# If someone from the 1950s suddenly appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing to explain **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 21, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454 "2013-11-21T17:57:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/121 "2013-11-22T16:51:51Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > People used to listen to music on records and tapes or listen to radio. Now we have mp3 players that hold thousands of songs and don’t require physical media. And instead of radio, many people stream Pandora on their computers or phones. > > Personal TVs. Instead of a large wooden cabinet filled with tubes and wires, we have flat panels that hang on the wall like a picture and are less than an inch thick. Or we can carry around pocket size TVs and watch programs on the go or watch TV programs on our phones. I think that, more than the changes in technology, the way that people employ the technology would be difficult to understand. In the 50’s, when someone turned on the radio or television, it was because they wanted to listen to or watch a specific program. Nowadays those things are used mainly for background noise. Even if someone is interested in the program, they are not focused on the program in the way that folks were in the 50’s. Likewise “multi-tasking”. The idea that someone would turn on the TV and then get out their phone and watch that and the TV at the same time would baffle a 50’s denizen. Lack of attention span would also be puzzling. For someone who watched hour-long TV programs, it would be strange that people now can’t sit through a four-minute video without getting bored and starting to do something else. In the same vein, they’d be amazed that newspaper articles have shrunk from thousands or tens of thousands or words to a few hundreds, and that magazines like _Teen People_ now have “articles” 50 words long. Magazines like _Lucky_ that are entirely advertising would look strange as well. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/122 "2013-11-22T16:58:02Z")
The hardest thing to explain to someone from the 50s would be the popularity of the Kardashians. If you suceed in explaining it to them do me a favor and explain it to me, because I still don’t get it ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/123 "2013-11-22T17:24:52Z")
How fast ‘fashion’ moves. Not just clothing, but that someone (possibly someone in a different country) can come up with a picture or joke, and suddenly it’s everywhere- your friends are making the same joke, it’s on shop signs… all over the place. Then a week or so later, that’s it, it’s gone- there’s a new picture, story or joke doing the rounds. You can go away for a week, and by the time you come back, you’re out of date- it doesn’t matter if you live in a big city or small town. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/124 "2013-11-22T17:28:00Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > That you might get pulled over and arrested driving home from a night at at bar. That statement is funnier than you think … as I remember correctly, sitting in the back seat as a kid of course, the lawmen would give you a ticket for an open container pour it out and let you go. Plus there were places where you had to brown bag it to be able to drink in a restaurant or somewhere like the Moose Lodge. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/125 "2013-11-22T18:44:31Z")
> [@Earth001](#): > > Technically, society is getting smarter. The flynn effect stated that IQ points have been rising to 114 ever since 1914. A person from the 1950s would score around 70 by today’s standards. While the effect is well known, I believe it is controversial whether or not people are really getting smarter in general or if society adapts to the latest IQ tests e.g. by changing the focus in schools to better match the material tested. If it’s the second, it’s evidence that we aren’t actually measuring IQ correctly, but that we’re actually measuring book learning or socialization. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/126 "2013-11-22T19:03:24Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > The hardest thing to explain to someone from the 50s would be the popularity of the Kardashians. If you suceed in explaining it to them do me a favor and explain it to me, because I still don’t get it I bought my TiVo (another thing that would be hard to explain to a time traveler from the 1950s) in 2011, and it was auto-programmed to record anything Kardashian. :rolleyes: I had to call customer support to remove it. The large numbers of women doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc. and the fact that anyone with an IQ high enough to go to college can now do so is a big change as well. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/127 "2013-11-22T19:48:19Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > Well, some people are. > > I’d love to take a 50s mother/wife to a modern grocery store. All that variety! Just the cereal section alone would confound her. Good one. Not just that, but the different types of food. I was born in 1951, and I remember the commercials for “exotic” Chun King Chow Mein from the early 1960s. Now there is a vast variety of what used to be called ethnic food in supermarkets, not to mention the variety of restaurants. Ubiquitous microwaves and food for microwaves would be pretty shocking also. Put food in a box, press some buttons, hear some beeps (you didn’t hear a lot of beeps in the '50s) and the food comes out hot without anything obvious happening to it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/128 "2013-11-22T19:54:34Z")
I think people talking about SSM etc are missing something more obvious. In the 1950s and 1960s checking into a hotel or motel with someone you were not married to was a death defying feat. Firesign Theatre at the end of the '60s had a joke about a hotel register reading Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. Who cares about that anymore? Living with someone you were not married to was reserved for maybe the underclass and artists. (Remember Three’s Company?) Who has even thought about that in ages? Plus we have co-ed dorms and no restrictions on visits from the opposite sex, which was just starting in the late '60s. The '50s was the era where married couples on TV had twin beds. Today is the era of obvious sex jokes and bleeped and sometimes not bleeped profanity on TV - and nudity on cable. And a whole channel devoted to food? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/129 "2013-11-22T19:58:20Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > The hardest thing to explain to someone from the 50s would be the popularity of the Kardashians. If you suceed in explaining it to them do me a favor and explain it to me, because I still don’t get it Nah, they had Jayne Mansfield. Reality shows in general might be hard to explain, though. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/130 "2013-11-22T20:11:16Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Ubiquitous microwaves and food for microwaves would be pretty shocking also. Put food in a box, press some buttons, hear some beeps (you didn’t hear a lot of beeps in the '50s) and the food comes out hot without anything obvious happening to it. I’ll tell you what happens to it: A Communist plot to make us nuke ourselves. It’s radiation! People have radiation boxes in their homes and they eat the food they expose to so much radiation that it becomes burning in a few minutes. Duck and cover! ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/131 "2013-11-22T21:37:02Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Nah, they had Jayne Mansfield. Reality shows in general might be hard to explain, though. And the Gabor sisters! Zsa Zsa, Eva, and poor underappreciated Magda. I guess every trio of sisters needs a Khloe. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/132 "2013-11-23T00:17:14Z")
Movie special effects and digital animation. The structure of DNA was discovered in 1953, but I doubt many people would have believed that we’d one day [resurrect a species](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/22/extinct-frog-resurrected-with-de-extinction-technology) by building it back on the molecular level. Inserting jellyfish genes into [rabbits](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqQ-DSKObTI) and [fish](http://www.glofish.com/) to make them glow. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/133 "2013-11-23T00:19:24Z")
You mean to tell me that the Cubs STILL haven’t been back to the World Series? ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/134 "2013-11-23T00:58:09Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I bought my TiVo (another thing that would be hard to explain to a time traveler from the 1950s) in 2011, and it was auto-programmed to record anything Kardashian. :rolleyes: I had to call customer support to remove it. That’s odd. I’ve never heard another person who purchased a TiVo having had to call customer service to remove pre-programming from their device right after purchasing it. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/135 "2013-11-23T01:18:49Z")
One thing missing from the thread is a sense of how the difference between 1950 and 1959 is in some ways greater than the difference between 1959 and 2013. If someone from 1959 appeared today, three words would easily explain most changes in dress, and in culture generally: The beatniks won. Explaining this to someone from 1950 would indeed be difficult. Computers? In 1950, that was a person. In 1959, anyone reading the papers (and almost everyone did) would have read about the invention of the integrated circuit and that this meant ever smaller and cheaper electronics, including electronic brains AKA computers. Medical care? In 1950, the tax advantages of employee-provided heath care didn’t exist. So most people were uninsured. Prescription drugs? What’s that? You means my friendly pharmacist has a product he won’t sell me? Not in 1950. As for the government approving a drug before it could be sold, that existed, but was to see if the med had known poisons as ingredients, not to see if it was safe and effective. 1959? Except for medicare, the basic pre-Affordable Care Act system of employer-provided insurance, paying for visits to a doctor who gave you a prescription to take to a pharmacist, was in place. And by 1959, what you did if you were sick was about the same as today (except for house calls when the kids were sick). Unlike in 1950, the 1959 pharmacist had meds for conditions like high blood pressure and inflammation, as well as antibiotics affordable even when it wasn’t a life and death situation, and he sold them after getting a prescription. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/136 "2013-11-23T02:20:15Z")
The zombie apocalypse that is people by the gazillions spending all their time engaged with the device in their hand. Not the devices themselves, but that everywhere you look, people are absorbed with the device even while actively engaged in doing everything from driving to shopping to walking the dog, staring at the phone most all the time. I think the kicker would be discovering they are doing it entirely by their own choice. I seriously think they’d be scratching their heads, even after seeing all that’s on the phone. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/137 "2013-11-23T05:31:57Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Barack Obama? The Jamba juice supplement? Who’s vice president, Carrot Karma? I was thinking more like “Brock O’Bama? Don’t tell me he’s a Catholic!” ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/138 "2013-11-23T12:41:31Z")
Another point on the theme of – easy to explain to time traveler from 1959, hard to explain to one from 1950: Regarding popular music, just tell the traveler from 1959 that Danny and the Juniors were right – rock and roll is here to stay. You do still have to explain rap. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/139 "2013-11-23T14:44:05Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > You do still have to explain rap. “You know Robert Preston’s spoken-word sales-pitch patter in THE MUSIC MAN? It hit #1 on the charts, won the Grammy? Okay, try to stay with me on this…” ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/140 "2013-11-23T15:07:46Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Christine Jorgensen had the first successful sex change in 1952. Sure, but it wasn’t widespread or even “common.” I remember the first test tube baby was born in 1976 and it was massive news. Gender reassignment is fairly common today - that would be a massive change. > [@](#): > > People have been engaging in correspondence-based relationships since at least the establishment of the first reliable postal service. You actually think that snail-mail pen pals relationships are comparable to social media? That in the 1950s, it would be common for people to have hundreds of friends whom they’ve never met, that play the same video games and interact in the same virtual worlds? > [@](#): > > Howard Unruh took a twelve minute walk through his neighborhood, shooting and killing thirteen of his neighbors, including three children, in 1949. Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate went on a six month mourner spree in 1958, killing eleven people. In 1929, Andrew Kehoe detonated a fertilizer bomb he’d placed in the basement of the Bath elementary school, while it was in session. When the rescue workers showed up, he detonated a second bomb he’d hidden in his parked truck. In all, he killed 44 people, 38 of them children. I’m aware of the Bath school killings. Listen, nobody’s saying that mass murders didn’t happen in the past. But the idea of young men - boys even - walking into schools and murdering people at random with high capacity assault weapons. I mean, I was born in the 1970s, and Columbine and Sandy Hook are incomprehensible to me. The fact that kids go to school with metal detectors, parents have to go through elaborate processes to fetch their children, and school doors are electronically bolted shut… I think it would throw people from that time for a loop. > [@](#): > > Also, you know… the Holocaust. I very much doubt there’s any excess of violence in modern society that would shock an adult from the 1950s. Genocide sadly has been part of human society for a long time. But spree shootings in schools and malls aren’t the same. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454.md?page=8)