I was born at the tail end of the 80s, so I can't really speak on that.. However, even I can see a huge difference in culture from the 90s/early 2000s up until now. I still remember a time when kids actually went outside and played, and technology didn't control our lives. Computers existed, but they were very slow and not everyone could afford one. I think the best time period (dating wise) for me, was during the Myspace era. It was incredibly easy to bang chicks, and there was no "#metoo" BS. Men didn't have to worry about catching a sexual harassment charge just for making a joke. Drunk sex that you ended up regretting in the morning wasn't "rape".. men could be men and society wouldn't shame them for it. It's crazy to think how even 10-15 years ago things have changed so much. Everyone is so worried about cancel culture and pissing off the twitter warriors.. It's like everyone is turning into a bunch of pvssies. I hate it.
I was born in the mid-1980s. I don't remember much of the 1980s. My formative years were in the 1990s. Playing outdoors was on the wane for children in the 1990s, but it was still more prevalent at that time than I imagine it would be today. Video games started to get big in the 1990s, and childhood obesity was getting started then, though childhood and adulthood obesity was less frequently observed then. Broadband internet didn't become prevalent in households until the early 2000s. Super slow dial up internet was a leading internet source in the 1990s, and dial up limited what you could do online.
I agree with you on the MySpace era. I talked about 2003/04-06 earlier in this thread. While 2003-06 was no Golden Age of dating, it was certainly better than what we have today. Technology has de-personalized the process and encouraged ruder behavior. Flaking and ghosting were rare because there was no text messaging. Text messaging enables people to be gutless wimps. People were getting cell phones then but the cell phone were primarily used for making phone calls while out and about, which is a perfectly good use of the technology. The change from being tethered to a landline to get a phone call to being able to get phone calls anywhere was a big advance and needed. Text messaging is useful for those with hearing problems, but for the non disabled, it has done a lot of harm. Text messaging has worsened the mating environment. Swipe apps just accentuated all of the bad trends that existed with the website era of online dating. Having other apps, fast internet web browsing on a phone, and text messaging to virtually communicate with anyone at any time, made people have worse interpersonal social skills. People aren't present in the moment a lot of time, which is important in relational formation. Due to the existance of text messaging, women can be completely gutless, not telling you anything and delivering undesirable news in a gutless way behind an electronic screen. The mamby pamby, candy asssed text message of "I had a good time but do not see things going anywhere" became a thing for some women after first dates to allay their self image that they aren't rude, but doing that as opposed to saying something in person is still a chicken shiit maneuver. Compared to the candy asssed text message I just mentioned, I would rather deal with ghosting. Ghosting is chicken shiit but at least it is honest.
2004-05 was my senior year of college and I entered the work force that year. #MeToo didn't exist in 2005. In 2005, it still wasn't advisable to date immediate coworkers if you worked in a white collar, office job. If you worked in a larger company in 2005, it was probably easier to date someone in a distant department where interaction was infrequent. However, in companies of less than 75 people, dating intra-conpany was perilous then, just as it is now. In 2005, you still had to be careful about sexual harrassment allegations, but it is worse today.
Fake rape charges after drunken sex were a nothing in the mid-2000s, but certainly seemed to accelerate after 2010.
I think when people are forced to be real with each other in person in the absence of technology, there's a healthier mating environment than what you see now. The bar scene, which left a lot to be desired, was still better than swipe apps because it forced people to interact with each other in person. 2003-06 was the last gasp of the pre-tech everywhere era.
