To those who were alive in the 1980s what was it like ?

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

Oh - police cars and fire trucks: where I was (northern Toronto area), they were yellow until the early 80s, when the yellow paint got banned because of the lead and cadmium. Then, the police cars switched to white and the fire trucks switched to red.

And speaking of police cars, we had Blinky. I'm sure that thing still haunts the nightmares of many 80s kids.

 

[Debater Slayer]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

Time machines had just gotten invented when I was still a kid back then. As a result, I was born in the '90s instead.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

That bit about the computer technology is fascinating. I didn't know that technology was more prone to becoming more outdated than today.

Oh, yeah.

My parents started their business in 1983 (I think) with a TRS-80. By 1985, business PCs were all IBM or compatibles... like XT machines with monochrome monitors and only floppy drives.

By 1987-88 or so, a lot of software needed a hard drive, colour screen (like CGA or EGA), and at least a 286 processor.

... and then in 1991, Windows 3.1 came out and nothing less than a 386 with VGA would work.

 

[exchemist]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

Not very different, save that we didn’t have personal computers, mobile phones or the internet.

My work involved a lot of communication by telex, and one had to be able to dictate letters or write longhand reports, for a typist to type up. There were far more reference books and manuals around as well.

One advantage, compared to today, was that we did not have the curse of email, to seduce us away from our tasks by the urge to respond all the time to badly written and half-baked messages of little importance. With telex, which charged by the word, you thought hard before sending a message and then did so taking care to make it clear, complete and concise.

We used the telephone far more, both at work and socially.

 

[Colt]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

The 80's were more normal but something changed, not really sure what happened honestly!?!?

 

[JustGeorge]

The 80's were more normal but something changed, not really sure what happened honestly!?!?

View attachment 85625

People started holding air in their cheeks more frequently?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

We used the telephone far more, both at work and socially.

And.at the same time, people were just unreachable way more often.

I remember waiting for friends at the movie theatre as showtime was approaching. Were they going to be there on time? Were they going to be late? Did they have to miss the movie completely?

No way for them to tell us and no way for us to check.

 

[Stevicus]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

I finished high school and started college in 1982. I remember Reagan being elected, and then the attempted assassination. I remember John Lennon being killed, as I was listening to the King Biscuit Flour Hour on the radio when it happened.

I remember when Brezhnev died, too.

I tried joining the Navy, but was turned down when I failed the physical (bone spurs).

The decade started with the Iranian hostage crisis, which discredited the peace movement and pushed America back to more warlike, militaristic policies. It was the key factor in the election of Ronald Reagan, whom the Iranians supported, oddly enough. It's ironic, considering how much they hated America for installing the Shah's government in Iran, yet they aided and abetted similar activities in Central America, when the Contras were attempting to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

The 80s, as I saw it at the time, were a reversal of the previous 10-20 years of progress which was attained in the areas of civil rights and national enlightenment (such as more openness and a willingness to admit to some of the darker chapters in US history).

The 80s were a kind of backlash against the liberal and progressive philosophies which became more popular during the 60s and 70s.

There was a noticeable rise in consumerism, militarism, and nationalism. There was a certain glitzy and garish element which descended into the popular culture, as manifested in popular 80s icons such as Michael Jackson and Madonna. There was a growing religious aspect, such as the prosperity gospel, as well as the growing number of people who worshiped wealth - even more so than what I remembered from the 60s and 70s, when public sympathies were more with the working classes.

In the 80s, it was all about money, wealth, and status - regardless of how it was attained. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" was a popular show, and the aforementioned Madonna became a big star with her "Material Girl" image. Then there was Al Pacino in Scarface, with the image of him sitting at a desk with piles of cocaine sitting in front of him. There were also movies like "Wall Street" which portrayed the "greed is good" philosophy that has also found its way into our political culture. Donald Trump became a household name during the 1980s. (This is part of the reason why I roll my eyes at people like Madonna criticizing Trump in recent years, since, as far as I'm concerned, they both came from the same ideological and cultural cesspool.)

I'll confess that I was a bit unsettled during those years. My father remarried, and my step-monster had three children from a previous marriage, so it was kind of hellish for a while until I could turn 18 and get out of the house. I worked at various jobs, although mostly at a hotel, and then later, a cemetery. I loved and lost, and I lost my love to some bigtime coke smuggler who had his own plane and had money up the wazoo. I couldn't compete with that, as a teenage proletarian. I heard later on that she had gotten so skinny and weak that she could barely lift 20 pounds. It didn't go well for her, but years later, she had found some measure of recovery.

I've heard some people refer to it as the "cocaine-fueled 80s," although unless one actually lived through it and experienced that aspect, it's probably hard to understand.

Another notable change during the 1980s I recall was when I first learned the phrase "political correctness." There was once a time where one might hear on TV or at work or school or anywhere jokes about other ethnicities, racial slurs, homophobic remarks, catcalling, etc. - and nobody really said anything or made a big deal out of it. Likewise, the Confederate flag was perceived in a completely different way back then. The contemporary attitudes regarding the Confederacy or its flag didn't really get started until the 1990s, but prior to that, the Confederacy was thoroughly whitewashed and considered benign in popular culture (even as misguided as that might seem today). One can find it in the old Dukes of Hazzard program, but also, somewhere on YouTube, you might find a video of a concert by Lynyrd Skynyrd, appearing in Oakland California in 1977, with a big old Confederate Battle Flag on the stage - and no one batted an eye.

 

[Massimo2002]

I finished high school and started college in 1982. I remember Reagan being elected, and then the attempted assassination. I remember John Lennon being killed, as I was listening to the King Biscuit Flour Hour on the radio when it happened.

I remember when Brezhnev died, too.

I tried joining the Navy, but was turned down when I failed the physical (bone spurs).

The decade started with the Iranian hostage crisis, which discredited the peace movement and pushed America back to more warlike, militaristic policies. It was the key factor in the election of Ronald Reagan, whom the Iranians supported, oddly enough. It's ironic, considering how much they hated America for installing the Shah's government in Iran, yet they aided and abetted similar activities in Central America, when the Contras were attempting to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

The 80s, as I saw it at the time, were a reversal of the previous 10-20 years of progress which was attained in the areas of civil rights and national enlightenment (such as more openness and a willingness to admit to some of the darker chapters in US history).

The 80s were a kind of backlash against the liberal and progressive philosophies which became more popular during the 60s and 70s.

There was a noticeable rise in consumerism, militarism, and nationalism. There was a certain glitzy and garish element which descended into the popular culture, as manifested in popular 80s icons such as Michael Jackson and Madonna. There was a growing religious aspect, such as the prosperity gospel, as well as the growing number of people who worshiped wealth - even more so than what I remembered from the 60s and 70s, when public sympathies were more with the working classes.

In the 80s, it was all about money, wealth, and status - regardless of how it was attained. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" was a popular show, and the aforementioned Madonna became a big star with her "Material Girl" image. Then there was Al Pacino in Scarface, with the image of him sitting at a desk with piles of cocaine sitting in front of him. There were also movies like "Wall Street" which portrayed the "greed is good" philosophy that has also found its way into our political culture. Donald Trump became a household name during the 1980s. (This is part of the reason why I roll my eyes at people like Madonna criticizing Trump in recent years, since, as far as I'm concerned, they both came from the same ideological and cultural cesspool.)

I'll confess that I was a bit unsettled during those years. My father remarried, and my step-monster had three children from a previous marriage, so it was kind of hellish for a while until I could turn 18 and get out of the house. I worked at various jobs, although mostly at a hotel, and then later, a cemetery. I loved and lost, and I lost my love to some bigtime coke smuggler who had his own plane and had money up the wazoo. I couldn't compete with that, as a teenage proletarian. I heard later on that she had gotten so skinny and weak that she could barely lift 20 pounds. It didn't go well for her, but years later, she had found some measure of recovery.

I've heard some people refer to it as the "cocaine-fueled 80s," although unless one actually lived through it and experienced that aspect, it's probably hard to understand.

Another notable change during the 1980s I recall was when I first learned the phrase "political correctness." There was once a time where one might hear on TV or at work or school or anywhere jokes about other ethnicities, racial slurs, homophobic remarks, catcalling, etc. - and nobody really said anything or made a big deal out of it. Likewise, the Confederate flag was perceived in a completely different way back then. The contemporary attitudes regarding the Confederacy or its flag didn't really get started until the 1990s, but prior to that, the Confederacy was thoroughly whitewashed and considered benign in popular culture (even as misguided as that might seem today). One can find it in the old Dukes of Hazzard program, but also, somewhere on YouTube, you might find a video of a concert by Lynyrd Skynyrd, appearing in Oakland California in 1977, with a big old Confederate Battle Flag on the stage - and no one batted an eye.

Fascinating and in depth.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

Gag me. Synth pop, dubstep. Those hairstyles... Ugh.... barf....

I'd rather just forget about the '80s, at least the mid 80s to late 80s. However there were a couple of music bands, several movies, and GTA that at least redeemed most of my misery during that time by their sheer talent and eased the artifical-ness of that time.

 

[Massimo2002]

Gag me. Synth pop, dubstep. Those hairstyles... Ugh.... barf....

I'd rather just forget about the '80s, at least the mid 80s to late 80s. However there were a couple of music bands, several movies, and GTA that at least redeemed most of my misery during that time by their sheer talent and eased the artifical-ness of that time.

Dubstep wasn't around In the 1980s.and I love Synth Pop.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Dubstep wasn't around I'm the 1980s.

Your right. I was thinking late 80s but it was the early 2000s when that freakshow came on the scene.

I stand corrected.

 

[exchemist]

And.at the same time, people were just unreachable way more often.

I remember waiting for friends at the movie theatre as showtime was approaching. Were they going to be there on time? Were they going to be late? Did they have to miss the movie completely?

No way for them to tell us and no way for us to check.

Yes, that's true. Ringing up and getting no answer was common, so you had to ring again, or leave a message if they had voicemail, which I think came in the mid 80s. Quite frustrating sometimes. Or you got the wrong person, e.g. ringing a girl to ask her out and getting one of her parents...... or (worse) little brother.....

But now we have the other extreme, involving pointless texting for no reason, and people who can't text you once, but have to send a series of them at 90 sec intervals, each with a part of a message, the latter ones invariably getting scrambled with your own attempts to reply to the earlier bits.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Yes, that's true. Ringing up and getting no answer was common, so you had to ring again, or leave a message if they had voicemail, which I think came in the mid 80s. Quite frustrating sometimes. Or you got the wrong person, e.g. ringing a girl to ask her out and getting one of her parents...... or (worse) little brother.....

Oh - and competing for the phone! If I needed to call someone but my sister was on the phone, I just had to wait.

 

[Vinayaka]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

We were pretty busy raising kids in the 80s, so I can't remember much. Time flies. But the 60s I think were more interesting.

 

[exchemist]

Oh - and competing for the phone! If I needed to call someone but my sister was on the phone, I just had to wait.

Desktop computers started to arrive in the 80s. I recall working with an early spreadsheet called Multiplan in the Dubai office. That would have been some time between 1984 and 1986. And I got a desktop computer on my return to London in 1987, used mainly for spreadsheets and then word processing, the typists gradually disappearing. So we learned, by degrees and totally informally, how to type on a keyboard. The first email system in the company came in around the end of the decade, I think. And it was crap.

 

[Vinayaka]

Desktop computers started to arrive in the 80s. I recall working with an early spreadsheet called Multiplan in the Dubai office. That would have been some time between 1984 and 1986. And I got a desktop computer on my return to London in 1987, used mainly for spreadsheets and then word processing, the typists gradually disappearing. So we learned, by degrees and totally informally, how to type on a keyboard. The first email system in the company came in around the end of the decade, I think. And it was crap.

Yes, I remember that. I had just begun my teaching career, and computers were a new thing. The Gestetner's rolling in ink cranking copier was just being replaced by the magic photocopier. My '72 Duster with the slant 6 was running strong. The kids on athletic teams had to wear short shorts, like in the NBA old days. Some of them (girls mostly) hated that.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Dubstep wasn't around In the 1980s.and I love Synth Pop.

Only a few could do it right. Even cool. Sadly, the rest was garbage.

 

[JustGeorge]

But now we have the other extreme, involving pointless texting for no reason, and people who can't text you once, but have to send a series of them at 90 sec intervals, each with a part of a message, the latter ones invariably getting scrambled with your own attempts to reply to the earlier bits.

When people do that to me, I call them. (Whether they like it or not.)

 

[Stevicus]

Yes, that's true. Ringing up and getting no answer was common, so you had to ring again, or leave a message if they had voicemail, which I think came in the mid 80s. Quite frustrating sometimes. Or you got the wrong person, e.g. ringing a girl to ask her out and getting one of her parents...... or (worse) little brother.....

But now we have the other extreme, involving pointless texting for no reason, and people who can't text you once, but have to send a series of them at 90 sec intervals, each with a part of a message, the latter ones invariably getting scrambled with your own attempts to reply to the earlier bits.

Regarding phones, I think I saw my first cordless phone around 1980, although it had a short range. Still, not being tethered to a wire connected to the wall was an improvement from having to remain standing in the kitchen through an entire phone conversation.