You could listen & watch anything you liked on any media without feeling you're selling out to some cause.
People weren't out to try make you something you never were other than entitled outsiders.
You weren't obliged to be anywhere or with anyone. If you wanted to see someone, you went to see them or arranged to meet them somewhere. Simple.
The world really felt bigger than you in the 2000s. Today, the world almost feels like it's being designed as you live. It's a very counterintuitive & unsettling feeling. It makes the world feel flimsy, fabricated & unstable. When in the 2000s people were busy with their lives... Today, it feels like people are busy with other peoples lives & this culture of small-mindedness really makes mice out of people you expected to be "bigger-minded". It makes huge authoritative, educational, financial, political, industry & social establishments you used to respect as a child feel tiny & unserious.
Today's world really makes a joke of itself. All the good, strong men that would lead us in the past are now scavengers for anything including anything that you have. It's really pitiful. I would have never believed such things would happen if you showed me how life would play out in 2025 as a twelve year old back in 2002.
The kids of today don't know what it means to respect something, anything. And I'm not sure if that's what God Himself wants.
The post-2000s world really feels surreal, not genuine, unnatural & illegitimately fabricated.
And I think today's world just shows the importance of keeping to yourself & looking out for what's important instead of tiny, meaningless things.