Posted on 11/02/2018 3:56:33 PM PDT by MNDude
I recently watched Back to the Future 1 + 2 with my 11 year old daughter. She loved seeing how our world was in 1984, 1954, and how we envisioned the world would be in 2014.
I was somewhat surprised at how distant and prehistoric 1955 culture scene to me now. So I am asking a question to those who are old enough to remember life in the 1950s.
Do you believe the world, culture, and Technology has changed more from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s or has it changed more from the mid-1980s to the mid 2010?
In the tri-state area ( N.Y., N.J. Ct. ) there were at least SIX different T.V. channels to choose from, in the mid '50s and color T.V.s were not all THAT "rare" to own in '56-58!
In the mid '80s there wasn't cable T.V. in much of Chicago; we didn't have it and I don't know ANYONE there who did.
Personal computers came out around '81 ( IBM ) and not many had them back then and there wasn't much on line either.
Culturally, there were still some watchable T.V. shows and movies in the mid '80s, but that's a long gone thing. And pop music wasn't mostly RAP CRAP.
You’re too young to be able to really make a valid observation. ;^)
I would say that the lightbulb and the automobile had a
major impact on how we live.
***********
True enough but
... In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The Native
Americans had never seen such things. A white man and a
boat with sails. Had they they may have sent him packing
in 1492.
Cultural changes only really began in the LATE 1960s!
Though the "FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT" ( AN EXCUSE TO OPENLY USE THE F WORD SEVERAL TIMES IN ONE SENTENCE, PER MINUTE ), began in '64, in Berkeley, fomented by Mario Savio, it really did NOT "catch on" nation wide, until several years later...at the very end of the '60s- '70s!
"Shaking up", out of wedlock babies, rampant drug use, etc. was still NOT "normal" even in the late '60s, but FRINGE behavior.
Men still held doors open for women and though they stopped wearing hats ( due to the moron JFK not wearing one ), so that tipping one's hat to a lady was out, traditional manners were still pretty much in vogue.
NYC and L.A. would’ve been the first places to get more channels. My father was in NM in the ‘50s and they didn’t get any channels (no use for a tv) at the time, not until about 1960 (he went to the movies). Here in Nashville, TN as late as 1982, we had only about 5 channels until cable was introduced that year.
In fact, I had a personal computer BEFORE cable, which was unusual for most. I didn’t get the internet until 1998 (almost exactly 20 years ago to the day), although you still had the slower phone modem stuff available 12-14 years before that. My parents didn’t want to get me that after seeing “WarGames” in ‘83, thinking I might be a prodigy that would get in trouble. :-P
It was blissful before rap music came in, supplanting funk/soul/disco and sending the culture on a downward spiral.
We got our first computer in '81, which was pretty useless, as there really was NOT all that much one could do with it.
We got our first T.V. in the summer of '49, but I knew other kids whose parents had one before that time.
Long distance calls were VERY expensive and kids having a phone in their rooms was VERY unusual, when I was growing up.
Modern technology ( computers, iPads, Iphones ) has actually done far MORE to RUIN life and destroy lives, than whatever small "good" it may have brought with it.
Today, any kids and young adults can't spell, can't write well, have no imagination, fall for all kinds of utter CRAP because it's on line, and have grave difficulty interacting with other humans, face to face, because of it.
Yes, once upon a time there really WAS something called "Pop Music", which wasn't just SCREAMING and NOISE sans melody. things
Our culture took a hard left with the Clinton administration, went unchecked through the Bush II era, and went radical left during the obama era.
I measure technology by our electronic devices and cars. Drastic improvements beginning in the 80’s and they have not stopped.
In answer to your question, the mid 80’s to 2010 had the most change.
Dude, where’s my flying car ?
I was born in 1940, studied electrical engineering in the late 50’s. I’ve experienced most every technological development in electronics since the vacuum tube up close and personal.
So many exciting breakthroughs for me and my fellow nerds. The transistor, the microprocessor, the personal computer, the internet.
But I would say that technology has probably advanced more rapidly in the past 30 years.
That Immigration Act was pushed by Socialists but we didn’t realize that back then, I was too young to understand that.
I think the biggest changes in technology was 50s to 80s but Socialism taking root from 60s to now has likely had a greater impact on this country than technology.
In my opinion it is good that technology changed so much; without the internet we wouldn’t know the media was lying so we would know little to nothing about what is going on.
I lived in rural America and we didn’t get electricity until I was 12. I knew people in town had it, but the first time I personally flipped a light switch I was actually afraid of what might happen.
My father grew up with horses and buggies and there were cars in cities but he didn’t see one until he was 9 years old. By the time my father passed away the internet was public, though we only heard about it and didn’t know anyone that had it.
I saw the first Back to the Future three times in the first four days when it came out.
> “But I would say that technology has probably advanced more rapidly in the past 30 years.”
And the people of the previous 30 years would have said the same. :-) That statement applies to the entire modern age — technological change has been accelerating. In culture, though, I believe the change from the 50s to late 60s and beyond was more significant.
One of my granddaughters has her own room at her other grandmother’s house, and has her own TV in her room and Kindle for games. She is four years old.
At my house we bake, she rides horses and plays outside with the other grandkids, we play board games and read books.
These are confusing times we live in.
> “The mid ‘60s were just an extension of the 1950s! Cultural changes only really began in the LATE 1960s!”
In my response I changed “mid ‘60s” to “mid/late sixties” because I do think the major changes were still on the periphery in the mid-60s. We can’t really draw a sharp line, though, because it was a gradual change. Even before the 60s there were the beatniks, precursors of the hippies. Actually in the early 20th century there were Greenwich Village “bohemians” and expatriates in Paris who likewise followed a counterculture lifestyle, and the same might even apply to some of the Romantics of the 19th century.
I think the late 60s, maybe early 70s, is when the counterculture really disrupted the relatively placidity that had prevailed in the 1950s, though. I’d count that as the beginning of the period I called the “Western Cultural Revolution (but it was really an evolution because it took decades).
Some persons have approved of Kirkwood’s remark “People changed MUCH more from the 80s to now” — they must not be counting the large percentage of persons who had changed radically already, and waiting until those changes reached the majority. I see the beginning as being when a significant minority changed. Later those changes grew in momentum until they affected to a degree almost everyone, significantly affected a majority (even those of us who complain about it), and changed the establishment itself.
I never allowed TVs in my kids’ rooms and they never allowed TVs in their kids’ rooms.
Good for you.
.
Let me just throw out some stuff.
I was born October, 1953.
I can remember standing in line for a polo vaccine.
I can remember most of the cars as a very young boy were standard shift transmission, after the age of 8 approx, automatic transmissions.
I can remember "be home before dark."
I remember riding my bike (sting-ray 20 inch wheels) to the beach, just checked on Mapquest, it was a 5 (five) mile trip. "169 Westwood Drive, Brentwood, Long Island, New York" to "Islip Town Beach, 600 South Bay Ave, Islip, NY,." the trip involved crossing a very major road way, Sunrise Highway.
I remember smudge pots, (think small cannon ball Tiki Torch) {I'm guessing this is pre-road flares, pre-portable lights, circa 1963-5 } to warn drivers about road danger(s). Why do I remember this? I can remember riding home from the beach (listed above) and stopping, grabbing one, put it into my front basket of my bike, and back on my way home. Mom asked me where I found it, told her the truth, it was laying on the road. :-) I neglected to mention that there was a big hole in the road, and was warning drivers of the danger. I didn't think that was important enough to mention it. It was very cool. :-) Hey, I didn't lie.
I remember watching Astronaut John Glenn taking off, On Feb. 20, 1962,Tuesday, with my dad. He kept us home that day, (from school) saying this is history!!!!!!!!
I Remember having my pocket knife, in 6th (sixth) grade at school. THIS WAS A VERY BIG DEAL, for a boy back in the day. I would argue equals having a cell phone.
I Remember my first portable radio. Again back in the day this would be A-Kin to having a cell phone.
I Remember my first record player. Again back in the day this would be A-Kin to having a cell phone. Drove my Mom & Dad NUTS, with IRON BUTTERFLY, IN A GADDA DA VIDA 1968, FULL Vinyl Album side. :-)
I Remember my first wrist watch. Again back in the day this would be A-Kin to having a cell phone.
Can’t agree. Mental illness in the US didn’t seriously take hold until the early 1990s. Even in the 80s, it was rare to see gays coming out except in SF or on a TV comedy show. Now half of the population are anarchists, freaks, or idiots.
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