I think it can be both. Pop culture is never as meaningful as when you're fourteen years old, and there can be secular trends where things get better and worse.

I think it can be both. Pop culture is never as meaningful as when you're fourteen years old, and there can be secular trends where things get better and worse. For example, I grew up in the US during the 90s. It was a great time because I was a teenager and because the 90s were a local maximum of life in the US being good. Do teenagers in the US now have as good a time? I don't think so, in general. Did teenagers in Russia in the 90s have as good a time? Probably not Russia was having problems in the 90s. (I hope my examples don't inflame national or generational passions; I didn't mean it that way. They were just the first examples that came to mind and they could be broadly relatable.)