That's right, but every positive light I read focus a lot on how things tremendously improved elsewhere. I mean it's really great that some countries got out of poverty, improved equality, but as far as my country is concerned, in my lifetime, things got worst regarding drugs, insecurity, unemployment, median salary, stress, climate and so many other things that can be measured (still, I'm not saying that nothing improved, but it pales in comparison).

I can tell you that my great mother when she was a 100 years old was clearly telling "things improved so much" because in her lifetime things went so much better regarding healthcare, heating system, water supply, wars, gender equality, buying power, goods... and the list could go on forever. If things improve around them, people get it. Nostalgia is slightly a lens, but certainly not a blindfold.

I was talking more in a global sense, so yeah, not every country/city/area has seen improvement.

As someone who lives in a first world country, (Australia) the difference is less pronounced here as stuff like polio, guinea worm, infant mortality, female illiteracy, extreme poverty, etc were already either very low or non-issues by the 90s.

Still, I feel like I've seen a number of positive changes; one of my uncles had Hepatitus C, which was incurable in the 90s, but he was recently cleared of it thanks to modern medicine. I also know people with HIV and cancer who have benefitted from the improved treatments that have become available this century. The last 11 years have also seen the introduction of the HPV vaccine.

EVERYTHING.. the movies, music, economy and people still had morals it was a great decade!!!

I miss peoples faces!

Music and overall environment around me.

Sign me up for music... Sure there are some decent new bands since the 2000s but at least rock was the main genre of music in the 90s. Now we got even worse pop music, mainly shitty rock bands, and god forbid whatever else.

Oh and I miss driving in the 90s...  Very few people had cells while most of us had a pager if anything.  Now you miss lights because some dumbass is staring at their phone and not paying attention.  I was against driverless cars but now I'm convinced most of the public needs one because they think they are so fucking important that they have to check their damn phone every second.  Guess what you aren't important.

I miss my hair, although it did get me 'randomly' selected for searches at airports. I miss going with friends to rent a movie, pick up some snacks and have a good time gathered around a little tv. I miss using the phone for talking to friends. It's all just text nowadays. I miss going into movies and video games almost 'blind'. It's too hard to avoid spoilers with the internet all around.

I miss not caring about what I ate, how late I went to bed, how much time I spend on video games, how much I drank, how or what time I would get home the next morning. That's not really 90's related, more being young, not having any responsibilities and feeling invincible. Although in retrospect that could also be not caring if anything happened to me. I don't miss being lonely, depressed and not knowing what to do with my life. So even though there was plenty good stuff, do not want to go back. 90's music is good enough to remember the good times.

I don't see how so many people mentioned the music. 90s music is and was terrible and forgettable especially in the mid 90s.

-variety in gaming

-action movies and stars like Stallone, Van Damme, Arnold

-Mainstream music was actually good back then, you didn't have to go dig deep into obscure bands or groups to find the good stuff like today. "u arent looking hard enough" Thats always the defense of those who say there is still good music.

Nah 90s music was great: techno, eurodance, west/east coast gangsta rap rivalry, g-funk, groups like Faithless etc, this is specific for me but Turkish music was great too.

The lack of political correctness
Squaresoft because they actually made good games
The music
Walking to the plane door with your family even if you were not flying with them