"Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things." Douglas Adams
You know, I can't takes these "it's just nostalgia" arguments seriously. Like, it either means there's a constant peak in human hapiness which tops in childhood/teenhood no matter what. If that's true we can assume children during wars hiding in cellars from bombings are as happy as some kid playing soccer with friends on a hot summer day. I know the example is ridiculous and a bit of a strawman, it's just to illustrate the point.
But sorry, you can't tell me that what is happening now is fine. We used to get new exciting things. Just look at music and how many new music genres popped out in the past. Can you imagine a teenager in the 90s saying that he listens to old music unironically? You now have 30 to 40 year old tracks trending on tiktok. I know cause I saw my sister using it.
I remember when the difference of 5 years in video games was like outright a new world. Remember we went from 2D level structured games, to 3D levels structured games, to outright simulated 3D worlds in span of a decade and had countless game genres be made inbetween. Today, you can pick a 10 year old game and it's mostly the same. the modern one just looks slightly better and has more predatory monetization practices.
Take movies too. Can you imagine any recent movies that would stick with us for next few years? The only recent thing out of cinema that I can think of that will be remembered are marvel movies for better or worse, and that already started more than a decade ago and I'm kinda not sure if I can call new since it's just adaptation of comic book stories from 60s to 90s. Just think of how many iconic movies you can think out of your head from the 80s to 90s. We all know and will rememeber movies like Alien from the start of that time, and we all remember movies like Toy Story from the end of that time. How many can you name from 2000s to now?
Also remember that what children now are watching is very sexualized 5 second tik tok videos or
whatever you want to call this. And unlike in the past where you had the "muh video games bad", although granted, I really have met people who are the living image of what a 2000s parents feared would happen to their kids, this is way worse. You literally have poeple who never leave their house growing up on rehashed trash media designed to lower their attention span as much as possible.