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Technology and "social media" is making everyone anti-social, in public, anyways. People don't know how to talk to other people face to face anymore. I also miss the "old days" in say, the 80's, when people were less emotional and less medicated, and life was a bit more blunt but sometimes it's better that way.
I kind of agree, but I personally wish I were alive and kickin' between 70 and 80, when there was so much AWESOME music! Sports in the 80's was the BEST -- period! I was born in '81 but I still got to see the Minnesota Twins win a world series on TV, but wasn't lucky enough to say I saw some great mid-80's baseball, or Michael Jordan's younger years, or the late 80's NFL super QB Joe Montana in his prime, and Magic vs. Larry.....I was a bit too young for all of that.
In 1998, I went to see the Wedding Singer with my dad, uncle, and brother in the theater. It took place in 1985, and was very, very nostalgic. Doing some simple math, I calculated that there was about a 13-year gap from when the movie was set until when it was released: I reckoned that an equivalent movie set in 1998 would have to be released in 2011.
Well, 2011 is here, and I know of no movie that is nostalgic for the late 90's. Although there are some 90's nostalgia radio stations online, they aren't nearly as numerous as all the 80's compilation CD's that started coming out around 1997, the 80's-themed radio stations, etc. - all the things with 80's themes. I don't think the 90's will ever be remembered as fondly as the 80's - nor do I the 90's.
That's because we haven't progressed since the '90s.
There's no reason have nostalgia when Nirvana and Jay-Z and Eminem are still on every radio station, "The Simpsons" are still on and people dress pretty much the same as they did in the '90s. Most people I know do, whereas there's nostalgia about the '80s, because we as a culture, collectively threw all of the crappy hair-metal/disposable pop, ****ty clothes and hairstyles, and overall ridiculousness out of the window around 1991/1992, so there's actually a disconnect.
A movie about the late '90s would pretty much look like today, so there's no point in being nostalgic about it in that way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnutella
Here's how I see it...
1950's
First signs: 1947
Full swing: 1953
Quintessential year: 1955
Beginning of the end: 1959
Last gasp: 1963
1960's
First signs: 1959
Full swing: 1964
Quintessential year: 1968
Beginning of the end: 1970
Last gasp: 1972
1970's
First signs: 1969
Full swing: 1973
Quintessential year: 1976
Beginning of the end: 1979
Last gasp: 1981
1980's
First signs: 1977
Full swing: 1982
Quintessential year: 1985
Beginning of the end: 1988
Last gasp: 1991
1990's
First signs: 1989
Full swing: 1992
Quintessential year: 1996
Beginning of the end: 1998
Last gasp: 2001
2000's
First signs: 1997
Full swing: 2001
Quintessential year: 2004
Beginning of the end: 2007
Last gasp: TBD
2010's
First signs: 2007
Full swing: TBD
Quintessential year: TBD
Beginning of the end: TBD
Last gasp: TBD
Key
First signs - The year in which the first cultural trends that would define the new decade appeared.
Full swing - The first year in which the culture had changed enough to have its own identity independent of the old decade.
Quintessential year - The year that seemed to be the most representative of the culture of its decade.
Beginning of the end - The first year in which the culture of the decade didn't seem as authentic as it used to.
Last gasp - The year in which the last cultural holdouts of the old decade disappeared.
Great post!
That's how I've always seen it as well, not as solid, but more fluid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Some reasons why the 2000s to now is so much better than the 1980s and 1990s:
1. More technologically advanced.
Example 1:Computers and the internet barely even existed in the 1980s up to early to mid 1990s. It wasn't used by the majority of Americans until the Late 1990s/early 2000s.
Example 2: Cell phones and ipods started to be used much more from the early 2000s and later. Did they even exist before the mid to late 1990s?
Example 3: Some of the best websites in existence such as facebook, city-data and some other great websites were not even created until the early 2000s and later.
Example 4: Airplanes was not nearly as safe to travel in the 1980s and before as it was in the 2000s and later.
2. Better race relations and more racial integration
3. Better gender relations between both genders.
4. More equality for people that deserve equality
5. Better urban amenities of different types
6. Much lower crime rates for most places in the 2000s to now compared to how it was in the 1980s and 1990s.
7. USA had to worry about a nuclear war in the 1980s and the Cold war time period and from the 2000s to now it doesn't like the way it had to worry about it during the Cold War.
8. A higher percentage of people that are middle class and wealthy and less low income/poverty problems compared to how it was in the 1980s and 1990s.
9. The country became more progressive.
10. Much better, more varied and healthier food options.
11. More healthy lifestyle possibilities.
1. Technology has made it easier to be miserable, not happy. The internet has devolved into racial slurs, porn, and places to commit adultery and bully classmates
2. Better race relations?
Get the hellout of here. Yeah, we do have a Black president, BUT the way people interact with each other is no better, matter of fact the wealth divide between Whites and Blacks has gotten WIDER in the past 20 years, not smaller, and political correctness has made it impossible to go without offending someone every 5 minutes.
3. Better gender relations?
Really? Nobody can stay married and raise a family, so you have a ton of dysfunctional young people who can't have decent relationships as well. Facebook and Myspace also have hurt the process and now you have the wars between the feminists and the male chauvinists that have made all the rest off use pick sides.
4. What equality?
The wealth divide between rich and poor is the largest it's ever been in history. 40% of this country's wealth is controlled by 1% of the population. It wasn't anywhere near that in the '80s.
5. Better urban amenities
Yeah, for a while that was true in the late '90s and '00s, but it's going backwards. Just look at the tent cities that are popping up all over and the inner cities who are going bankrupt.
6.Now, this is the first completely true thing you've said.
7. Al Qaeda attacked us on our home field, something The Russians could never do, and going to an airport is like getting a personal exam now. People reminisce about the Cold War now, because it was so much less invasive than "The War on Terror".
8. That's just FALSE. Where are you getting that form?
50% of the country's population is headed toward poverty.
9. More progressive under George W. Bush & Dick Cheyney in the White House?
Really?
10. Yes, this is why the country is FATTER than it's ever been, since they started loading our foods with preservatives.
My goodness, you gotta be like 18 or something to have missed it on this one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleet
Reaganomics was a plus, not a minus. Unemployment, interest rates and inflation was lowered and job growth and GDP grew. In fact, the GDP in one quarter of 1984 grew by over 9%.
Yes, for RICH people, for the rest of us, the '80s were the beginning of a decline that's still going on. The Midwest was gutted, started in the '80s and has continued to be gutted.
Yeah, Wall-Street made a ton of money and so did a lot of yuppies, but deficits were out of control in the '80s until Clinton brought it back don in the '90s and also closed the wealth divide that started to grow around 1981.
I wonder how that happened?
Reaganomics made the '80s unbearable for everybody living in the inner cities. That's why we don't look at him fondly.
That's because we haven't progressed since the '90s.
There's no reason have nostalgia when Nirvana and Jay-Z and Eminem are still on every radio station, "The Simpsons" are still on and people dress pretty much the same as they did in the '90s. Most people I know do, whereas there's nostalgia about the '80s, because we as a culture, collectively threw all of the crappy hair-metal/disposable pop, ****ty clothes and hairstyles, and overall ridiculousness out of the window around 1991/1992, so there's actually a disconnect.
A movie about the late '90s would pretty much look like today, so there's no point in being nostalgic about it in that way.
Great post!
That's how I've always seen it as well, not as solid, but more fluid.
1. Technology has made it easier to be miserable, not happy. The internet has devolved into racial slurs, porn, and places to commit adultery and bully classmates
2. Better race relations?
Get the hellout of here. Yeah, we do have a Black president, BUT the way people interact with each other is no better, matter of fact the wealth divide between Whites and Blacks has gotten WIDER in the past 20 years, not smaller, and political correctness has made it impossible to go without offending someone every 5 minutes.
3. Better gender relations?
Really? Nobody can stay married and raise a family, so you have a ton of dysfunctional young people who can't have decent relationships as well. Facebook and Myspace also have hurt the process and now you have the wars between the feminists and the male chauvinists that have made all the rest off use pick sides.
4. What equality?
The wealth divide between rich and poor is the largest it's ever been in history. 40% of this country's wealth is controlled by 1% of the population. It wasn't anywhere near that in the '80s.
5. Better urban amenities
Yeah, for a while that was true in the late '90s and '00s, but it's going backwards. Just look at the tent cities that are popping up all over and the inner cities who are going bankrupt.
6.Now, this is the first completely true thing you've said.
7. Al Qaeda attacked us on our home field, something The Russians could never do, and going to an airport is like getting a personal exam now. People reminisce about the Cold War now, because it was so much less invasive than "The War on Terror".
8. That's just FALSE. Where are you getting that form?
50% of the country's population is headed toward poverty.
9. More progressive under George W. Bush & Dick Cheyney in the White House?
Really?
10. Yes, this is why the country is FATTER than it's ever been, since they started loading our foods with preservatives.
My goodness, you gotta be like 18 or something to have missed it on this one.
Yes, for RICH people, for the rest of us, the '80s were the beginning of a decline that's still going on. The Midwest was gutted, started in the '80s and has continued to be gutted.
Yeah, Wall-Street made a ton of money and so did a lot of yuppies, but deficits were out of control in the '80s until Clinton brought it back don in the '90s and also closed the wealth divide that started to grow around 1981.
I wonder how that happened?
Reaganomics made the '80s unbearable for everybody living in the inner cities. That's why we don't look at him fondly.
Total ownage.... although music in the 80's was pretty darn good
The '80s was terrible. Terrible pop music made on terrible synthesizers, AIDS, crack epidemic, murder rates exploding, and terrible clothes that people are EMBARRASSED to be seen in today. Want to embarrass somebody? Show them a picture of themselves from the '80s with that terrible hair and clothes.
The 90s were a time of relative prosperity, the end of crack as an epidemic, AIDS rates falling, teenage pregnancy rates falling, crime rates falling, great music because rock n roll & Black music were good again and not ****ty hair metal and pop music, the economy was the greatest it's ever been, the Soviet Union was dead, and Al Qaeda hadn't forced it's way into all of our lives, and we hadn't turned completely into a corporate state yet.
The 2000s were just awful. 9/11, Katrina, wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, economy collapse, Bush & Cheney in the White House, Obama's not looking to do much better. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, & reality TV have created a whole generation of petulant narcissists obssessed with fame, money, and gossip, The Ipod has helped to devalue the quality of music in the Ipods, pop music sucks, Hollywood sucks and cell phones & Ipads monopolize all of our time by making us overly accessible at all times.
In closing 1990s>>>>>>>>>>>1980s>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.Today
The '80s was terrible. Terrible pop music made on terrible synthesizers, AIDS, crack epidemic, murder rates exploding, and terrible clothes that people are EMBARRASSED to be seen in today. Want to embarrass somebody? Show them a picture of themselves from the '80s with that terrible hair and clothes.
The 90s were a time of relative prosperity, the end of crack as an epidemic, AIDS rates falling, teenage pregnancy rates falling, crime rates falling, great music because rock n roll & Black music were good again and not ****ty hair metal and pop music, the economy was the greatest it's ever been, the Soviet Union was dead, and Al Qaeda hadn't forced it's way into all of our lives, and we hadn't turned completely into a corporate state yet.
The 2000s were just awful. 9/11, Katrina, wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, economy collapse, Bush & Cheney in the White House, Obama's not looking to do much better. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, & reality TV have created a whole generation of petulant narcissists obssessed with fame, money, and gossip, The Ipod has helped to devalue the quality of music in the Ipods, pop music sucks, Hollywood sucks and cell phones & Ipads monopolize all of our time by making us overly accessible at all times.
In closing 1990s>>>>>>>>>>>1980s>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.Today
The '80s was terrible. Terrible pop music made on terrible synthesizers, AIDS, crack epidemic, murder rates exploding, and terrible clothes that people are EMBARRASSED to be seen in today. Want to embarrass somebody? Show them a picture of themselves from the '80s with that terrible hair and clothes.
The 90s were a time of relative prosperity, the end of crack as an epidemic, AIDS rates falling, teenage pregnancy rates falling, crime rates falling, great music because rock n roll & Black music were good again and not ****ty hair metal and pop music, the economy was the greatest it's ever been, the Soviet Union was dead, and Al Qaeda hadn't forced it's way into all of our lives, and we hadn't turned completely into a corporate state yet.
The 2000s were just awful. 9/11, Katrina, wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, economy collapse, Bush & Cheney in the White House, Obama's not looking to do much better. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, & reality TV have created a whole generation of petulant narcissists obssessed with fame, money, and gossip, The Ipod has helped to devalue the quality of music in the Ipods, pop music sucks, Hollywood sucks and cell phones & Ipads monopolize all of our time by making us overly accessible at all times.
In closing 1990s>>>>>>>>>>>1980s>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.Today
I actually think Facebook is a good thing. It helps people keep in touch if they are far away. You just have to be responsible while using it.
Youtube also has its qualities as well.
But I do agree that people in general are just WAAAAAAYY too consumed with their gadgets and its pretty pathetic. Especially textnig while driving. And people who act totally different on the net but are mute in real life. SMH. In some ways I cant help but feel sorry for a lot of the kids growing up now because this is really all they know. At least those of us who were kids in the 90's remember a time when these things werent as "in you face" for lack of a better term.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A&M_Indie_08
Fashion in this day and age is still far worse than the 80's see picture above for a fairly common suburban kid in America today
I can honestly say i have not seen anyone dressed like that in a while.
The 80s and 90s were far from the best decades the country has seen, but they were much better than 2000s and now. 9/11, Muslim extremist terrorism, two long-winded wars, the housing bubble and burst and a crippled world-wide economy - that past ten years has sucked.
Fashion in this day and age is still far worse than the 80's see picture above for a fairly common suburban kid in America today
If anyone dressed liked that in the suburbs around here, they would get their asses laughed at all day and night.
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. And people who act totally different on the net but are mute in real life. SMH. In some ways I cant help but feel sorry for a lot of the kids growing up now because this is really all they know. At least those of us who were kids in the 90's remember a time when these things werent as "in you face" for lack of a better term. 
