# Complain to your future great-great-grand children about how tough life "was"... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 24, 2014, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421 "2014-09-24T11:39:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/1 "2014-09-24T11:39:57Z")
When I was a boy, there were facts that we might not know – we couldn’t use our mind-guide to troll it out of the shared deep-brain archives [DBA – called “dubba” in the future], and we had to manually type it in to a search engine on the internet. Sometimes, it might take fifteen minutes to figure it out! When I was a boy, if you wanted to have sexual relations, you couldn’t just put up the pink flag and wait in a public sex-bath-alcove [SBA – called “subba” in the future]… you had to send emails and make phone calls [has to stop and explain what a “phone call is”] and convince someone to meet you in a private place. Sometimes we even turned the lights off! When I was a boy, if you weren’t beautiful, you had to live with it! Yes, there were really ugly people in the world one day! Scary, I’m sure, to you young whipper-snappers. When I was a boy, we didn’t have recycling gut nanos – we had to expel waste! Yes, it was stinky, little one. Very stinky! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/2 "2014-09-24T13:17:03Z")
We often had to wait a whole year for a new model of iPhone to come out, and when it did, it was made of matter! :mad: There actually _were_ lawns, and you still got told to get off them. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/3 "2014-09-24T13:26:24Z")
Me: We used to have to listen to old folks complain about walking to school in the snow…both ways…in the summer. Them: What’s snow? What’s summer? What’s walking? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/4 "2014-09-24T13:38:53Z")
^ What’s school? All knowledge is implanted at birth. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/5 "2014-09-24T15:39:29Z")
You know those ancient flying cars you see in the entertainograms? Well, they hadn’t even been invented yet! ---
**Author:** ![TheSeaOtter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed655f/32.png) [@TheSeaOtter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSeaOtter)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/6 "2014-09-24T15:45:49Z")
Back in my day, everyone was expected to work, full-time, for most of their adult life. Can you imagine that? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/7 "2014-09-24T16:00:45Z")
Back in our day we had our own opinions about things. What do you think about _that_? Oh. Nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/8 "2014-09-24T16:55:46Z")
I don’t have to wait for futuristic kids. I can tell my son pathetic tales like, “When I was your age we only had 3 channels on TV. And if we wanted to change channels, we had to stand up, walk over to the TV, and turn the dial ourselves!” Or “When I was your age, we didn’t have text messaging- we had to write messages on paper, put them in an envelope, drop them in a mailbox and wait days or weeks to hear back.” ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/9 "2014-09-24T16:59:12Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I don’t have to wait for futuristic kids. I can tell my son pathetic tales like, “When I was your age we only had 3 channels on TV. And if we wanted to change channels, we had to stand up, walk over to the TV, and turn the dial ourselves!” > > Or “When I was your age, we didn’t have text messaging- we had to write messages on paper, put them in an envelope, drop them in a mailbox and wait days or weeks to hear back.” Forgive me for spoiling the joke, but the point of the thread is to imagine some possible (and hopefully humorous) future technology and extrapolate the dunbfounded responses of future children when this technology is compared to the present day technologies. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/10 "2014-09-24T17:09:41Z")
When I was a kid, we had to phone a place and hope the person we wanted was there! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/11 "2014-09-24T17:39:45Z")
I can’t do it. In the future we’ll have holodecks. Nobody is ever going to complain about anything because nobody is ever going to come out. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/12 "2014-09-24T17:44:24Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > I can’t do it. In the future we’ll have holodecks. Nobody is ever going to complain about anything because nobody is ever going to come out. They’ll come out for refills on their prescription bottles. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/13 "2014-09-24T18:10:04Z")
As a serious answer I will say that in today’s world we had to try to deal with illnesses like depression, anxiety, borderline personality, obesity, ptsd, cancer, etc with marginally effective treatments to manage these highly stigmatized disorders. In the future ideally treatment will be better and stigma less. Diagnostics and treatment they have will make us look like cavemen. Also if we wanted to go somewhere we had to actually drive the car. That meant we had to deal with driving stress and boredom. We couldn’t just watch a movie while the car drove itself. Plus we had to work 45 hours a week for 40 years. It sucked. And our bodies fell apart with age. If we wanted to learn something we had to read and comprehend books. No cognitive enhancements existed. I was born in the wrong century. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/14 "2014-09-24T18:20:24Z")
We were stuck inside \*human \*bodies, made out of \*meat \*of all things. They got sick all the time, they had to be constantly fed and constantly maintained, and pretty soon they died anyway. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/15 "2014-09-24T19:34:02Z")
We had to make the best of the genes we were born with. And we didn’t complain about it either! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/16 "2014-09-24T20:21:57Z")
We actually had buttons to push. BUTTONS!! And no pods – only feet. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/17 "2014-09-24T20:26:48Z")
In _my_ day, call center jobs remained on Earth, instead of being outsourced to Betelgeuse IV! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/18 "2014-09-24T21:14:30Z")
You could walk outside without an electrically cooled radiation suit. There were these things called animals, like robots only smellier. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/19 "2014-09-24T21:21:34Z")
We had to drive cars _ourselves_! You’d put your hands on the steering wheel - oh, don’t interrupt me, it was like a big black ring - and turn it in the direction you wanted. And if someone was a bad driver, well, that was just too bad. People’s angry, idiotic temperaments were reflected in the way they drove thousand pound lethal machinery! Now _that’s_ scary. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421/20 "2014-09-25T07:07:08Z")
When I was your age, people lived about 70-80 years, then died. Some lived much less. You kids who will live several hundred years have no idea what it was like, to die so young. And we don’t even know what comes next, after death. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complain-to-your-future-great-great-grand-children-about-how-tough-life-was/699421.md?page=2)