A recent survey asked 20 to 60-year-olds which decade they’d want to have lived.    The answers ranged from the  1900’s to present day.  While preferences came from all ages for different decades, the 1980’s were hands down #1 choice amongst 20-somethings.  Despite shoulder pads, glam rock, the age of greed, and yuppies, nearly all wished they had lived in the 1980’s.

However, nearly everyone said post 2010 were the worst decades in which to live.  One person summed it up in two words,  “It sucked”.  The most often cited reason was an ever-increasing presence and use of the internet and digital technologies.  They all felt that since early 2010, life had been put on fast forward.  The majority said they wanted a rewind.  Experiences had become blurred together by a speed that left childhood in the dust and what followed were scattered memories formed out of intermittent pauses.

But oh the glorious 1980’s.  For Generation Z, it was a kalaedescope of music,  fashion, close knit friends, meaning, and most of all the 80’s  looked like more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  Although these 20-somethings had never lived in the 1980’s, they had a palpable sense of the experience.  They could see themselves living in the 80’s through TV shows like “Friends”  the Netflix series “Stranger Things”, and Brat Pack movies.

Generation Z especialy obsessed 1980s music, even if they don’t know the songs. They know the sound.  Want a quick visit to your happy place?  Watch these Gen Zers hearing 1980’s song for the first time

The Robbed Generation

These 20-somethings spoke of a sense of loss.  They felt like they robbed of what their teenage experience could have, or maybe should have been. Many yearned for real friendships (versus Facebook friends) within a close-knit group of friends, in-person social interactions, and sharing experiences firsthand with others.   They were fascinated by the  coming of portrayal  as a memoroble time sandwiched between being a kid and adulthood.  It was something they had never experienced  and they felt they had been stolen from them.

I was taken at how th— was an incredible authentic window into…This trip through the last 120 years revealing insight into the things we va—seeing people leave waht they know behind and traansport themselves, however brief to another —  An unfamiliar time but at the same time….is in line with.. Rankings for the best decade to live 

#1.  The 1980s

“Mixed tapes! I loved listening to the American top 40 and recording all my favorite songs”.

“…life was simple. Helping one another was the normal and we didn’t believe in bullying”. 

“The 80s seemed such a fun and prosperous time.”

“…no internet and no chat rooms. People socialized outside. They went to parties and evening dances. We just don’t have that…”

“…from what I’ve seen in movies and read in biographies, the 80s were the best in the US.”

“I was born in the wrong generation. I love all the music from the 80s, like Nirvana, Led Zeplin and Pink Floyd.   I WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN A TEEN IN THE 80’s!”

“... I missed out on the way being a teenager is supposed to be. I feel robbed.”

“It was an internet-free time when life was simpler, people were nicer, and the music was better.”

#3.  The 2000s

“… grew up in the 2000’s, it was great. Technology was not abused, and it was lighter. There wasn’t so much pressure. It was like a prolonged 20th century.”

“… there was a hopeful outlook for the future, particularly with the progress being made in science, technology and egalitarianism.”

“Enough technology that we could find out things, it wasn’t until the 2010s that the internet completely ruined everything.”

#4.  The 1970s

“The best music was spawned in the 70’s.  Musicians actually played instruments we used record players and not digital music.”

“People seemed very casual in the 70s.” 

 “The 70s had THE BEST cars. You can’t say there’s anything cooler than a bright red 1973 Plymouth ‘Hemi Cuda with yellow flames and slick tires with stripes on the sidewalls.” 

“The Vietnam War ended. A new realism in movies, T.V., music, and comedy. It was the 60s dressed in a Leisure Suit, in a good way.“

#2. The 1990s

“It was probably the most peaceful of any decade in the last 100 years. Everyone had money and everyone was (relatively!) happy.”

“…we had mobile phones and the Internet, but they hadn’t taken over our lives yet and we got great movies and T.V. shows”. 

#5.  The 1960s

“Great Music and hippie culture. – The Beatles (need I say more).”

“First Wave feminism and less of a class-based society“

“…we may have been poorer, but life had a cadence to it.”

#6.  The 1950s

“1950’s was an amazing decade! WWII was over and US citizens benefited greatly from this victory. The dollar stretched far & wide, the cars looked tough and were super affordable.“

“As a white man, the ’50s may have been the best decade to grow up in. As a black man, the ’50s easily ranks at the bottom of the list.”

“Cool music and fashion but not the best time to live in if you are a person of color, LGBTQ+, or even a woman.”

#7.  The 1920s

“1920s! The time when everybody wore suits and dresses, people had so much class. They were very polite.“

“It was all about the party back then. Murders? What murders? Oh, yeah I forgot about the gangsters and polio. At least we were classy.“

“I agree, it was classy. The flappers were pretty cool too. I wish people were as elegant nowadays“

#8.  The 1900s

“Far from the best but this decade looked better than the horror that was the 1930s or WWI throughout the 1910s (1910-1913 and 1919 looked okay though). “

#9.  The 2010s

“…got broken by the information overload, fakeness and health crisis of the 2020s.”

“I say that any decade before 2010 is a good decade.”

“Kids don’t act like kids anymore instead they act like they’re a bunch of adults with boyfriends and iPhone 6s, the 2010s sucks.”

#10.  The 1940s

” The wartime decade. Compares to the worst decade of 2010s or so and 2020.”

“Yeah, probably not the best time period to live in if you were German, Jewish, Russian, British, Polish or Chinese…”

The alchemy of  1980’s are immistable.  Gen Z will get it’s chance to have the sometime painful, and often poignent, coming of age experience when they cross the threshold into the America to come.  Wiil that  alchemy drive how they shape the future.  Will their sense of loss and yearning  drive a cultural shift to direct social interaction and in-person shared expereinces? Will there be better music?  We will know soon enough.