Following -1998- Link

Following 1998, the world didn't just change. It accelerated.

Here is the thing I miss most: The naivety.

Following 1998, waiting became a glitch. Google was founded in September 1998. The iMac dropped in August of that year—translucent blue plastic promising that technology didn't have to be a beige box in a dusty office. Suddenly, answers were five seconds away. Music fit in your pocket (shout out to the original Rio PMP300). The friction of life was being sanded down.

Following 1998, silence became suspicious. If you didn’t reply to an email within 24 hours, you were negligent. If you didn’t have a mobile phone, you were eccentric. We traded the inconvenience of absence for the anxiety of availability. Following -1998-

What do you remember from the year before the noise? Let me know in the comments—but I’ll probably reply tomorrow. I’m still in 1997 mode.

I don’t want to go back permanently. I like having the sum of human knowledge in my palm. But I miss the silence. I miss the waiting.

Following 1998, irony took over. Grunge died. Nu-metal and boy bands fought for the radio, and the cynicism of the late 90s gave way to the pre-traumatic stress of 9/11. We stopped dreaming about flying cars and started worrying about the backup of our hard drives. Following 1998, the world didn't just change

I miss when “following” just meant the next page in a book, not a metric of your worth.

Following 1998, we entered the long now. Everything is recorded, archived, and optimized.

He’s right. Before 1998, waiting was a condition of life. You waited for a letter. You waited for your favorite song to come on the radio so you could hit ‘record.’ You waited for Thursday night at 8:00 PM because if you missed Seinfeld , it was gone until summer reruns. Following 1998, waiting became a glitch

I’ve been digitizing old home videos from 1997 lately. Grainy VHS footage of backyard barbecues, the static hiss of a CRT television in the background, and the sound of a rotary phone ringing. My nephew watched it over my shoulder and asked, “Why is everyone just... waiting ?”

October 5, 2023

1998 was the last year of the old world. It was the final moment you could be a kid riding a bike without a leash (a cell phone) to your parents. It was the last time you could get hopelessly lost and discover a diner by accident.

There is a specific weight to the phrase “the late nineties.” But if you dig deeper, the true hinge—the year everything began to creak before the floodgates opened—was not 1999. It was .

The Last Polaroid Summer: Why 1997 Felt Like the End of an Era