Nearly half (47%) of adults ages 18-29 said if they had the option, they’d choose to live in the past, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey. One-third said they’d pick a time period less than 50 years in the past, while another 14% said they’d choose more than 50 years in the past.
Sort of, yes?
I was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s. It’s natural for me to be nostalgic about the 90s. It’s absolutely strange to me that any significant group of people who grew up in the 2000s would actually want to go back to the 80s or 90s, which they never experienced first hand.
The only explanation I can think of is that these GenZers watch shows like Stranger Things or Friends and think that’s what we all lived like back then.
I think it’s more because the future looks so bleak. Climate change & global ecological collapse, fascism, techno-feudalism, enshittification, the destruction of the middle class. These are all problems that the ruling class is actively and purposefully making worse. It’s no wonder that the younger generations don’t want the future we are headed towards.
It definitely seems like a lot of people think the future is bleak, though most people feeling that way have no idea what things were like 100 years ago.
My grandparents grew up on farms with 10+ siblings and left school after grade 8. They lived in tiny houses with multiple kids packed into a single room. They worked heavy manual labour on the farm and in forestry. It was very common for young children to die of the flu or measles or the common cold. My grandfather’s little brother died as a child. They had no idea whatsoever that the future was going to be as good as things are now, so it’s hard to say they had any more to look forward to than we do now.
They also had 2 world wars in their future, and for all the war we have going on right now, we’re fortunate that it isn’t even close to as bad as the world wars of the 20th century. Climate change is definitely a legitimate thing to worry about, but it’s really hard to predict how much it will affect any of us individually.
I think it’s way simpler than that: this is the first generation since at least WWII whose prospect in life is to be poorer and with worse quality of life than their parents.
So of course they would rather the clock wound back to the time when people their age still lived with the expectation that things would just keep on getting better.
The Tech angle in this article is just a bit of cherry picking to avoid talking about the broader systemic issues of the collapse in social mobility, explosion in inequality and real economic growth (i.e. that calculate by real inflation numbers rather than the la-la-land official “inflation”) having pretty much ground to a halt in 2008 and whatever there is of it being entirely captured by the top 1%.
It’s never been this good to be a billionaire, but for the rest minus technological evolution things are the worse they’ve been since WWII.
no, they want to grow up with economic optimism instead of despair.
i graduated in 2005 with 30K of debt, and i had a job for 40K and my rent was 500 bucks.
if I graduated in 2025 i’d have something like 120K of debt and my job would be like 45K, and my rent would be 1500.
my sister started working in 1995, she had 10K of debt, a 35K job, and her rent was 300 bucks. she was able to buy a brand new 15K car after graduation, before she even got a job…
the rich kids will be fine, however, anyone whose parents aren’t in the top 10% is economically fucked for life unless they win the lottery, statistically speaking. rent/housing costs keep going up at twice the rate of inflation in most areas.
cost of living is has been outpacing wages by a factor of 2x for over almost two decades, and there is no sign of things ever getting better.
the stability of a middle class life has been stolen from gen z by boomers and gen x, and it will be even worse for gen alpha. even among millenials, there is stark economic divide between those who had their college/housing paid for my parents, and those who had to pay for it on their own.
If that’s the case, why prefer the last 50 years over the decades before that? In 1975 the average house price in San Francisco was 1/27 the price it was in 2024. That means you could have a $1.5m house for $55k. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $337k in 2026 dollars.
If you went back even further (to the 60s or 50s) it would be even more ridiculous.
because 1975 is two generations ago for them, not one.
for kids today, 1975 looks the way you probably see the 1930s/1940s. it’s basically old timey black and white. it’s not appealing or relatable, it’s completely foreign.
90s is only one generation removed and relatable. when i was in high school kids loved the 70s, because it was one generation removed, but nobody was into the 1950s.
it also has to do with fashion and vintage and nostalgia, there is a 20 year gap there as well. that’s why boomers are nosalgic for the 1940s/50s, because they were all born in the 50s/60s.
The 1970s are just as unrelatable to me as the 1930s. It’s all just “the before times” to me.
Also I think GenZers have no idea how bad everything smelled back then, due to the pervasive smoking in public and in everyone’s houses. I know this because public smoking lasted well into the 90s and I remember when it started going away.
I have a friend who is nostalgic for those times before he was born, and even claims to want to take up smoking, though he hasn’t had the guts to actually try. Really strange. I find smoking totally repulsive.
I remember kids in the 90s wished they lived in the 60s and 70s. There are always people who aint feeling their lives who think a past time would auit them better
in the 90s we looked forward to the future. in the 2020s very few people look forward to the future because the future looks so shitty.
i mean, i can relate. i don’t see my life getting better in the future in any material way. i see my standard of living maybe being stagnant… if I am lucky. and my income have kept pace with inflation… but that’s largely only because i have been investing since i was 25, if i was depending solely on my job income i’d be looking at falling further and further behind.
i also think it’s bullshit that i literally can’t go back to school or change careers, because the costs to do so would wipe me out economically. i’d have to take on 60-100K of debt to get another masters degree, that’s INSANE.
just maintaing my certs in my own field now costs me 1000s.
You could move to another country where education is more affordable. Some places even have schools where masters and PhD students are funded by the university (and work as TAs for a stipend), rather than taking on debt.
I can understand if you’re not able to uproot your life like that though, so I’m not saying you’re wrong to stay where you are and try to survive.
The only explanation I can think of is that these GenZers watch shows like Stranger Things or Friends and think that’s what we all lived like back then.
That makes more sense. I was also thinking bigger time scales, “The Age of Plastic” or “The Renaissance” Not "When the modems were slower"😂
Sort of, yes?
I was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s. It’s natural for me to be nostalgic about the 90s. It’s absolutely strange to me that any significant group of people who grew up in the 2000s would actually want to go back to the 80s or 90s, which they never experienced first hand.
The only explanation I can think of is that these GenZers watch shows like Stranger Things or Friends and think that’s what we all lived like back then.
I think it’s more because the future looks so bleak. Climate change & global ecological collapse, fascism, techno-feudalism, enshittification, the destruction of the middle class. These are all problems that the ruling class is actively and purposefully making worse. It’s no wonder that the younger generations don’t want the future we are headed towards.
It definitely seems like a lot of people think the future is bleak, though most people feeling that way have no idea what things were like 100 years ago.
My grandparents grew up on farms with 10+ siblings and left school after grade 8. They lived in tiny houses with multiple kids packed into a single room. They worked heavy manual labour on the farm and in forestry. It was very common for young children to die of the flu or measles or the common cold. My grandfather’s little brother died as a child. They had no idea whatsoever that the future was going to be as good as things are now, so it’s hard to say they had any more to look forward to than we do now.
They also had 2 world wars in their future, and for all the war we have going on right now, we’re fortunate that it isn’t even close to as bad as the world wars of the 20th century. Climate change is definitely a legitimate thing to worry about, but it’s really hard to predict how much it will affect any of us individually.
Oh absolutely they are wrong to seek refuge in the past. There is no refuge to be found there. I’m just saying it’s not surprising.
I think it’s way simpler than that: this is the first generation since at least WWII whose prospect in life is to be poorer and with worse quality of life than their parents.
So of course they would rather the clock wound back to the time when people their age still lived with the expectation that things would just keep on getting better.
The Tech angle in this article is just a bit of cherry picking to avoid talking about the broader systemic issues of the collapse in social mobility, explosion in inequality and real economic growth (i.e. that calculate by real inflation numbers rather than the la-la-land official “inflation”) having pretty much ground to a halt in 2008 and whatever there is of it being entirely captured by the top 1%.
It’s never been this good to be a billionaire, but for the rest minus technological evolution things are the worse they’ve been since WWII.
no, they want to grow up with economic optimism instead of despair.
i graduated in 2005 with 30K of debt, and i had a job for 40K and my rent was 500 bucks.
if I graduated in 2025 i’d have something like 120K of debt and my job would be like 45K, and my rent would be 1500.
my sister started working in 1995, she had 10K of debt, a 35K job, and her rent was 300 bucks. she was able to buy a brand new 15K car after graduation, before she even got a job…
the rich kids will be fine, however, anyone whose parents aren’t in the top 10% is economically fucked for life unless they win the lottery, statistically speaking. rent/housing costs keep going up at twice the rate of inflation in most areas.
cost of living is has been outpacing wages by a factor of 2x for over almost two decades, and there is no sign of things ever getting better.
the stability of a middle class life has been stolen from gen z by boomers and gen x, and it will be even worse for gen alpha. even among millenials, there is stark economic divide between those who had their college/housing paid for my parents, and those who had to pay for it on their own.
If that’s the case, why prefer the last 50 years over the decades before that? In 1975 the average house price in San Francisco was 1/27 the price it was in 2024. That means you could have a $1.5m house for $55k. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $337k in 2026 dollars.
If you went back even further (to the 60s or 50s) it would be even more ridiculous.
because 1975 is two generations ago for them, not one.
for kids today, 1975 looks the way you probably see the 1930s/1940s. it’s basically old timey black and white. it’s not appealing or relatable, it’s completely foreign.
90s is only one generation removed and relatable. when i was in high school kids loved the 70s, because it was one generation removed, but nobody was into the 1950s.
it also has to do with fashion and vintage and nostalgia, there is a 20 year gap there as well. that’s why boomers are nosalgic for the 1940s/50s, because they were all born in the 50s/60s.
The 1970s are just as unrelatable to me as the 1930s. It’s all just “the before times” to me.
Also I think GenZers have no idea how bad everything smelled back then, due to the pervasive smoking in public and in everyone’s houses. I know this because public smoking lasted well into the 90s and I remember when it started going away.
I have a friend who is nostalgic for those times before he was born, and even claims to want to take up smoking, though he hasn’t had the guts to actually try. Really strange. I find smoking totally repulsive.
I remember kids in the 90s wished they lived in the 60s and 70s. There are always people who aint feeling their lives who think a past time would auit them better
I’m sure you could find some kids like that, but 47%? That’s a lot!
in the 90s we looked forward to the future. in the 2020s very few people look forward to the future because the future looks so shitty.
i mean, i can relate. i don’t see my life getting better in the future in any material way. i see my standard of living maybe being stagnant… if I am lucky. and my income have kept pace with inflation… but that’s largely only because i have been investing since i was 25, if i was depending solely on my job income i’d be looking at falling further and further behind.
i also think it’s bullshit that i literally can’t go back to school or change careers, because the costs to do so would wipe me out economically. i’d have to take on 60-100K of debt to get another masters degree, that’s INSANE.
just maintaing my certs in my own field now costs me 1000s.
You could move to another country where education is more affordable. Some places even have schools where masters and PhD students are funded by the university (and work as TAs for a stipend), rather than taking on debt.
I can understand if you’re not able to uproot your life like that though, so I’m not saying you’re wrong to stay where you are and try to survive.
That makes more sense. I was also thinking bigger time scales, “The Age of Plastic” or “The Renaissance” Not "When the modems were slower"😂