Change is constant and lot of things changes from one era to era. In a reddit forum, a user asked “If Someone From The 90’s Wake Up In 2023, What Would Surprise Them The Most?”.
Here are some interesting responses he got:
People Have Become Lazy:
“How everyone expects convenience without any effort. ( my def of our internet age)”
“Or any cost. I see this when people try to get food delivered and then are surprised at how much more expensive a meal becomes. You just put so many more people in between you and your food that you have to pay now. It shouldn’t be that surprising.”
Music Streaming:
“Love listening to music so easily now!
I remember my first Walkman and all the different mp3 players. There used to be the music players that used little cartridges (forgot what they were called). Burning my own cds, etc. love how easy it is to listen to music now”
Lack Of Compassion Among People:
“The lack of compassion and connection between people.
I would never paint the 90s as idyllic and I’m not saying that there was ever enough compassion, but I was there, and there was more.”
Google Maps:
“In the 90s? Homie we’d be using those huge maps and studying best possible routes before a trip. I remember having a destination and just trying to figure out from road signs for the hell of it.”
“This would absolutely be it for me too. It’s insane how i can use gps in my phone to get out of a deep forest and know exactly where i am at any given time. Before smartphones and gps it was just estimating possible distances and getting the general direction from a compass or the sun.”
Went Backward Socially:
“How everything in our culture has fallen apart, and we have absolutely horrible bitter divided incompetent national leadership. Some cities are literally on fire that were great places to be and live in the 90s.”
“Things were obviously not great, but it always felt like we were on the right path, socially-speaking. Bigotry was being called out, LGBTQ, POC, and women were making headway. We had miles to go, but you could see it on the horizon.
Now, though, it feels like we hit a huge speedbump and got thrown off the path completely.”
Smartphones:
“I was astonished when iPhone touchscreens actually worked–I saw them used for museum interpretation and to sell movie tickets or whatever and they were really bad.”
“Yeah, and along with this, how connected everyone is expected to be all the time and paradoxically how much flakier everyone is. In the 90s you’d call someone without an expectation that they’d be near the phone to answer, but you’d leave a voicemail and expect a call back at some point. Now you’d expect the message you sent to get to someone immediately but it’s also very common for people to just ignore stuff entirely.”
How Poor Most People Are:
“Back in 1990 $15.00/hour was a pretty good wage. In my area you could find plenty of apartments for under $500/month.”
“Man I had a 2 bedroom apartment for exactly $400 a month from 2003-2006. From 2010-2011 I had a smallstudio that cost $1200 a month in a kind of backward area, it’s what finally drove me to buy a house. I had an $850 mortgage for a 2 story house with a finished basement after paying $1200 for a tiny studio apartment.
Now with the housing prices and interest rates going up, I couldn’t even afford the house I live in now if I were to buy it now, lol.”
Access To Information:
“Your local library used to be your best source for learning resources.
Educational programming? Sure, but TV before the DVR meant you had to be watching at the appropriate time.
Magazines used to be the best way to stay updated on topics. Subscriptions were a booming industry.
Google and Yahoo search engines existed, but the internet was very much a wild frontier in terms of source information. Even in the 2000’s we were taught by educators NOT to trust Wikipedia.
Personal Note: I still can’t get over the fact that I can find a How-to video for literally any topic, and for free. I just watched a video on fiberglass patching a canoe. FUTURE”
Social Media Influencers:
“There’s a science fiction short story written by James Tiptree Jr called The Girl Who Was Plugged In. Pretty mush predicts the rise of influencers perfectly. It was published in 1974.”
Bright Lights:
“Back in the 90s you didn’t have LEDs – just incandescent lights. they were dim and yellow tinted. it was literally darker back then. stores, public places, the gas station, city streets – all much darker. made things much moodier and a little eerie.”
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Anika Jindal
Anika is a CPA and founder of What Anika Says. She shares simple and actionable frugal living, money management and money-saving tips to live a debt-free financially independent life. She has been featured on popular websites like Bankrate, Forbes, Mint ,and Authority Magazine. Byline: MSN