I really never have believed times improved, and i am almost positive things will only get worse.
30 years ago we had a future to look to, the unshittified internet, great music, affordable land/housing, affordable durable cars, people actually interacted in real life, no social media trash. Now, we have billionaires and LLMs. I don’t see how anyone can possibly think times are better or going to improve.
Yes, everyone will say “civil rights improved” and yes thats maybe the only thing that has changed, however it’s getting taken away every day again so I don’t think you can even use that point anymore.
Since it hasn’t been mentioned, one thing that I am truly thankful for that we have improved since the 1990s is public smoking. Not having to be prepared for the reek of cigarettes in virtually every public space is such a big win.
Hell, in 1990, which is 35 years ago, you could still smoke on airplanes in the US. Airplanes! Can you imagine flying back then? Your neighbor could light up and there was nothing you could do but sit there and stew in the smoke stream. I’m glad I never had to experience flying with smoke but I had my fair share of being forced to sit in smoking sections of restaurants until my teenage years.
Can you imagine <pick a thing> back then? Your neighbor could light up and there was nothing you could do but sit there and stew in the smoke stream
It wasn’t just flying. I grew up in the 90s, and you could smoke in so many places, it was awful. I was so happy listening to my mother bitch and complain when they banned smoking in establishments entirely. I could finally breathe, and she had to go outside to keep killing herself (unless we were at home or in the car, in which case there was still nothing I could do but stew in the smoke).
Thats true, it stank!! And non smoking was never a truth ha
The (true) joke at the time was that it was like a swimming pool with a little corner marked “no peeing zone”.
We drag them to the future. There is no other direction.
Some of this is just the noise that society makes though.
Our billionaires have a lot of power, but I don’t think they’re near the Robber Barrons of the US past. The LLMs are trash, but your boss used to put who you should vote for in your paycheck and the only media that existed was sole property of big business.
I’ll grant that the last few decades have been rough, but it beats the past.
Just gotta keep moving.
Crime has declined by 50% or more beginning in the mid to late 1980s and early 1990. While we still have some of the highest crime rates compared to other developed countries. I still think that this is something to be proud of.
Also we are improving our urban planning to make our cities more walkabke, bicyclable, and livable.
Convenience-wise? Yes. A lot of things are easier to get taken care of now. From being able to handle DMV shit online to organizing events to paying bills. All way easier than they used to be.
Everything else…yeah, no. Things are not good economically. Things are not good socially. Things are not good civically. Stress levels are high. Suicides are up. Wealth disparity is getting insane. Finding career jobs with good employers is rough. Have fun buying a house. You might be on the street if you have a medical emergency. Fuck you if you’re poor.
Generally speaking, things are getting worse, but we’ve got some cool tech and easier payment methods while everything else goes to shit, so we’ve got that going for us.
It really depends where. In the global south? Way better, in China, it’s debatable. In Poland, way better. In the US, way worse. In the UK, way worse.
It’s good to bring it into perspective with numbers like Hans Rossling used to do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8t4k0Q8e8Y sadly he died and nobody took this over after him to visualize data in this way so publicly yet.
What parts of the global south? Seems a lot of poverty, disease, famine, war in many places still.
Yes, but compared to 30 years ago overall it seems way less. But yeah, I would need to go through the numbers to be able to point to real data points, you’re right.
Also how much of that is from usaid and eliminating smallpox which is running in reverse now.
Ah, I also didn’t see the “(US)” tag.
Depends who you ask. Things are better for the LGBTQ+ community. Still not as they should be, but I see a generation of kids now who are accepting, whereas 30 years ago, it was the worst thing anyone could accuse you of.
You say that civil rights may go away, but we do have them right now, and as our kids get older, they might not be so willing to take them away.
Yeah, that’s a big one in the US. Being a queer person in the 90s was almost exile from my social circle. There were some gay guys and lesbians were accepted on the perifery, but homophobia reigned.
30 years ago we THOUGHT we had a future.
Tech is better. But life is a lot worse in general. Unless you’re part of a marginalized group I suppose.
We’ve gone from a bright shining future to no future at all.
Tech is better
Tech was only better until like maybe 2015-2016. We’re a solid decade into enshitification across the board. I can’t even find a phone I actually want to replace mine that is finally failing after 8 years and the car situation isn’t looking much better, fortunately I don’t have to deal with that for a while (hopefully).
Unless you’re part of a marginalized group I suppose.
This is a pretty dismissive take. “Sure, things have improved for the blacks and queers, but what about us… uh, regular folk?”
Wasn’t intended that way.
I mean, most of the people here didn’t mention it at all.
Yes, it’s better to be gay in America in 2025 than 1995, although might not be trending in a good direction now. Probably black too, although that’s been a painfully slow process by comparison.
I don’t disagree, but OP didn’t ask for trend predictions. Anyone who tries to convince you “things” are worse today than than they were in 1995 is either trying to gaslight you, or doesn’t consider the experience of the LGBT community to be as equally valuable as everyone else.
I think a lot of the tech is responsible for the shitty life. Tech got better until perhaps end of the naughts. After that it’s just one bullshit excuse after the other to make devices obsolete as quick as possible. Plus the complete enshittification of the internet.
I’m just glad that decentralized social media is becoming a thing and the FOSS movement is huge.
Crime in 1995 was…let’s just say… fucking worse in virtually every category…by a lot. Waco and ruby ridge had just happened. As for poverty, there are the same number of people on poverty in 2023 a there were in 1995. Let’s talk violence against women. It’s tragic today at shockingly high rates. It was much worse in 1995.
Don’t be a woman, or a non white man, or poor, or non cis and you are probably just fine back in 1995.
…cept for abortion. Fuck Trump.
Do you have any idea how many people were always shut out of those things, in the USA? Any idea that our prosperity at home came from brutal repression and denying them to people in the global South, Asia, Africa, far away from our eyes and ears?
We still have it good. Yes, not as good, but good. Are we sliding headlong at a gallop towards overt fascism at home? Also yes. What happens depends on us, and the sacrifices we’re willing to make, now. Or not.
I guess it depends on the person. 30 years ago, I was actually living and working in the US. I was driving a 1988 Volvo 760. I was still driving it 10 years later; best car I’ve ever had. Gas was under a buck. Interest rates were so high that once I got some savings, I lived off the interest and ended up saving 80% of my salary (years later, when the rates went down, I used those savings as a down payment for my house). I could get lost for a full day at Borders. I was able to hitchhike up the east coast, get odd jobs without any resumes or background checks, while on a road trip across the continent. There was a lot of new and exciting technology: CD’s and discmen, computers and the beginnings of the Internet. I read the news via Gopher (unless it was Sunday, then I bought the papers for grocery coupons). I feel that now there are too many limits on people. Lots of them are self-inflicted: I’m middle aged and with kids, so I need to be far more responsible. But when I look at my kids, I feel that they won’t have the same opportunities I had, for travel, education, personal growth, or independence.
Some things are better. Other things are worse.
I’d still go back to when I was 10 if given the chance tho.
As an example: luxuries have gotten cheaper while essentials have gotten more expensive.
1995? For me, personally, I’d say some things are better, some are worse. I was struggling to get by on $8.60 an hour back then, couldn’t live on my own so I had a room-mate. I was still a year away from the tech job that would crack open my real career and bring me where I am today.
1996 - first tech job, income doubled+ overnight. Got my own first place. Commuting between Portland and Chicago every 2 weeks for a year. Feels like that was when my life really started.
2025? Still working in tech, married 14 years, 6 figure salary, bought a house 4 years ago. OTOH - 2 heart attacks, congestive heart failure, cancer scare in the past 2 weeks. Looks like they got it all, but I need to back in 6 months for a re-check.
Good luck at your next appointment! 🤞
Melanoma? They can get all that shit pretty reliably these days. I just passed my last 6mo check and I’m back on yearlies.
If not melanoma then good luck, fellow traveler. Fuck cancer.
15 polyps and 2 actual tumors. :(
Ohhhh shit. Good luck with treatment
If there’s anything better now than 30 years ago it’s science, technology and medicine combined to make better treatments for cancer and other diseases. The 6-month checkup is good news (from my experience), then it will be yearly. Good luck!
The big one (30mm) they not only removed, but they tattooed the spot where they took it from for future checks.
So now I can legit say “Yes, I have a tattoo… no, I won’t show it to you!” LOL.
You are hilarious! Glad you have a sense of humor. Not that it’s a contest but I got you beat… I have 4 dots! Lol
Medical technology has greatly improved. More people survive cancer, aids, surgery is far less invasive, and better medications.
Technology in general is getting better.
We have a faster internet. I love having access to so much information. Sure, there are far more gullible fools who believe in all manner of silly stuff but I feel the internet has done more good than bad.
Life expectancy has gone up about 2 years since 1995 (from 76 to 78). Not a massive difference TBH.
Look at that dip right before 2020! Wonder why America dipped so much lower. Surely, face-masks as a way to prevent the spread of infectious disease wasn’t suddenly a controversial issue!
What about people’s overall health? Two years isn’t much but if a person’s last ten years is lived with less pain and more mobility that is something.
Wow, that really puts the impact of covid in perspective.
The one grape I have with the medical technology thing is the fact that if I used any of it I would be in debt for the rest of my life which would be longer because of the technology
Maybe you’ll get lucky and get a recall or a class action lawsuit
Do you have any other fruits with medical tech?
I’ve goyes. A pineapple t a pineapple with an
That is only an America problem though
True
Half the technology only prevents death, but doesn’t necessarily give you quality of life, so they can keep it. It’s the pharmaceutical advancements that have had the biggest QoL impact on me, and thankfully generics have been reasonably affordable.
The internet allowed to stupid to find each other far too easily and spread far too much bullshit.
People believed in all manner of things without supporting evidence long before the internet arrived.
But now they have the means to organize
Yeah but it was harder for so many stupid people to link up and feed off of each other.
Medical technology has greatly improved.
If you can afford it. Health insurance in the US was certainly better 30 years ago.
Economically for the working class, no. But it’s undeniably better to be gay or coloured in western countries than it was 30 years ago.
