Gen X / Elder Millennials

Posted by jessquestions@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 39 comments

I’m a millennial who’s supremely nostalgic, and something I often wonder is how do those who have actually lived during the greatest moments of our lives cope? I often think on the 80s and 90s which seems to be one of the most iconic times in modern history, and just wonder how do people move on? I’m aware that life is to be lived forward, but I feel my nostalgia has heightened since the pandemic (2020). I feel a bit lost as I long for a world that no longer exists.

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limited_instincts@reddit

I try to be happy that it happened not sorry that it's gone. You just can't get lost in it watching videos, looking at pics all teary-eyed etc. You have to focus on the today.

The other thing to remember is that nostalgia is a bitch. Every time you remember something, your mind changes it just a little, until your best and your worst memories are your biggest illusions. Points if you know where that quote is from.

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Wild_Read9062@reddit

I look for the good things in the present and hold onto those things I loved from the past.

It’s easy to forget that we now have the ability to enjoy so much more from the past than we could at the time. I often find so many things I missed (concert footage, films) and things I wasn’t even aware of (films, music) for whatever reason. I can listen to my favorite music feom that time in any order I want (not just whatever the radio plays, what records/tapes/cds I could afford, or how long the blank tape has space for). It’s all at my fingertips.

There are many things I would happily remove from daily life if I had a magic wand (ie tech would grind to a magical halt in 1993- no internet, smartphones, ai). People might go crazy wishing for more, but I’d know better. And there’s a lesson in that: things change, so you have to find some happiness the present.

Latest incredible find: Fazerdaze.

What’s yours?

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shackspirit@reddit

No Internet? How would you communicate to strangers about your desire to not be able to communicate with them?!

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Wild_Read9062@reddit

In person. 🙂😛

Flyers, books, coffee shop poetry nights… skin near skin, breathing in the same room. Huddled like cave people in the Spanish hills and Mesa Pueblo from a rainy world, our tales like hand prints on rocks for the children to mythologize or let fade away.

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ravenpen@reddit

Upvote for Fazerdaze!

Finding new music that resonates with you is definitely one of the things that makes me happy and gives me hope when everything else around us feels pretty damn bleak.

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Wild_Read9062@reddit

Thank you for the recommendations. I’ll be checking those out.

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Maga_eats_dick@reddit

I’m generally angry over the politics in this country. I feel like the future I was promised was stolen from me by the dumbest people in the country coagulating around an obvious crook.

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JoeMagnifico@reddit

Yep...for a blip I had some hope in the 90s that some progress was finally being made. Getting away from the Reagan years and the 'Moral Majority'. Then Bush/Chaney.

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TouchingTheMirror@reddit

Each decade has its high points, and awful lows. The 1980s and 90s were no different. For most people who lived thru those decades, and who are honest and clear eyed about those times, it’s pretty easy to avoid nostalgia traps and wanting to return.

For all the good music, design, and urgency of youth of the 80s, it was also the decade of two Ronald Reagan presidencies, the final flare-ups of the Cold War (with the ever-present threat, and at times almost foregone conclusion of nuclear annihilation), the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Iran-Contra, Superpower proxy wars fought around the globe (the U.S. supporting rightwing Central American death squads, and backing the Afghan mujahidin), the brutal Iran-Iraq War (guess which side America supported…), and personally, a couple of the worst years of my life.

“Nostalgia is the junk food of emotions,” and other than an occasional indulgence, there’s no way I wan to live on a diet of it.

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LeftRightGreenLight@reddit

History often repeats itself with every generation longing for the good old days.

Historically speaking the best 10 years in the last 75 years was that time period from mid 90s to mid 2000s. I think this is why the nostalgia is so strong with this group.

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TouchingTheMirror@reddit

Do you mean the best period economically?

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Sumeriandawn@reddit

From a 2013 poll

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Own_Fudge8296@reddit

It’s always nice to look back and remember and get nostalgic but it was a part of growing up. I truly believe that you are to keep going forward. Life is not meant to live in the past.

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LordIommi68@reddit

I can't be bothered longing for something that can't exist. There's no going back.

I had a friend like this that was never really happy after the 90s. It's a sad way to live.

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Own_Fudge8296@reddit

I have a cousin in law who her and her husband are both so caught up in the 90s they still argue over things that happened in them. It’s so sad and hard to watch because it’s not like they can change anything.

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Available-Ad-5670@reddit

i feel like sh-t really went south around mid 2016 or so and that was about the time smart phone addiction started growing to another level. perhaps finding a community somewhere thats more old fashioned could be a way, but i don't know how that would work tbh

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scragz@reddit

I'm more nostalgic for the 00s internet than the 80s network tv schedule.

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Hib3rnian@reddit

I'll take 80s Saturday morning cartoon lineups over 00s internet.

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TalkOk4096@reddit

It really wasn’t that special.

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Mindless-Employment@reddit

Seriously. 80s/90s and early 2000s were...fine. That's all, as far as I'm concerned. The only thing I'd want from back then is my knees.

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ExistingFun5496@reddit

It happens to all of us. “We didn’t start the fire” by Billy Joel will take me for a walk down memory lane.

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Entire-Order3464@reddit

Except boomers did start the fire.

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ExistingFun5496@reddit

Not just them, it’s been going on for a long time.

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ExistingFun5496@reddit

2/3 of it was before my time.

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WileyCoyote7@reddit

I move on because I have no choice. If I could go back I would in a heartbeat. I do not like what has become of us. I went for a road trip a few months ago, back to somewhere I spent a good amount of time in that I consider the best years of my life. Hoped to see some friends that stayed in the area.

Suffice it to say, it’s true when they say that you can never go home again.

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madtownjeff@reddit

During the 90's I met the perfect life patner. We followed our dreams, and while we could never have predicted winding up where we did, we landed on our feet.

I loved the 80s and 90s, mostly because I was a teenager/young adult for most of it, but I don't pine for days gone by, too busy living my life right now.

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Cheese-Manipulator@reddit

I feel sorry for young people today who seem to be living in a nation intent on committing suicide.

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Odd-Prune2254@reddit

I miss playing with my GI Joe's. The pre teen years I feel like were the best. I was feral. All the kids on my block were. We played on moving trains. We vandalized old abandoned factories. I'm not sure how I survived sometimes. We had to raise ourselves and be "responsible" yet somehow the responsibility that came with young adulthood and onward seemed harder even though we were better equipped for it.

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TheEvilOfTwoLessers@reddit

Don’t get me wrong, I had fun in the late 80s and all the 90s, but life moves on. The only thing I’d say I miss about those days is the lack of modern social media and the ability to be out of communication when you wanted to without it seeming weird.

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Infamous-Yak2864@reddit

Bourbon

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tragicsandwichblogs@reddit

For me, the 90s were mostly spent in a toxic work environment best left in the past. The 80s were high school and college which are by their nature both transient and bounded. What am I supposed to be missing the days of? The Challenger Explosion? The 1992 recession? The dot-com crash?\

Don't get me wrong, I still love a lot of my favorite movies from that era. But I have no desire to go back.

Less hip trouble would be nice, though. That's true enough.

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happycj@reddit

Wait. No. Move on? I’m still just a 17 year old kid inside, hoping nobody finds out.

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Express_Towel47@reddit

I’m 50 with a respectable job but I feel like a 12 year old boy with his first dirty joke book and secret copy of Penthouse Forum.

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Awkward_Guess4031@reddit

I totally get it. Born in ‘72 Gen X I miss those days a lot but we have to live in the present and enjoy what we have and do the best we can. If we live too much in the past it gets depressing. Maybe try to use bits from that era to inspire this generation.

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alffan86@reddit

I'm with you. I'm Gen X. There were great things about the 80's/90's, but I love technology now. At the same time, the world was a nicer place and there was more opportunity.

As with anything, I find that I try to stay positive and embrace what's in front of me.

I watch a lot of You Tube videos because I'm a TV/music/sports junky with former tv/sports/musicians. Those help me a lot.

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sarah-vdb@reddit

I made a lot of stupid mistakes in the 80s/90s (mostly related to boys/men), so while I can look back at the whole era and remember it was super amazing (it was!) it was also anxiety, stress, and cringe.

I wouldn't change most of it, but I kind of like being stable now.

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