True, but with the near instant access to records of events via the Internet, we should try to maintain a distinction between what we remember/experienced and the digital chronicles of the era. I get the feeling that this is going to be even more critical going forward.
Sure but in 1999 you had access to the Internet. You were just using it to download mp3s instead of find out how many people got blown up in a synagogue halfway around the world. Not to single you out because I was doing the same thing. Also there's clearly more information on the internet today, but we also use it differently. Social media did change how we consume information and created feedback loops we didn't (specifically) have in 1999.
I think you have hit on something very important to internalize though. We tend to look at the past, and especially our youth, through rose tinted glasses. It's important to maintain a realistic perspective on history as it relates to the current day, especially because we know more about the past now than we did then.
My mom thinks the 1960s were a wonderful time to be a kid because that's when she was a kid. She might be right, but I struggle to say civilization was better in 1960 than in 1990 or even 2020. It's all a matter of perspective.
To put it another way if we think the world was best in our youth we probably also think it went to hell when we became adults and started looking around.
True, but with the near instant access to records of events via the Internet, we should try to maintain a distinction between what we remember/experienced and the digital chronicles of the era. I get the feeling that this is going to be even more critical going forward.