What makes a decade so weird? To me, the 1980s were the weirdest decade, but not for the reasons you may think.

Recently, I asked my Facebook friends to share what they thought made the 1980s such a weird decade. Most mentioned big hair, neon colors, weird fashion (shoulder pads and baggy pants, anyone?), and strange music. I mean these are not wrong answers. The music was quite bizarre, for sure. In fact, I disliked it so much, that I listened to 50’s and 60’s music throughout the entire decade. As a teenager. (I bet I was teased a lot about that, now that I reflect back.)

And many of my friends said that the decade was cool and that it is what you make of it. I do not disagree with this assessment, either. I think everything in life is what we make it!

However, there were some very distinct things about the decade that made it different from the others. Here are some of the things I was pondering when I made the bold statement that the 1980s was the weirdest decade in recent history.