No matter what we do or how we feel about it, time keeps marching forward. And while reminiscing about the past can be a double-edged sword, providing both melancholy and comfort, the Facebook group '80s & 90s Kids Everywhere!' invites people to do just that.
Though this online community is quite young (it was created in January 2019), 1.1 million people have already joined it, sharing everything that they remember from the two decades.
So whether you want a strong dose of nostalgia or simply to learn what the good old days were all about, we invite you to check out these handpicked posts we gathered from the group.
More info: Facebook
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For some Americans, the 1960s and 1970s had been a troubling time that undermined their confidence in fellow citizens and in government. So in the 1980s, a new conservatism arose in social, economic, and political life, which can be identified through the policies of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The decade is often remembered for its materialism and consumerism and it also saw the rise of the "yuppie," an explosion of blockbuster movies and the emergence of cable networks like CNN and MTV, which introduced the music video and launched the careers of many iconic artists.
However, there were great challenges, too. The AIDS crisis would go on to kill more than 700,000 people in the United States alone.
In fairness, somebody's aunt Linda is still sharing those half-baked "facts"...she just has a wider audience with the Internet.
The 1980s, especially in New York but also in cities all over the world from Cologne to Tokyo, was a period of media excess and frenzied stock market speculation, typified by aggressive large-scale paintings that sold for lots of money.
(But in 1991, the art market crashed, closing galleries right and left. Prices fell by more than 50% for many contemporary artists, and average art prices didn't recover to their pre-crash height until 2003.)
This is absolutely what it was like. If we were lucky it was a friend with a pool in the summer.
The 1990s are often remembered as a decade of relative peace and prosperity. The Soviet Union fell, ending the decades-long Cold War, and the rise of the internet brought a radical new era of communication, business, and entertainment.
However, many forget, that the decade was not without violence and tragedy, including the Bosnian genocide, the Rodney King beating, and subsequent L.A. Riots, and the bombing of the World Trade Center. The Columbine High School shooting marked a solemn chapter in gun violence, and the devastatingly deadly Oklahoma City bombing by a domestic terrorist followed lethal standoffs between federal agents and armed civilians at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas.
While conjuring fond fuzzy feelings from our past makes us feel good, there's a lot more going on.
"Consuming nostalgic media of all types gives us a way of thinking about who we are, and helps us make sense of our purpose in life," said Krystine Batcho, a psychology professor at LeMoyne College and longtime nostalgia researcher.
"Familiar media from our past brings us emotional comfort, but it also meets a cognitive need: it encourages the belief that things will get better because they’ve been good before," Batcho added.
Nostalgia is also one way we cope with things like social isolation, disconnectedness, and loneliness. This may sound counterintuitive since it typically involves private reflection on our personal history, but nostalgic memories remind us of our relationships with other people.
Batcho believes nostalgic recollections can encourage us to seek out social and emotional support because they frequently feature important people from our past.
I could do it faster than my friends and thought it was a real talent
Much of nostalgia makes us recall periods from our childhood. Batcho said a big reason for this is that during that period, we were loved simply for who we were.
Maybe that's why online communities such as '80s & 90s Kids Everywhere!' are so popular. Who doesn't like to remember when everything was so simple and seemed fine?
Do you know what a 386 or a 486 is, but maybe a meme of a dark screen with a green or brown underscore in the top left would explain 80s computing better, that or a boot disk.
Why is XP, a product released in 2001, in a post about 80s and 90s nostalgia?
Because today's youth cannot distinguish between any time before they were born
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I am DOS 2.1 old, it launched within days of my birth, two years before the release of Windows 1.0. By the time dos 3.3 came out in 1987, i was already computer savvy enough to use that ancient text prompt to launch cutting edge games like Dig-dug, centipede and Tank wars! What's in that picture....is windows XP, an OS that launched in 2001....but completely end support until NINE YEARS AGO, in 2014.
Bakelite dial up phone to the server at the university because there was nowhere else outside of the Signals Direstory (Secret Squirrel).
Let's go a bit further and talk about DOS, W 3.1, W for Workgroups 3.1.1 and 95/NT. I still have a whole set of floppies that will install DOS 11 in an unopened box.
Never had a computer until I was nearly 50. First one worked on DOS system and was a Kambrook. :) Friends used to ask if it made toast and boiled a kettle too. :)
Commodore Vic 20 old! Plug that sucker into your Admiral floor model tv and put in a cassette to play games!
I'm so old I literally got to play with the very first personal computer when I was a kid. The Blankebakers were family friends and John Blankenbaker designed the first pc waaay back in 1971.
I am SO old... that our school had a computer room 1 room to house the mainframe for ONE terminal. ( YES they were the reels). I inquired about learning about computers " girls will never be able to work on or with computers - you are not smart enough.". I have built my own PC's in the past, and now i am so old I have someone else do it for me - LOL
I graduated right before home computers came out. I bought a Commodore 64 and a Atari 2600 when they first came out in the market.
Some kid saw me playing my Switch in a cafe and said he was excited that Ocarina of Time was coming out because that was his game as a kid. In my head I thought, "Pong was my game. Now get off my lawn. No, you can't have your ball back. It's mine now."
I am still playing Apple II games. You know, ones that came out when I was in my MID-THIRTIES.
I am “only scientists and rich kids had computers” old.
i had to go the hospital because i broke one open and drank it. i was fine i think
1. Bevis & Butthead, 2. Married with Children/The Bundys, 3. Roseanne/The Connors, 4. The Simpsons, 5. Full House/The Tanners, 6. Fresh Prince of Bel Air/The Banks
Note: this post originally had 70 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
I am old enough to very vaguely remember playing minecraft with the nether castle reactor core thing
I'm always surprised when i see these pictures of gems of days past and no one ever mentions C&C Red Alert.
Wired queen , the only think idk it's Andy Griffith's show. I'm from Catalonia sorry :), but hey , struggle to bring back 80 and 90 . You are clever . Hug queen panda :)
I wish I actually was old, so I could just roll over and die... Now I just feel old but still have like 50-60 years ahead of me and I have to look at these posts all that time.
I am old enough to very vaguely remember playing minecraft with the nether castle reactor core thing
I'm always surprised when i see these pictures of gems of days past and no one ever mentions C&C Red Alert.
Wired queen , the only think idk it's Andy Griffith's show. I'm from Catalonia sorry :), but hey , struggle to bring back 80 and 90 . You are clever . Hug queen panda :)
I wish I actually was old, so I could just roll over and die... Now I just feel old but still have like 50-60 years ahead of me and I have to look at these posts all that time.
