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With the end of the Cold War and the spread of the internet, the 1990s is often remembered as a time of peace and prosperity. However, the decade was not without violence and tragedy, including the Rodney King beating and subsequent L.A. Riots, and the bombing of the World Trade Center.
So to get a more accurate view of this iconic era, Reddit user IndieSyndicate made a post on the subreddit 'Gen X,' asking it's members to share the common misconceptions about it. Born between 1965 and 1980, the cohort stepped up to the task and shared their diverse perspectives and experiences, shedding light on the often oversimplified mainstream narratives.
Image credits: IndieSyndicate
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#1
Money was tight then, too. People were happy with fewer luxuries, because we could get by. And the very idea of giving a child a device worth hundreds of dollars was ludicrous! I still feel this way.
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#2
The 90s was a lot more analog than it’s presented. People still read newspapers and magazines. Cell phones were not ubiquitous. Cassette tapes and VHS tapes still dominated.
#3
There’s a HUGE difference between the early 90’s and late 90’s. After 1996 it was more millennial, pokémon, Britney Spears vs the early 90’s which was more grunge smooth RnB.
#4
Internet being widely available, so many tv shows and movies showing teenagers in supposedly early and mid 90s sitting in their bedrooms chatting online on their personal computers or being "hackers" and I'm like "b*tch in 1994 I didn't even know what the internet was" and I didn't really get home internet until 1999 (in the one and only computer of the house), and neither did anyone I knew, even the rich kids at school didn't care or knew about it, you were either out of the house or watching tv.
Little Wonder 9 months ago
I had a BBS account in 93, got proper internet in 95. My dad paid for 10 hours a month. A MONTH.
#5
The 90s was the dial up era and transition from dot matrix printers to ink jet. That modem squealing sound sums it up. We had technology, but it required patience and we were so grateful to have it, nobody complained. You lose the Internet for 10 minutes these days and people act like they're going to lose their minds.
#6
The early 90s and late 90s were two very different times culturally.
I can't stand it when I see a picture of the spice girls with a "So 90s!" caption.
Nerenahd Dhaneren 9 months ago
I think the watershed moment was the advent of the Internet in the mid-90s.
#7
That mom Jeans were cool. No one under 35 wore them. They looked like s**t.
Susan Bosse 9 months ago
They still do. I'm a mom now and I wouldn't wear them unless you paid me a ridiculous amount of money.
#8
That the 90s were some kind of utopia. There was a lot of good things, but the 90s were violent and there were way more ism’s on display.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 9 months ago
Rodney King Riots, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Columbine, just to name a few. Oh and with Nix Benedict in the news right now, how can I forget Matthew Shepard?
#9
I will describe the usage of computers on university campuses in 1996.
"checking your email" meant walking across campus *in the snow* and sitting down in front of a gigantic metal box and starting up an email program. "notifications" did not exist at this time. Even medical doctors used pagers.
Upstaged75 9 months ago
Actually 1996 was the first year we had internet in our rooms at my college. I didn't have an internet ready computer so I either had use it in someone else's room or over to the computer lab.
#10
Nobody seems to talk about all the maroon and hunter-green wallpaper strips that were added to the top of the walls in houses.
Maroon and hunter-green everywhere. From cars to vacuums and beyond.
Oh, and the prevalence of People magazine. I see stuff about Readers Digest, but People magazine is not really talked about.
I also don't think people really understand just how much people smoked then either. Smoking in the car with your kids in it, at McDonalds, at school, etc.
#11
The Rave scene was bigger and better than anyone seems to remember. PLUR.
Nacho Man Sandy Ravage 9 months ago
They can't remember now because of all the E's being popped at the time
#12
That everyone loved Curt Cobain and/or Nirvana or that he/they even “spoke” for a generation.
#13
I loved the 90’s so much. But people do forget that 1/4 oz. Of weed could get you a serious sentence, and homophobia was even worse then i think.
#14
Grunge always seems to get the spotlight, but an overwhelming number of people were pretty preppy actually. We did, after all, make household names out of the Gap, Banana Republic, J Crew, etc.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 9 months ago
Real grunge came from thrift stores and discount stores. I used to have a route I'd make about once a month. Always had to check out the local Army Surplus too. Never know what you're gonna find.
#15
A comment I heard years ago and don't remember the source: "1997 was the year it stopped being weird to have email.".
#16
Not all GenXers were disinterested slackers in the 90s.
#17
The 90s were NOT represented in the film SINGLES or the TV show “Friends”. But the music represented the 90s well.
Nerenahd Dhaneren 9 months ago
I beg to differ. Friends and Singles do capture a lot of what was going on in the 90s. The music does it even better though.
#18
That Nirvana ruled the 90s, and brought an end to all other forms of hard rock. They hit hard for about two and a half years, and then we were stuck with Tonic and the goddamn Spin Doctors.
#19
Some of the most popular music artists of the ‘90s were also the most popular music artists of the ‘80s, like: Michael Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, LL Cool J, Aerosmith, Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi, George Michael, Paula Abdul, and Salt N Pepa.
#20
That the early 1990’s were really bleak economically. Nearly everyone I knew, including people with Ivy League degrees, were working good service or retail just trying to get by. The Information Age felt so distant in 1992 - it wouldn’t explode until another five years. Rodney King, the LA riots, OJ Simpson trial - these were big signs that we were a long way from racial harmony. Everyone older than us was screaming about family values, while we elected a known womanizer president, and a Speaker of the House who was impeaching the president while getting blow jobs from a woman who would become his third wife. We now had a known sexual harasser on the Supreme Court - gender equality wasn’t that great, either. The Balkans were destroying themselves. Rwanda genocide barely made the papers. Yitzak Rabin is assassinated. Middle East terrorism starts. There was a lot of global uncertainty. At home, Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, Columbine, the Olympic bomber - these show deep divides brewing. Matthew Shepherd, whole communities still dying of AIDS, Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell - we have a long way to go for gay rights. But by 1995, the economy starts to heat up. By 1998 it’s exploding. Then the dot com bubble burst. All of these things set into motion the new and continuing problems that continue to dominate our lives today. Don’t get me wrong - the 1990’s were an amazing decade. Despite all of these things, there was a lot of hope, and the feeling that we could be part of a world that could still do amazing things and we were going to get to see them, participate in them, prosper under it. GenXers were, more than anything, YOUNG. That feeling of youth is what a lot of people miss when they remember the 90’s. Just as there was neon in the 1980’s, there was prosperity and feelings of possibility in the 90’s. But it wasn’t the norm, and it wasn’t for everyone. We felt great, sleeping on futons at 25, but little we know we were destined to back problems in our 40’s because of them.
Little Wonder 9 months ago
Yeah, my father was laid off in the early 90s during recession. We had a tough time of it, financially.
#21
I think one idea that's misrepresented is that we were already online, all the time.
I mean, I was STOKED when I got into the dorm with LAN connections in 1993, but I was an outlier. Lots of kids at my college barely understood using computers, much less anything internet-related beyond maybe an AOL/AIM. Obviously this was an evolution of ten very fast moving years.
#22
That life was GREAT before the internet and cell phones made us all into anxious, isolated zombies.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 9 months ago
So I was a teen in the 90s. I grew up in a rural stripmall of a town. What does a teenager in a town like that do to spend time with other teens? There's no social media and you're too young to go to bars so it can be a pretty lonely existence. When I got a job at 16 that let me spend time with people NOT from my school it was amazing. BTW I hated my school, if you can't tell.
#23
A lot of people mention grunge and gangsta rap, but country was very hot too. Country line dancing became a big thing, Branson, Missouri became a big tourist destination with its theaters, and artists like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain made tons of money. My grandfather always had the country station on. Alan Jackson and George Strait were his favorites. The country influence made its way into homes, with cow, geese, and rooster decor.
LooseSeal's $10 Banana 9 months ago
90s country is so good. It got upbeat and fun before it turned into bro country.
#25
Cellphones were considered tacky and unnecessary unless you were a doctor.
#26
Please don’t bring 90’s fashion back. It died on the vine for a reason, it sucked. Run if you start seeing turtlenecks, multi color sweaters, buckle shoes and mullets.
#27
Us older Gen Xers we're full fledged, college educated working adults with careers in the 90s. Some of us even had kids and houses.
The advantage was that we had plenty of money for concert tix and Doc Martins.
#28
The ‘80s never really went away. There were a lot of people who hated the new directions in music, fashion, TV and movies the ‘90s brought and held onto their butt rock, Aquanet and mullets with a righteous fervour.
Melissa Sawicki 9 months ago
Why is that person holding the Boom Box like it was so light???? B***h please.... those Boom boxes were heavy
#30
I think one of the most interesting transitions from the 90’s into the 00’s can be observed through The Sopranos. It starts with phone booths and pagers and ends with iPhones (Sopranos ran until 2007*, there was definitely overlap. It’s featured prominently in the final season, used by Anthony Jr.) so the cell phone evolution represented there is just one aspect of tech and culture changes at the turn of the century that can be seen in the series. The inclusion of the iPhone in the final season was some prime product placement marketing for the new product. If you think of the 80’s as “grey” you may have missed the the obsession with “neon” (uv) colors that began in the 80’s and proliferated in the 90’s. The 80’s were hyper saturated with a wholly different palette from the 70’s, and laid a foundation for 90’s design.
What do you think ?
Corvus 9 months ago
If I miss one thing about the 90's, it's living without social media... in the sense of living without people constantly reacting to every little/insignificant thing (outrage, usually), without people sharing trivial details about their daily lives, without having everyone's mishaps recorded and shared with the whole world. As kids, we surely did a lot of stupid stuff back then, but it stayed with us, and only we will ever remember it...
Corvus 9 months ago
If I miss one thing about the 90's, it's living without social media... in the sense of living without people constantly reacting to every little/insignificant thing (outrage, usually), without people sharing trivial details about their daily lives, without having everyone's mishaps recorded and shared with the whole world. As kids, we surely did a lot of stupid stuff back then, but it stayed with us, and only we will ever remember it...
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