For those 45+, how good were the 1990s, actually?

[Anonymous]

I was recently at an event where an author asked the audience "at what year would you stop technology's progress." Pretty much everyone knew what he meant, and no one wanted it to keep going. Most people chose something like 2000 or 2005. For me, the 90s stopped right before the iPhone was released, which is no accident.

[Anonymous]

I came out of college in 1997. I was a designer, and my salary was $65k. I lived alone in a nice one bedroom in NYC where, if lying on my bed, I could see the Chrysler Building. I had a weekly housecleaning and laundry service. I dined at the finest restaurants and partied at the best clubs. On weekends my friends and I flew to the Caribbean, London and Paris. To sustain that lifestyle now, I think I'd need a salary of $250,000.

[Anonymous]

The early 90s were great years for me personally but the economy and the job market were tough. I had great fun as a young working adult with a little spending money but the jobs were hard to find and the money wasn't great. Socially it was fabulous. Lots of social interaction, real-life dating, great TV, easy travel, healthy movie industry. It all made for a very rich, satisfying social life. I agree with PPs that technology was at peak, useful but not too much.

But my first job out of law school was low-pay, no benefits. Crime was pretty bad where I lived. And DC also was still not great until the late 90s.

In DC, the Anthony Williams years, turn of the millennium, were peak, even though 9/11 brought some bad stuff in the early 00s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I immigrated to the US in the late 90s from....Bosnia (I know why you mentioned it, of course) and always felt like I couldn't believe how good things were before 9/11 happened. It's like something shifted after that day and we have never been able to get back on track.

I was in NYC on that day, so it was up close and in my face, but I’ve felt like that was the death of so much collective optimism, and the void was replaced by so much cynicism and paranoia.

Then came smartphones and social media, which at first felt like progress, but it eventually only served to make us far more cynical and disconnected.

Then came Covid, and that was really the final blow to any feeling of “we’re in this life thing together.” What a sorry state we’re in now.

I think it was the day we gave in to fear and made racism totally ok again. Like before that we were making progress, but all of a sudden every Muslim was a terrorist and every brown person was suspicious.

[Anonymous]

The feeling of DC was so different before the Oklahoma City bombing. You could come and go in the Capitol, Pennsylvania Avenue was still open, 4th of July on the Mall was lit - no security perimeters and no feeling of fear.

Same with DCA - you could get there with minutes to spare and catch the Delta Shuttle to NYC. I pushed my way to the front of a rope line and was able to shake Clinton's hand.

The old taxi system was plentiful and if you knew the zones, you could get across town for $10. A night out at the bars would set you back $30 if you were being extra-fancy. Some bars had free food at happy hour.

[Anonymous]

Echoing the above PPs- I was pretty broke but cheap socializing was so easy, and food was inexpensive.

And there wasn’t the same pressure in terms of fashion unless you wanted to go in that direction. Rewearing outfits at work or going out wasn’t scrutinized the way it is now. I wasn’t wearing designer stuff and wasn’t super creative, but could buy just a few things each season and do that “day to night” stuff from magazines or mix and match stuff and get away with minor updates from one year to the next.

[Anonymous]

9/11 changed things but honestly think things changed for the worse when the iPhone came along ……social media has wrecked us and our children.

[Anonymous]

Best 90s dance music 😍

[Anonymous]

Being in college in a late 90s was pretty amazing, it was before social media so if you act stupid it wasn’t put on blast and companies were hiring like crazy. Every single person I knew in 99/2000 had a job before leaving college.

[Anonymous]

^ also we got into Virginia Tech with a B average and graduated making 55K a year in 2000.

[Anonymous]

I’m sure I have rose colored glasses looking back because it was my 20s, but got into selective college ED as a regular good student and after graduation found cool jobs and apartments in SF and then NYC pretty easily, plus it felt like people were starting to push back on some of the casual racism, homophobia, and sexism that was so prevalent in an 80s childhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being in college in a late 90s was pretty amazing, it was before social media so if you act stupid it wasn’t put on blast and companies were hiring like crazy. Every single person I knew in 99/2000 had a job before leaving college.

I graduated in ‘98 with a degree in economics from a good school. Jobs were so plentiful, but I decided to go work in a bakery instead because it sounded like more fun than a corporate desk job. And I still had plenty of money to split rent with a roommate. (In a crappy apartment, but we didn’t care! Why would we expect more?)

The “Dream of the 90s” bit from Portlandia said it best…

“Remember when people were content to be unambitious? Sleep to eleven? Just hangout with their friends? You'd have no occupations whatsoever. Maybe you work a couple of hours a week at a coffee shop?…”

[Anonymous]

All I know is that the 2020s suck in just about every way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in my early 40s and finished HS in 2000. IMO yes the 90s were peak in so many ways. All the conveniences of modern life, relative peace and feeling like things were improving globally (countries coming up), economy doing great. Yes I recognize not everyone was benefitting but I'm not white and my parents were immigrants so there was a wide swath of people "doing well" in that era.

We had enough technology but our attention spans, social lives, family life had not been destroyed by phones. I watched primetime sitcoms like Seinfeld and TGIF with my parents.

You weren’t an adult in the 90s, why are you answering this?

[Anonymous]

The only good years were the 60s and the 70s. Anyone who says otherwise and was alive then is lying.