If we must go backwards, I will always choose the more recent one. Maybe it would be different if I were male, but as a woman, you start to have to give up more and more freedom the farther back you go. No thanks. Is there an option just to communicate with someone in that time via radio? I would much rather stay here and get the nostalgia by proxy hahaha!

I would go back to the 80s, simply because the music was better then.

Haha I was born in 1988.
But since I actually vaguely remember 1997, I would definitely choose to go back to that period. I wish I would be able to convince my mother to invest in Google (like on the ground floor before it went public or whatever) or something like that but alas that would never be in the cards for us (we're broke folks). But I still just like that period of time: music videos on music shows, 90s fashion, 90s Nick haha. Saturday morning cartoons! I actually liked school so if I could go back, I would appreciate it more. I also had a tomagocchi and it always died.
Cyberbullying wasn't a thing and there was no Trumpian presidency. God, how I wish I could to an alternate universe with no Bush Jr & Trumpian presidencies. Even more reason to go back to '97 because that was before them.

Where I live both eras were a huge disaster, but things are also pretty disastrous now... How ironic. Actually I remember 97' quite well and can't say it was anything very special in itself or worth returning to. Plus there are some really bad memories from that year... Wasn't around in 88' though so if I'm allowed to travel in addition to time-travel, I'd rather try that just to see things firsthand other than through media and witness statements only.

1988: Just before the dawn of the public internet in 1991. What I know now would make stock investment so much easier then.

Hmmmm....granted that I retain the knowledge of history that I current have.....

If 1988 - the year after I graduated high school - then my entire adult life would be vastly different. However, that means I wouldn't have my daughter, so pass. I won't trade her for anything.

If 1997, then still plenty of time to change the trajectory of my life without giving up my daughter :)

Neither of them is old enough to be interesting for me. I would prefer to go back to my parents area.

None. With my knowledge of what life was like in that era during that time from my parents, both eras will be a huge no-no. And any knowledge I have right now will be irrelevant in both years.

If I could be there for a small period of time, I would pick 1988 because I was a child then, so I wasn't so aware of the "coolness" of the 80ies. It could be funny too see those years through my adult eyes.

Depends partly on whether I go back at my current age or the age I was then. If I have to stay in my 70s, the less I go back the better. But given a choice between being in my late 30s or late 40s, I'd rather get the younger version of the fresh start.

I was born in 1989, and so I'd rather skip over my diaper years and go straight to age 8. If I retain my present memories, there's so much I'd do over. Plus I'd appreciate the music more. Bollywood songs flat-out sucked in the 90s, but I'd get to relive the nostalgia of rediscovering all my favourite boy bands (Backstreet Boys 4eva!!)! Plus, if I could live through the trials of dial-up, I tune into K-dramas waaaaaay earlier.

I'd have to choose 1997 cause just one year later is when I started TKD and discovered a long lasting love of korean music and kdramas thanks to my Korean TKD master who was, of course, from Korea.

I picked 1988 here on the assumption that it would let me meet Kim Jung-hwan and I could have my own slow-burn romance with him that doesn’t end in tears and tragedy. However, without that ridiculous caveat of actually being the world of Reply 1988, my real answer is neither because both periods were politically unstable and exceptionally turbulent eras in my country’s history. I have relatives living today who have spoken at length on how awful it was and how they were often persecuted for their protesting and political activism. With that in mind, I’m gonna have to say a big ‘No, Thank you’ to the offer of time-travelling back to either era.

Those were two significant years for me. 1988 was when I graduated college and got my first job in Texas at Texas Instruments, which I found really depressing and thought is this what my career is going to be like? But in 1997 I was in California working in a computer graphics startup and didn't have much more money but at least my student and car loans were paid off, and we had real Internet and web browsers, not just dialup America Online and Prodigy. So easily 1997, but still, I like 80s music.

I was born in 1999 so I have no memories of both of those years. However, the 80s were a very good time economically and socially for my country when we still had a lot of hope for the future. Plus, growing up in the early 2000s is not that much different from the late 90s. At least from the perspective of someone who doesn't remember the 90s. So 1988 it is. Regardless of where I end up, I can't stay long because how the hell would I live without the internet?

I was born in 97' so why not give it a shot again and travel to back then hahaha

I picked 1997 because that's one year after I born. I born in 1996.

1997 was a year of SES and Baby Vox, both Kpop girl groups debuted that year at the time when British girl group Spice Girls were still in heyday. SES and Baby Vox later became two of the girl groups of the first K-pop generation.

I was very young and stupid these years, so it might be a possibility to change.
Do we get back with full memory, some lingering feelings, or is it a full reset ?
In 1988, I might be able to prevent my mother from having a car accident 2 years later and send uncles to the doctors to treat their cancers earlier. Huge tasks for 9 years old me.
In 1997, I passed the baccalaureat. It's not as intense as the suneung, but I'm not sure that I'll fare well if propelled directly in. At least we had internet.

My life was easier and happier than I realized, but it is still not really worth revisiting. I'll take the Joseon Queen.

1988 is different for an estonian because thats the time for singing revolution and night song festivals. I would go back with a smartphone and film it. althout the wall plugs are different now from then, so I will not be able to charge the phone. or if I take the battery bank too.
anyway, I was a child back then and maybe couldn´t grasp the whole dimension of the thing (more than 1/3 of the entire country in one place). I really would like to relive those moments.
1997 was the economic crisis, everyone unemployed and jumping from rooftops, no thanks.

I remembering enjoying 1997. I was in middle school. BSB! Nsync! So we'd have Britney and Christina. Japanese anime! All those kpop groups. And in about 4 years, I had home access to internet. Also, crime had gone down in my city by then. It was at that sweet middle point between affordable/grungy and gentrified/unaffordable.

1988, no contest. It’s the year I met my (now ex-) husband. That’s one bad decision I would love to be able to undo! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the late 80s as those were my high school years, but 1997 was my first year of law school and one of the best years of my life. I was living my dream. I made amazing life-long friends, and I learned so much about law, love, and life. I would gladly live that year again!

I was in high school in 1997, and it was pretty great.

But I was 5 in 1988, and those days seems to be grainy but pleasant, and the 80s in my country was a good time too. Ride around in my bikes, enjoying those tiny shops that sells affordable sweets. Japanese drama and HK movies at its heydays. So I want to feel 1988 as an adult.