## [t3_u6ankm](https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/comments/u6ankm/late_90searly_2000s_were_the_best_years_ever_and/)
- The power of this realisation has been coming for quite some time, but it has just hit me full force and I have finally managed to somewhat eloquently put it into words.



-Remember when you used to really feel things? Not like "I am so involved in /insert whatever superficial social media drama/trend is happening right now/", that's all just damn ridiculous.

-I mean the feels that you had when mom was making you eggs for breakfast while you were just sitting there, ass on the floor in front of a big old boxy Sony TV and watching Scooby-Doo on Boomerang, while simultaneously smashing your Donkey Kong toy against your little bro's rubber dinosaur, cause both of you peeked through the door while your folks watched Godzilla the night before. Of course, you are tired now, but you have a playdate arranged with that kid down the block while Mom and Dad work, so you are psyched anyway. All four of you pile into your Dad's Volvo wagon while Mom whooshes your backpack with toys from the front into the backseat. 
 The playdate proceeds to last long into the evening, in which time you guys have built a Lego city that covers most of the flat areas in the living room, finished off a large pizza and Mario Kart 64'ed so much that your thumbs got sore. 

-You were too old for that? Ok, millenial vibes time. You just got home from school in your beat up Corolla that you bought from money you earned working at Blockbuster video last summer. Prom is in 3 months, so naturally you are psyched. You get into your room, pop a CD into the boombox and fire up the AOL till lunch time to make plans for tonight. It is the same old, just doing squat in the McDonalds parking lot with your friends but it never gets old. Just gotta remember to charge your Nokia.

-Still no? Alright, moving on to Gen X.  
Kids are at a sleep-over. You got home from work, filing up the car on the way and not ending up bankrupt in the process, and sat on the couch. Your college friends are coming tonight for dinmer. You should start dusting, but the new episode of Seinfeld is more important to catch right now. Wife nags you at first but then joins you on the couch since dinner is already done. Cleaning ends up lasting the last 15 panicked minutes, you eat dinner, after which you head out for some club music since you are still too young to stay in all night.

-I may be over-exaggarating in these, I was just a kid back then and saw the world through rose colored glasses, but you get the point.

-Now, what is the common denominator in these stories, or lack thereof? That's right, no social media or smartphones in sight. You had to be present and cultivate relationships with people, and fuck up or succeed in the real world. Now, since a lot of our life moved onto the internet and social media, (which btw I hold no grudge against per se, it is useful a lot of the time), it all got twisted up and ate our sense of the real world. Most things now just feel like an imitation of reality, which now warps in ways it shouldn't, just like our values. 

-We were fine without all that. There was just the right amount of technology to be helpful and not take over our lives. 

-We should try that again sometime.

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submitted to [r/Stop spending life on the net.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stop spending life on the net.) by [u/badibilder8](https://www.reddit.com/user/badibilder8)