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> The 90s were peak humanity Nostalgia is one hell of a drug. I was a teenager during the 90's, and I do have fond memories of things from that decade, but it

> The 90s were peak humanity Nostalgia is one hell of a drug. I was a teenager during the 90's, and I do have fond memories of things from that decade, but it would do well to keep your nostalgia in check. Even when we restrict ourselves to the realm of tech, a lot of things back then sucked horribly. Large tech companies already showed their rent-seeking tendencies, there was crazy hype for shit ideas (the dotcom bubble popped for a reason). In fact, I think that the current mindset of people being increasingly jaded, skeptical, and mistrusting of tech is healthy. It shows that at least some people are learning their lessons, even if this mindset is somewhat restricted to bubbles like this.

hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
Yes, it's good to be cautious against nostalgia, but it's also bad to just pretend that everything just basically repeats. To be clear, since I feel a bunch of comments are taking that "90s was peak humanity" quote overly literal (another commenter pointed out there were still horrible wars during the 90s), I'd point out that it was about the expectations of how tech would improve human lives. Most specifically, there was a very broad belief that things like the Internet would bring people closer together. But by lots of objective metrics (measures of loneliness, polarization, pessimism for the future, youth mental illness, etc.), not only did tech not "bring us closer together", it actively helped rip us apart. And I think if you time traveled back to the 90s and explained those outcomes, the vast majority of people would be genuinely shocked and surprised.
ForHackernews 2y ago
It's So Sad When Old People Romanticize Their Heydays, Also the 90s Were Objectively the Best Time to Be Alive https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/its-so-sad-when-old-people-romanticize https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/its-so-sad-when-old-peo...

hn_throwaway_99 2y ago

Yes, it's good to be cautious against nostalgia, but it's also bad to just pretend that everything just basically repeats. To be clear, since I feel a bunch of comments are taking that "90s was peak humanity" quote overly literal (another commenter pointed out there were still horrible wars during the 90s), I'd point out that it was about the expectations of how tech would improve human lives. Most specifically, there was a very broad belief that things like the Internet would bring people closer together. But by lots of objective metrics (measures of loneliness, polarization, pessimism for the future, youth mental illness, etc.), not only did tech not "bring us closer together", it actively helped rip us apart. And I think if you time traveled back to the 90s and explained those outcomes, the vast majority of people would be genuinely shocked and surprised.

ForHackernews 2y ago

It's So Sad When Old People Romanticize Their Heydays, Also the 90s Were Objectively the Best Time to Be Alive https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/its-so-sad-when-old-people-romanticize https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/its-so-sad-when-old-peo...