I would say that the lightbulb and the automobile had a major impact on how we live. Yet they both happened before 1950's.
Posted on 11/02/2018 3:56:33 PM PDT by MNDude
Immigration act of 1965 ... nothing else needs to be said ...
Anyone who has children born during this period, it's utterly a no-brainer, their access to, and their control by, communication devices. Phones, games, apps, virtual assistants.
Now change the periods from Wright flight to Man on the Moon, versus Atari to iPhone, and the first period wins.
But your first period is remarkable for its extinguishment of hot war into cold war, and to some extent, the concurrent devolution of society brought about by legalized abortion and extensive drug propagation mid60s-mid70s.
Davy Crockett, Micky Mouse Club, The Three Stooges, BB Guns, Christmas time, the list goes on.
1950 to 1965 were great years, after 67 it went to hell. Lots of ups and downs, but I was a kid of the suburbs of Manhattan, the largest populated borough, Kings County. Everyone got along, it was a time where you didn’t have bars on the windows and only one lock on the door. A lot happened in the world of technology, and medicine,back then, but the more you learn the more you discover, and that leads to more knowledge and more innovation. Socially I would say we all got along, culturally, we were in the world of the Cleavers and the Nelsons (You can throw in the Ricardos and the Kramdens also.) I was at the right age, for the 57 Chevy and duck tail haircut and a date with Marylou at the drive in.
There are different ways to look at it, depending on the subject.
There were many changes in technology ,in the social climate, status of women, sad trends such as single motherhood which have gotten worse. On the other hand, the environment is much cleaner now than in the 80s or the 50s.
Then again, it was possible for middle class families to afford a typical house with one salary in the 50s, which had become difficult to do by the mid 80s, and still harder to achieve nowadays in many parts of the country.
The state of medical care has dramatically improved the quality of life, and saved lives, in recent decades.
This would be an interesting subject for a book, to compare and contrast changes in life over the decades, and whether those changes were good or bad or indifferent.
The transistor did it for the 50s to 80s.
That leap from vacuum tubes changed power consumption requirements by a couple of orders of magnitude (I think).
Everything else since has been gained (pun intended) to a lesser degree.
Yes, things getting smaller, faster, better, but at a more linear rate.
More from Mid eighties to 2000’s.
The internet has changed the culture in irretrievable ways.
My first memories go back to around 1964. It was not a more innocent time,but it was a simpler time. I can remember when cutting a watermelon in the back yard on a summer evening was a family event full of laughter and horseplay. Times like that are my fondest memories. Technology has changed everything and not always for the better.
Think how empty the country was back in the 1800s. Imagine walking a thousand miles or more through all sorts of weather and wilderness to your new home. Maybe pulling a cart with everything you owned, or if you were lucky, you had a covered wagon.
My Grandpa was born in 1865. The telegraph, electricity, and railroad had already been invented while he was growing up. There technically was instant information and fast travel but the average person was still living not much different from people in 500 BC ancient Greece.
I was born in 1947 and there was no electricity in rural NW Florida.
True, but the spread of PCs only really picked up in the late 80’s. I finally got a PC at home in 1992.
My parents in the 50’s and 60’s never bought me a computer for use in the bedroom nor let me connect one to a network......
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-slide-rule/id421890273?mt=8
Millennials are often insane on a level far beyond anyone else but you got to admit a lot of the groundwork for the insanity we live in now was laid in the 60s all the way back to the New Deal. Or it just could be I’m more used to the narcissism of Baby Boomers since they’ve been around all my life afaik.
In the 50’s and 60’s we were all Free Range Kids (in my case, living on the edge of the Suburban/Rural interface), especially in the summers.
I think that's it. There have been cultural changes in how people behave that have been monumental since about the time Clinton appeared. But (to me) the world of the 1980s and the world of today are not radically different in basic appearance. But 1950s looks like another planet.
I would say that the lightbulb and the automobile had a major impact on how we live. Yet they both happened before 1950's.
Nice post, agree. 1951 here.
Particularly liked the ‘one fat kid’ and ‘people dressed up’ for trips references.
I love the internet but miss the less hectic times, too.
But...we can’t go back even if we have a Delorean.
I was in high school in the ‘60s. I recall girls disappearing to “visit their aunts” for a few months. There were whispers. The girls returned.
Too bad shame has disappeared from the world.
I’m not old enough to remember the 50’s but between the 1950 and 80 analog technology was being improved but not hugely different.
If you wanted to travel, you got in your car. If you wanted to call someone, you went home or used a pay phone. If you wanted to know where you were, you pulled out a map. If you didn’t know someone’s phone number you found a phone book. If you wanted to know something, you went to the library. If you wanted to see a movie you went to the theater. If you were completely lost, you asked for directions. If you wanted to read in the bathroom, you brought a book or magazine. If you happened to remember someone from your childhood, you likely had no idea what happened to them. You likely heard of a computer but had never seen one.
The first time I was in a car with a map showing me where I was in in real time, I realized the world had profoundly changed. I have video chatted with my daughter from the top of a mountain. Technology changed from things I could take apart and understand to magic.
In the 50s I didn’t have a tv set, but we had a radio. I had a TV and a PC in the 80s. Now I got rid of the TV and my PC is smaller, plus I listen to satellite radio. Probably in 5 years I’ll get rid of the computer and just have the radio.
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