Modern Life Is Rubbish

[Dandontdare]

I'll say what I always say whenever a thread like this pops up - no, things weren't better in the past, you were just younger and more impressionable, so things seemed more vital to you then. There's just as much - if not far more - creativity around now than there always was. It's very easy to cherry pick the very best music/films/games from years past and ignore the vast swathes of crap that there has always been.

You have just saved me the trouble of typing a long response saying exactly this!

The good stuff is still out there, we're just old farts who are no longer part of the "scene"

[Hawkmumbler]

Very much in agreement.

And as a sequel come counterbalance to my intitial post re: old mobiles vs. smartphones, got my Iphone back at last and really did miss the instant nature of it all.

[JamesC]

There's definitely a lack of occasion caused by the ease in which our entertainment is now available.
I can remember being incredibly excited when the Xmas Radio (for BBC) and TV Times (for ITV) came out. My brother and I would go through and mark out all the films we wanted to watch. When Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark were first on TV it was an incredible family event. You don't get that now. Whatever the big Xmas film is (this year on BBC1 it was Frozen) you can almost guarantee that the kids already have the DVD.

And internet porn has almost certainly killed the thrill of a new Freemans or Kay's catalogue coming through the door.

[von Boom]

There's definitely a lack of occasion caused by the ease in which our entertainment is now available.
I can remember being incredibly excited when the Xmas Radio (for BBC) and TV Times (for ITV) came out. My brother and I would go through and mark out all the films we wanted to watch. When Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark were first on TV it was an incredible family event. You don't get that now. Whatever the big Xmas film is (this year on BBC1 it was Frozen) you can almost guarantee that the kids already have the DVD.

And internet porn has almost certainly killed the thrill of a new Freemans or Kay's catalogue coming through the door.

I read an article about this sort of thing a little while ago. On demand viewing is fragmenting society. They reasoned that since television in the past was scheduled and only on the one time people came together to watch these events and programmes. Watching them at the same time made people feel more like a community.

Now we watch what we want, when we want and there is no sense of coming together over a particular show. Observe the rise of the spoiler tag.

They made no mention of women's underwear in catalogues however.

[TordelBack]

Now we watch what we want, when we want and there is no sense of coming together over a particular show. Observe the rise of the spoiler tag.

Maybe this is true within the home and in the moment, and the monopolistic heyday of stuff like The Fugitive or Peyton Place is long gone, but I'd argue that there is FAR more lengthy and widespread  community discussion of shows like Whatever Talent Show Is Big Now, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Game of Thrones and Walking Dead than I can recall as a kid when we only had two channels in common. If anything the 'long tail' of the boxset mentality embeds shows in a particular cohort more than  before.

[Smith]

Everything has its good and bad sides;but in a weird way,I miss the filter TV provided.You watched what was on and you were happy with it.Now that you can watch ANYTHING at any time,you don't really feel like watching anything.Or that's just me.

[CalHab]

Everything has its good and bad sides;but in a weird way,I miss the filter TV provided.You watched what was on and you were happy with it.Now that you can watch ANYTHING at any time,you don't really feel like watching anything.Or that's just me.

There are so many wonderful films that I've only watched because they were the only thing on tv at the time. I worry that I now just basically watch things that I know will appeal, rather than challenging myself.

[sheridan]

Toilets at Victoria rail station are now free!

Don't all queue there at once now....😋

Worth remembering (I work in the area, so theoretically it's easier for me to visit the toilets at work, but you never know).

[sheridan]

I also get a little tired of all the griping about smartphones and how they're making people 'antisocial'. That's ignoring the literally thousands of ways that they facilitate communication and engagement with others.

I sort of agree, though it's undeniable that there are unprecedented numbers of people walking around paying no attention to the world around them, even while interacting with it (for example, eyes down on the screen, earphones in, all while crossing the road or bumping into people, saying 'sorry', then carrying on doing exactly the same behaviour, so not sorry at all).

[sheridan]

In some very specific ways I kind of miss the pre-internet era, when you had to have your finger on the pulse and really seek stuff out when it came to stuff like music and films, and there was something really special about discovering a new band, or tracking down a copy of Watchmen for the first time, whereas now it's almost too easy. There's no barrier to entry and geek culture has now swallowed mainstream pop culture whole, and I find myself feeling a little disconnected from it as a result.

As far as I can tell, there isn't really an 'alternative' music scene anymore because as soon as an artist builds any underground buzz, they'll have a Wikipedia page and be profiled in The Guardian a week later. Patton Oswalt wrote a really great article about this phenomenon a few years back.

You're contradicting yourself there, I'm afraid.  If you don't think there is an alternative music scene now (or then) it's because you don't have your finger on the pulse.  Even with the internet, underground and alternative scenes remain difficult to find unless you already know about them.

[von Boom]

Plasters. The individual plaster packets used to have a little thread along the side to help open them. And they really, really stayed in place.

Now I struggle to open the packet without tearing the damned thing and if I wave it in the general direction of a glass of water it falls off.

[Krakajac]

I agree with Radiator - I don't necessarily think that life was 'better' when I was a kid.  Modern life can be quite amazing.

What I do miss, was the relative simplicity of life in the mid to late 70's.  I'll try and cast my mind back to New Zealand in that period...

There were only two types of milk.  Blue top (homogenised) and silver top (non-homogenised).  Both came in a pint bottle - which was amazingly delivered right to your house.  2 litre and 3 litre plastic milk bottles (and the countless dietary options we now have) would've been considered an extravagance.

Tea?  Bushell's - either black, or with milk.

Coffee?  It was instant - or nothing.

Video games?  Essentially, the 2600 ruled.  Plug and play - and your imagination filled in the rest.  Same went for the Nintendo 'Game & Watches' when they appeared.

Mum made dinner.  Meat and three veg.  No expectations that she had to be a 'Masterchef'.

I remember my Mum and Dad would throw the odd party.  Even though we didn't have a lot of money, there was an air of grace about parties in the 70's.  Even getting drunk, people would still have some class about them.

International phone calls were an 'event'.

Only two TV channels in New Zealand.  If Mum/Dad wanted the channel changed - it was our job as kids to run up and do just that.

And as much as I use the internet now - I'm soooo pleased it held no place in my childhood.

Visiting second-hand bookshops (and music shops for that matter) were also an 'event'.

Rant over.

One thing I'll never complain about - the advances in science/medication.  Truly amazing times we live in.  I'm currently suffering from a number of ailments - and it always amazes me what is on offer to fix my ills.

[TordelBack]

You say 'simplicity', I say 'straitjacket of imposed gender roles and dietary choices'. Stepping outside the glow of nostalgia, our romanticised past of nuclear families looks suspiciously like a 20th Century version of Leviticus.

That said, if I could wrestle any one of a half dozen screens out of my kids' hands I'd probably put up with Mrs Slocum's pussy and liver for tea again.

[The Legendary Shark]

There were good and bad aspects to the Good Old Days. There are good and bad aspects to these here Modern Times. Some of the goods we had then are bad now and some of the goods we have now were bad then. Of course, some of those old goods are still good today and some of the bads remain bad. Then again, some of the goods we had then are even better today and some of them not quite as good as they used to be. Many of the old bads are less bad now and some of them are worse. A few of the old goods seem to have turned bad and some of the old bads are now good. Then again there are some things which haven't changed at all, some bads that didn't exist then that do now and some goods which are also new.

It's all a bit of a mixture, really.

[TordelBack]

It's all a bit of a mixture, really.

You're like a cartilaginous Rumsfeld.