AI Paints Nostalgic Picture Of Growing Up In Minnesota In The 90s

A lot of us have been having some fun lately testing what artificial intelligence is capable of. As someone who grew up in the 1990s, I wanted to see how well artificial intelligence could describe what it was like to be a 90s kid.

AI says the 90s were a time of change.

According to ChatGPT, growing up in the 1990s was characterized by a mix of small-town charm, activities outdoors, and new technology coming onto the scene.

Minnesota had a lot of close-knit communities.

AI correctly describes growing up in the 90s as being part of a close-knit community. We knew our neighbors. We played with the neighborhood kids, we hung out at the mall.

We were mall rats.

Remember when the hangout spot was at the mall? Or the target parking lot. Without social media, we actually got together to interact. We didn't even really text on our Nokias.

Pre-Internet Era

AI says kids in the early 90s grew up without the internet, spending more time outdoors and engaging in face-to-face activities. Just a few short years later the internet boom changed everything.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Remember when you would get up early to watch cartoons on Network TV, because that was literally the only time you could ever watch cartoons? This is before the Cartoon Network and YouTube.

We were more 'Minnesota Nice.'

Artificial Intelligence once again nails this one. We were Minnesota Nice as people were polite and generally helpful.

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We loved our tater-tot hotdish, and we still do.

Apparently AI figured out that we liked our hot dishes and wild rice soups. At least it knows that we don't call them casseroles here.

Kids played hockey in the winter.

Hockey has always been big in Minnesota, and in the 90s there were a lot of pick up games on frozen lakes and local hockey rinks. You could make the argument that hockey for kids have become a lot more organized in the last 30 years.

Public libraries flourished.

When was the last time you went to the library? As a kid in the 90s, we went all the time. It was the only place to get on the internet when it first came out. We used the Dewey-decibel system to find books and pay late fees. We would have to pull out encyclopedias and cite our sources for papers.

Very few decades had as much transition as the 1990s.

There are not many other decades where someone born in 1985 would have a completely different childhood than someone born in 1995. However, with artificial intelligence now surging and changing our lives, stay tuned. This will be big.