I really don’t think that specific emotion is isolated to gen z.
I remember all the promise and excitement that tech had back in the late 00’s and early 10’s. Things were unique and fun. That’s just not true anymore. Every new software update adds shit that you didn’t ask for and don’t want (AI, ads, removal of user freedom). New hardware releases are either an underwhelming iteration of specs from the previous version, or an unimaginative device that has the same basic look and feel as every other device it’s competing with.
Tech used to be fun and exploratory, now it’s just companies pushing to see how much they can be allowed to exploit you for the least cost.
Don’t even get me started on the 1990s. Every new processor generation actually felt faster. Web pages had blinking banners because the creator thought it looked cool, not to advertise a personal information vacuum. There was no better introduction to the public’s absolutely awful sense of style. But I went from talking to international friends for $0.50/minute to free, and it was amazing.
Oh boy. If people would just start seeing that open source still gives you exactly this, but you know, Linux is for incels and shit, I much more prefer being spied on by big corp.
Linux and FOSS tech about to become the new mainstream underground punk rock hangout spot.
Well, no. It’s because Linux has never tried to appeal to casual users. Even if you download something like Ubuntu, you still have to jump through hoops sometimes to install things. People are turned off by using command lines.
With Mac and Windows, you just search up what you want and download it.
Compatability is a huge thing too.
What’s really just depressing is that these companies are more profitable and worth more than ever before. They don’t need to do this. They are essentially tightening their grip on civilization’s throat to see how hard they can squeeze before we all die, for the love of the game.
It’s also weird because they are opening themselves up to being out-competed by a company that isn’t (as) evil. Being not evil is the most valuable market differentiator right now. Companies like Valve that seem to just be sticking with “we have enough money” are like water in the desert.
valve is not public, rest of big tech is; which means shareholders are god and line must go up whatever the costs involved are, including civilization breakdown & climate change mass extinctions
I feel the same. I quit working in tech. It really has no soul anymore, specially talking to chat bots and agents.
Tech now is building the infrastructure for dystopia and its so obvious.
Are you still working? If so, doing what?
No I took time off work and havent worked since october last year. Its been absolutely amazing. But I did work for 25 years before that so I have built up savings.
I live off savings and the stock market and it works pretty good. But now in starting to be more worried about a global crisis because of oil and fertilizer blockages, which will tank the stock markets if it happens.
So im currently being careful. The coming month will be very interesting. If industries are affected by oil shortages or if food prices are affected by no fertilizer, people will get worried.
Things were unique and fun. That’s just not true anymore. Every new software update adds shit that you didn’t ask for and don’t want (AI, ads, removal of user freedom).
Amen. Every time I hear about a new tech product or startup or conference, now all I see are ads, subscription traps, and generally just people looking for new ways to fuck me.
(And I don’t like to be fucked by anyone except Mrs. Wallace)
I just had this exact sentiment with the navigation app Magic Earth. A Google alternative that works decently enough, doesn’t rob my data, and also has a built in dash cam function and is all for free? Sign me up! They just went freemium. Dash cam and a bunch of other features are now locked behind a paywall, and it came with an update one couldn’t avoid. I’m so pissed, and really wish I could have avoided that. Now I’m searching for a half decent alternative.
I’m just going to put this here. There are places feel that way again. tildeverse.org
Thanks for sharing!
Technological development reached a plateau, but shareholder value still needed to grow!
Tech used to be fun and exploratory, now it’s just companies pushing to see how much they can be allowed to exploit you for the least cost.
The fun and exploratory tech still exists, its just not sitting as a single product on a store shelf in a plastic clamshell package. The maker space is where all the exciting exploration is happening. If you have an idea the technology likely exists to make it happen, and the cost of the parts won’t break the bank. Lots of reuse of cast off out-of-date tech can be integrated dropping the costs even more. While there are even better solutions, if you’re just getting started pick up an old Arduino or Raspberry Pi (not the new expensive high end models) for under $30. Grow from there to microcontrollers like the ESP32 where it gets even cheaper for about $5 each. Learn to solder! Learn modeling and 3D printing! Use an operating system that lets you control your system instead of one that you just have to accept what they give you.
It really is an amazing time in tech if you stop accepting a products as they are, and instead what you want them to be with your own modifications.
It’s all true and cool if you stumble upon that today, but IMO that’s a bit what OP talks about, esp(or the original 8266), pi and 3d printers were new and fun ages ago. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a fun space but not much has happened the last ten years there (or prove me wrong 😁!)
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a fun space but not much has happened the last ten years there (or prove me wrong 😁!)
10ish years ago when R Pi and Arduino entered the scene it was a big splash, but the most benefit really only occurred for folks that could take the raw parts and had the ability to built a new solution largely without help from others. Its even better today because you can buy a ready-made Pi Hat, fully documented, with drivers, to dramatically expand the functionality of an R Pi today. 10 years ago, you’d be laying out your own PCB, etching it yourself, and soldiering those SMT components with your own hot air pencil. Now you don’t, and you can access that functionality to keep building on whatever it is you’re actually trying to build.
Nearly everything has a RestAPI now. This means coding solutions are much more accessible for modifications. Software Defined Radio is cheap and easy now, all with over a decade of documented solutions and parts available. This leads to things like Meshtastic and Flipper.
Its a much more accessible space to these cheap and functional technologies than it was 10ish years ago.
Yes, it might be just me but I liked tinkering (and no need for surface mounted parts, legged ones were quite ok!) and coding, writing communication stuff in c++, driving loads of servos by smart interrupt code etc. and feel not so interested in just following say how a meshstatic works or just buy one.
“Everything” also has been built which doesn’t help. Or so I feel!
and feel not so interested in just following say how a meshstatic works or just buy one.
If you’re at the high end of knowledge and skill, as it sounds like you are, you are even closer to being able to take advantage of technology that exists today that is cheap now that most of us. Ten years ago:
- a LiDAR system would have cost thousands of dollars. Today you can buy them for about $100.
- Inconel was only available to the state-of-the-art industrial processes and was very hard to manufacture parts with. Today you can upload your files, have your parts made via additive manufacturing with Inconel and those parts shipped right to your door for affordable prices.
- Computing power has significantly increased. TPUs are bringing down not only the cost of Tensor operations, but the energy consumption needed for equal amount of processing from 10 years ago.
- the cost per kg for delivering a payload to LEO has dropped dramatically in the last 10 years and continues to do so. More orbital inclinations are available on rideshare flights than ever before including many sun synchronous allowing for continuous solar power. Some idiot like me can actually afford to put an object in LEO. That’s freakin’ amazing!
- battery technology has evolved drastically in 10 years for commercially available product from cheap and plentiful LFPs to Na-ion cells that can operation without loss at - 40 °C without power loss.
“Everything” also has been built which doesn’t help. Or so I feel!
I can’t even imagine having this thought. Honestly, with your skill level I am getting the feeling this has nothing to do with the state of technology right now. I’m not going to pry into your personal life, but I’m wondering if you’re facing challenges that have nothing to do with technology, but are causing you distress depressing your interests in things you used to love. I could be way off, and if so forgive me for presuming.
I don’t really know what to say, but thank you is a start, I might actually be a bit down.
So thank you for taking the time (and whaat is Inconel 😁 TIL) writing an uplifting post for me 🙂↕️.
I did tensorflow in 2016(2017?) and LEO is still in over 10-20k a cubsat no? Cool stuff though for real. I do feel like LLM is going too fast to follow in depth, but it is interesting to follow regardless.
I went for a walk, touched grass, and remembered one of my old inventions that I never had the time to build (and my homemade 3D printer wasn’t up to the job, but my new store bought one is, probably).
So thanks again!
I don’t really know what to say, but thank you is a start, I might actually be a bit down.
This can happen to any of us. If you need help, seek it. There’s no shame it in. We are not born with the tools to remedy everything. Many times we need to seek help outside of ourselves. Remember that life is worth living.
LEO is still in over 10-20k a cubsat no?
Nope! That same 1kg cubesat you’re referring to can be put in Sun synchronous orbit (meaning always has solar power exposure) for $5k-$6k on a rideshare launch that launch every 3 to 6 months. Picosats and even Femtosats are all smaller and cheaper with some less than $1k (but you may have to wait years for a launch).
I went for a walk, touched grass, and remembered one of my old inventions that I never had the time to build (and my homemade 3D printer wasn’t up to the job, but my new store bought one is, probably).
I’m glad to hear this! You’ve obviously got some incredible skills and experience. I hope you’re able to recapture your spark. It sounds like you’re already on the path to doing so!
now it’s just companies pushing to see how much they can be allowed to exploit you for the least cost.
On a directly related note, Linux is so awesome for being the most attainable it’s ever been. Too bad that its own transparency basically ensures that it may never become mainstream… But I still laud absolutely France for trying!
It boggles my mind how people accept auto- and forced updates these days. I go far, far out of my way to use software where YOU have to go and download an update if you want it.
Tech in the 1980’s - 2010’s was hopeful, beneficial, and fairly consumer oriented. Tech today is mostly some sort of scheme for recurring billing while openly assisting the modern surveillance state. It’s no wonder modern tech feels icky.
The thing full of promise turned into the tyrant it swore to never become.
I’m tired of tech being everywhere from cars to toasters I still prefer analog things that do the job and only that job.
I don’t need my internet connected fridg to tell me what groceries to buy while selling my data to insurance companies
i don’t think it’s tech, it’s that tech stopped being something that helps you, now it’s just things that control you, and it’s all so shitty.
being a millennial was nice. almost every new piece of tech was useful and made life easier. but i think it was around 2010ish when it all began going downhill. first, capacitative buttons, then smart everything that didn’t help, just monitor you and sell your data. now so much tech is straight up hostile.
I remember when the first round of capacitive buttons showed up. I can’t find it anymore, but there was an article on a fan site for MP3 players I read in 2010 that showed the comparisons of physical vs capacitive vs touchscreens and capacitive buttons only had negatives. It baffled me when they just never stopped using them on things. That article was burned into my mind and now I see that logic has spilled into a thousand other industries.
Okay so those new buttons only have downsides.
But they are cheaper.
Ooh 🤑🤑🤑 let’s go!!
I’m a bit older than you, I enjoyed tech when it was an escape and communication/education tool not a requirement even my local library uses an internet connected touch screen to locate books.
Yep, it all went to shit about 2010. The Mayans were right.
Mayans predicted the capacitative buttons
New band just dropped.
Hahha
you don’t have to buy tech devices. they sell non tech fridges dude.
you can also just not use the tech in your car/tv/etc. nobody is forcing you to connect it and use it.
Is it “discomfort”, or a full rejection of the values represented by the enshittified tech companies and their LLM-cronies?
It was that good in the 90s, enshittification is only more visible now as you have gotten older and better at identifying it.
“to live in the past” is so fucking dumb, it shows that the person who wrote that title and the publisher who approved it thinks depending in AI, not caring about the data collected from you, jumping into whatever new popular thing and never having any critical thoughts about where this is all going is a good thing and the future.
They’re actually living in the now and making choices from that and for the future, they understand the objectively bad practices and shitty behaviour of the late stage capitalism we’re living in.Bullshit. This sounds like a dumbshit conservative article written in hopes to belittle gen z into boomer thinking.
You beat me to the punch. Yes & thank you. -From a fortunate & somewhat observant and empathetic Gen X’er that owns an honest awareness for not only our generational woes, but all the subsequent generations that the Boomers have F’d over as well.
Maybe we (Gen X’ers) feel somewhat, guilty for not going harder. Perhaps by the time we figured our way through the system we were so initially disgusted by, we abandoned our F The Man ideals and took the route of the Happy Days comfortable Boomer route? Please be kind, it’s late here & this is just more of a rant. Perhaps there are some that may feel somewhat similar? Or not. It is a wide spectrum of people we are considering in this conversation.
If I was gen z I would purely hate how I grew up. They got the worst if it. Well, them and alpha.
No wonder so many want to go back, I do as well! Give me all of our civil rights of today (minus US idiocy, I mean actual first world countries ) and take me to 1995-05 somewhere.
I am the oldest of Gen Z having been born in the late 90s. I got the tail end of what the world was like pre-smartphone and gotta say it was better…
Gen Xer born in 1967 checking in. Totally agree the world pre-smartphone was better. People just seemed to be more aware of their surroundings and each other. I don’t blame Gen Z for getting dumb phones and, like, actually engaging with each other. We abuse our tech, and big tech abuses us.
I’m a mid-millennial, born in the late 80’s. I’ve seen all of the 90’s.
If I was going into temporal witness protection, going back in time to keep me safe from the mob I ratted out…would I want to live in 1995?
2005 is an easier sell. I graduated high school that year, and a LOT changed in those ten years. Would I want to go back to 1995?
I remember 2005 very well and it was so nice lol, but I am very biased for being a kid then.
As a gen z who likes to call himself a millennial despite not being one, I can say growing up wasn’t the worst. Yes I saw the end of the wild west of the internet, but I got to experience what is in my opinion the greatest console to ever come out: xbox360.
Not as good of a lineup as other consoles of the past, but where else am I getting games like the Halo games or Gears of War?
Nnnnnn…that line “I say ‘your civilization’ because when we started thinking for you it became ‘our civilization’ which is really what this is all about” hits different in 2026. In 1999 it came across as generic movie villain drivel, now it’s headline news.
Modern technology is great. It’s massively cheaper and more performant for orders of magnitude less money.
Consumer technology on the other hand, is cursed.
The problem is that nobody needs to know how to use technology anymore. Every piece of consumer hardware and software is designed so that the company does all of the work for you and then rents you the fruits of the technology. Now you’re eternally dependent on someone else to operate your technology for you because you’re constantly paying the people that are ensuring your technological ignorance.
Don’t worry about learning how to store mp3s or manage your music Library! Just pay Spotify, YouTube Premium, or Apple Music $10/mo!
Don’t worry about needing to learn how to backup your data or to store you photos, just give Apple $29.99/mo! Shopping for hardware is hard, learning the difference between a Megapixel and a Megabyte is for nerds! Just buy the iPad, iLaptop, iCamera, iEarbuds, it only costs 50% more than it should!
Dealing with .mp4 and .mkv files, too complicated! Don’t worry about needing to learn anything about movies, Netflix/Hulu/Disney/Paramount/Amazon/AppleTV/etc will gladly take your $20/mo and do everything for you!
Don’t like your computer’s OS being filled with advertising, spyware and AI? Too bad! Your only options are 1. Live in Apple’s Walled Garden, 2. Put your entire life’s worth of private data on the auction block for the lowest bidding advertiser for the benefit of Microsoft’s shareholders or 3. Give your cellphone provider and Google root access to your entire life!
Yes, this is a ‘Just use Linux’ comment.
Modern technology is great. It’s massively cheaper and more performant for orders of magnitude less money.
Performant and cheaper are not inherently good things. LEDs perform a shit ton better than incandescent bulbs and are cheap as hell. But we fundamentally didn’t need more cheap light for 95% of consumer use cases. Now light pollution is climbing exponentially, 10% per year.
Consumer compute was atrocious to start, but reached a useful level where it unlocked a ton of value for people. Graphics at a legible fidelity, replacing paper documents, data over networks, responsive input, portable-ish laptops, etc…
Now we’ve got more compute than we’d ever reasonably need as a species. Landfills full of IoT waste, datacenters filling up with cheap bytes where only 1/10 will ever be read, drones dropping bombs and gearing up to monitor our every move, trillions of Kw/hr spent driving it all every year…
And what novel value has been unlocked by this glut of compute that we didn’t have before? On-demand AI meme videos?
Sure I can spend a few hundred bucks on a personal LED lightshow that would have cost tens of thousands a few decades ago. And sure I can spin up a home lab with more functionality and power than was even available 20 years ago. But what have I actually gained?
And sure I can spin up a home lab with more functionality and power than was even available 20 years ago. But what have I actually gained?
A home lab with more functionality and power than was even available 20 years ago.
Things such as:
Cheap mass storage and a home network connection with upload speeds that make hosting media streaming and ‘cloud’ storage out of your closet an affordable possibility.
Access to large, quality, high resolution displays that don’t cost multiple thousands of dollars.
High performance portable computers that draw significantly less power.
Cheap, high capacity, battery technology to power said devices.
Mobile data networks with orders of magnitude more data bandwidth.
All of this is to say: The ability to own and control all of the technology that you depend on without needing to rent services from a corporation.
I don’t need iCloud, when I have a 2Gb connection attached to a 24TB storage array. I can do better than Spotify, play the music that I want to listen to without serving me ads or providing my private data to be used by some profit-seeking company. I don’t have to give away my privacy to Microsoft just to be able to have a functioning desktop PC. I don’t require Amazon’s storage and processing to have smart security cameras. Google isn’t required for my smartphone to work, my cellular provider doesn’t get to dictate which apps are permanently installed.
All of this is possible now for orders of magnitude less capital and operating expenses than it was 20 years ago.
I don’t need to throw away my computer because Microsoft has decided that it’s much easier to enforce control over their operating system if your hardware prevents you from modifying the software running on your machine. I don’t have a drawer full of old Apple cables which were only created in order to sell you a $2 piece of copper for $39.99. My movie streaming service doesn’t randomly decide that I need to pay another $5/mo or insert advertisements into my TV shows and I am not at risk of having access to my cloud storage permanently revoked because of some clause in a 700 page Terms of Service that changes every other week.
Technology is so much better, more private, safer and more affordable now. As long as you’re willing to learn how to use it.
Unfortunately, the profit is almost entirely in fostering the world’s population into a state of technological dependence on these proprietary services and devices. It’s hard to convince someone to overcome their fear of a terminal when they can pay a monthly fee for the rest of their life in order to avoid it.
Cheap mass storage and a home network connection with upload speeds that make hosting media streaming and ‘cloud’ storage out of your closet an affordable possibility.
My closet could already hold DVDs and I could have bought a slightly pricey flash drive to carry around a good chunk of media without getting networking involved. Now I can get the data from those DVDs without leaving my couch or carry around more than I have time to consume. Do I truly benefit much more?
Access to large, quality, high resolution displays that don’t cost multiple thousands of dollars.
Larger and higher quality to show higher resolutions of the same basic media tech from 20 years ago. It’s certainly novel to see a movie at home in HD/4k, but it didn’t fundamentally change the experience of watching a movie in 720p.
High performance portable computers that draw significantly less power.
Power draw wouldn’t be as much of an issue if we didn’t require digital access 24/7. A blackberry w/ voice mail and an iPod drew significantly less power and gave me all access to portable messaging and non-video media.
In exchange for gaining that video media, everyone assumes I will download their app or pull up their QR code menu.
Mobile data networks with orders of magnitude more data bandwidth.
Which still can’t match the sneaker-net bandwidth of me carrying some flash drives or DvDs. Only necessary because the raw size of data has exploded. Though I supposed I gained the ability to scroll memes on the bus.
The ability to own and control all of the technology that you depend on without needing to rent services from a corporation.
We had nearly as much control 20 years ago. Linux was just as available if you didn’t want a mainstream OS.
Technology is so much better, more private, safer and more affordable now
Don’t worry, I’m sure legislation will catch up. Our dependence on convenience tech has allowed Apple/Microsoft/Google et.al. to purchase control of their own regulation. Your OS requires age verification today (because of this ocean of data kids can access from their pocket) and tomorrow all hardware sold will require a DRM heartbeat.
Looking back on it all, the cheap tech has basically unlocked consumer video media. It wasn’t feasible to create and store significant digital video for anyone in the 00s, but now people can make professional quality movies with iPhone. Was that worth the externalized costs?
average people will never use linux.
it’s for nerds. average people are not nerds.
It’s not really discomfort. It’s the fact that any benefit technology would give us is being monetized and abused to the point where it’s not enjoyable. I have this phone because employers expect to be able to contact me 24/7, and because governments want to spy on me, and companies want to harvest my data so they can profit from me. In return im given just enough to make it to the next day, and a screen to distract me from how fucking pointless our society is.
A skilled/educated American worker should be able to retire comfortably at 50 without having to worry about how they’ll afford healthcare.
Companies make millions off you, then you give a few thousand because they know if they ever paid you a fair share, we’d all realize how much they’ve been robbing us this whole time.
Not sure why you make a distinction between skilled and unskilled workers. If anything, ‘unskilled’ workers should be able to retire even sooner since they often do work that strains the body.
The worst damage to computers was done by U.S. Congress in 1972 when they fired ARPA IPTO that invented the Internet and the foundations of everything we now have in enshittified form. The direction was fantastic until then.
The sick sad history of computer-aided collaboration
https://www.quora.com/Who-invented-the-modern-computer-look-and-feel/answer/Harri-K-Hiltunen
(long story)Technology has become a way for the rich to extract more wealth from parts of other people’s lives they have no business being in. I sincerely hope we can all get away from that side of it.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that the problem is not the technology, but who controls it.
If we actually taught digital literacy in schools, and democratized access to technology, people could be making their own software made for solving problems instead of capturing attention!
Also, when most of the new technology is corporate-fellating AI, surveillance and ad technology, it’s also the technology that’s the problem.
100%. I can’t believe how much technology is things I dreamed of having but never thought of it as being applied in anything but a eutopic model. Basically our social advancement is lagging way behind our technical advancement. Heck we are going behind. It still gets me how we have a very good example of how communications should be looked at legally with the post office and how we intentionally do not use it as a baseline.
If I ran a high school tech class I’d give them a box of parts and say “make it run Doom”
Does GenZ want to live in the past?
Nearly half (47%) of adults ages 18-29 said if they had the option, they’d choose to live in the past, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey. One-third said they’d pick a time period less than 50 years in the past, while another 14% said they’d choose more than 50 years in the past.
Sort of, yes?
I was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s. It’s natural for me to be nostalgic about the 90s. It’s absolutely strange to me that any significant group of people who grew up in the 2000s would actually want to go back to the 80s or 90s, which they never experienced first hand.
The only explanation I can think of is that these GenZers watch shows like Stranger Things or Friends and think that’s what we all lived like back then.
I think it’s more because the future looks so bleak. Climate change & global ecological collapse, fascism, techno-feudalism, enshittification, the destruction of the middle class. These are all problems that the ruling class is actively and purposefully making worse. It’s no wonder that the younger generations don’t want the future we are headed towards.
It definitely seems like a lot of people think the future is bleak, though most people feeling that way have no idea what things were like 100 years ago.
My grandparents grew up on farms with 10+ siblings and left school after grade 8. They lived in tiny houses with multiple kids packed into a single room. They worked heavy manual labour on the farm and in forestry. It was very common for young children to die of the flu or measles or the common cold. My grandfather’s little brother died as a child. They had no idea whatsoever that the future was going to be as good as things are now, so it’s hard to say they had any more to look forward to than we do now.
They also had 2 world wars in their future, and for all the war we have going on right now, we’re fortunate that it isn’t even close to as bad as the world wars of the 20th century. Climate change is definitely a legitimate thing to worry about, but it’s really hard to predict how much it will affect any of us individually.
Oh absolutely they are wrong to seek refuge in the past. There is no refuge to be found there. I’m just saying it’s not surprising.
no, they want to grow up with economic optimism instead of despair.
i graduated in 2005 with 30K of debt, and i had a job for 40K and my rent was 500 bucks.
if I graduated in 2025 i’d have something like 120K of debt and my job would be like 45K, and my rent would be 1500.
my sister started working in 1995, she had 10K of debt, a 35K job, and her rent was 300 bucks. she was able to buy a brand new 15K car after graduation, before she even got a job…
the rich kids will be fine, however, anyone whose parents aren’t in the top 10% is economically fucked for life unless they win the lottery, statistically speaking. rent/housing costs keep going up at twice the rate of inflation in most areas.
cost of living is has been outpacing wages by a factor of 2x for over almost two decades, and there is no sign of things ever getting better.
the stability of a middle class life has been stolen from gen z by boomers and gen x, and it will be even worse for gen alpha. even among millenials, there is stark economic divide between those who had their college/housing paid for my parents, and those who had to pay for it on their own.
If that’s the case, why prefer the last 50 years over the decades before that? In 1975 the average house price in San Francisco was 1/27 the price it was in 2024. That means you could have a $1.5m house for $55k. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $337k in 2026 dollars.
If you went back even further (to the 60s or 50s) it would be even more ridiculous.
because 1975 is two generations ago for them, not one.
for kids today, 1975 looks the way you probably see the 1930s/1940s. it’s basically old timey black and white. it’s not appealing or relatable, it’s completely foreign.
90s is only one generation removed and relatable. when i was in high school kids loved the 70s, because it was one generation removed, but nobody was into the 1950s.
it also has to do with fashion and vintage and nostalgia, there is a 20 year gap there as well. that’s why boomers are nosalgic for the 1940s/50s, because they were all born in the 50s/60s.
The 1970s are just as unrelatable to me as the 1930s. It’s all just “the before times” to me.
Also I think GenZers have no idea how bad everything smelled back then, due to the pervasive smoking in public and in everyone’s houses. I know this because public smoking lasted well into the 90s and I remember when it started going away.
I have a friend who is nostalgic for those times before he was born, and even claims to want to take up smoking, though he hasn’t had the guts to actually try. Really strange. I find smoking totally repulsive.
yep, pre EPA.
lead in the water, lead in the air, LEAD EVERYWHERE.
I think it’s way simpler than that: this is the first generation since at least WWII whose prospect in life is to be poorer and with worse quality of life than their parents.
So of course they would rather the clock wound back to the time when people their age still lived with the expectation that things would just keep on getting better.
The Tech angle in this article is just a bit of cherry picking to avoid talking about the broader systemic issues of the collapse in social mobility, explosion in inequality and real economic growth (i.e. that calculate by real inflation numbers rather than the la-la-land official “inflation”) having pretty much ground to a halt in 2008 and whatever there is of it being entirely captured by the top 1%.
It’s never been this good to be a billionaire, but for the rest minus technological evolution things are the worse they’ve been since WWII.
I remember kids in the 90s wished they lived in the 60s and 70s. There are always people who aint feeling their lives who think a past time would auit them better
I’m sure you could find some kids like that, but 47%? That’s a lot!
in the 90s we looked forward to the future. in the 2020s very few people look forward to the future because the future looks so shitty.
i mean, i can relate. i don’t see my life getting better in the future in any material way. i see my standard of living maybe being stagnant… if I am lucky. and my income have kept pace with inflation… but that’s largely only because i have been investing since i was 25, if i was depending solely on my job income i’d be looking at falling further and further behind.
i also think it’s bullshit that i literally can’t go back to school or change careers, because the costs to do so would wipe me out economically. i’d have to take on 60-100K of debt to get another masters degree, that’s INSANE.
just maintaing my certs in my own field now costs me 1000s.
You could move to another country where education is more affordable. Some places even have schools where masters and PhD students are funded by the university (and work as TAs for a stipend), rather than taking on debt.
I can understand if you’re not able to uproot your life like that though, so I’m not saying you’re wrong to stay where you are and try to survive.
No you can’t. millions of people cannot do that.
The only explanation I can think of is that these GenZers watch shows like Stranger Things or Friends and think that’s what we all lived like back then.
That makes more sense. I was also thinking bigger time scales, “The Age of Plastic” or “The Renaissance” Not "When the modems were slower"😂
Does GenZ have a collective want to identify?
Has everyone under 30 given up?
statistically the majority of them won’t ‘win’ so why would they bother trying?
the economic rewards of a good life are now only available to a smaller and smaller portion of the population. if your parents were doctors, you’ll be fine, but if they are blue collar workers, you are doomed.
the economic top 10% have basically walled off all economic opportunity for themselves and their children. nobody else gets a shot at it anymore in America. they have locked up education, housing, and healthcare behind massive paywalls that say ‘your parents must make 150K+ before you can even play’.
and they know this. it’s everywhere around them everyday. they watch their parents struggle to pay bills and getting crushed by healthcare, housing, and other costs.
the days of being an average person and going to college and coming out on the other side with a good job stopped in the 1990s.
Everyone under 30 is trying as hard as we damn well can but the ship is sinking way faster than any of us can climb and some bastard has stolen all ladders. So the situation is kind of keep trying but with the acceptance that we’re fucked anyway.
If this was asked in China, I bet nobody would seriously say “I wanna live in the past”
(at least not in the context of traveling back to the 1950s or something like that…)
