It’s not just nostalgia: The ’90s really were better

Nineties nostalgia is big these days.

Some are into the music. Distorted guitars and drum sets. Something more human than samples and synths.

People dressed better in the ’90s. Even considering grunge culture, people dressed better. There were no Crocs in 1994.

Some are into the clothes. Old Polo Ralph Lauren on one hand and grungy baggy jeans on another. From time to time, I see young people crossing the street, and those memories of the JNCO years come rushing back.

Reflections of an unrepentant nostalgist

I’ve been an unrepentant ’90s nostalgist for quite some time now. My argument on behalf of the ’90s predates Zoomer nostalgia. It’s interesting to witness the rise of ’90s nostalgia among young people. It feels like watching others catch up to what I already knew. It’s a rare case of feeling culturally vindicated.

What is happening? People never like what I like.

Of course, it will be short-lived. Trends go as quickly as they come. People are fickle. That’s OK, it’s just the nature of things. But the rise of ’90s nostalgia isn’t just irrational sentimentalism.

Nineties nostalgia makes sense. The ’90s were indeed better.

Better problems

There are always detractors. There are those who respond, “The ’90s weren’t that great, you know. It wasn’t all perfect. It wasn’t utopia or anything.” That’s true, it wasn’t utopia. There is no utopia. No one is saying it was utopia. The straw man argument can be dismissed.

Yes, there were problems in the ’90s. Urban crime, for one. There was a darkness to the grunge scene. Cubicle culture was as stultifying as ever.

There was an ennui looming somewhere underneath everything in the wake of the Soviet Union collapsing. With our enemy on the other side of the world vanquished, where did that leave us? Who were we without a formidable enemy? The end of history was here.

Yes, these were problems in the ’90s. But here’s the crucial point: None of those problems came close to what we’re dealing with today.

Is the darkness of grunge really worse than the absolute nihilism we see among our young people today? No. There was, actually, some kind of vital rage to grunge. Brain-rot culture of 2025 is some kind of unholy combination of “Idiocracy” and “Brave New World.”

Same for office malaise. Yes, more of us may work from home, but those homes are often as sterile as the buildings they replaced. Slack email jobs for people with no kids, two cats, and Netflix every night. Don’t forget DoorDash, vasectomies at 26, and sleep health. Grim.

Bad to worse

Our society today is far more anti-social than the society of the ’90s. People are lonelier. More people avoid marriage or even dating. There are fewer children being born.

There are more suicides. More overdoses. More sexual dysfunction. More mental illness. More prescription drugs. The culture is more disgusting. The music is less human. The clothing is more dehumanizing.

Yes, there were problems in the ’90s, but the problems are worse today.

Lament of a ’90s kid

I remember; I was around in the ’90s. I wasn’t an adult, I was a kid. And, of course, children never know what is really going on, but I do remember what life was like.

I know that there was not one bit of gender destruction going on in school. I know that not a single person in my entire childhood claimed to be a boy when she was actually a girl. I know that no one in 6th grade had unfiltered access to anything resembling the psychotic internet of 2025.

I know that almost no one was on antidepressants in high school. I know what it was like, and it wasn’t like today. I know that with my children, I have to look out for everything my parents had to look out for, plus a bunch of other stuff.

People dressed better in the ’90s. Even considering grunge culture, people dressed better. There were no Crocs in 1994.

People didn’t wear pajama pants everywhere. In high school, pajama day was some weird one-off during spirit week. The lowest of the low was ripped jeans and T-shirts. Girls wore makeup more. Guys shaved more.

There was a general thrust of society that led to girls wanting to look pretty and guys wanting to look handsome. There were more songs about love. The movies were, largely, about adults and life, not super heroes and other banalities. All of this is historical fact.

Kids today

Nineties nostalgia, for those of us who were alive then, is a little less interesting than ’90s nostalgia found among the Zoomers. For us olds, it’s real in a way it just isn’t for the Zoomers.

They are longing for a world they never knew. They are imagining a place they have only seen in photos and videos. And it’s the aesthetic of those photos and videos they love.

Handheld-recorder aesthetic with date and tracking problems is a vibe. It’s not Super 8 midcentury. It’s Sony camcorder 1997. Something — anything! — less sterile than a straight iPhone photo. That’s the meaning of that aesthetic memory.

Were the ’90s the greatest decade? No. Of course not. There is no greatest decade. Some argue that history has a fixed trajectory and that every decade is worse than the previous one. It’s a compelling argument. I can’t say it’s entirely wrong, though spending too much time thinking about that might lead to depression.

So close, so far

But why the nostalgia for the ’90s and not the ’80s? Or the ’70s? Or the ’50s? Or the ’20s?

Because the ’90s were the end and the closest we can get. The final sputters of the 1900s. The end of the other world. Yes, there have been many ends, but the ’90s were really the final gasp. The last chopper out of Vietnam. That flip from 1999 to 2000 was the final nail in the coffin.

The ’90s feel like an alternative reality. It was modern then. Looking back on 1994 isn’t like looking back at 1924. 1924 feels ancient. We can’t really wrap our heads around living then. But 1994 is near us.

The cars, the houses, the technology, the medical advancement, the people, the language, the way of life. It all feels very familiar. It really feels like yesterday, even for the Zoomers who weren’t there. It feels like we can almost reach out and grab it. It feels like we can almost get there from here.

It feels like today, but better.