You could disconnect.

I had it explained very sadly to me that my generation was the last that got to choose to be digital.

Life was not exactly simpler. Technology has made a lot of things easier and better, too. Life was slower in a good way though.

The internet was in its infancy and mobile phones were not common. TV was broadcast on a schedule and your favorite show was only on once a week.

There was no algorithmic social media that ranked content by its engagement score. Culture and sub culture were more diverse, less polished and mainstreamed.

At least in the western world there was a lot of hope and optimism about the future. That was naive in hindsight but it sure felt better than the doom and gloom we have today.

I can think of bad things, too. Few cars had catalytic converters and particle filters and smoking indoors was still common everywhere. Basically, the world outside smelled like gasoline and the world inside smelled like cold cigarette smoke.

If you see a lot of nostalgia for the 90s these days that's mostly because Millennials are middle aged now and start talking about "the good, old days".

Keep in mind that what people mean with "good, old days" is never a specific, absolute time period. What they actually think about is their youth when their lives were still simple and fun and when they were full of energy, hopes and dreams.

They start to feel nostalgic about that lost youth, often remembering it as better than it actually was.

It happens to everyone. It'll happen to you. That's just life.

They were better than now somewhat, but we already knew that we were getting screwed compared to boomers (gen-X checking in).

Food and rent were a lot cheaper.

Economically, things were already turning downwards but it was still so close to the peak that it wasn't really that noticeable. But because of the rapidly reducing price of technology it looked as though things were still progressing just fine.

The general vibe however was a largely positive one. The cold war was over, the new "war on terror" had not yet begun. The pace of computer technology was moving at an astounding pace that even if you didn't like what it was today, tomorrow there will be a newer faster and cheaper one available of whatever it is. The idea of online shopping was new, now you can see the whole catalog. Video on a disc that doesn't wear out and has "cinema grade" audio, wild! The internet had just gone mainstream leading to the interconnected global village and the prospect of a new digital utopia. Democracy of information and the end of censorship... yeah.

Computing had been liberated into the general populace and the panopticon of surveillance hadn't been constructed in depth yet.

Mobiles phones started to become common but were so dumb that they didn't intrude much except for some people. We didn't have unlimited plans and it wasn't uncommon for you to just forget to charge the thing for days at a time because you forgot about it for the most part.

The larger messaging and general visible signal of global warming/environmental blowback wasn't much of thing and even then it was seen as something that we could unify on an tackle. There was still the attitude of, the present is pretty good and the future will be a better place and that we will address the issues as we are aware of them and there is enough time to address them.

Just look at anything design wise and you can see what it was like. Many designs of the 80's/90's by today's standards are kind of ulgy but the reason why it looked like that because it felt like the chains holding back progress had finally been removed. Some magazines would have a new style on every single page, they did that simply because they could. No longer were they constricted by the limits of traditional print and the end result was fairly rough most of the time. But it was never boring in that sense.

That lack of constraint permeated everything. It was a time of being bombarded with novelty.

In retrospect, it was a time of pleasant delusion. The foundation for all the issues of today were being laid down but we weren't at the point of it being activated. Speed high on a credit card is fun, the payback however is rough.

Tech was still exciting and interesting and had a nerd vibe to it. Much how the Linux community has always felt.

Instead of nowadays "ah, how will this new tech invade my life and introduce fascism even faster?"

Things were more affordable and there was much less surveillance, both of kids by their parents and of people in general by the government and corporations. Growing up during that decade gave us a feeling of freedom and limitless possibilities. The millennium was a huge deal and the vibe was hopeful. Technology was advancing fast and making life more fun and convenient, and the downsides had not become apparent yet. Then 9/11 happened and then war and the Patriot Act, and I had to get a job and pay rent and things went downhill from there.