Partly to that thread; but I’ve been reading about this from various sources for several years now, though I haven’t had the time to dig up the cites. If/when I do, I’ll try to post them there and either post them here or mention it here.
When flat screens became a thing I immediately thought of Farenheit 451, and ever since I’d first read that book (before 1985 for sure) I figured we’d eventually have very large flat screen TVs. I don’t think they’re something crazy to think of.
I was in college atudying physics (no punch cards - we had VT240 terminals by then), but I also had a company which ran a 16 phone line multiuser BBS with about a thousand members. Ecentually we had a connector to internet mail, fidonet, Compuserve, etc. We also wrote one of the first multiplayer dungeon games, perhaps the first multiplayer online poler, and a pre-Google text indexing and search engine, among other things. We sold that to companies who used a BBS to put technical documents online in searchable form.
AOL started in 1983. Prodigy in 1984. Compuserve dates way back to 1969. By 1979 Radio Shack was already selling MicroNet, and after-hours service using Compuserve computers and networking when it was mostly idle. There was also the BiX information service and The Well in the early 80’s.
By 1981 all the major newspapers had digital versions available on Compuserve and The Source. The 80’s were the heyday of these services, and by 1995 they were rapidly being overshadowed by the Internet. My own company closed about that time - we just couldn’t compete with the Internet.
I’m pretty sure you weren’t typical - the internet and how it’s used today might not have surprised 1985 you. But most people in 1985 wouldn’t have known anything about an “internet” - most wouldn’t even have known about a BBS.The NYT became available on AOL in 1994 and on a website in 1996, to reach a wider audience than just AOL subscribers. If there were “more than four million” AOL subscribers in 1996, how many subscribers could AOL or its predecessor possibly have had in 1985?
So basically less than a million people used these proto-internet services in the 80’s. Hell I used Compuserve in the 80s and I remember nobody really knew about it (or if they did, didn’t really understand what it was). Very far under the radar.
Back around 1990 or so, when my town decided to rewrite its early-1970’s zoning code and to write a comprehensive plan, we put out various attempts to find out from the general public what they thought the town needed. Somebody came in to a planning board meeting and told us that we needed to have internet access available (I don’t remember his exact wording.) We all looked at him blankly – nobody on the town planning board had the faintest idea what he was talking about.
I don’t entirely disagree. Still, from my perspective, in the mid 80s, the Soviet Union was the “Evil Empire,” while the Middle East was merely unstable. Instability is arguably less risky since it implies a weak government–which can be propped up and manipulated through various means (lawyers, guns, and money). Ignoring all their human rights violations, Saudi Arabia was a pretty good choice in retrospect. They’ve been a pretty compliant client.
It’s not an easy call, an with hindsight things change perspective, but then there was 9/11, where the Saudis were not so compliant. I am not claiming the USA had many other choices, I am merely stating that it is cheap to blame Germany/Europe for reliance on Russian oil and gas. And both the USA/Saudi Arabia and Germany/Russia were a slippery slope, not so bad to begin with, but then…
And then came fracking, which has changed the terms of the equation in the USA, but which Germany refused. That may have been the bigger mistake.
So, to say something that is true but would sound crazy in 1985: The USA will become the world’s biggest oil and gas producer and a major exporter.
Did not check it on the web, but there were months in the last years when this was probably true.
30% of all Americans now have at least one tattoo. Many have more than that including a large amount of women. These are not just on the arms (where people have whole sleeves) but many are up and down their legs, hands and back.
Is that all? I’d have guessed something like 75 percent.
In 1985 most people still didn’t own a computer and many who did didn’t have a modem. Your circle of friends was WAY ahead of the curve.
I didn’t start getting into BBSes until 1990 or so, and I was ahead of that curve.
K-Mart will have 3 locations nationwide. cite
Sears will have less than 20. cite
Montgomery Wards will be mail order only. (Because online shopping will mostly be a foreign concept.) cite
Being in Silicon Valley I had built a TRS-80 clone in 1984 and was on a couple BBSs by 1986. After I left, though, everything was stand alone until AOL in 1996, and not full internet until 1998, dial up at first then cable after Cox had glass to the neighborhood.
White men are not a majority in the US Supreme Court.
actually, aol existed as quantum link on the commodore 64 for about 5 years before it became aol if I remember the history right
Not so much the concept, but the scales involved. Like had someone told me in 1985 that people would have big screen TVs, I wouldn’t have been overly surprised.
But had they told me that 75" screens that had like ten times the resolution of the 1985 televisions would be common in 2022, I’d probably have looked at them like they were crazy.
You’ll buy that 75" flat screen TV from a huge warehouse, where you have to pay to get in and shop. You can also buy a gallon of mayonnaise to go with your TV. Mostly you’ll have to bring the TV to the front yourself. Somebody at the store might be able to help you get the TV down and load it into your car, but they won’t be able to answer questions about the different TVs, or recommend which one to buy.
Costco and Sam’s were things by 1985, but were not anything like the common nationwide retailers they are now.
I was born in 1985. While I found out about computers around the 1990s, I didn’t learn about the Internet until fifth grade, which would have been in 1995. And, even then, it was due to a school trip for “talented and gifted” students. So the Internet was still this very geeky thing.
TV Guide, and a bunch of other media brands, will be bought for $20 million (in 1985 money) by a company that gives people a place to look up what some character’s name was in an obscure foreign market only video game.
Most people reading this will say, “TV Guide is still a thing?”
A four-door Dodge Charger will available with an 807 hp engine.
There will be a road car available with a 1,600 hp engine, and a top speed of 300mph.
There will be an electric car that accelerates from 0 to 60 in just over 2 seconds.