Memories Do you miss the « good old days »

[Jake84]

Simple question for anyone over at least 30.

Many people are in this camp:

Back then we didn’t have dumb/smartphones and we were capable of communication unlike the nerdy generation Z. Maybe that’s an over generalization.

Back then we had more or less steadier countries, with fewer immigration (Western or not).

Back then we listened to real doctors and the influence of the social medias anti-vaxxers was basically non-existant. Hence measles and other generally easily prevented childhood illness were almost eradicated.

Etc etc, feel free to add more points.

I’m a bit in between both camps, there is some right and wrong... listening to their arguments.

Interested to hear your thoughts on this trendy, often debated topic; especially from much older members.

What makes the year 2019 better than 1999, or 1979? Is everything from the contemporary culture just crap and people are much more rude and glued to their iPhones?

 

[Gaz]

I can't remember which comedian it is (Might be George Carlin) who talks about how dinosaurs from the Jurassic period probably complained about dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period. Every group moans about the ones that come after it.

And anyone who complains about mobile phones doesn't remember how much of a pain in the arse it was without them when you agreed to meet someone in a pub and they didn't show up on time - you then had to sit around not actually knowing if they weren't turning up or were just running late.

 

[Jake84]

About phones, there is no doubt they saved more lives than they’d have taken (accidents, sudden illness from some person in the middle of nowhere able to call emergency services). Your point about having to wait at the pub, local kebab shop is also true. There is some good and bad things about being globally interconnected, all the time. Ultimately for the better IMO.

 

[TIZER]

the convenience of having your milk delivered to your door, longer dryer summers some summer days it was daylight up to 12pm, we used to have water shortages every 7 or 8 years up to last year the previous water shortages was around 1993, winters were brutal the milk was frozen solid same for our half pints at school, sometimes the snow was that deep you couldn't get out the front or back door you had to clamber out the living room window, there were wild strawberries and raspberries all around my old village the strawbs were amazing ... loads of the wild strawbs and rasps are gone due to developments ... and the milk was much better in the 70s and 80s as well really creamy it only lasted 3 or 4 days top in the 1970s people used to be scared of Dr Who and the Daleks lol ... it was a more innocent time and none of the PC/offended/tree huggers didn't exist

 

[Mordoror]

I agree with Gaz. We have an habit to idealize past memories, keeping most of the time good moments and not the bad ones.
Plus past days, we weren't of the same age and with the same responsabilities
It was funnier in the 80s but in the 80s we were kids so without to worry about job, kids, taxes etc ....

However, i have to admit that quite a few things annoy me today
PC culture pushed to its maximum
Vocal minorities pushing political agendas (that join also the first point) be it from the left or right
Biggotry
the gullible side of a lot of people (f***ing internet fakes and the interweb echo chamber where any idiot can write anything and thousand of other idiots take it for granted)
the entitled mentality (only rights, no duties)
the seemingly real drop in overall IQ (or to put it sharply, the slow sliding toward an idiocracy)

 

[downsizer]

And anyone who complains about mobile phones doesn't remember how much of a pain in the arse it was without them when you agreed to meet someone in a pub and they didn't show up on time - you then had to sit around not actually knowing if they weren't turning up or were just running late.

On the flip side wasn't it great to uncontactable when you left work....

 

[Bombardier]

With regards to mobile phones I only use it when I need to not simply because its there, drives my wife, family and friends crazy that I am not constantly chatting rubbish with them at every opportunity

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[Royal]

20-years on...

On the up side no one's shooting at me or trying to start WWIII with me at ground zero.

On the down side I'm not quite as thin and a whole lot greyer.

There are people and things I miss (like my hair) but on the whole, despite all the BS and whinging, I think we're in a better place.

 

[NebrHogger]

Cell phones... I have a cheap flip phone with a $10 per month plan. I don't even turn it on unless I want to make a call. Wifey uses hers for fakebook (I don't go there - too much drama) I grew up on ranches in a very rural part of Nebr. We had a crank phone on a party line = anybody else on the line could listen in to your conversations. So I didn't talk much to the girl friends - just made a date and hung up. Our ring was a long and two shorts.

The phone company was owned by an older couple who didn't have a lot of money. The phone line was just wired to insulators nailed onto fence posts along a county road by our place. When Dad sent me out on a horse with staples and a wire stretcher to fix fence, the drill was for me to also check the phone line. If it had fallen off an insulator, I'd dial for the operator when I got home and tell her where it needed attention.

"Thanks, Steve! I'll have Cletus right out there!"

So with that background, cell phones just don't mean much to me.

But overall, I think things have changed for the better. I really appreciate air conditioning in the summer.

 

[OldCode]

We're better equipped to communicate today than at any time in the past, but we're less capable at person-to-person communication.
We have better gadgets and cars and tons of shiny things, but less money to spend on them.

The biggest change over twenty - thirty years is the way corporations look at their workforce. Barring a major f*ck-up on your part, you could work forever at a company, earn a pension, have savings, and leave with a gold watch. Today we're in the age of the "flexible workforce", the "Gig Economy", where you are temporary and expendable fodder for corporate needs. You're not hired, you're "contracted" for short-term work and shown the door before any entitlement befalls you. I'm at the end of my career, so short-term contracts work for me - but for my young sons entering the workforce, their future prospects are not as robust as what I had.

 

[colin traveller]

I remember the days when people that went to clubs went to enjoy the night the music etc ...

Nowadays .. people go to the clubs and stand on there phones and film . take selfies fb live from gigs etc etc etc etc .... And the crowds that go events now are just boring bastards , Best example if you ever look at Boiler room videos on YT ... absolute garbage the majority no atmos , posers galore ..

 

[OldCode]

Did a Morrisey concert a couple of years ago - SRO venue, no seats. My view was a mass of little screens being held up to capture the event. I guess I'm supposed to watch the show on YouTube later on.

 

[Penny]

The times we live in where currently, if you buy a 375ml can of softdrink it costs more than a 1.25lt bottle of softdrink, is pretty bizarre.

 

[Flagg]

I agree with Royal, there are people and things I miss, but in aggregate, we are better off.

A favourite 80’s show that I miss is Miami Vice.

It went from groundbreaking, stylish, and popular, to embarrassingly cheesy, and finally to cult classic.

One of the final lines is answering the question “where to next?”: Crockett: “I don't know. Somewhere further south. Somewhere where the water's warm and the drinks are cold and I don't know the names of the players.”

The first Matrix film is another classic, with a great line: Cypher: “You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?[Takes a bite of steak] Ignorance is bliss.”

One of the things I miss is being ignorant. Almost.

If anyone told me 25 years ago I would have done the things I’ve done and been to the places I’ve been I would have laughed them out of the room.

Crazy world.

If I’m lucky, I hope to say the same exact thing in another 25 years.

 

[Bombardier]

The times we live in where currently, if you buy a 375ml can of softdrink it costs more than a 1.25lt bottle of softdrink, is pretty bizarre.

Absolutely I went to a DIY store here in the UK a few days ago to buy some paint for my garden fence. 5 Litres £9.99 or buy two 5 litre tins for £10 WTF ?

 

[IDF_TANKER]

I was born in a country which doesn't exist anymore, lived through its collapse whilst being old enough to observe and experience the nightmare of it (think Venezuela - not quite the same, but close enough). Followed by immigration at the age of 16, which I believe, is one of the most profound and challenging experiences a person can have in life. Military service; nothing especially horrible, but still. Then Second Intifada, living in Jerusalem in the middle of it all... I'll spare the details.
Come to think of it, nope, no "old good days" for me, I'm afraid. Which only makes me, in a strange kind of way, optimistic - things seem to go from really shitty, to slightly less shitty, to pretty good as for now. So.

 

[Penny]

Absolutely I went to a DIY store here in the UK a few days ago to buy some paint for my garden fence. 5 Litres £9.99 or buy two 5 litre tins for £10 WTF ?

Hahaha, exactly, what is that all about, right!

I think it started off with a good deal when buying two for the price of one, there was a noticeable saving offered. But currently, it seems a direction it has taken is in effect, ultimately doing away with shoppers saving money by buying goods in bulk, which is/was a good way to save money. People buy those deals, that is the silly part then those deals keep getting offered for the rest of us, until it gets to next to no reduction, just buying in bulk packs and no longer a savings in doing so.

Also, supermarkets used to reduce the cost of tinned goods if the can was dented, as people wouldn't buy the cans like it.

 

[Fish&Chips]

Did a Morrisey concert a couple of years ago - SRO venue, no seats. My view was a mass of little screens being held up to capture the event. I guess I'm supposed to watch the show on YouTube later on.

Reminds me of a concert I went to a few years ago. When the singer announced one of their romantic songs, he said that anyone who had a lighter might now put it on. All others were allowed to light their "funny wipe-TVs" to create some cozy atmosphere.

 

[droopy]

I can't remember which comedian it is (Might be George Carlin) who talks about how dinosaurs from the Jurassic period probably complained about dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period. Every group moans about the ones that come after it.

And anyone who complains about mobile phones doesn't remember how much of a pain in the arse it was without them when you agreed to meet someone in a pub and they didn't show up on time - you then had to sit around not actually knowing if they weren't turning up or were just running late.

About the first part. There is a BIG difference between 1999 and 2019. I don't think there has been a bigger technology boom than in this two decades for the average people around the world.

My biggest complain is that we stopped dreaming and imagining stuff. Going to the bottom of the ocean, going to space, all that romantic sci-fi dreams, hopes and wishes have been drowned by this rush for social media, to see and hear individuals, not ideas or things or places, just people lives shared on Instagram/Facebook/Tweeter etc.

Except natural disasters or man made, war, death, sickness, what i fear most is this AI and super-AI thing.

 

[Fish&Chips]

Except natural disasters or man made, war, death, sickness, what i fear most is this AI and super-AI thing.

Talk about self-driving vehicles of all kind. I don't want any artificial drivers hauling me around.