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

I agree OP. I reckon early to mid 00's were the peak. Financial crash in 2008 was definitely the end of something. Everything has seemed harder since.

One of the worst things is how insular and divisive people have become. I always valued community but it has got worse and worse.

I don't think it's to do with a certain life period. I went through some hellish stuff in the years I see as "peak" more broadly. My personal life peak would have been a decade or so later! But more broadly, in society, employment, etc things seemed better in the early 00s.

2016 was the end for me. It’s when I realised a significant percentage of people will vote for cruelty on purpose because they think it will serve them somehow, and that we haven’t learned the lessons from history I naively assumed that we had. I wouldn’t want to go back in time too far; medicine is better now and young people seem more tolerant of their differences than when I was a kid.

Pre-2008 for me. Don’t think I’ve ever been as happy post-Global Financial Crisis. Dad had a “job for life” at the same employer for 25 years. I took that level of security for granted. It is the kind of security that allows you to make long-term plans. The basics for a good life were more affordable (housing, food, utilities) so even if we were poorer in relative terms it got you a better quality of life than today.

Technology does seem to have had a negative impact on certain areas of the labour market. My local ASDA used to have twenty checkout tills. Today they have been replaced by machines.

Disagree. Respect Granted for this perspective- that’s why the majority vote for gay marriage happened after all! . If you have experienced hate just for being you as part of your experience of those times , it’s perfectly understandable and expected, not to miss the oppression and open hostility.

🌲

Huh? Did we live in the same 90's?

Our bog standard state high school had three lesbians and one gay couple in year 9 alone.

Didn't you catch Will and Grace on channel 4? Go to any thriving pride parades or gay bars?

You're talking like it was the 50's and no one was allowed to be gay. Yes, the legalities hadn't caught up with society yet, but it was hardly a rarity back then.

Weird attempt at grabbing some victimhood points from the heteros.

Denied.

Ask any veteran teacher- kids are worse now than they ever have been.😫

Personally i think the peak was the 2012 Olympics if you’re in Britain.

Most families can't afford for one parent to stay home and raise their children.

That is a massive failure of a supposed civilised world. How can it possibly be okay when you strip it all back to the bare bones. Being human.🙁

That was situational, in most cities there was a thriving 'gay' town/clubs. For gay men the fear of HIV and no definite treatments until the late 90s, curbed behaviour.

The 90/2000s seemed to have been before the population explosion and there were still Council/HA housing about. Employment was ok and we have working tax credits, as well as the disability discrimination acts and every child matters etc. The 80s in Liverpool were tough, other cities that the wealth was redirected to, had different experiences. But things dud seem to start to be on the up. Now it's a shit show again.

Liverpool ffs!

Late 80's, 90's were the best for me. The State in Lliverpool was immense!

Yes I was very happy with MSN messenger and a brick phone! I really hate smart phones. Wish I could go back to those days.

Some misty-eyed heterosexual posts this same post every 3 weeks or so. If you were gay and only gained equal marriage rights slightly over a decade ago, you might have noticed that no, not 'everything' has gone down hill since the 1990s.

You know how everyone (heterosexual) fretted about lockdown and how terribly harmful it was going to be for poor precious teens not to be able to date and have their first kiss and the 'normal' teenage experience they were entitled to? Well if you were gay, the 1990s was one long lockdown. Do I miss it? Fuck no.

Technology has caused so much unemployment and is the cause of the demise of the High Street.

Online shopping, self service checkouts, internet banking, cashless parking, paperless correspondence, social networking, internet dating, call centres, robots in factories, working from home, supermarket home deliveries ... all these things have had an adverse effect on our way of life. People don't need to leave home, the longer you separate yourself from society, the more insular you become, some of us found this with the covid lockdown. People don't seem as open and friendly with others, people are so suspicious of one another.

It's one thing having technology to provide labour saving devices like washing machines, tumble dryers, vacuum cleaners, power tools, hair dryers, lawn mowers, they free up time to actually go to work or have leisure time, and they don't directly affect mass employment/unemployment.

AI is only going to make things worse.

It’s not ‘technology’, some technology is great and makes life better.
a lot of the problems are being caused by geopolitics but that’s applied throughout history.

I think the advent of smartphones really signalled a decline in peoples
happiness.

Depending on the time you were young, that peak may have been the 90s, 80s, 70s etc but phones have made almost everything worse

Hard agree with 2012 being a peak (London Olympics, I'm looking at you!).
Not sure there is one peak, though, more a series - although they feel a bit few and far been now....

The 2008 crash was the beginning of the end. The iPhone was the coup de grace.

Depends what life stage you were at.
I was in my element- until i finished uni and realised uni didn't equal magical job.
My mum was menopausal + looking after her dad + worrying about dad's potential redundancy + navigating late teenagers/ university. She certainly wasn't as happy as I am at the same age.

Oh undoubtedly. I'd go as far as saying social media has been the most disastrous and irreversible invention of the 21st century.

1998 was peak.

Yep I think late 90s was peak 👍🏻

I don’t know that it’s all due to technology, much of it is yes, but other things such as rising house prices are not so much. But things have definitely gone downhill.

I think it’s that we see and hear about it more due to social media, which then fuels the division and hate even more.

Viscous circle.

It's been going downhill since 9/11 I feel. So much hate and division in the world today compared to the 90s.