# If "Back to The Future" were a thing today, what would be the contrast? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [November 12, 2021, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240 "2021-11-12T11:56:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/42 "2021-11-12T16:44:56Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > You can definitely still do that now, even with an iPhone. That same scene in the original could be duplicated almost directly. The technological advancements would be about as shocking given the technology of the era. It’s played up, but of course it would be for a movie. “But Marty, what happened to the sides? Why is this shot in a tall and thin frame? Did something happen to the concept of horizontal vision in the future?” ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/43 "2021-11-12T16:49:01Z")
“Woke. You keep using that word. Did something happen to mankind’s circadian rhythm in the future?” “Paper or plastic” would actually still be relevant. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/44 "2021-11-12T17:19:11Z")
“Marty, quick! Get in the car; we have to go back for some reason! There’s no time to lose! We’ll have to take your girlfriend with us!” What’s the hurry, when you have a time machine? Never could figure that one out. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/45 "2021-11-12T17:20:24Z")
Casual misogyny is no longer tolerated as it was in the 1990s. ---
**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:** [November 12, 2021, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/46 "2021-11-12T17:20:43Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I’m still trying to figure out why the diner guy didn’t get pissed when Marty ripped one of the pages out of his phone book. You could call the The Phone Company and have another phone book delivered. In fact, you could ask for two or three of them. We live in a house with three phones (not three lines, just three phones) and The Phone Company regularly delivered three phone books to us. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/47 "2021-11-12T19:03:00Z")
I like the idea, but I think “greengrocers” is more likely to come out of the mouth of a teenager from 1921 than 2021. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/48 "2021-11-12T19:09:41Z")
Yeah, greengrocers is right up there with “dry goods”. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/49 "2021-11-12T20:09:04Z")
If I were pitching a reboot of BTTF now, I wouldn’t stick to 30 years. The mid-80’s would be perfect, so 35 years. Why? In 1985, the 50’s had been extensively stereotyped in movies and television. The filmmakers could count on reactions to jukeboxes, hot rods, etc. Now, we’ve been exposed to a lot of television and movies (particularly comedies) creating an expected 80’s look and feel that can be easily communicated. It’s not about nuanced exposition on the differences between 1991 and 2021, it’s about broad takes. How about this? _Kurt! Kurt, it’s Marvin. Your cousin, Marvin Cobain. You know that new sound you’re looking for? Well, listen to this!_ ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/50 "2021-11-12T20:27:46Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > What’s the hurry, when you have a time machine? Doc knew Marty was due to injure his hand the next day, so he wanted an uninjured Marty to accompany him. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/51 "2021-11-12T20:31:31Z")
So go back in time a couple of days and get an uninjured Marty. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/52 "2021-11-12T21:42:04Z")
Marty back in time a couple of days hadn’t gone on the whole trip back to 1955 in the first movie. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/53 "2021-11-12T21:47:55Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > He could invent the modern meme. > > I canhaz chezeburger isn’t cliche yet. Nor is keyboard cat. Or maybe Goatse guy. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/54 "2021-11-12T23:34:14Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I like the idea, but I think “greengrocers” is more likely to come out of the mouth of a teenager from 1921 than 2021. > [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Yeah, greengrocers is right up there with “dry goods”. Just no respect for my culture _at all_ ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/55 "2021-11-13T01:57:09Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > If I were pitching a reboot of BTTF now, I wouldn’t stick to 30 years. As I mentioned in the other thread, there already is something like this. _Secrets of Sulphur Springs_. Involves modern kids going back in time 30 years. > **[Secrets of Sulphur Springs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrets_of_Sulphur_Springs)** > > Secrets of Sulphur Springs is an American time-travel mystery thriller drama television series which premiered on Disney Channel on January 15, 2021. Created by writer Tracey Thomson who also serves as a executive producer with Charles Pratt Jr. and set in the fictional Louisiana town of Sulphur Springs, the series was renewed for a third season on February 7, 2022, which premiered on March 24, 2023. > 12-year-old Griffin Campbell and his family move into the closed down and dilapidated Tremont ... ---
**Author:** ![epbrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@epbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/56 "2021-11-13T02:14:38Z")
I think I saw the pilot. The kids, when asked who they are, give the names Harry and Hermione, right? There’s more to mine from the time difference than we think, likely because most of the people in this thread lived thru the period. There are numerous videos of young kids befuddled by 80s/90s tech and culture. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/57 "2021-11-13T04:04:45Z")
The major mistake of this thread and others I’ve seen here on the topic is to think that the contrast in BTTF was based on technology. That’s not right. OK, it was maybe 10% technology, 90% social and aesthetic change. How many people here long for 1991 and think it was some sort of Eden to return to? Probably not a lot. The difference is that my parents’ generation (I was born in 1971 and my parents were born in the early 1940s) _did_ long for the 1950s. They felt that the world had vastly changed–in many ways for the better, true, but it had lost its innocent fun and just a certain _something._ But how about me, as a 14-year-old when the movie came out? Surely I didn’t get the nostalgia. Hell no, I did! We all did. There was a big nostalgia wave in the 1970s–I was into 50s rock when I was not even 10 years old. We _understood_ what was amazing about that time. That’s why having the protagonist go back to 1991 just wouldn’t mean much. Yeah yeah, smart phones and the internet, I get it, but to me, 1991 feels like the modern world. It really takes going back into the 1970s or so to get to a world that was truly based on a different aesthetic and way of doing things. In terms of the technology as well, I think people are forgetting how recent some of the changes were. Most people didn’t have smart phones with GPS until 2010 or so. Social media wasn’t getting started until around that time too. The whole streaming thing is pretty recent as well. (OTOH, my dad was going online with Prodigy in 1987, and my mom had a car phone at the same time.) The idea that you would encounter a lot of racism, homophobia, misogyny, etc., in 1991 is false as well, I think. There was a feeling at that time, I would say from the late 1970s until recent days, that we had largely beaten prejudice and the future would be about solidifying those gains. Racism and sexism were largely seen as bad and relics of the past. The whole right-wing, Trumpian backlash was not yet imagined. Of course, there were shitty individuals back then, as there are now, but it wasn’t _everywhere._ If anything, people were less tribal then and more likely to adhere to a kind of generic politeness and vision of the politically “normal.” All told, aside from the beginnings of Grunge (or rather, its popularity) and “real” 90s music and Operation Desert Storm (which is largely forgotten now–we were WINNERS in the Middle East!), 1991 was a pretty damn boring year. I think very few people look back on it with a feeling of nostalgia or longing or excitement, aside from the things that might have been going on in their own lives. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/58 "2021-11-13T12:44:55Z")
I was thinking about something similar. The only “interesting” times that I could think of are: The 1920s - The roaring 20s The 1950s Late 1960s - “hippies” Late 1970s - disco 1980s ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/59 "2021-11-13T13:39:27Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > You have a tiny device you can carry in your hand, that’s a phone that lets you [snip] instantly look up any information you want… I was amused watching _WarGames_ the other week at not only the ‘quaint’ acoustic modems, but Matthew Broderick looking up information on Dr. Falken… by going to the library and finding articles on microfilm. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/60 "2021-11-13T14:29:57Z")
Big changes in the last 20-25 years… Pandemic, stimulus checks, masks and vaccination controversies, conspiracy theories etc. (driven by innumerable unvetted “news” sources) Civil unrest: BLM riots, storming capitol LGBTQ (Wow, that woman looks like Bruce Jenner in drag!) Enron Subprime Lending Crisis Gulf Wars Rise of social media Rise of smart phones Y2K scare 9/11 Cambridge Analytica etc. Bush v. Gore Inconvenient Truth Cosby takes a fall US Mail, stamps…Amazon has a fleet Buying, banking, corresponding, etc. on line; even working from home Decline of landlines in the home Purchase of digital information (e.g. streaming movies) rather than physical DVDs Apps Cryptocurrencies ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240/61 "2021-11-13T15:18:14Z")
> [@bump](#): > > People had computers, but they were limited in that you had to literally go hunt down physical media in order to put apps (“programs” at the time) You could have a scene contrasting the size of hard drives then and now. I recall a buddy buying a 20 Megabyte hard drive in 1991, and thinking, “Who needs that much space?” These days, 20 meg is nothing. So, have a laptop as a part of the time machine, but the laptop gets broken. “No problem Doc, we can just buy a new computer and copy the operating system over, a 2 terabyte drive should be enough.” “Two what? _Terabytes?_ Do you have any idea _how much information that is?_ Maybe the CIA has that much storage, but an 8086 from Radio Shack sure won’t!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-back-to-the-future-were-a-thing-today-what-would-be-the-contrast/954240.md?page=4)