Growing Up in the 90s and the Things We Took for Granted

The older I get, the more nostalgic I feel about the decade I hold dearest. For me, it’s the 1990’s. There’s no way to say whether the 90’s were truly better than the world we now live in, but I certainly didn’t realize at the time how many things I was taking for granted that would one day go away.

The world I see around me today, shaped largely by smartphone adoption across the population, has changed considerably from the one I grew up in. While some of these changes are largely neutral, there are things I really miss about the time period I call home.

Despite my efforts to build a technology-light home for my children and raise them with a healthy relationship to their devices, I know it’s not the same as growing up in a world where the adults all modeled this for me and my friends.

In this post I want to highlight some of the things about that decade that I remember fondly, and took for granted at the time. I encourage you to read with an open mind and think about what ways the past was better, and whether you can recover any of these aspects in your life today.

Lower levels of violence and profanity in media

It was just recently that we canceled our subscription to Netflix after a long string of shows where we couldn’t make it past the first episode due to unwelcome content. Mainstream shows in the 90’s were family-friendly relative to today, which made TV a more unifying cultural force since people of all ages could watch the same shows together.

Long stretches of undistracted concentration

Before smartphones, my mind was a quieter place. I remember this vividly. No matter where I was, I wasn’t constantly wondering if I was getting a message or wondering what was going on in the world. It was an intentional choice to turn on the TV or read a newspaper. The rest of the time was nearly distraction free, except for the normal contact with other human beings, which was far more pleasant and welcome.

The lack of surveillance

We had a good run of 20-30 years between the invention of a lot of useful technology and the universal surveillance that came along with it. Growing up in the 90’s, you could drive to your friend’s house or the store and have complete privacy as to your whereabouts or who you were with. Of course our society has traded privacy for convenience and safety, but a part of me still misses those days.

The time to truly get bored

I don’t mean to present my childhood as idyllic—there were many stretches of time when I was extremely bored and looking for something to do. My kids, on the other hand, are never bored for more than two minutes. There are so many screens and devices to distract them that their brains are never at rest. To me, this is a big missing in their lives. Boredom was what led me to take up hobbies and spend hours outside with my friends.

The innocence of a pre-9/11 world

A number of my other points are really about the simplified, safer world that I took for granted in the 90’s. I know everyone has various opinions on what should and shouldn’t be done with the laws and regulations of our country, but I think we can all agree that life was less complicated before the terrorist attacks of 2001. Life felt easier and less fraught in a way that I miss.

Slower pace of technology

I remember growing up and having good conversations with my dad about technology. He was a smart guy and was able to at least keep up with the big picture trends. But in the last couple of years, technology, especially with the invention of AI tools like ChatGPT or MidJourney, has exploded at a pace that requires you to go above and beyond just to keep up.

Fewer rules about everything

Have you noticed that almost everywhere you go these days there are rules? There are things that are explicitly told that you can’t do, or can’t wear, or can’t bring with you. Maybe this was just a product of being a kid, but I don’t remember having a problem wherever I went, whether it was to a friend’s house, a restaurant, or a store.

Less emphasis on images

It used to be that most of our consumption of media through content was through words, whether it was magazines or newspapers. Now, most of the news and content we consume comes from social media and it’s very image-heavy. Aesthetics is one thing, but when people, even in their 30’s and 40’s, are basing their self-worth on pictures of themselves, I think we’ve lost something important.

Less obsession with safety

In the name of safety we’ve made a lot of things worse in the world. I’m not advocating for recklessness, but as a kid in the 90’s I felt a sense of freedom from my parents and the adults I trusted. They really modeled a sense of trust and handing over responsibility as you were ready. But now we’ve bubble-wrapped kids and taken away so many of the fun things that used to be part of growing up.

Human cashiers and attendants

I don’t blame businesses for trying to take advantage of modern technology and optimize their profits. But from a human perspective, I must say I miss the days of human attendants. I live in a rural town in Pennsylvania, and I don’t see this going away anytime soon as long as the costs are relatively the same. Our store is a gathering place where people talk to one another and meet the same faces on a regular basis. I realize this may not be the case everywhere.

Daydreaming without a screen

In the 90’s, if you were waiting for someone in a parking lot or in a waiting room, there was a good chance you’d be doing nothing. Doing nothing is an underrated activity, and is really the only place to start if you want to daydream. I worry that without boredom, we’ll be raising a group of kids who will never make this wonderful discovery on their own.