# Small/subtle human trends & behaviors that have slowly subsided since the 70s/80s. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 31, 2019, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516 "2019-08-31T13:06:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/21 "2019-08-31T20:47:56Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Kids not playing outside is the most notable to me. Even playgrounds look empty. Those big towers of rope and molded plastic are meant for climbing and sliding, not just standing around like public artworks. This is quite noticeable here. There’s a wooded area with a creek next to us. The kids used to play there a lot. They beat down trails and such. Now, the only trail is one the deer use. There was a time the kids used to cut thru the yards and then thru the woods to get to the other side of the neighborhood. But they don’t even do that any more. I can’t even yell at the kids to get of my lawn anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/22 "2019-08-31T20:50:44Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > You keep getting older, they stay the same age. Alright, alright, alright. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/23 "2019-08-31T20:56:31Z")
Jukeboxes. They used to be everywhere, but I see them less and less. Pinball machines and arcade games too. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/24 "2019-08-31T21:04:09Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Drunk acceptance Foster Brooks, eh? > [@](#): > > Community organizations and clubs Stronger than ever. Rotary, Elks, Shriners, historical societies, neighborhood associations, etc… > [@](#): > > Community showering Really? Where in LA or the USA was that a thing? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/25 "2019-08-31T21:48:00Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Stronger than ever. Rotary, Elks, Shriners, historical societies, neighborhood associations, etc… “Stronger than ever” is likely not, in fact, the case, for most fraternal and social organizations. Most of them peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, and have seen a steady decline in membership for decades, and few younger people have interest in joining organizations that seem to be more oriented towards their parents and grandparents. Examples of membership decline numbers, from the articles cited below: - Freemasonry membership is down by 3.8 million from the late 1950s - The Elks are down from over 1.6 million in 1980, to 800,000 in 2012 - Membership in the Shriners is down 27% since 1979 - Membership in the Jaycees is down 44% since 1979 - Rotary Club membership is down 17% since 1995, and only 10% of Rotarians are under age 40 > **[Fraternal, service groups battle declining membership](https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2014/10/11/fraternal-service-groups-battle-declining-membership/16874977/)** > > Elks, Rotarians, Freemasons and other fraternal groups struggle to attract younger members. > **[Private Site](https://thesociologicalmail.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/why-did-membership-in-fraternal-organizations-die-out-over-time/)** > **[Are Service Clubs Dying?](https://wotsmqt.com/service-clubs-dying/)** > > WE TAKE TODAY’S Fourth of July parade in Marquette for granted. Along with the three day International Food Fest. Same thing with Harborfest coming up later this summer. They just happen, right? They’re city events. Well, no. The parade wouldn’t... ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/26 "2019-08-31T21:51:05Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Perhaps it’s my imagination, but I swear women’s facial expressions have changed over the past 40 years. Women used to smile more. Now the “stone/cold/serious” face seems to be the norm. I hadn’t noticed really( I’m not terribly observant about people in general these days ). But now that you mention it there is a possibility that there might be a genuine small cultural shift here. If so it is a good one IMHO. I do recall that there seemed to be a meme where young girls were taught to “smile more” by their parents as an expression of good manners. I remember over-hearing little girls being told that by their mothers. Often as not it ended in a rebellious scowl, but sometimes a grudging and fake smile. Contrarily I’ve never heard that addressed to a little boy. So it may have been something programmed into the young girls that has faded away like other archaic mannerisms. “Show a happy face to the world and always wear clean underwear!” The clean underwear is probably still a reasonable ask ;). But nobody owes the world a phony smile. > [@Musicat](#): > > Where in LA or the USA was that a thing? Don’t know what is meant by community in this instance. But as we’ve discussed on this board before forcing kids to shower as a group in High School was still definitely a thing back in the early 1980’s when I was enrolled. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/27 "2019-08-31T22:00:45Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Examples of membership decline numbers, from the articles cited below: > > - Freemasonry membership is down by 3.8 million from the late 1950s > - The Elks are down from over 1.6 million in 1980, to 800,000 in 2012 > - Membership in the Shriners is down 27% since 1979 > - Membership in the Jaycees is down 44% since 1979 > - Rotary Club membership is down 17% since 1995, and only 10% of Rotarians are under age 40 Another thing to bear in mind here is that the U.S. population has been steadily growing. If any of these organizations had simply been keeping pace with U.S. population growth, their membership would have been growing substantially. The U.S. population has grown by: -\> 82% since 1960 -\> 45% since 1980 -\> 23% since 1995 Given that, it’s clear that membership in most of these sorts of organizations is withering. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/28 "2019-08-31T22:02:42Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Don’t know what is meant by community in this instance. But as we’ve discussed on this board before forcing kids to shower as a group in High School was still definitely a thing back in the early 1980’s when I was enrolled. So how do they shower now? In individual cubicles? Virtual H[sub]2[/sub]O? ---
**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:** [August 31, 2019, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/29 "2019-08-31T22:06:39Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Good one. As a kid on a family road trip (“vacation”), I’d often see cars pulled over. A lot of people working a jack, trying to change a tire on the uneven shoulder of the road. And the ubiquitous overheating. Just like an old cartoon; the hood up, steam escaping from the engine as the dad wrapped his hand in a rag and tried to get the radiator cap off. We carried a milk jug full of water just in case. Ah, yes, overheating is another one! It happened once in my 1997 Ford F-150, after some major component in the cooling system actually cracked, and needed to be replaced. It almost happened once on a trip, driving a rented SUV. Climbing out of Death Valley, in July, with near-50C external temperatures, and (as I found out after pulling over to figure out why the temperature was spiking) a large sheet of paper under the hood, covering just about all of the radiator\*, so there was virtually no airflow to cool it down. So I spent most of the day driving through Death Valley like that, and only had a problem when we started driving uphill. That’s pretty amazing when you think about it. \*I really don’t know how it got there, but it must have been there from before I picked the SUV up at the rental place. The chance that it ended up so perfectly covering the radiator by accident is basically zero. The best I can figure, a mechanic must have put it there for some reason, and forgotten to remove it after they were done. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/30 "2019-08-31T22:08:04Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Mustaches were very common among men in the 1970s. I think only state troopers have them now. I assume, by this, you mean “mustaches with no beard.” Facial hair, in general, was “out” in the 1980s and 1990s, but has certainly seen a big comeback in the last decade – however, in most cases, it’s a full mustache+beard. But, don’t tell [Aaron Rodgers](https://i1.wp.com/snotapwi.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Aaron-Rodgers-Mustache.png?resize=638%2C368) that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/31 "2019-08-31T22:10:05Z")
With reference to **Kenobi65’s** post #25, I don’t doubt that national membership in those organizations has declined. But locally, in my neighborhood, it has not happened, at least over the last 20 years. It’s always possible that my neighborhood is 20 years behind the times (and it won’t be the first time). With reference to neighborhood associations, membership locally has _increased_ over the past 40 years, probably because the number of residents and homes has increased, and formerly summer residents have been converted into year-round ones. So I guess the moral of the story is: national trends and behaviors aren’t universal, and generalizations, including this one, are always wrong. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/32 "2019-08-31T22:16:04Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > With reference to **Kenobi65’s** post #25, I don’t doubt that national membership in those organizations has declined. But locally, in my neighborhood, it has not happened, at least over the last 20 years. It’s always possible that my neighborhood is 20 years behind the times (and it won’t be the first time). I suspect that fraternal and service organizations still have some regional strongholds where they’re doing all right (and, having grown up in Green Bay, it doesn’t surprise me that it’s the case in northern Wisconsin where you live). My WAG is that it could be a combination of smaller, more close-knit communities, and communities with relatively low turnover (i.e., few people moving in, or moving out). But, on the national scale, the steep decline of groups like the Elks, the Masons, and the Kiwanis are pretty well-documented. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/33 "2019-08-31T22:44:23Z")
Ties are going out of fashion for men, even at formal events like weddings. At the last two weddings I’ve been to (one in Australia, one in Lithuania), about half the men were not wearing a tie. (And I forgot to pack a tie for the Lithuanian wedding, where my son was getting married, so I had to buy a cheap tie at the market in Vilnius.) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/34 "2019-08-31T22:59:13Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Ties are going out of fashion for men, even at formal events like weddings. At the last two weddings I’ve been to (one in Australia, one in Lithuania), about half the men were not wearing a tie. (And I forgot to pack a tie for the Lithuanian wedding, where my son was getting married, so I had to buy a cheap tie at the market in Vilnius.) For that matter, here in the U.S., men’s suits are certainly far less common now. Up until the 1990s, business attire was the norm in professional environments; many businesses which had been “business attire” fairly rapidly changed over to “business casual” 20 years ago, more or less. Certainly, there are still some professions and firms which expect men to wear suits, but even then, it’s often been loosened – for example, many lawyers now only wear a suit and tie when they actually go to the courthouse. A generation or so ago, most men probably owned at least a single suit, which they wore to weddings and funerals, if nothing else. What I’ve observed is that, while this may still be the case with the upper-middle-class and above, I suspect that many men, now, don’t own a single suit (nor a tie). Case in point: two years ago, I went to a memorial service for the mother of two friends of mine, in a small town in northeastern Wisconsin. As my wife and I discussed what we’d wear, I said, “well, I’m going to wear a suit, because it’s a memorial service, and that’s what I do. But, other than me, I will guarantee that you’ll only see one other suit there – Brad (one of the sons of the deceased) will be in a suit, because he’s a sharp dresser, but that’ll be it…and you’ll see at least one person wearing something with a Packers logo on it.” My prediction was exactly right, down to the Packers logos. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/35 "2019-08-31T23:12:23Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > So how do they shower now? In individual cubicles? Virtual H[sub]2[/sub]O? “Not at all” apparently is increasing common, with occasional exceptions for swim days in schools that have a pool( and even then sounds like kids rinse off with their suits on, which was verboten by some teachers at my school ). Which I don’t find surprising because even in my day many kids tried to dodge it because they found it embarrassing. To the point where sometimes gym teachers would stand by the locker-room doors and check if you had wet hair as you left. ---
**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:** [September 1, 2019, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/36 "2019-09-01T02:13:31Z")
I used to have tune-ups done on my car every three months or so. I used to pay all my bills through the mail. I used to balance my checkbook every month. I had a lot more paper. Other than my phone numbers, I know less than five phone numbers - and one of them is 867-5309. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/37 "2019-09-01T02:33:33Z")
I went mail something the other day. I didn’t wanna drive across town to the main post office. Where are all the mail boxes? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/38 "2019-09-01T02:41:11Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Community showering > [@Musicat](#): > > Don’t know what is meant by community in this instance. But as we’ve discussed on this board before forcing kids to shower as a group in High School was still definitely a thing back in the early 1980’s when I was enrolled. Interesting that by the 1980s it might be considered something that one was “forced” to do. When I was in high school in the 1960s and college in the 1970s it was just considered a matter of course that males at least would shower communally after athletic activities. Males were not supposed to be embarrassed by being naked around other males in the locker room or showers. If you were, you were considered to be a bit of a sissy. (And if the famous opening scene from _Carrie_ is a guide, girls showered communally too.) In a thread on the subject, I’ve mentioned that when I was in college at Cornell in the early 1970s men’s swimming classes were held in the nude (only the instructor wore a suit), and suits were optional during men’s hours at the pool at the gym. From the thread, this was not unusual at the time or in earlier decades. I find it very interesting that while society has become much more open about discussing sexuality, and nudity is more acceptable in general magazines and in movies, people seem to have become much more modest/prudish about their own nudity in settings like locker rooms and public showers. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/39 "2019-09-01T03:02:22Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I went mail something the other day. I didn’t wanna drive across town to the main post office. Where are all the mail boxes? Located next to the payphone booths, most likely. ☹ ---
**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:** [September 1, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/40 "2019-09-01T03:37:00Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I suspect that many men, now, don’t own a single suit (nor a tie). I know I don’t. Haven’t worn a suit or tie since (maybe?) my high school graduation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516.md?page=3)