[varjag]

Some of the improvements on the list are non-issues best described as cultural differences. Consider:

…not making a dozen phone calls playing Phone Tag, to set up something as simple as a play date

Well this is why hardly anyone was bothering with setting up play dates back in the day† and were letting kids roam. Different culture facilitated by poor connectivity and scarcity of content.

† The title says the 90s but many references in the text go back to 1980s.

[ryandrake]

Additionally, people flake out now more than ever. Back in the 80s, if you managed to win the game of Phone Tag and arrange for your 5 friends to get together at the mall at 2:00PM on Saturday, you could pretty much rest assured they would all make it. Just getting it scheduled was a massive investment in effort and time.

Now, someone will plan a birthday party or something, the kid will invite 15 other kids from school, and it's not unheard of that only one or even zero people actually come. You also see adults doing this. Totally flaking out and not showing up, with not even a call or text in explanation! Culturally that would have been an outrage back in 1980.

[zeroonetwothree]

That wasn’t my experience, people wouldn’t show up sometimes and then you’d not know what to do

[mikewarot]

In the 1970s when I was a kid, we were expected to play outside until the street lights came on, with some general bounds of how far we could go on our bikes.

Adults didn't have to manage our time and friendships.

[uxp100]

People were definitely having play dates in the 90s…

[gwern]

I guess I misremembered all those playdates I had as a kid in the 90s, where the other kids didn't live close enough to simply walk or bike to (which, as a '90s kid, I was still able to do, although American parents apparently slammed the window firmly shut on that starting in the '00s), and we had to rope the adults in for car transport. After all, varjag knows better than I do, and knows they were actually in the 1980s.

[wink]

Yes and no. I think you're right about the reason being a bit off, but let's say to coordinate some birthday party or "let's take the kids to the zoo or whatever" it was still absolutely true, just not a daily occurrence.