# So it's 1985 and someone shows you this **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 6, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403 "2011-04-06T15:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FrigidLizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@FrigidLizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrigidLizard)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/21 "2011-04-06T23:49:45Z")
I probably would have taken it for a draft of a magazine contents page. That would to me explain the absent page numbers. I would have assumed (because then, and now, I know little about publishing) that the play buttons, “log in”, etc. were notations for content to be added. I don’t think I would have seen the connection to computers. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/22 "2011-04-07T00:04:51Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > I would be really interested to know what Bunga is. (yeah, the woman on her hands and knees caught my attention immediately) Heck, I’m alive today and I don’t know _now_ what an “erotic Bunga party” is. ---
**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:** [April 7, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/23 "2011-04-07T00:54:15Z")
I’d probably look at that image and think, “USA Today got upgraded!” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/24 "2011-04-07T01:00:36Z")
In 1985 the first Mac had already been out for a year, so I’d know about graphical UI’s even if HTML was still several years in the future. There are clearly buttons to press (“View More Stories”, “Enter Now”) so I’d assume it was a screenshot from some sort of public news kiosk. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/25 "2011-04-07T01:54:23Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > It’s wording would prompt me to ask if Eddie had died. It’s wording _did_ prompt me to wonder if Eddie had died! I was 4 in 1985. I think I would have looked at the pictures, maybe thought they were pretty, then go find something to play with! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/26 "2011-04-07T07:46:58Z")
I wasn’t able to read in 1985, but if I were the age I am now, I would just focus straight on the middle headline. I would have no idea for dating, but would be scared to death that something bad was about to happen to the government. Only after I got over that would I even investigate, and it would be entirely focused on knowing when it is so I can do something about it. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/27 "2011-04-07T11:42:01Z")
In 1985 I was 9 and a space buff, so the Peep article would probably be the only thing I would be interested in reading about. The picture itself looks like it’d be a still off of a high definition (or maybe an interactive) microfiche reader. ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/28 "2011-04-07T12:15:12Z")
As a Van Halen fan in 1985 I would have heard about the breakup and rumors of Sammy Hagar, the reflection would just confirm these rumors. Everything else, from Ghadafi to the government, to Charlie Sheen would seem fairly normal. Japan would be a worry, since the 3 Mile Island thing was not too long ago and no one had a clue what was going to happen in Chernobyl next year. There were Entertainment TV shows back then, this format is similar so I suppose I would guess it to be some sort of interactive (either TV or computer) form of one of these shows. I don’t think I would guess it to be too far into the future though. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/29 "2011-04-07T12:22:15Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Gadhafi’s STILL around? I was in a used bookstore last week. They had an old copy of the British satire magazine _Not!_ from 1980. And one of the first articles they had was a satire about Gaddafi. ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/30 "2011-04-07T12:41:38Z")
Maybe Reagan can get some help taking care of Ghadaffi from that Hussien fellow in Iraq, he seems to be on our side. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/31 "2011-04-07T13:33:47Z")
**3 N.Y. bodies aren’t missing woman** Well, at least two of them aren’t. Unless people can join together like a super Transformer. ---
**Author:** ![Sacrilegium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f05b48/32.png) [@Sacrilegium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sacrilegium)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/32 "2011-04-07T14:51:50Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > A kid launching “Peep” into space. No idea what a “Peep” is but wow, even 9-year-olds can launch stuff into space now! I think that would be one of my reactions too, along with thinking EVH was dead. I wonder how far into the future people would think it was if you removed the 1985-recognizable names and added a headline (w/pic) about President Barack Obama. > [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > But it seems really unlikely that this image could appear randomly. It’s too perfectly cropped. Even if they happened to catch a computer screen, there would likely be more om the monitor visible, and reflections from the surroundings on the monitor screen. Ah, but see, you don’t know how the machine works. It obviously trolls Google Image Search for random images, and just happened to catch the cropped pic from this thread. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/33 "2011-04-08T08:15:19Z")
It’s 1985, what’s ‘googol image search’? ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/34 "2011-04-08T17:00:14Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Near the bottom right it says “Facebook social plugin”, so a 1985 reader would wonder what is “Facebook”, what is a “plugin”, and what is a “social plugin”. Socialising on computer networks was very primitive in 1985, before the Internet was widespread, so something like Facebook would be a totally alien concept. I have three letters for you - BBS. BBSes were very much the social network of the day (a Facebook group was recently set up for the Winnipeg BBS community, and it was pretty much exactly like old times again, picking up where we left off 20 years ago.) Granted, in 1985 there weren’t quite as many BBSes around as there would be in 10 years (although significantliy more than there are now), but I’ve met several hard-core geeks who were BBSing back then. And I’m very surprised that several caught the Van Halen one and didn’t overlook the obvious one - I mean 15 year old me might have noticed the Van Halen one too (I didn’t when I saw it, I only relied on the comments of others in the thread), but what jumped out at me was what was in bigger letters: “Government shutdown”? 😕:eek:😕:eek: Holy shit! WTF is happening to the government? THe US packing it up for good and the USSR is declaring victory? What the fucking fuckity fuck?? Wouild that not raise an eyebrow in 1985? (Heck, it raises eyebrows for me, but then I’m Canadian, and am not getting as much news on that (most of our news is about next month’s election.) ---
**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:** [April 8, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/35 "2011-04-08T18:30:29Z")
Well, I wrote a column for an on-line newspaper 10 years before 1985, so I’d mostly think that the color was great - not just orange like PLATO terminals, or green like my terminal at work. I was also quite familiar with hyperlinks back then, but I’m not sure the convention that a blue colored line was a link would come through. Since I had used VCRs, I think I would get that the arrow meant play. But mostly I’d be disappointed that it was the same old crap, with no moon colonies or flying cars. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/36 "2011-04-08T18:49:54Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > what jumped out at me was what was in bigger letters: “Government shutdown”? 😕:eek:😕:eek: Holy shit! WTF is happening to the government? THe US packing it up for good and the USSR is declaring victory? What the fucking fuckity fuck?? Wouild that not raise an eyebrow in 1985? (Heck, it raises eyebrows for me, but then I’m Canadian, and am not getting as much news on that (most of our news is about next month’s election.) There are clues in the left-hand column: “Dems, GOP fail to reach budget deal” and “Opinion: GOP’s gamble to slash deficit”. That would give you the gist of the story. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/37 "2011-04-08T21:00:19Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > It’s the same old same old. The way Thatcher and Reagan were privatizing services this would be typical news. We also had lots of war, and 3 Mile Island was only 5 years previous. The Federal Government was also trying to set up a national nuclear dump site of which the Wisconsin granite was looking good to the feds. Air traffic controller may be closing airports, well that already happened. > > Two weeks ago I was playing my Antiquities cds by Ewan MacColl. It was full of all of all this last month’s issues and that release was from the time of Thatcher and Reagen in the 80’s. Nuclear Means Jobs, Economic Miracle, Just the Tax for Me, etc. “Charlie Sheen to trademark 22 phrases”. You mean the guy from Red Dawn? ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/38 "2011-04-09T10:13:32Z")
Hey if an actor can be the President, an actor can become a copyright lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/39 "2011-04-09T11:05:38Z")
I’m not sure what I’d make of it, but I think it would be nice if someone would give Ashley Judd a little heads up. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403/40 "2011-04-09T13:29:16Z")
I think the little “play” buttons on the photos would be real fascinating. Knowing that it is from the future, I would assume those images could play like a video tape. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-its-1985-and-someone-shows-you-this/577403.md?page=3)