To think the 90's/early 2000's was when we peaked and everything has gone downhill since due to technology

To think 100 years ago Britain was a world leader and, colonialism aside, seen quite aspirationally by other countries.

To this!

I feel very lucky to have grown up in the 90s as I used to hang out with my friends and actually talk to them, not just show them stuff on my phone. No social media which helped as I was so insecure anyway. Being allowed to play outside on the street gave me confidence and independence I still recognise in myself today and I think parenting was easier as kids did their own thing more.

i also agree that 9/11 was a game changer and ended the fun, relaxed one long party attitude of the 90s and shit got serious.

I do think kids are more accepting of ‘difference’ now (I work with kids) and slightly less bullying over the years of working in this area. Also more awareness of sexism with the me too movement. I think we are slightly more accepting of different body types in women but that could change with weight loss drugs.

I often wonder what other countries must make of us these days.
Over populated, large numbers of people who cannot work due to anxiety or some neurological issue, unable to manage our borders. We must look horribly weak to many. Fractured politics, prisons overflowing so much we let people out early. Potholes everywhere. A lack of unified identify. People earning minimum money for modest jobs but the employer gets a wage subsidy from the taxpayer. Basic infrastructure issues. Water owned by foreign companies. We don’t manufacture and make anything anymore.
Compare and contrast this to an upbringing I had. No bumper to bumper driving. Not overcrowded. Employment expected and undertaken. Employers have to cough up for the best staff. We made things other people wanted to buy. We owned things, our infrastructure, our heating etc. Everyone could get a doctor and a dentist. Sure we didn’t have four x fours we did not really own outside the over mortgaged four bed box detached house ( that may have issues). But it was better. We had fun too.

I would stop the world in 2000. Pre 9/11 so everything felt more innocent and less paranoid and scary. Internet was around but no social media. Everyone had mobiles that only text and called but still felt revolutionary.

I think there is often a "golden time" which each of us feels differently about.For me the 90s were great .Had my DC then and was young (mid 30s). second baby after 3 years of " trying" Got a dog then got pregnant! Since then though there have been good times I think .SM is blamed for a lot of things, but bullying and racism were still prevelent sadly then. Its always a fount of knowledge ,many things I always wondered about have been answered! As a senior lady I think as you look back at your life, you dont always appreciate things as well as you could have .

And because schools don't do proper discipline any more! in case we upset them of course.

What makes you think it's irreversible? Plenty of people simply make the choice not to use it. Most could if they wanted to.

That's because they're directing their anger upwards toward the dysfunctional society that actually deserves it, rather than downwards toward the weaker, less popular or "different" among their own ranks.

It depends on your circumstances 1970s for me was the low, fsm family, cold house, miserable childhood. University was hand to mouth too.

90s through to now have been mostly happy. Earning decent money, good career, rotten childhood firmly in the past.

My ds was born in 2008. He has grown up with limited tech but a warm, happy rural home. He's working, cheerful, nice school, doing a'levels now. No anxiety, looking forward to reading engineering. Finances could be better but we'll manage. 😊

I started work in 1996. There was still a huge amount of sexism at work in the late 90s/ early 2000s.

But about 2000 up to 2008 was pretty good in the UK, with the huge investment in the NHS (compared to what it had been before), children’s centres etc.

Austerity has a lot to answer for, followed by Brexit and Covid then rampant inflation.

The days when Britain was a major force in world industry and manufacturing - and of course manufacturing is how you make money and grow the economy.

To name but a few that have gone: ICI of course, GEC, ICL, Marconi, Ferranti, GKN, Tube Investments, Thorn-EMI, NCR, Avery .... etc etc etc...

For the young uns
ICI - Imperial Chemical Industries, Chemicals, Dynamite, Dulux paints
GEC - General Electric Company, Everything Electrical
ICL- International Computers Ltd. IT
Marconi - Electronics
Ferranti - Electronics
GKN - Guest, Keen & Nettlefold, Engineering
Tube Investments - Boilers, Cookers, Kettles etc.
Thorn-EMI - Records, Radios, MRI Scanners, Fire Extinguishers, Light Bulbs
NCR- National Cash Registers, Computers
Avery - Heavy Engineering, Scales, Measuring Instruments

The problem is we never recovered from the 08 crash

Society is better now. Kids aren't arseholes

There are more arseholes….

The 90s were great & the early 00s. The UK was cool & had hope. Not so much now…

I was born in the 80s & think it was a good childhood but think it would have been fun to be older too.

I agree it was up to the 2008 crash, and went utterly to shit from 2016 onwards.

Theee are certainly lots of arseholes at my daughter’s school

Very much so, we as a species are very good and inventing, but we are unable to decide that an invention is damaging and put it back where it came from.

AI will be the next disaster for mankind, watch this space, its not going to end well.

I would say the whole of the 90's. Music was amazing, no bloody phones.
I was in my 20's in the 90's. Best decade of my life (what I can remember 😂).
Early noughties were good too, before smart phones. I do think society has gone to shit since then.

I think the mood changed when 9/11 happened. I think after Covid seemed to get a bit more under control and the war in Ukraine started (which felt like it was in the same week incidentally) it’s all gone to complete crap 💩

Sorry, you're all wrong. My parents say that nothing has been good in the universe since 1962, so that must be right because they said it.

The 90s where it was acceptable to openly discriminate against gays, that 90s?

The ‘job for life’ with big companies had started to decline (in the U.K. at least) well before that. DH joined the mighty ICI mid-80s, ‘job for life’ with proper career development …do younger people even know what ICI was?
OTOH I joined a tiny start-up, many mergers and acquisitions later I’ve just retired from a big global company after what did turn out to be a ‘job for life’ - totally enabled by the development of the internet which let me continue wfh when DH had to move jobs, and in which the massive gains in compute power and availability and sharing of knowledge were crucial. There really is a lot of beneficial use of the internet and WWW for what their inventors intended it for, people take it for granted or don’t know about what other people do i suppose.

I turned 18 in 1990. A fantastic decade. So lucky.

No.the 90s was the end of the industrial era and swapping into the technological one.
Feels like a peak but really was just the ending peak of another era.
Humanity has a very very long way yo go before getting anywhere near a peak.

2008 financial crash, years of austerity, Brexit, Covid, cost of living.... WWIII around the corner and looking more and more likely.... will probably work all my life for nothing and never get to retire if not killed in said world war....