Poll results show that “America’s best decade” isn’t the 80s or the 50s…it’s “whatever decade you were 11, your parents knew the correct answer to any question, and you’d never heard of war crimes tribunals…”
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. ❤️
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Comments 4
90s for me when I was already in my 20s. I think it might be because I grew up in a tiny town and then spent my 20s in LA.
As a middle-aged GenXer, I wax nostalgic about my ~20s, 1989-2001, literally between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11. Like the Sartorialist note on your previous post, I moved to NYC and the world was my oyster. It wasn't necessarily idyllic, but I felt hopeful, and had opportunities.
It's interesting that "best cuisine" is an exception to the nostalgia - most people think it's the best now. I wonder how this compares to other countries with strong food cultures that have had an influx of fast food in the last 20-something years.
I recognize each decade has a big mix of things that are better or worse than other decades, but my first thought was also that I turned 11 in 1998, after the collapse of the USSR and before 9/11. It’s easy to see why us millennials would be nostalgic for that time, from a sheltered, American point of view (the only POV I had at the time).
I think both things are true about cuisine: the average restaurant meal is way better now than it was when I was 11, and also I was a much less adventurous eater and much less concerned with nutrition. So I’m less nostalgic about bowling alley mozzarella sticks than about the Pixies.
Hello! In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!
In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal.
This is the name that'll be displayed next to comments you make on kottke.org; your email will not be displayed publicly. I'd encourage you to use your real name (or at least your first name and last initial) but you can also pick something that you go by when you participate in communities online. Choose something durable and reasonably unique (not "Me" or "anon"). Please don't change this often. No impersonation.
Note: I'm letting folks change their display names because the membership service that kottke.org uses collects full names and I thought some people might not want their names displayed publicly here. If it gets abused, I might disable this feature.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!