How to describe the 90s to a teenager today
"Basically like now except you don't have a smart phone".
Accurate?
A lot more fun.
shareYes indeed π
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MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > How to describe the 90s to a teenager to...
It's impossible to explain anything to a teenager.
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I think it's a good way to start explaining.
"No phone? So how'd you listen to music?"
"CDs, walkmans, home stereo systems."
"Howd you watch funny videos?"
"A tv show called funniest Home videos".
"Howd you find out stuff?"
"Call someone or go to a library or buy a newspaper or magazine."
"Howd you navigate somewhere?"
"A physical book of maps, you'd look up the street address, find the page it's on, then see where that page sits on the overall map, you'd then have to figure out the route yourself with deduction."
Once you roll through how things done on your phone were done in the 90s, they'll have a good understanding.
No, they'd probably just look at you like a deer in the headlights.
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The WWW didn't exist until around 1994 and Google to organize the web didn't arrive until 1999, so for at least the first half of the '90s, "Basically like now except there is no Internet and no mobile phones (let alone smart phones)" is what you want to lead with.
Remember too that DVDs don't arrive until 1997 so most of the '90s were a VHS VCR only zone.
Finally, in 1990 typical hard drives on home computers held 40-50 *Megs*. Less than a single full-HD .jpg file these days.
"Basically like now except you don't have a smart phone".
Yeah, that covers it fairly well.
Adding, just like today, but with the bill of your hat facing backwards.
Honestly, I really don't notice any significantly different "vibe" from the 90s till now.
Well the vibe was better because these days people are walking with phones in their hands. Even having a conversation some can't help but to look at their phones we'll you're talking.
sharePut Human Traffic on for them. It accurately describes my late 90s experience.
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Wholeheartedly agree with this take.
At least in western countries, life just seemed more relaxed. Now, thanks to smartphones, it's...welcome to today's latest hysteria which will be fed to you around the clock.
Well that's the 2000s, which were more tense, but nowadays most aren't overly concerned about terrorism. So it's a teenager of today.
shareThe 90s were a wonderful time - the internet was certainly in its infancy, but you could see how it was going to change everything. AOL and Yahoo! were the big daddies at the beginning. The Dot Com Boom was an incredible time to be alive, especially if you lived in the Bay Area. I could tell stories about how everyone had money and were going to all these free launch parties.
Music was fantastic - rock was still in fashion, Rap and Hip Hop was finally mainstream, and a whole lot of women musicians starting doing their own thing (I even went to a Lilith Faire with a girlfriend). MTV, IMO, started the whole reality craze with the first season of The Real World, which I believe came out in 1991 or 1992.
Tons of crazy moments in the news - The OJ Simpson Case was the talk for pretty much two years - from the actual murders to the acquittal and civil trial. Rodney King riots were huge. Clinton's scandal, Ruby Ridge, and of course David Koresh/Branch Davidian/Waco was absolutely nuts. There was the Oklahoma City bombing... so much now that I'm thinking of it.
I loved the fashion of the 90's - we got away from the pastels, big hair, and acid wash jeans. I'd put the 90's cinema against any other decade (including the 1970s). The economy really was quite strong as well, especially in the later half of the decade.
As far as growing up, I was a teenager for the first part of the 90s and it was great. No, we didn't have cell phones. I remember I had a piece of binder paper with about 100 phone numbers on it that I had in my wallet. That was how I kept track of everyone. Trust me, sometimes it was great not to be reachable.
It was certainly a looser time. Today I see my teenage daughter and, yes, she has a cell phone and internet and access to everything, but I can't help but think sometimes it's a distraction instead of a perk. Now everyone is fighting politically and socially about everything that I wish she grew up in an easier, more carefree time.