Someone born in 1998 asked what the UK was like back then and the answers will have you crying out for the return of Robot Wars and £2 pints

The 90s have been having a resurgence for quite a while now, with Gen Z being particularly keen on the fashion and music from the time, which they, somewhat insultingly, call ‘vintage’. However, the decade wasn’t just an amorphous blob of grungey shirts, belly chains and the Smashing Pumpkins: each individual year had its own particular flavour. On the AskUK subreddit, user
Nervous-Boat-4905 asked ‘What was 1998 like in the UK’ and followed it up with this:

‘This was the year I was born. What were things like? Aka pop culture, technology, things going on the news etc. What was airplane travel like (pre-9/11)? What sort of slang was there, were internet forums a thing?’

And the people who were there at the time were keen to chip in with their nostalgic memories.

1.

‘Maybe I’m turning into a grumpy old fart but everything seemed more optimistic.

And with the internet, you were a god among men if you had a 33k dial up modem. You could download a postage stamp-sized version of the Phantom Menace trailer in only 10 hours! ‘
–Wonderpants_uk

2.

‘The Matrix was set in the late 90s because (according to the film) it was the peak of humanity. And I have agreed more and more with this statement as time has gone by.’
–clrthrn

3.

‘Britain felt very optimistic back then. Britpop was still in full swing (from what I remember) and having loads of good British bands in the charts and great British TV made us feel culturally important. It felt like we were on the up.’
–JezraCF

4.

‘It was a great time. However, looking back, the casual sexism was awful. The beauty standards women and girls were held to were appalling (stick thin and preferably with massive tits was the only way to go). Women’s weight would be openly discussed in the mainstream media.

‘It still wasn’t a great time to be gay either. Especially where I grew up (small northern town). Lots and lots of people were openly, aggressively homophobic. But, the music was excellent, the films were good. Life felt optimistic generally.’
–kittyl48

5.

‘I’d go back in a hot second if I could. Fantastic music, TV, films. I bought my house for 43k on a 39k mortgage and paid £199 a month mortgage, £25 for gas and electricity and £58 council tax. I had a decent salary and plenty of disposable income.

‘The high street was thriving, cheap pubs everywhere and football was shown in them and the atmosphere was incredible along with £1 pints. I wasn’t a kid, nearly 30 so I don’t think it’s rose tinted glasses at youth. I miss the late nineties so much.’
–EllaSingsJazz

6.

‘I seem to remember that we all got very excited about text messaging, even though they cost something ridiculous like 10p each to send.

‘I remember being amazed that I could call the cinema on my mobile phone whilst having dinner and book a ticket by entering in my credit card number and just collect it at the cinema rather than having to queue and risk not getting in.’
–FreakyDancerCC

7.

‘Everything was Spice Girls and David Beckham. Everything.’
–starsandbribes

8.

‘It was only two years away from the arrival of the future, there was so much optimism.

‘Mobile phones were taking off (20% of people had a mobile in 1997 and that was 50% by 1999), and if we were all getting mobile telephones surely a cure for cancer and robots to physically care for old people would be here by 2020.’
–28374woolijay

9.

‘Clubbing. Clubbing clubbing clubbing. All night garage for chewing gum and Rizla. Rinse and repeat every weekend. Listen to The First Big Weekend (1996) by Arab Strap, could have been written for me and my mates.’
–Greetin_Wean

10.

‘Definitely internet forums were big. That was around the time Ally McBeal and ‘chick lit’ novels seemed to be unavoidable and my friends and I spent a lot of that year sitting in overpriced wine bars discussing how much we hated those tropes whilst being part of them.’
–FantasticWeasel

11.

‘I was nine in 1998, honestly it was great being a kid then. Tamagotchis were popular in 1998, also Rubik’s cubes made a massive comeback in 1997/98 having been a left over from the 80s.

‘By 1998 all the focus was what life in the 2000s and beyond would look like, one such prediction I recall was that Richard Branson would have a Space Station Hotel and shuttle service operational by 2006. It was the first year after Blair’s landslide victory so things were still optimistic.

‘The internet was something we used at home, mobile phones and cameras were separate devices.’
–CountryUnusual7099