How to live like its the 1990s?

[Coffeeandcake12]

Inspired by a thread about how people were happier in the 90s, how can I live more like we did in the 90s?
Obviously no Internet, I already don't use social media apart from mumsnet.
But what made the 90s so good that I could recreate for me and my children a bit more?

We all went on to have good careers btw!

‘The Word’ with Terry Christian presenting. Watching Iggy Pop perform while wearing a pair of plastic see-thru trousers and no underpants.

What I mean is that in 1992 the EU became a full union - not just an economic one. We could live and work anywhere in the EU. That happened in 1992.

That song came on at a birthday party last week and I nearly cried

I've never been a Tory but the Conservatives of then were a different breed to the ones we have today; they had some integrity.

Ditch Spotify, and only listen to tapes you've recorded off the radio.

Make a (hundred) friendship bracelet(s).

Spend a whole afternoon in The Body Shop. You may only buy satsuma bubble bath, white musk body spray, and/or unlimited bath pearls. You should pop into Tammy Girl or Miss Selfridge on your way home.

Refuse to get dressed on a Sunday until you've watched Dawson's Creek.

Go and sit at a bus stop with absolutely no idea if the bus is late/cancelled, no idea what the weather's going to be like this afternoon (you are allowed to watch the breakfast news to get a hint about the weather) and with nothing to do while you wait except look at cars.

Drink smirnoff ice/archers aqua/bacardi breezers in the park.

It's the druggy posts that make me nostalgic. I only smoked the occasion spliff but my crowd were a bunch of (now very successful) hedonists!

Maybe it's because I was young and anything seemed possible. It all seems a bit serious now. I remember my mum being pretty laid back even though we wasn't particularly well off, just normal working class. There didn't seem to be as much worry and stress
People are definitely offended more now, things just seemed fun. Music was great, then again my kids would probably say it's better now. I know the Internet was invented but we wasn't all so connected like we are now with emails pinging all the time on our phones.
Rose tinted glasses looking back perhaps!

We did. We joined the EC in the 70s but we didn't become a full union until 1992 when we signed the Maasticht Treaty. That's when it made a difference because we could live and work anywhere in the EU. Prior to that it was just an economic community.

It wasn't very good! The optimism at the end of the century was that the millennium was coming so any minute now we'd be out of the century of world wars and finally into the much-anticipated century of flying cars....

I’m in too.

Dancing all night, sweat dripping off the walls, best music ever, such hardcore fun.

I feel a bit sorry for kids today not having this experience 😂

Wait for photos to be developed and have no idea what you'll find.

Bright colours, lots of patterns in fashion and home, if you like curtains with goldfish or a sofa with Latin writing or moons and stars on just fucking buy em, play joyous music, millions of different jingly-jangly guitar bands. There was no looming sense of impending global disaster as far as I can recall (tbf not sure how to recreate this without living in denial). Less comparison, less emphasis on conformity and perfection (this is where no socials come in handy). The gym wasn’t such a thing, people played team sports, racket sports, went for a run. Make arrangements and stick to them, call people instead of texting (this might make your friends hate you🤣).

Wasn’t all good and we’ve progressed in many ways but it was a better laugh, somehow.

@PictureConsequences yes a whole film of cut off heads and fingers over half of the photos!!

Go to the pub, resplendent with smokers inside. Get a pint for a few quid. Have a few Smirnoff Ices. Go clubbing with your Barry M body glitter smothered on, and inhale a pack of 20 fags just from being inside the building even though you don't smoke. Make sure you only wear your black trousers you designated for that club as they don't show the sticky black juice from the carpet

Go home and watch Eurotrash and South Park in it's infancy. Maybe Takeshi's castle. Wake up hungover and watch T4 all morning.

Oh yes, it was so exciting fetching your photos after you'd been on holiday.

If your children are away at uni, send them a letter. You can include a photo or two in there and preferably a cheque.
Do not text them.
If you phone them, fully expect that someone else will answer, pretend to look for your DC then hang up so that he/she can use the phone.

Eat crap without being judged or frowned on.
Wear huge oversized clothes
Have a pet dog on a piece of string
Become a New Age Traveller and annoy the Daily Mail
Vote Labour and feel the optimism when they won.
Drive everywhere or get the bus as no one is bothered about gyms or exercise.

Go to a wine bar every night after work in London and run up £25k worth of debt in the process. Job done.

Take proper ectasty tablets, dance all weekend with happy lovely strangers that just wanted to dance not paw you.

Go to university for the love of education and opening your mind.

Have to option of living and working across 20+ European countries with minimal paperwork. You truly felt European it was lovely.

Enjoy indoor spaces that the owners weren't so precious about their white kitchen islands

Be excited about the music being made in the UK that was genuinely different.

Enjoy the emerging acceptance of LGBT+ community.

Read your news in broadsheet papers that were considered and accountable.

Turn up at Glastonbury without a tent or ticket and still find a way in.

Be part of the decade that wanted education education education to be important to the political parties.

Be confident to dress differently not all hoodie/trainers, nails/tight clothing.

Create music that isn't grime gang look at bad me.

......the 90s are gone OP.

Time to find a new positive world with the nonsense we are dealt with at the moment.

Give your kids drive that there will be a huge number of problems, energy, food, water, environment to solve but it's an opportunity for radical forward thinking. The world is theirs now to mould, with new philosophies and economics the future can be in the hands of the many not the few.

Embrace the new basically, don't look back.

Start being influenced by what people do, not what they say, look like or own.

Split up the power owners of the media.

Make social media platforms accountable for lies spread.

Respect experts in their field.

Don't confuse facts to opinions.

Don't travel to countries that are run by arseholes (Dubai I am looking at you)

Don't buy into or any merchandise that promotes Saudi Arabia as a world leader in, well anything, but at the moment they want sport, all the sport. You have power in purchasing.

Pray aliens do arrive and land on The Whitehouse garden (only thing that will unite this planet is a threat from outer space I reckon)

Don't ever not believe the power of the people if channelled correctly.

Cancel all your kids after school clubs.

Cancel any tutoring.

Let them play out as much as possible.

"OP, you could try speaking to people normally, without them getting offended by everything you say and accusing you of multiple micro-aggressions."

Conversely, if you were the victim of micro-aggression, you'd have no support... I remember it overwhelmingly as a lonely time.

I feel sorry for kids now too. It's not their fault but the whole mobile phone/ social media thing has made them obsessed with appearances and how they look in the eyes of other people. I saw some videos of a "rave" - it was load of kids with their phones out filming themselves. They can't just absorb the moment any more. Everything is a photo opp. It's so sad. I feel very sorry for our children.

Let your kids and their friends ride in the boot of your car and watch paedos pretending to be kids tv presenters, only drink shit coffee and overpluck your eyebrows.

Get rid of your smart phone.

If there is any information you need.

Switch on a desk top wait for it to load up before you sear h for the answer.

Even that wait will make a huge difference to peoples mindset.

Use a pen and paper if you need to make any notes.

Use a physical calendar rather than phone.

Just try and get rid of your dependence on your smart phone.