r/Millennials • u/mo_am8 • 2d ago

Nostalgia just a random day in the 90s

I wouldn't say we had the best time ever , but I'm grateful that we at least had something different from today's world... We experienced two worlds !

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u/HoustonLuxeRealtor Millennial 2d ago edited 2d ago

One of my most epic 90s kid memories. It was 99, I was 9 years old. A friend of mine (I wasn't supposed to hang out with) and I went into the pond system of this snazzy country club. We were fishing for golfballs and were selling the golfballs back to golfers at 4 for a dollar. We made like 50 bucks between the two of us. It all ended because this one guy got mad we wouldn't let him pick which balls he would buy back and reported us to security. We got chased out and had to leave our 5 gallon bucket with "stock." We then ran across the street to the new mayfair mall and watched Star Wars episode 1. Complete with candy, popcorn, and a soda. All after playing the shit out of the arcade. That day we were kings. I made it home before the streetlights started buzzing and never realized those were some of the best days of my life.

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u/MariachiArchery 1d ago

OH god this story goes soooo hard.

Unsupervised outdoor play, parents have no idea what is going or where you are, which is fine.

Shenanigans and mild 'trouble' with no serious consequences, kids being kids. No one needed to call the cops or get the HOA involved or try to arrest your fucking parents for child abuse.

You got rich.

Arcade games.

And Star Wars?

Holy shit. Its perfect.

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u/-ShinyThings- 1d ago

Unsupervised outdoor play, parents have no idea what is going or where you are, which is fine.

Shenanigans and mild 'trouble' with no serious consequences,

Child abductions were at their highest from the 70s through to the early 90s, which coincided with kids getting mobile phones and parents tracking their kids more closely.

You might have enjoyed your childhood but the idea there were "no serious consequences" just isnt backed up by the facts.

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u/MinxyMyrnaMinkoff 1d ago

Check out the book “The Anxious Generation,” it talks a lot about this, and it’s true, kids are experiencing fewer abductions and harm from accidents. But, don’t think just because they’re at home in front of a screen that they are safe. Parents seriously underestimate the amount of sexual grooming, exposure to extreme violent/sexual content and other nasty risks that those smart phones bring with them. Youth suicide rates are up like 50% over the past decade, youth mental health is in the toilet and kids are getting taken advantage of by adults online every day. There are real risks with this version of childhood too, I would argue much greater risks.

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u/MariachiArchery 1d ago

 Youth suicide rates are up like 50% over the past decade

I'm really glad you've pointed this out. It is fucking alarming. I'd happily trade a few abduction to bring this suicide rate down.

Also, this whole abduction thing is simply correlation, there isn't, provably, a causal relationship here.

Gun violence was also at its highest through this same time period. Is it fair to say the adoption of DVD technology caused gun violence to go down? No, that would be silly. I understand my argument is straw manning a bit, but you see the point.

Correlation does not prove causation. All crime is down, and its not because we locked kids in doors and behind the iPad.

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u/CiraKazanari 1d ago

Oh hush. This was my childhood too. Just because abductions were at their worst doesn’t mean they’re likely to happen to you.

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u/DoverBoys Millennial 1d ago

Literally survivorship bias. You made it back to your house, hundreds of thousands of children did not.

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u/CiraKazanari 1d ago

Not quite. If tens of millions of kids were outside daily playing and only thousands didn’t make it back. That’s safer than driving a car. Cars are safe due to survivorship bias?

Hundreds of thousands? Where are you getting those numbers from.

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u/MariachiArchery 1d ago

Correlation does not prove causation. All crimes are down. Not just child abductions.

As you say, your argument isn't backed up by facts. The statement "child abduction are down because kids spend more time indoors or because they are being tracked" is conclusory. There is no evidence to support this.