FreeThinker619
Member
jus a thought i was having.
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How has the world changed since you were a child?
- Thread starter FreeThinker619
- Start date
Not much. But I tend to think along geologic time scales and with an ecocentric frame of reference, not an anthropocentric one. Human-induced ecological problems were happening when I was born, and humans still haven't figured out that they need to quit doing it.
The Sum of Awe
Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
gas was under a dollar. people are more indoor. gay people are not hard to find -not necessarily bad-
Really, only superficial things:
1. Our TV had only about 5 channels- ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and a Independent channel. Cartoons were mostly only on Saturdays.
2. No PCs or at least only a few. Computers in the 70s were much larger.
3. Video games were less common.
4. Gas prices were under a dollar per 9/10 of a gallon.
5. Pluto was still a planet and not a dwarf planet.
6. There were many more stray dogs on the streets back then.
Many other things, too.
1. Our TV had only about 5 channels- ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and a Independent channel. Cartoons were mostly only on Saturdays.
2. No PCs or at least only a few. Computers in the 70s were much larger.
3. Video games were less common.
4. Gas prices were under a dollar per 9/10 of a gallon.
5. Pluto was still a planet and not a dwarf planet.
6. There were many more stray dogs on the streets back then.
Many other things, too.
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
Yes!
Loads of reasons..... more than I could grasp in a moment; but for starters:-
Where I live.......
A woman can go into a public house (bar) for a drink without being branded a loose woman.
Oh....... Female freedoms, rights, status etc have all totally changed for the better.
Regional accents have become important, rather than 'Queen's English'.
Our Laws are more easily read and understood by ordinary people.
We have a wide variety of music channels (When I was a kid there was only 1 hour's pop music on the BBC per week! Pick of the Pops on Sunday afternoons)
You can shopping at midnight. (Everything closed at 5pm before)
No sports or shops or anything was open on a Sunday.
It just goes on, a never ending list of serious differences.
Loads of reasons..... more than I could grasp in a moment; but for starters:-
Where I live.......
A woman can go into a public house (bar) for a drink without being branded a loose woman.
Oh....... Female freedoms, rights, status etc have all totally changed for the better.
Regional accents have become important, rather than 'Queen's English'.
Our Laws are more easily read and understood by ordinary people.
We have a wide variety of music channels (When I was a kid there was only 1 hour's pop music on the BBC per week! Pick of the Pops on Sunday afternoons)
You can shopping at midnight. (Everything closed at 5pm before)
No sports or shops or anything was open on a Sunday.
It just goes on, a never ending list of serious differences.
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
Ha ha! Petrol (gas) was 0.17p per gallon, which was 35 times cheaper than now!
A small house in a cheapish area was about £200. Now it would about £175,000 !!
Little Darwin
Member
For this topic I like what I heard from a technician that helped develop cell phones (was it Motorola?)... "It used to be that when you dialed a phone number you were calling a place. Now when you dial a phone number, you are calling a person." From another source, I heard it from a different perspective. Back in the days of land lines, you would have never thought of asking the person you were calling, "Where are you?"
Others:
TV is now in color... and larger... and hi-def
Saturday morning cartoons used to be funny.
In high school, I wrote my first program on punch cards and we all went down to the school district office to run them. We had very limited chances during the term to get it right.
People used to read maps.
People spent time in libraries.
Music... Vinyl records, then 8 tracks, then cassettes, then CDs, now just bits and bytes...
When I wanted to play I went outside instead of inside.
The Rolling Stones were young.
It may be too soon for this, but 10-15 years ago we used to say, "I remember when Michael Jackson used to be black."
I remember when MTV was a new station that did nothing but play music.
Children used to be kidnapped, abused and even raped or killed... but we still got to go out and play until dark without parental worries. (I think it may be worse now, but there is the possibility that hearing about every abduction in the entire country on the evening news has made us more paranoid than necessary).
We used to go ride in/on wheeled devices as kids that didn't have motors.
When someone asked a question and we didn't know the answer, we would just move on to the next topic. Now, we do a search and find out.
Cars had to be tuned up at least once a year... now it can be 100,000 miles before a tune-up.
Others:
TV is now in color... and larger... and hi-def
Saturday morning cartoons used to be funny.
In high school, I wrote my first program on punch cards and we all went down to the school district office to run them. We had very limited chances during the term to get it right.
People used to read maps.
People spent time in libraries.
Music... Vinyl records, then 8 tracks, then cassettes, then CDs, now just bits and bytes...
When I wanted to play I went outside instead of inside.
The Rolling Stones were young.
It may be too soon for this, but 10-15 years ago we used to say, "I remember when Michael Jackson used to be black."
I remember when MTV was a new station that did nothing but play music.
Children used to be kidnapped, abused and even raped or killed... but we still got to go out and play until dark without parental worries. (I think it may be worse now, but there is the possibility that hearing about every abduction in the entire country on the evening news has made us more paranoid than necessary).
We used to go ride in/on wheeled devices as kids that didn't have motors.
When someone asked a question and we didn't know the answer, we would just move on to the next topic. Now, we do a search and find out.
Cars had to be tuned up at least once a year... now it can be 100,000 miles before a tune-up.
DreadFish
Cosmic Vagabond
I feel like the biggest changes have been based on technology and I, for one, am not really a fan of it.
When I was a kid, video games were Nintendo and Sega, we played outside all day, we used our imaginations.
There was NO reality TV. Now, basically every channel has a "reality" show, including Animal Planet (most of which has little to do with animals now).
I think consumer technology was at an optimal level in the mid 90s. If I could trade in our consumer technology of today and switch it out for the tech of the 80s-90s, I would do it in a heartbeat.
20 years ago, we used technology to compliment our daily lives, now our lives revolve around the use of technology. My step sister is 8 years old and has a cell phone
. When I was 8 years old, I was thrilled to have a Gameboy Pocket in my favorite color.
We used to be thrilled to have a sunny day because that meant we could play outside all day. A rainy day meant we were forced to make do inside with toys, books and TV (unless you had a video game system, which was a lot rarer; if you had video games, everyone would want to come to your house and play).
All my friends knew how to play football, baseball, soccer and basketball, and we all played these things outside because it was fun. Also, dare I say, there was only like one or two "husky" kids in any given group of friends (depending on the size of the group)
Admittedly, I lean more towards the side of the curmudgeon and im pretty pessimistic about the way things are nowadays. It's just because its been a stark difference of night and day for me. I went from an awesome, fun childhood to, suddenly, this; nowadays. Debt, technology compulsion/addiction (e.g. Facebook), REALLY bad media, high gas prices and... Wal-Mart.
When I was a kid, video games were Nintendo and Sega, we played outside all day, we used our imaginations.
There was NO reality TV. Now, basically every channel has a "reality" show, including Animal Planet (most of which has little to do with animals now).
I think consumer technology was at an optimal level in the mid 90s. If I could trade in our consumer technology of today and switch it out for the tech of the 80s-90s, I would do it in a heartbeat.
20 years ago, we used technology to compliment our daily lives, now our lives revolve around the use of technology. My step sister is 8 years old and has a cell phone
. When I was 8 years old, I was thrilled to have a Gameboy Pocket in my favorite color. We used to be thrilled to have a sunny day because that meant we could play outside all day. A rainy day meant we were forced to make do inside with toys, books and TV (unless you had a video game system, which was a lot rarer; if you had video games, everyone would want to come to your house and play).
All my friends knew how to play football, baseball, soccer and basketball, and we all played these things outside because it was fun. Also, dare I say, there was only like one or two "husky" kids in any given group of friends (depending on the size of the group)
Admittedly, I lean more towards the side of the curmudgeon and im pretty pessimistic about the way things are nowadays. It's just because its been a stark difference of night and day for me. I went from an awesome, fun childhood to, suddenly, this; nowadays. Debt, technology compulsion/addiction (e.g. Facebook), REALLY bad media, high gas prices and... Wal-Mart.
Caladan
Agnostic Pantheist
We didn't have cell phones, let alone smartphones. My fist cellphone was a primitive chunky device that I got about the time I became a soldier, and for a while I could hardly use it anyway because of army regulations.
We didn't have the internet until the time we became teenagers.
Playing games outside was the climax of any good day.
I used the library for leisure.
Indoors games filled the void that now the internet does. I used to play more chess, 'Fighting Fantasy' gamebooks, Sega, 80's and 90's quests on my PC, D&D, Shadworun, V: tM, LARP and Mind's eye.
We actually had arcades in Israel, but that seems to have disappeared from the urban scene some time ago. I remember as a kid going on a Saturday night to the arcade with friends and later grabbing a pizza.
I remember when the first McDonald's arrived in Israel and the buzz around it, but to be honest our domestic burger chain 'Burger Ranch' is much much better.
I remember the great Russian immigration to Israel when the Soviet Union collapsed, today it is not uncommon to see Russian written on our food products alongside Hebrew, English, and Arabic. I believe sometimes without even the use of English.
I remember that Playboy was porn.
I remember that even though me and my friends were completely secular, we took full advantage of some of the Jewish holidays for their outdoors experience, including having a bonfire all night long, or sleeping in a hut during the days of Sukkot festival.
Life in general involved plenty of bruises, bleeding knees, sweating, and competing. Well at least in this regard nothing changed for me
We didn't have the internet until the time we became teenagers.
Playing games outside was the climax of any good day.
I used the library for leisure.
Indoors games filled the void that now the internet does. I used to play more chess, 'Fighting Fantasy' gamebooks, Sega, 80's and 90's quests on my PC, D&D, Shadworun, V: tM, LARP and Mind's eye.
We actually had arcades in Israel, but that seems to have disappeared from the urban scene some time ago. I remember as a kid going on a Saturday night to the arcade with friends and later grabbing a pizza.
I remember when the first McDonald's arrived in Israel and the buzz around it, but to be honest our domestic burger chain 'Burger Ranch' is much much better.
I remember the great Russian immigration to Israel when the Soviet Union collapsed, today it is not uncommon to see Russian written on our food products alongside Hebrew, English, and Arabic. I believe sometimes without even the use of English.
I remember that Playboy was porn.
I remember that even though me and my friends were completely secular, we took full advantage of some of the Jewish holidays for their outdoors experience, including having a bonfire all night long, or sleeping in a hut during the days of Sukkot festival.
Life in general involved plenty of bruises, bleeding knees, sweating, and competing. Well at least in this regard nothing changed for me
DreadFish
Cosmic Vagabond
Yes, arcades! That was one of the most exciting things. Here, we would, on a rare occasion, go to a Chucky Cheese's or similar Arcade and Pizza style venue.
Caladan
Agnostic Pantheist
I remember the first time I played Golden Axe... hell I remember Street Fighter 1!
DreadFish
Cosmic Vagabond
Yeah, I remember playing Street Fighter in Arcades. Golden Axe was one of the Sega games I used to play at my friends house (he had the SEGA Genesis). It was on that 6-Pack cartridge that also Included Streets of Rage and the first Sonic game, among four others.
Caladan
Agnostic Pantheist
Sonic the hedgehog? that game was awesome.
Little Darwin
Member
I remember when the only game machines were pin ball.
When I was in the service, one of the clubs installed a pong game, and it was almost always busy, sometimes with guys waiting in line to play. It was really high tech.
Then within a short time, nearly every mall had an arcade, with a variety of digital machines. With games like PacMan, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Spy Hunt and others...
When I was in the service, one of the clubs installed a pong game, and it was almost always busy, sometimes with guys waiting in line to play. It was really high tech.
Then within a short time, nearly every mall had an arcade, with a variety of digital machines. With games like PacMan, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Spy Hunt and others...
The language has changed; often simplified. You don't hear "fewer" or "healthful" any more. "Home" now means house as well ashome.
There are strange euphemisms like "gender," to mean sex. When I was a kid if we meant sex we said sex.
Twenty years ago we said "one to one." Suddenly this has been replaced by a basketball term -- implying conflict: "one on one."
Americans are adopting a Valley-Speak accent. Words like "sure, cure or pure, which used to rhyme with boor, have dropped the vowel and now sound like shr or cyur.
Words like "and" or "rant" have developed a nasalized "ee" sound: "eeand, ceean"t." They seem to be developing into diphthongs.
Gag me with a spoon!
There are strange euphemisms like "gender," to mean sex. When I was a kid if we meant sex we said sex.
Twenty years ago we said "one to one." Suddenly this has been replaced by a basketball term -- implying conflict: "one on one."
Americans are adopting a Valley-Speak accent. Words like "sure, cure or pure, which used to rhyme with boor, have dropped the vowel and now sound like shr or cyur.
Words like "and" or "rant" have developed a nasalized "ee" sound: "eeand, ceean"t." They seem to be developing into diphthongs.
Gag me with a spoon!
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
I've gotten a lot smarter, while the rest of the world has grown a lot dumber.
Big changes:
- The internet.
- Cel phones.
- TV is far far better.
- Explicit porn.
- The internet.
- Cel phones.
- TV is far far better.
- Explicit porn.
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Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Bell bottoms. Tie dye.
Ahem......REAL music with good vibes.
Ah....television. Morning cartoons...afternoon soaps.....evening family hour when Walt Disney was something special. School House Rock. .. After school specials.......I had a crush on Christy McNichol at the time. *yikes *
Ahem......REAL music with good vibes.
Ah....television. Morning cartoons...afternoon soaps.....evening family hour when Walt Disney was something special. School House Rock. .. After school specials.......I had a crush on Christy McNichol at the time. *yikes *