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š„
watching Once Upon a Timeā¦. in Hollywood and just listening to how mi h the āhippiesā project their views on morality for the Vietnam war, makes me think that in this day and age Iām the same way with the Trump bullshit.
i donāt regret it at all.
i donāt regret it at all.
Mar 3, 2025
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ši am (early?) gen z so i was very much a child during this period
with that said, donāt be fooled by youtube drum and bass playlists or weepy-eyed disney channel retrospectives - much of the mainstream culture of this era was insanely bad. that is obviously still true today, but the difference is that the monoculture was still alive in the 2000s, so your ability to opt-out and find subcultural niches that had cool stuff going on was significantly curtailed compared to today. you basically *had* to be literally anorexic to be conventionally attractive, there was no political āleftā to speak of (not that it mattered to me when i was a literal child but still), and as others have mentioned, insane 9/11 hysteria lasted well into the obama era.
with all that said the thought of having to grow up today is honestly terrifying. i am old enough that social media did not become culturally dominant until high school (i had a dumbphone until freshman year), and i do feel blessed to have grown up on a pre-web 2.0 internet. you still were able to buy things and own them. a huge number of the greatest games of all time came out during this period, and every mainstream multiplayer release wasnāt just a casino with a mid fps attached to it. amazon had yet to completely conquer the earth. the government kind of worked. i donāt think i would go back because iāve been spoiled by the sheer volume of amazing things that i have access to today and i do think weāve made some solid sociopolitical progress, but there are definitely some things i miss
with that said, donāt be fooled by youtube drum and bass playlists or weepy-eyed disney channel retrospectives - much of the mainstream culture of this era was insanely bad. that is obviously still true today, but the difference is that the monoculture was still alive in the 2000s, so your ability to opt-out and find subcultural niches that had cool stuff going on was significantly curtailed compared to today. you basically *had* to be literally anorexic to be conventionally attractive, there was no political āleftā to speak of (not that it mattered to me when i was a literal child but still), and as others have mentioned, insane 9/11 hysteria lasted well into the obama era.
with all that said the thought of having to grow up today is honestly terrifying. i am old enough that social media did not become culturally dominant until high school (i had a dumbphone until freshman year), and i do feel blessed to have grown up on a pre-web 2.0 internet. you still were able to buy things and own them. a huge number of the greatest games of all time came out during this period, and every mainstream multiplayer release wasnāt just a casino with a mid fps attached to it. amazon had yet to completely conquer the earth. the government kind of worked. i donāt think i would go back because iāve been spoiled by the sheer volume of amazing things that i have access to today and i do think weāve made some solid sociopolitical progress, but there are definitely some things i miss
6d ago
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I think I am on board with your assessment @ACTUALLYASLEEP
Four reasons:
* stylistic diversity: punk was born and commercialized at one end, hip hop at the other. We take this for granted today but at the time the jaggedness of going from the Clash to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the Treacherous Three, and ESG (all of whom they collaborated with at one point) was exhilarating. The sheer confluence of everything was unprecedented.
* MTV as a cultural force: I mean, it was called Music Television š and this was its finest hour. The assumption was that music mattered more than everything else, otherwise why would you watch it?
* legacy icons: Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bruce, Bowie. I could go on. You may not like them all but youāve gotta respect the bodies of work over decades.
* the roots of indie culture were born then: bands like R.E.M., Husker Du, Replacements, the Smiths and a million others were blazing a trail (radio, live DIY tours, etc) that created āCollege Rockā and ultimately indie and here we are today staring in awe at what they made from scratch.
The Reagan era sucked to live through but a lot of great music came out of the struggle.
š
Mar 14, 2025
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šEvery new piece of technology was so exciting, because of the monoculture every new release felt like an Event, everything was shiny and glittery and in fun colors. Listening to music for the first time on an iPod was crazy. Getting a portable DVD player to watch Buffy the Vampire slayer DVDs on long road trips made me feel like I lived in the future. Seeing digital cable for the first time where it would display the programming schedule with descriptions blew my mind.Ā
I played so many games on CD-ROM on a clunky beige monitor attached to a giant tower running Windows 98āa lot of my parentsā friends were educators so they were constantly giving me new ones to play. Neopets was my life and I loved exploring new sites. I remember frequenting many websites that were just lists of other sites lol. I did also spend a lot of time playing outside and just imagining things. Everything you see on Buzzfeed 90s kid remember the 2000s articles is accurate. The high of optimism when Obama got elected after eight years of Bush was unparalleled!
That said yeah the forced conformity was incredibly stifling and social groups were still cliquish (though this was starting to dissolve by the time I got into high school). Things that would make you cool now would lead you to be mocked or become an outcast so it was nice that emo kids existed because they were a lot more accepting of idiosyncrasies and quirks. Gender nonconformity was frowned uponāI got my hair cut short in eighth grade and was made fun of by so many people, and my male gym coach called me sir!
The beauty standards were insane and also so narrow. I remember being in a Kohlās dressing room when I was like 12 and crying as I tried on increasingly larger pants sizes because my butt wouldnāt fit into anything I tried on and wondering why I was cursed with this body.
HONESTLY the hardest thing for me was that I needed glasses and the only ones that were really available at my local glasses shops were very ugly and nerdy (or if there were cool ones they were designer and cost like $600) and you couldnāt just buy them online so I was walking around looking like Harry Potter for most of my childhood and early adolescence and feeling very insecure about it.
The good thing about personal style, culture, and taste is that i truly had to figure it all out on my own by seeking out and curating sources of inspiration, or by word of mouth from other people, rather than having inspiration algorithmically fed to me.
I remember going trick or treating in the mall after 9/11 because some parents including my mother were very paranoid that something (?) would happen? My mom was very paranoid in general because of her own childhood experiences and seeing all of the news stories about child abductions but I wasnāt helicoptered and my parents would let me walk around the neighborhood with my friends as I got older. We spent so much time just walking from strip mall to strip mall and like loitering at Barnes and Noble lol.
So it was a mixed bag really but I wouldnāt go back and my nostalgia is usually only in passing. This is controversial but I donāt have any fondness for physical media other than vinyl records because I remember just thinking CDs DVDs and VHSs sucked and I hated when they would get damaged. When I realized that I could acquire any digital media I wanted on the internet it felt like the world was my oyster and I never looked back.
You know what though actually I just remembered how much cheaper everything was and I got mad soā¦
I played so many games on CD-ROM on a clunky beige monitor attached to a giant tower running Windows 98āa lot of my parentsā friends were educators so they were constantly giving me new ones to play. Neopets was my life and I loved exploring new sites. I remember frequenting many websites that were just lists of other sites lol. I did also spend a lot of time playing outside and just imagining things. Everything you see on Buzzfeed 90s kid remember the 2000s articles is accurate. The high of optimism when Obama got elected after eight years of Bush was unparalleled!
That said yeah the forced conformity was incredibly stifling and social groups were still cliquish (though this was starting to dissolve by the time I got into high school). Things that would make you cool now would lead you to be mocked or become an outcast so it was nice that emo kids existed because they were a lot more accepting of idiosyncrasies and quirks. Gender nonconformity was frowned uponāI got my hair cut short in eighth grade and was made fun of by so many people, and my male gym coach called me sir!
The beauty standards were insane and also so narrow. I remember being in a Kohlās dressing room when I was like 12 and crying as I tried on increasingly larger pants sizes because my butt wouldnāt fit into anything I tried on and wondering why I was cursed with this body.
HONESTLY the hardest thing for me was that I needed glasses and the only ones that were really available at my local glasses shops were very ugly and nerdy (or if there were cool ones they were designer and cost like $600) and you couldnāt just buy them online so I was walking around looking like Harry Potter for most of my childhood and early adolescence and feeling very insecure about it.
The good thing about personal style, culture, and taste is that i truly had to figure it all out on my own by seeking out and curating sources of inspiration, or by word of mouth from other people, rather than having inspiration algorithmically fed to me.
I remember going trick or treating in the mall after 9/11 because some parents including my mother were very paranoid that something (?) would happen? My mom was very paranoid in general because of her own childhood experiences and seeing all of the news stories about child abductions but I wasnāt helicoptered and my parents would let me walk around the neighborhood with my friends as I got older. We spent so much time just walking from strip mall to strip mall and like loitering at Barnes and Noble lol.
So it was a mixed bag really but I wouldnāt go back and my nostalgia is usually only in passing. This is controversial but I donāt have any fondness for physical media other than vinyl records because I remember just thinking CDs DVDs and VHSs sucked and I hated when they would get damaged. When I realized that I could acquire any digital media I wanted on the internet it felt like the world was my oyster and I never looked back.
You know what though actually I just remembered how much cheaper everything was and I got mad soā¦
5d ago
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totally got reminded of how fucking amazing jack white and his band did mid-covid in 2020 when bill burr hosted
ngl i think it could go down as the best covid performance of all time šš¼ im begging yall to watch the set itās amazing!!!!!!!!!!
ngl i think it could go down as the best covid performance of all time šš¼ im begging yall to watch the set itās amazing!!!!!!!!!!
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iāve been looking for a dope vintage carhartt jacket for a while but most resellers put them for way too much, luckily i snagged this for a great price ($80) and im so excited for it to get here:))
just a reminder that if u want something, u deserve to treat u to it. work for the means and then relish in the fact that u earned it.
just a reminder that if u want something, u deserve to treat u to it. work for the means and then relish in the fact that u earned it.