Was the past a more optimistic time than the present?
 

This is mainly a question for you 30+ year olds

I only just became an adult a few years back and so I lack the overall perspective, but I'm looking for relatively mature perspectives of the 80's and 90s.

Were these better times? Better economy, homeland security (for you Murrricans), more thriving music scenes, pre-internet days where people's childhood wasn't corrupted by internet access. I enjoy the internet as much as anyone but it also damaged me in a lot of ways that probably never would've happened if I had grown up without it.

Most of this comes from my personal obsession with 80's culture at the moment, I feel like I really missed out.

I'd say the biggest concern back then was the feeling that we were facing inevitable nuclear annihilation. Ah, fun times. :)

Well yes, but only because they knew this was coming.

How old are you if you don't mind my asking?

They knew our current state was coming?

I think it was predicted.

I am 25 (close enough) and I remember the 90's being incredibly secure, Clinton was in power, music was experimental and fresh, and money went further. Food wasn't as expensive, nor oil and people actually made an effort to meet each other in person. TV was brilliant - Friends, Captain Planet, Gargoyles, Rugrats, Fullhouse (I was a kid). Even the internet was better (apart from dial-up) because forums were new and I met great people then. It wasn't all of this Facebook and Twitter rubbish. Games like Age of Empires seemed to lead the way and of course Fallout. I remember some brilliant electronica and even the radio was bearable.

No, they weren't better times. As stp mentioned, everybody in the 80s was terrified that the entire planet was going to be annihilated in a nuclear war. It really can't be overstated how much this was in the public consciousness. Also, as the 80s wore on people were absolutely terrified of AIDS and thought it was going to be the new bubonic plague. And Merkins were scared of being sucked into another Vietnam in Central America. Plus, the stock market crashed in 1987 and everyone thought we were going to spin into another great depression. And the Challenger blew up and obliterated all the hope and optimism of the space age. And people were terrified of airplane hijackers. And everybody thought crack cocaine was going to destroy civilization. And everybody was scared of child abductions. And us Merkins had an empty suit in the White House who stood for everything shallow and lame about our culture. And that was just the 80s. I'll save my 90s rant for later.

Yea back then kids used to play basketball in real life instead of on the Wii

and they weren't medicated either, Nowaday kids get medicated for being "hyperactive" when they are just being kids

ppl weren't so obsessed with their phones, we only had home phones stuck on the wall, and ppl got by just fine

i was born on 83 so my era is the 90's
that's when i came up age, and back then MTV was decent, they had a good show for every genre at the time MTV Raps (For rap) Headbangers ball (Hard rock) an Alternative nation (Alternative)

Also 120 minutes with matt pinfield (AKA the human music vault)
they showed all types of rock in that show

For my taste it isn't that the music was better, it was that POPULAR music was better, it had more diversity back then..

even popstars were bether then, MJ was still making hits, and Madonna was lady gaga and britney spears in 1 person

Born in '67.

Lol fair enough, I guess I just liked the pop culture of that era the best and didn't take into consideration all the political and social issues

im with you lol

i was oblivious to those back then

http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/1...ge_1_super.jpg

Don't know how many are familiar with this graphic novel from 1982? Pretty much says it all.

Yeah I wasn't suggesting that any decade is completely free of those kinds of issues, but there are definitely decades where it seems they were more on the public's conscious

That and I just like mopey British/American indie rock, new wave and post-punk lol

i don't recall things being that bad then..
i don't live in the USA so their problem didn't really affect us, but i remember back then we didn't label just anyone a "Terrorist" ppl didn't have that 9/11 paranoia they had now

pharmaceutical companies weren't shoving anti-depressants down our throats and restless leg syndrome wasn't a disease lol

I think that's more a product of perception than anything. It's easy to look back with the benefit of hindsight and underestimate how scary a given era was for the people living in it who had no idea how things were going to turn out.

I love a lot of it too. And I relate to why those people were so mopey back then. :)

All true definitely. I imagine my grandkids could learn everything there is to know about 9/11 and still not fully grasp the way we felt when it happened

:mad:

Is that a mopey face? :laughing:

80s pop music: Michael Jackson & Madonna & Prince at their peak, plus HipHop & Indie & New Wave & Electro & Goth & Metal & so on and so forth.

00s pop music: Emo.

If Rob Liefeld isn't a part of that rant I'll be very disappointed.

Meh, things were no better or worse back then. But very different, of course. I'm not sure how I made the days go by without internet and an endless stream of entertainment. On the other hand, the brain certainly could relax more back then, I swear it gets overloaded too often these days. Music-wise I would argue that life gets better for every day, since we get the occasional good new release, while we keep all the classics. And with internet, if you want to dive into a certain era, like 80s New Wave, for example, why, you can just fake it on your own, easily. Overall, nostalgia is a very flawed phenomenon, and something best avoided by creating new worthwhile experiences/memories. I'll stop now before I go off the rails.

You pretty much summed up on what I was thinking.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GCm2zR3DV0...ways+awful.jpg
Too bad this isn't a real book, I'd make it mandatory to read it.
The way I see it, the past seems better becasue we had less responsibilities, many of us at least. I now know my childhood and adolescence and then college time were great thanks to my parents that worked for me and cared for me, now that I'm an adult that has to earn his living, it's no longer so easy. And the crushing pressure of responsibility, paying the mortgage etc... it all piles up. (though whether it is as traumatic to you as it is to some is a personal thing).
While specific problems might be different depending on the time, imo this is more a universal rule than something that just recently started working.

As for the specifics in this case: no, it wasn't better, but this depends on the part of the world you come from mostly. My country was behind the red curtain, we had hundreds of thousands of soviet troops stationed all over the country and they only withdrew in late 1992.
The music has always been terrible, people complain about biebers and minajs nowadays but back then the amount of discopopcrap music was staggering and the invention of the "disco-polo" (which is still going strong, check youtube if you think you can handle it) genre was just a cherry on this inedible cake.
Now, from the perspective of a Pole, it's better than it was. In fact, it's the best we've had in ~200 or so years. Though if you ask an average Pole about it, I doubt you'll hear anything but complaining ... but that's just human nature. people romanticize the past as they view it through nostalgia colored glasses.

Some things were better. Some things were worse. When you consider we ain't living in an ice age (like we once were, and will again) I think the present is pretty good.

dammit someone posted that picture before me ahaha but its so perfect

As a teenager living in 80s New Zealand life was a lot more simplified. Very few people were concerned about how little Johnny had the latest tech gadget and how they had to have one too. No internet either so you had to make your own fun.My biggest worry back them was did i have enough batteries for my walkman:p: