Splash No. 225 - “90s Kid”

“90s Kid”

I’ve been reading The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman, which surprisingly talks about the 1990s. The book attempts to answer the question “what were the 90s?” As you’d expect, it’s difficult to summarize an entire decade, not only in the major moments but also in its culture and the stark differences from previous and ensuing decades. One part in particular stood out talked about knowledge during the decade: 

"It was harder to prove what was true. It was harder to disprove what was false. As a society, we’ve elected to ignore that many people of the nineties—many modern people, many of whom are still very much alive—were exceedingly comfortable not knowing anything for certain. Today, paraphrasing the established historical record or questioning empirical data is seen as an ideological, anti-intellectual choice. But until the very late nineties, it was often the only choice available."

Of course, this was the case for much of recorded history, but the 90s were also when the sheer amount of content and knowledge available to human beings was increasing at a rapid rate, as the internet started to become available, films became easily accessible through video rental stores, and television programming started extending into the night. Even among a growing waterfall of information available, the approach to addressing information was much less intense than today because there were no other options.

I think about now, and how among my endless consumption of media from my waking hours until right before I fall asleep, I’m constantly checking and verifying information. Even as I read books, I’m googling different factoids to read more deeply into or to see if the presentation of the book covers the full story. Although I have an unshakeable attachment to various forms of social media, the Wikipedia app on my phone is one of my most frequently accessed. Half of my conversations with my roommate are about iconic sports moments or long-forgotten players from the last 10 years, inevitably leading to one of us looking up more information to fill in the blanks from our memories.

Reading about a different era is fascinating, since it simply reminds me of how much I’m shaped by the era that I was born and raised in, the era that I live in. Thinking back, I’ve been constantly fact-checking persistently since I was just a kid. Since my days chatting with my friends on G Chat in middle school, I’ve had a habit of double checking every reference I make with a quick Google search to satisfy my fear of being wrong or sounding stupid if I say something incorrect. As I appreciate that I’m able to avoid these situations, I also wonder how being able to scratch the itches of my anxieties through technology have shaped me through the years. In another time, I would likely have the fear of being wrong pushed out of me from being wrong a lot more, or it not mattering as much if I were wrong since no one would be able to verify.

On the other hand, I think about how texting and writing has always felt like an easier medium for me to express my feelings. Would I have been able to learn to be vulnerable about my emotions if I could’ve only spoken through the telephone rather than typed into it? Would I even be the same person if it weren’t for the technology that helped me to develop? If I couldn’t Google my problems and find countless threads from other people suffering through the same minor conveniences that I faced? It’s impossible to know, because it all just underscores the many ways I’m a product of the world and technologies that I grew up in an around.

It makes me feel small in some ways — there are so many aspects of my life that are out of my control, even the ones that shaped my identity. I’d never imagine myself as being “born in the wrong generation” because in a different generation, I wouldn’t be me at all, I’d be an entirely different person shaped by different technologies and culture. Yet, this smallness doesn’t feel like a negative thing. Instead, I’m in awe of what I see as an enormous display of dominos that had to be set up just so, pushed to bring me to this moment — not only the small moments among my ancestors that led to my birth, but every technological advance, every cultural change, every single thing that ever happened to lead to the being I am today. How incredible.

Drops of the Week
 

• ALBUM - HMW 8: Side B by Westside Gunn - I can't stop copying Westside Gunn adlibs for fun

• ARTICLE - "None of Your Businses" by Matthias Ott - great creative advice: "You don’t have to like your work for it to work. Liking or not liking it isn’t the essential part of making something"

• POEM - "I wonder if I will miss the moss" by Jane Mead - There was mud, / and there was the walking, / all the beautiful walking, / and it alone filled me

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Yada yada yada,
Nikhil