Ah, the 1990s: the decade when denim jackets were, somehow, cool again, and everyone believed that Nirvana was the answer to our angst. If you weren't wearing flannel and listening to grunge while simultaneously holding a Tamagotchi in one hand and a VHS tape of "Friends" in the other, were you even alive? Seriously, we survived dial-up Internet and a dozen different flavors of soda, all while worrying about whether our favorite band would break up before we could see them live at Lollapalooza. Talk about stress.
But let's not forget those brave souls who ventured into the realm of life before smartphones—when it was an athletic feat to execute a three-way phone call without your mom accidentally clicking over to "listen in." Remember when AOL Instant Messenger was the pinnacle of social interaction and the “you’ve got mail” notification made your heart skip a beat? Comparing it to today’s swiping, we were practically pen pals with people living in the same town; the only emoji we had was a sigh of relief that we were still on the planet without a single selfie in sight. Having a profile pic consisted of writing something deep like, “Why are we here?” next to a blurry photo of your cat, and that was as real as it got.
Speaking of real, remember when you could actually spend time outside without feeling like an unaccomplished hermit? We played outside until the streetlights flicked on like a high-stakes game of chicken with the universe. No GPS tracking here; no one knew where we were. We were the modern-day explorers, flipping our skateboards and plummeting down half-pipes, while the only thing we worried about was someone coming out of the bushes dressed as an adult-ED. (It was just kids playing at being cool, we swear!) Now that feels like a fever dream.
And let’s talk about pop culture. We had the Spice Girls telling us what they really, really wanted, and we accidentally believed that was an actual life philosophy. Now, here we are, listening to our kids associate “good music” with whatever algorithm TikTok has deemed worthy while we nostalgically curate our playlists of boy bands who seemingly fell off the face of the planet and never resurfaced. You think *NSYNC would ever dream of coming back? Please. They made too much money selling their souls for residual '90s revival cash.
In conclusion, if you want to experience life in the '90s again, just put on some baggy jeans, crank up the Walkman, and listen to our most beloved hits while bemoaning how “kids these days” could never understand the struggle of rewinding VHS tapes. So, here’s to the glorious blinking cursor of our youth; we survived it all—barely.