Topic: 1990's: The last great decade?

DISCLAIMER First topic post. I'm not trying to ruffle anybody's feathers, I'm purely looking for insight.

This thought came to me the other day and it got me thinking if the 90's will go down as the last great decade. Reflecting on the state of the world's economy and my personal unemployment, things aren't looking so good. I asked my father (who was my age in the early 90's) if he has enjoyed the last 10 years as much as the previous 10 and the answer was a big fat no. I've asked people from their mid 20's to late 50's this question and all confirmed my father's answer. So the next question is why.

My theory is that technology has stripped away a very important social aspect in life: Interpersonal contact. I will have a group of friends over and everybody is texting somebody else. WHY?!?! What is so hard about checking your phone at the door and socializing? Makes me think they come over just for the food. My friends used to come over and play video games with me. Now they would rather sit at home and play games online. People don't get out of their vehicle and ring the door bell, they send a text. I asked someone why they wouldn't call me at my home before I had a cell and they said they didn't want someone else picking up the phone because it's "awkward." Are we that antisocial?

None of these modern technologies are inherently evil, but we have become dependent on them. We made due without them in the past so why is it so difficult for us (me included) to live without today? I have other theories as to why many feel this way, but for now I wanted to point to the topic of technology. I understand this is a worldwide forum so input from those outside of the USA would be greatly appreciated as this may be a cultural thing I'm experiencing.

I'm in the US so I will not say anything except i agree except for... THE 80's!!!!

I didn't mean to exclude my friends in the US. I was still pooping my pants in the 80's but again, people remember the 80's for the crazy fashion, the 70's for it's progressive movement, so on and so forth. What are the 00's remembered for? 9/11?

The 90's sucked. The music was crap. Now it's even worse. Lady Gaga are you kidding me? Ugh. The 80's is where it's at. Better music, Better Cartoons and the beginning of the best time for Videogames! Now a days everything is rehashed or remade. Nothing original comes out of movies and music anymore. The whole worlds gone to hell and it's all downhill from here.

What's with all these "This generation sucks." posts? If you don't like the current age, buy yourself a delorean and go away.

I love the 90's but I love the 80's even more. The 00's were a pretty crappy decade, frankly. A lot of good things happened, but overall it was kind of stale and dull.

In 10 years the same will be said about the 2000s only by someone 10 years younger than you, StuffyStuff. And yes you do tickles me

one group we have to give thanks to, is the Parents Music Resource Centre.
during the 80`s, this group of parents decided to take on the music industry to get some kind of censorship in place on music as a whole.
they didn`t want musicians to record songs with lirycs were used profanity, or have content with sexual or violent nature, because they didn`t want there children to hear it. and they thought it was inappropraite for society as a whole.
but, some musicians at the time turned the argument in their favour, using freedom of speech their main response. they also stated that music with adult orientad content was never played on radio during the day, at times when children were most likely to listen to music, and the fact that certaind bands/groups were also well known for their lyrical content, and most parents would have been well aware of this, and not bought their children the albums that were not intended for them in the first place.
since then, music has gone down hill in quality, beacuse the majority of musicians want there music to sell well, and don`t want there music held back because of the parental advisory sticker. so they have gone for a more family friendly approach, and sacrifieced quality for quantity.
a big thank you to the 80`s for destroying the music of future generations.
but, atleast during the early 90`s, music had some bounce back, thanks to the rave scene in england. albeit an underground music, and group movement. so the 90`s has something good come from it.

Well I'm not so sure both the 80s and 90s had a lot going for it, but one thing is certain this decade is from a thing larger than entertainment mediums crap. Setup in the 90s by Clinton and his kids before the 'contract' we got the roots of Fannie and Freddie that in this decade with the self serving duo of Frank and Dodd helped destroy the credit, housing, and banking house of cards that has caused a depression on a level of magnitude that hasn't happened in the 1930s. On the larger end of the stick, if you're too young for it to matter that's one thing, but as an adult or one who has been whacked by the ugly stick of the economy this decade will be remembered for being a huge wet unemployed turd where fail on top of fail keeps being piled from from bailouts to more welfare programs where there is no cash to pay for it.

That enough of a downer for this decade to make the question answered as the 90s being the last great decade?

Way to get the topic locked J.K.

You are right by the way, and if things keep going the way they are going, the 2010's could be one of the worst decades ever.

I wasn't even born in the 80's and I love it!

(post Link79's post) I'm a 90's kid and it was fun, but I think I would enjoy the 80's a lot more. Somehow everything I like seems to have come in the 80's.

I think everyone forgets THE INTERNET. The internet has changed EVERYTHING in the 2000s That's what it's known for. Sure it was getting popular in the 90s, but crappy HTML coded geocities sites didn't change our whole lives. There are always certain things you take out of every decade, and decide the next sucks because you forget about all the bad things. Some of the worst music ever heard has also come out of the 80s and 90s; it wasn't all OIngo Boingo and Pearl Jam

Hey grenworthshero, you should do another game collection video on youtube. It's been a while.

Yes, but in the 90s we didn't have to worry about viruses in JPGs and other images on random websites, web based worms and viruses, java trojans, and websites loaded with more popups, popunders, full wrap around banners, talking crap you can't shut off, flash based aggravation and other ad bombs. The 1990s had none for a good bit, then the rest just had some banner and ad squares, and few too. I have to keep Adblock Plus going reguarly updated to keep a mid 90s level of ads or less on screen which sucks.

haha, that's because I've been spending most of my money on anime, music and movies, not video games. Once I expand my collection a bit more I'll do another one.

The 90's were the golden years of gaming, IMO.

I can smell it in the air...ah, such sweet nostalgia.

@StuffyStuff: I was thinking the exact same thing a little while ago, and share your opinions because I'm unemployed as well (two months). What's hurting everyone is uncertainty by business owners as to their futures, greed by the CEOs in that by terminating employment and sending jobs overseas they can add more to their personal gain instead of hiring more employees to generate more output of products and services (which admittedly may or may not be purchased). The cost of living has gone so far up that luxury item purchases are scarce, unlike the late 1990s when there were SO MANY job openings, tech advancements were new and those who didn't suffer from the tech bubble burst were thriving.

As far as your sociological statements, a friend and I had posted blogs with differing viewpoints regarding today's online gaming versus local multiplayer gaming from the '90s, and early '00s, and I have to say that the best experiences I've had were not from playing Tetris Party on WiiWare in NJ while text chatting with a friend from Texas or playing Battlefield 1943 with random gamers with no headsets, or even playing Counter Strike: Source with endless headshots and players telling me to uninstall. It was playing Advance Wars multiplayer with my brother-in-law, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Darkstalkers with my sister on my Sega Saturn (which I still have!), playing The New Tetris with my mom, or hanging out with my high school friends and talking about Game Boy games.

Gaming of the '90s was like the music movement of the '80s in which developers built on their franchises and made them better and more unique, good games were even better in multiplayer (Streets of Rage, Secret of Mana, Tetris 2, Street Fighter 2). Even single-player games made in the '90s which had single-player only modes were so good that friends and/or family would crowd around as you finished the game or just made it a social event. My family was NOT rich, but fortunately we had an NES and my sisters would ask me to play Kirby or Mario 3 from start to finish while they fell asleep. Nothing like games today, where games demand at least 11 buttons and are mostly nothing but vertices, curves, grays and browns.

Despite my love for playing Tetris, Battlefield and Wipeout online, I'll take the good old days of multiplayer gaming anyday.

Sadly, I do tend to agree that the 90's were the last great decade. In the 90's, there were a lot of good shows on TV (like Animaniacs), the introduction of the Internet (like grenworthshero said already), and the greatest gaming war in history, Nintendo vs. Sega. The 00's, however, had 9/11, the war in Iraq, and worse TV shows. Do I even need to remind anyone about the conclusion to last decade last year, or as I like to call it, "the year of deaths" (Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, Farah Fawcett, Captain Lou Albano, etc.)? The 80's were great, but the 90's were the last great decade. Here's hoping the 10's will be better.

While the 90's had some awesome music and the awesomeness of Clinton (not trying to start anything political here, mind you) it's all highly subjective. I'm sure there are people that will say that about pretty much any decade, for any reason you can think of.