Back to the ’90s: A Simpler Life We Secretly Miss

I saw a meme the other day that stopped me in my scrolling tracks. It said something like:

“As much as I like having cell phones, the internet, and social media… I’d go back to it being like the ’90s before all of it in a heartbeat.”

And honestly? Same. I can’t help but think I’m not alone in that feeling.

There’s something comforting about the simplicity of life before we were constantly connected. I look around lately and see more and more people craving that simplicity, even if they don’t say it outright. So many content creators are going viral not because of high-tech hacks or dramatic lifestyle changes, but because they’re learning to sew. Bake sourdough bread. Crochet. Garden. Homestead. All the things that feel like coming home — not to a place, but to a pace of life we left behind.

I often tell people that I believe technology was a good thing — at first. It brought convenience, connection, and creativity into our lives. But somewhere along the way, we took it a little too far. Now it’s our default, our filler, our security blanket in moments of boredom. I can’t count the number of evenings my husband and I have sat in the same room, the TV humming in the background while we scroll on our phones, occasionally sending each other funny reels instead of talking. And I know we’re not the only household like that.

We’ve redefined “being connected” to mean being plugged in — ironically, making us more connected to strangers on a screen than to the people sitting next to us.

But here’s the good news: we still have the power to take it back.

We can choose to reconnect in ways that don’t involve Wi-Fi. We can carve out time to sit on the porch and chat. Take a walk after dinner. Read a real, paper book. Pick up hobbies that don’t require charging cables. Share stories instead of stories-within-24-hours. It won’t be exactly like the ’90s, and that’s okay. But we can blend the best of both worlds — the convenience of today with the intentional simplicity of yesterday.

So here’s a question for you:
What are some of the “old school” ways you would bring back?