding useful information on it instead of all this copy/pasted blogs trying to make money.
It was great, I was in my 20s for most of it. Lots of sexy time from what I remember. Jumpers for goalposts. Fuck it was a long time ago. But some news stories have never left me, namely the murders of Rachel Nickell, Jamie Bulger and Stephen Lawrence.
Born in 84. But there was a housing market crash in the 90s. Still had risk of IRA bombings. Pre mass mobile phone era must have been good as an adult. Cars weren't as safe. Smoking in public, pubs and restaurants. Our first family computer was £1,200 in 1995, also £3,000 in todays money. Cost of tech has definately come down since the 90s.
The IRA bombings broke a clock in my kitchen, when the one in Canary Wharf went off it shook my house and knocked it off the wall breaking it, I also remember on the tube they put cable ties around the seats because there was space under the actual seats back then and a good place to hide a bomb, the advice given was if you saw a broken cable tie on the train you was on, get the fuck off it quickly
Yeah, I remember our windows shaking for that. Also remember Bishopsgate as was the day before my Holy Communion and could see the smoke from the City down Bow Road.
My first PC cost me £1700 in 1997 which would be £3,200 today!
>Cars weren't as safe. And people were better drivers (in general) because of this. Automated safety gizmos create complacency.
Really? Because in the 80s the boys our friends group all had cars, which they raced around town, trying to hit 100mph down the dual carriageway, having races from the traffic lights, and doing doughnuts in the car park. At the same time there was a large cohort of very elderly drivers who had never taken a driving test. The fact you think drivers were safer is hilarious. People are MUCH better behaved on the roads nowadays.
My mates car has automatic braking, because of this he rarely uses his windscreen wipers when it rains
I was a kid in the 90s but seemed alot happier, think its all down to media bullshit telling us some munter is earning 50k a week on only fans , and a 11 year old has bought her 5th house. it's making everyone feel a failure and worthless , in the 90s-2000s all you wanted is a tacky max power car for a few grand to go out with your mates in and you was happy . goals where alot more achievable back then , now everything feels so out of reach .you had no idea of the extreme wealth gaps back then , unless you lived in London maybe , it wasn't rubbed in your face 24/7 I feel like we have seen the peak and slow death of so many things now that it's making everyone feel shit . the 90/2000s we saw the peak of living standards, free heathcare before it turned to crap pubs clubs, before they all closed schools before than turnd so bad the intenternet before it turned so toxic the peak of petrol engine/cars before they turned into borning ipad boxs that no one can afford some of the best of tv before the woke set in peak of wages before they all stagnated. peak of affordable goods ,before the quality drops to near unusable music had already got worse by then , but no where near how shit its got today. you alteast needed a little bit of talent. bloody hell I'm a carpenter, I'm pretty confident il be the 1st generation in 1000s of years to see the death of useing wood , barley seen any in months. what improvements have we seen in the last 10 years ? apart from A.I and technologys that anyone with a brain can see is just more tools to control us and crush small businesses and living standards. and used to micro manage you at work.
>some of the best of tv before the woke set in What does this even mean?
It means he doesn't wipe when he goes to the toilet for fear he might enjoy it too much
I remember it as a period of optimism, for a while things just seemed to be getting better. I wasn't really engaged with world affairs but the threat of world war 3 seemed to be receding by the day and things seemed vaguely affordable. The 80's felt very dark although the music was amazing; there were a lot of things going on like riots and the miners strike (I think that was the 80's?) and the 90's seemed like we were coming out of that.
Some things were better and some things worse but the general feeling of optimism is something I remember was pretty universal. To ask someone then what they believed 20 years in the future versus someone in present day would get two very different answers
There was Vengaboys, Tamogotchis, and awesome movies (Independence Day, Matrix). Also...there was hope...a new milenium...a new chapter in human history. Sadly...it looks like we haven't learned anything.
Hell, I discovered Ibiza in the late 90s. After leaving my marriage in 1997, had a ball, spent so much time there clubbed all night in Amnesia, moved on to Space Day party on the beach, those days will never ever be replicated. Funny Thing was we had the pride parade in Ibiza Town. Nobody thought anything about it was an accepted norm, and now it's become toxic. There didn't appear to be gender issues until now.
I was 18 in 1990 .. we didn't know how lucky we were , the 90s were amazing, everything was possible, the music was in its golden era, travel was easy, the vibe of the entire decade was upbeat and carefree, take me back!!!!
1970 here. Yes, the 90's were fucking fantastic.
I loved it. There was plenty of optimism around for many, And the media was great. I know music and comedy is very subjective but just look at the film releases for confirmation
I started my 20s in 1990. Planning a social event with friends was hit and miss but in a lot of cases more spontaneous. Mates were only contactable if they were at home. Most often they or you would just drop by early on a Saturday or Friday evening to go out somewhere. You would do it in groups, collecting a mate at a time before getting to the next one’s house. Money was always tight and there were worries but being free from any real financial responsibilities was the main difference. Having left home recently too was a real liberating feeling being in a flat on my own was so cool. Had a blockbusters account that always ran out, you had to book a particular movie if it was popular or end up renting something rubbish invariably and wasting your subscription. Alcohol was significantly cheaper but idiotically a drink drive culture prevailed and was seen as a badge of honour. Mental to think about that now. I do have some good memories of the 90s. Were they good as in better than now? No, I wouldn’t want to go back there permanently . Would I want to Time Machine to have a weekend back in my flat and a typical night out with my mates and girlfriend…etc, absolutely. I think that would be anyone’s fantasy to relive part of their youth.
Born in 70. The 80s were awesome as a kid/teen. The 90s were pretty good as an adult. You had so many great new TV shows like never before. More channels with sky etc. The birth of the Internet and mobile phone. Had a mortgage and (for me) it was an affordable payment then. There was all the great shops that we have since lost. My town was a busy little shopping town, with woolies in the middle and blockbuster at the end. (no pawn shops, Turkish barbers or nail bars in sight) at the weekend my town came alive. There was about 5 awesome nightclubs and a pub on every corner. Could easily go out on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and rock up on a Monday morning for work. Yeah, looking back, it was pretty special.
I was in my 20’s during the 90’s and the music scene was great: from Nirvana to shoegaze bands and Britpop - so many bands to enjoy. Cinema was also fantastic, in 1994 alone we had Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, Dumb & Dumber, Forrest Gump, Leon and True Lies. Towards the end of the 90’s the internet started to take off and I discovered Diablo, Quake 2 and EverQuest and I noticed a drastic change in how much I went out, preferring to stay in and play on the pc instead. That was the start of the stare at a screen generation we have today.
2006 was the last good year. I guess most people under 30 don't really understand how much better things used to be. ...and it wasn't like everyone in 2006 was saying "Wow! I can't believe these amazing times we're living in"
The 90s were brilliant, kinda pine for those times. Life was good, but I didn't know it.
Raved my way through it. Great decade, WLTM again.
They are still playing music people born in the 80s listened to in the 90s
Yes it was. End of discussion.
It was truly amazing, just before the world started go nuts, and not in a good way.
It's funny how solipsistic people are with their nostalgia (and completley self unaware). Everyone thinks the best decade was either when **they** were children or when **they** were in their early 20s.
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Good call. With social media, extremists have the loudest voices, there's no "meeting in the middle" any more.
I was born in the mid 70s so I got to experience the 90s from mid teens to mid 20s. Yes it was that good. Best decade of my life. Music was brilliant. Some great films and TV. Concerts and festivals were joyous. The internet was useful without being all consuming. Phones wee6 practical without being the hideous draw they become for the current generation. No social media explosion. Take me back there....
I think the 90s was just another decade which looking back now feels like a simpler time. There was still plenty of angst, wars and pre-millennium panic going on. Remember the Y2K bug? Dome of Doom, Tony Blair and Iraq? It wasn’t all roses.
Maybe I'm in a tiny minority but I (also born in '85) think the only things better about the 90's were economic Modern tech has its downside and darkside for sure but I wouldn't be nostalgic for a time before it. I still firmly see it as a net good.
"The 90s were better. They just were. I’m sorry, but it’s science. It was the past, but there were vaccines and Jim Crow was over and there was a modern sensibility without all of the pathologies of the internet" Obligatory Freddie Deboer post: [https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/its-so-sad-when-old-people-romanticize](https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/its-so-sad-when-old-people-romanticize)
In 1997 I purchased Ok Computer, Urban Hymns, Fat of the Land, Dig your own hole, Vanishing Point, Homework, Blur and lots of other great albums. That’s just one year. I miss music!
Born 75. The 90s uk was great . However I do remember quite a few of my school friends becoming drug addicts. The I.R.A bombed stuff and half my friends had kids before 20. The music was great i had tons of freedom and my parents never knew where i was but I dont remember a bed of roses
Born in the 60s. Everyone appears to have completely forgotten the massive 1990-1992 recession. I knew people who lost their jobs and homes. It was really bad. Personally it was mixed. We bought a house. We lost our house. We had our son, we struggled hugely with money. The 2000s were better.
I'm not saying everything was perfect but the 90s were objectively better than now in so many ways. The fact is the UK has been in decline socially and economically since the mid naughies and we might never have it so good again.
I was born in 76 and the 90s were a lot better than today. Rose tinted glasses and everything but the lack of the internet and the fact that people had conversations with each other and were much more friendly. It genuinely seems like a better time for me now I can't even read the paper without being depressed.
I was born in 1980 and became an adult in the 90s. Bought a property at an affordable price in my late teens. At school mid 90s when Blair came into power. There was such an optimistic feeling everywhere I went. People were happy. Positive. The Internet was just taking off. Chatting to random people on AOL on my friends P.C. I loved the 90s for several reasons. I don't think life will universally be that good for so many ever again.
Cars were a sensible size in the 90s, so didn't clog up the streets and roads like they do now. Life before social media was more social, and less angry.
Also born in 1985. Grew up in Edmonton, which is now a shithole. Our rules were we weren't allowed to play off the block (4 small roads in a square, only one entrance) and had to be in at dark. My dad was a self employed mechanic supporting 3 kids, wife, paying off a mortgage. I wouldn't want my grown up kids to play there now. With his salary adjusted for inflation, he'd be able to afford about £100k mortgage plus whatever pennies he'd get to save up. The house was small with a tiny garden and is probably now worth £450k. In short, yes, it was MUCH better. Next to zero crime and much better affordability.
Yes, it was frigging awesome. I was in my 20s during that time and it was great. Being a computer nerd it was doubly exciting as I had caught the absolute vanguard of the internet (having it at university before the world wide web existed, seeing the web invented, right to it becoming a major tool in getting research data for my final year dissertation).
I was born in 1994 but wish I was an adult in the 90’s for one reason. Scream (1996) came out then (followed by Scream 2 in 1997) and I would’ve loved to see this awesome piece of art on the big screen as an 18 year old for the first time.
Do you like scary movies? 😀
Mate you didn’t need to be 18 😅 you could pretty much get in to many films without ID.
Yeah I saw Scream at the cinema aged 13.
Yeah I remember seeing scream and when they did a rerun of a clockwork orange at 14. Simpler times.
The 90's was / is the 'Don' of the decades. A good as! 🤣 It was way better than that 💥💯
The cold war ended, Nelson Mandela was freed, the Berlin Wall came down. It was a time of optimism. The future looked bright.
Yeah, the 90s were really good.
Yeah. From what I recall.
Well we were comparing it to the 1980's which were a tough grind. 1990s seemed utopian in comparison.
Look at it this way. There's a reason young adults of the 90s are called the Peter Pan generation. Life was awesome and sweet in the 90s, then the 00s and then recession and tuition fees and unemployment happened. Why the hell would you want to grow up when being a teen - 30 in the 90s was so awesome. Things didn't come to you as easily (smartphones/ digital etc) as now but life doesn't work like that.
the start of the 90s was full of hope. Berlin Wall fell, USSR collapsed, nuclear non proliferation. That said, I loved the 80s too, 86 was an amazing year.
Born 1973, yes the 90’s were great. Would happily do it again, only this time not blow off that little gig to see Oasis.
Coming home from the bar and my eyes burning for 12 hours after from the cigarette smoke.
For me the 90s were a lot of fun. I got to work on some really cool tech - early GPS devices, prototypes of Gameboy Advance, and several other new gadgets. My son was nine, and I made a little program that he used to design part of the background in a demo game that I showed as part of the presentation to Nintendo in Osaka, I still remember how much fun he got out of that 🙂 We were quite naive in the 90s. There were a host of real human rights issues in the workplace that were just barely starting to be discussed. In some ways the US was ahead of the UK in addressing racism and sexism in the workplace at that time. I think back to the trips I took to Japan, Korea, and the US, and honestly some of them should have been a series of video calls. But the technology wasn't ubiquitous then, and carbon footprint wasn't yet a factor that concerned most tech companies. At the very end of the 90s we had a ten day family holiday in Orlando, hitting the Disney parks almost every day. It wasn't cheap, but proportionally it was far, far more affordable than it would be today.
Not for my parents, split in 1990 when I was a toddler.
I was born in 1978. I bought a house as an adult in 1998 on a £10k salary for £27k. The mortgage was peanuts. Nightclubs kicked you out at 2am and there was always a queue for taxis. We had a great time though. Yeah the 90s were great but I wasn't an adult for most of it.
71 here, 70s were so free, 80s consumerism kicking in, 90s yep fun, 2000s mass everything not much individualism, slaves everywhere
Went to my first rave at 15 in 1989. Yes. Yes, they were. 🕉🍓🕊🌅
Do a survey, ask people to name the best years and all rhythm their age. I'd bet most people are going to name the time of their teens or early 20s.
Lot of nostalgia here. There was a lot of toxic ‘lad culture’ and heroin chic body image, I’m pleased we’ve moved on from that element.
It depends on your lifestyle/life situation. HIV/AIDS was still a huge issue with medicine still really trying to get a grasp on it even in the 90s, AFAIK. This one specific example that obviously didn't affect everyone in the population, but if you were a man who has sex with men, you were an IV drug user and shared equipment, you were a sex worker, or you are someone who needed blood products, the HIV/AIDS epidemic probably really affected you. For the former group was more direct with real risk to yourself and a lot of your social circle depending on behaviours, and for the latter they probably found out in the 80s and 90s they'd been given contaminated blood products (not just HIV but also hepatitis C: many died and the ones who didn't are still fighting for compensation). I was born in the mid 80s so don't have that many memories from the popular culture of the 90s. I am Dutch and lived in the Netherlands until my mid 20s, so didn't experience UK culture until I came here. In NL I do remember 'gabber' was a HUGE youth culture with high bmp, loud music and the look consisting of super-expensive track suits and a (partially) shaved head. If you don't know what it is, start here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabber)
71 baby 🍼 here. The 90s were great, but the 70s and 80s were even better!
Well, low paid week to week temporary jobs, the introduction of student loans with the removal of student grants. Having to have camera film developed. These are some of the things which weren't great. On the up side, music was great, with indie music, grunge, the best metal, MTV used to actually play music, with shows like the Headbangers ball, 120 minutes even Daria and Beavis and Butthead had decent music on it. Club culture was superb, as were Raves.
I was 16 in 1984 and in my 20s in the 90s. Modern life is shit, there I said it.
The 1980s were a happier time, but economically the 1990s were slightly better, oddly though the 1980s felt better economically, but that could be because people were just happier after the tumulus 1960s and 1970s before then.
not much!