The 1990s are often characterized as an era of relative peace and prosperity, even as scientists pushed for climate change awareness and the U.S. democracy suffered from overwhelming bipartisanship. The ‘90s oversaw a federal budget surplus, dramatic reductions in violent crime and ultimately supervised the rise of alternative media with developments like cable television.
Family and Community
For French teacher Janissa Zahn and English teacher Lynn Rose, the 1980s and 1990s served primarily as periods of personal growth and development. From attending local weekend concerts to moving hundreds of miles away from home, their lives often centered around personal milestones.
As a child, Rose lived in the rural town of Sebastopol, Calif. (approximate population 6,000) where there was just one stoplight, one general store and no movie theater. The town’s main street ran roughly 10 to 15 miles from her house, and after school, she would visit the shops and ice cream places nearby. In the summer, she swam in the community pool with her friends.
“There really wasn't a whole lot to do,” Rose said. “I think that was pretty typical, and a lot of us hung out after school because so many of us lived in out in the country and it was hard to get to town … On the weekends at home, [we had] family time, so we barbecued a lot, played a lot of games and MTV was just coming out so we watched music videos.”
Family and Community
For French teacher Janissa Zahn and English teacher Lynn Rose, the 1980s and 1990s served primarily as periods of personal growth and development. From attending local weekend concerts to moving hundreds of miles away from home, their lives often centered around personal milestones.
As a child, Rose lived in the rural town of Sebastopol, Calif. (approximate population 6,000) where there was just one stoplight, one general store and no movie theater. The town’s main street ran roughly 10 to 15 miles from her house, and after school, she would visit the shops and ice cream places nearby. In the summer, she swam in the community pool with her friends.
“There really wasn't a whole lot to do,” Rose said. “I think that was pretty typical, and a lot of us hung out after school because so many of us lived in out in the country and it was hard to get to town … On the weekends at home, [we had] family time, so we barbecued a lot, played a lot of games and MTV was just coming out so we watched music videos.”
Because of the tight-knit community in Sebastopol, Rose formed close relationships with the other people in her town. They would host “burn days,” where families would collect the brush and old branches from their apple orchard and have a bonfire. Upon entering the one store in town that sold clothing, Rose would often find herself pausing to talk to the owner and his son.
“[Silicon Valley] is such a far cry from living in the country where the pace was just slower,” Rose said. “Because it was a smaller town, you knew everybody. You couldn't just rush into [stores] to get something because you had to talk to everybody you would see if they stopped you along the way. |
Eight hundred miles west in urban Phoenix, Ariz., Zahn spent her afternoons in coffee shops with her friends. Having attended her first concert when she was 13 years old, she was a fan of alternative British bands such as The Cure and The Smiths.
“You would kind of be able to tell what kind of music people listened to based on the concert T-shirts they would wear because there'd be a concert and then you would see them around school,” Zahn said. “It was kind of interesting because it was a way of people kind of defining their personality. We loved all those bands and I still do.”
After switching majors in college from genetics to architecture to French, Zahn took a 5-year break from pursuing a career to reflect on what she wanted to do. She worked part-time jobs as a barista and bookstore employee, “hanging out with artists and trying to write short stories” before she met her future husband.
“You would kind of be able to tell what kind of music people listened to based on the concert T-shirts they would wear because there'd be a concert and then you would see them around school,” Zahn said. “It was kind of interesting because it was a way of people kind of defining their personality. We loved all those bands and I still do.”
After switching majors in college from genetics to architecture to French, Zahn took a 5-year break from pursuing a career to reflect on what she wanted to do. She worked part-time jobs as a barista and bookstore employee, “hanging out with artists and trying to write short stories” before she met her future husband.
“I was working at a bookstore, and he had taken the summer off because he was going to Berkeley and he was from Arizona, and I met him because he was working there just as a part time job,” Zahn said. “After three months of dating, I moved to San Francisco with him … [where] he encouraged me, ‘Why don't you go get a job teaching?’ and I did. It wasn't the best job, but I stuck with [teaching] and I haven't done anything different since then.”
Eventually, both Zahn and Rose found jobs in Cupertino, where they were immersed in what is now a digitally dominated environment. “You know, the first time that you hear about something, you're always scared of it, right?” Rose said. “But then you try it and you feel around and realize it's okay to push the buttons.” |
Technology
Home to Apple’s glass-encrusted headquarters and streets occupied by falcon-winged Teslas, Silicon Valley encourages a radical understanding of contemporary technologies, lifestyles and innovations. The cultivated bubble seems rich with boundless potential, its advantages derived from an exponential transition from farmland to tech capital.
“Growth has been around for quite a while for Silicon Valley,” math teacher David Greenstein said. “There are places in the United States where they have growth that has been kept a certain level … but the flip side of that is that they don't have that many jobs up there, they don't have that many businesses up there and the land value is low. I think when you live in this area, and you want to see the economy do well, then you have to put up with the growth. They kind of go hand in hand.”
Especially as the internet became a convenient method of mass communication, people began to explore various avenues of entrepreneurship. A plethora of unique business ventures, such as an online pet supplies shop and one of the first search engines, sprung from the upturn in the national economy.
“The economy was starting to grow at an incredible rate and a lot of that engine was technology, and specifically the internet,” Greenstein said. “It seemed like you could create any kind of business and people would fund it, sort of like today but even a little bit more abstract. Back then anybody could just throw an idea out there and they would get millions of dollars for their idea as long as it had something to do with the internet. People didn't get rich, they just had a real good time growing what little of a company they had and then killing it.”
Home to Apple’s glass-encrusted headquarters and streets occupied by falcon-winged Teslas, Silicon Valley encourages a radical understanding of contemporary technologies, lifestyles and innovations. The cultivated bubble seems rich with boundless potential, its advantages derived from an exponential transition from farmland to tech capital.
“Growth has been around for quite a while for Silicon Valley,” math teacher David Greenstein said. “There are places in the United States where they have growth that has been kept a certain level … but the flip side of that is that they don't have that many jobs up there, they don't have that many businesses up there and the land value is low. I think when you live in this area, and you want to see the economy do well, then you have to put up with the growth. They kind of go hand in hand.”
Especially as the internet became a convenient method of mass communication, people began to explore various avenues of entrepreneurship. A plethora of unique business ventures, such as an online pet supplies shop and one of the first search engines, sprung from the upturn in the national economy.
“The economy was starting to grow at an incredible rate and a lot of that engine was technology, and specifically the internet,” Greenstein said. “It seemed like you could create any kind of business and people would fund it, sort of like today but even a little bit more abstract. Back then anybody could just throw an idea out there and they would get millions of dollars for their idea as long as it had something to do with the internet. People didn't get rich, they just had a real good time growing what little of a company they had and then killing it.”
However, having worked in a volatile high-tech field, Greenstein is wary about the implications of continuous financial prosperity. In the 1990s, the economy increased for eight years until the 2000s recession. With the current economic upturn having just surpassed 10 years, he notes the high likelihood of another recession.
Greenstein first became interested in computer technology in college, where only trained operators could handle the large, stationary computers housed in separate buildings. As someone who originally wanted to know everything about computers, Greenstein now feels as though their ability to grant access to overwhelming quantities of information might also facilitate the spread of ill-informed judgements. “You would think I must like everything that has come along because this is an incredible dream come true for somebody who loved computers so much,” Greenstein said. “But what I don't like is the fact that we've lost our privacy and we've lost some civility in some of the things that we've done. We have so much information and it's coming at us from so many different directions constantly that we don't know how to process it.” |
Greenstein describes a Berkeley survey in which scientists asked students for their post-college goals. In the 1960s, the majority of responses included wanting to help save the world. Yet when the same questions were asked in the 1990s, students replied that they wanted to make money.
“That was probably a good statement of how people were viewing the 1990s,” Greenstein said. “And we have some of that going on today with some parallels to the 1990s. The economy is go-go-go and everybody's thinking about making more money, so I bet if you went to Berkeley today and asked them what they want to do they'd probably say ‘make money.’”
“That was probably a good statement of how people were viewing the 1990s,” Greenstein said. “And we have some of that going on today with some parallels to the 1990s. The economy is go-go-go and everybody's thinking about making more money, so I bet if you went to Berkeley today and asked them what they want to do they'd probably say ‘make money.’”