I was an 80's kid (under age 13 before 1989) and remember the 80's, roughly 1984 to 1989, which covers a lot of the high mid 80's to late 80's period. I remember Nintendo, original MTV music videos, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Small Wonder, Family Ties, Muppet Babies, Pee Wee Herman, Mr Belvedere, 80's cartoons like Inspector Gadget, Dennis The Menace, Duck Tales, etc. I enjoyed my childhood in the 80's but I also wish I had been a teenager in the 80's. I became a 90's teenager (class of 1998) so I totally agree with what the Original Post stated. I don't care about the 2000's but I did enjoy the 90's. That decade was long as hell though. I thought it would never end. The year 2000 and anything after that just seemed like THE FUTURE, and anyone my age (90's teens) will tell you that. We never thought about the 2000's, it just seemed like far away. As a teen, you are only involved in your current life at whatever decade that is, mine just happened to be the 90's. As for the 80's, they are my childhood so I look back at that time with even more nostalgia (much like the OP says). We were there in the 80's but we were just small kids so we didn't experience that decade in the teen manner which would have been awesome as well. At most, however, people my age/generation have been a combination of both 80's and 90's and we feel very blessed to remember classic, earlier times before the internet, before cell phones and today's culture.
I'm pretty sure 80's teens went through the same things any teen of any time goes through - wanting to fit in, passing classes so you can graduate, driving a car, getting in to college, getting in a relationship, etc. However, I personally was into being myself and although I had a few friends, I never obsessed with wanting to follow trends and wanting to belong to a clique or social group. I had only about 3 close friends and was well known by many others but wasn't popular. In the mid to late 90's however, I never did see anyone in my particular school obsessing with wanting to fit in or putting anyone down for being different. There were nerds, geeks, jocks, punks, stoners, Goths and all that but everyone did their own thing and let everyone do their own thing. It was more like a liberal college environment or a hippie type of commune, no dress code, wild fashions and lots of creative fun. I will never forget it. But at least in my personal experience, nobody was struggling to fit in or follow trends. They were following sub-culture trends - Goths, Greasers, Punks, rockabilly, and God knows what else, but they were celebrating their radical individuality and non conformity so it was really wonderful!!!
I feel sorry for today's high school teens who are even more fixated on following trends, wanting to belong, etc. It's far more shallow now than ever before. The excess is too much. Back in the 80's and 90's, the excesses were never at the level it is now.
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