A major difference is that choice has gotten better. We are no longer all locked to the same information streams.
When I was younger (any time up to about 1980, actually), you had a choice of two or three TV stations, or perhaps as many as a dozen if you had cable. You had AM and FM radio, and a medium sized market might have a country station, a rock station, an ‘easy listening’ station, a ‘pop’ station, and maybe a classical station.
Everyone watched Johnnie Carson at night, and everyone got their news from the same city newspaper or one of the three major news broadcasts at supper time.
The result was both good and bad. The bad was that because everything had to appeal to the masses, there was a lot of middle-of-the-road schlock, and it was hard to get away from. If a song hit #1, everyone was pretty much forced to hear it if they wanted to listen to music. Marginal voices in the news were not heard. Shows like the Sopranos could never be made because they couldn’t pass broadcast standards laws and because they wouldn’t have had wide enough appeal.
On the good side, all the shared information gave us a bigger sense of cultural unity. We listened to the same music, got our news from the same place, watched the same shows. It bound us together as a people. I think a lot of the partisanship and bickering that’s going on today is the result of our media being so fractured. We don’t even get our news from the same sources anymore, so we can’t even agree on the same basic facts about the world. There are hit TV shows and hit songs I’ve never heard, because I never watch those channels or listen to those stations. There’s too much choice. But that gives me less in common with my neighbors than I used to have.
Almost forgot to mention this. While it was not a utopia, it was great that the way I, and many others, lived in close proximity to family and people who were friends of family; you had better support systems and kids could be left more to the own devices. For instance, between older siblings, relatives, neighbors, etc., my parents could come and go (within reason) and know we’d be taken care of. For instance, seldom did my parents ever have to call in a babysitter because relatives, etc., would automatically step up for them and vice versa, including others asking, late at night, “Why aren’t you in the house,” or just automatically allowing you to stay over if you were there late at night. Fucked-up shit still happened (sexual abuse, etc.) occasionally and i’m not saying everybody lived like this, but overall I think that support and freedom like this was better then.
People mourning the taste of vegetables being better in the past, you’re all American, right? Because I don’t know what the heck farmers do to veggies here in the US, but I do think that veggies in many other countries are much tastier and more flavorful. I used to get these teeny little misshapen cucumbers in Israel, things you would never see on a grocery store shelf in the US, and they would be SO GOOD.
Music is different from when I was in a teenager in the mid-90s, but I would say similar in quality. There’s good stuff and bad stuff now, just like there was then. Access to music is much, much better, thanks to the internet. If someone recommends a band, I love being able to google them and listen to their songs on youtube or the last.com link that will pop up. I’m usually not an old fogey who’s amazed by new technology, but this really is pretty incredible. My iPod also makes music a much more enjoyable experience, which reminds me that new technology has created an entirely new form of entertainment, the podcast. I freaking love podcasts! I listen to lots of history and current events podcasts and it’s awesome. Definitely a cool thing we have today that we didn’t have when I was younger.
TV is definitely better now, especially if you compare it to stuff when I was a kid in the 80s.
People are still writing enjoyable books, can’t really complain there.
I hardly ever watch movies, and I don’t play video games at all, so I can’t comment.
Nah. Very few things were better. In particular, I am so very grateful for the advances that have been made in the area of smoking. I spent pretty much my entire youth in horrible agony being tortured by the rampant unending cloud of second hand smoke that permeated everywhere that I went - stores, cars, movie theaters, airplanes, etc.
There have been great strides in civil rights.
Music is more diverse, there is simply much more music (and easier obtained and organized) - so while there is probably more bad music, there is also more good music. In particular, I have less trouble imagining modern music being as easily susceptible to the feeling of datedness in the near future.
Of the better things I can think of two - one of which has to do solely with me, being that youthful innocence and suspension of belief that made what now look like crappy moves seem truly realistic and engrossing back then. The other being, the general more laid back attitude and lack of development meaning kids had more freedom, and people in general had more freedom to do things like have beach bonfires, younger drinking age, cheaper rents, etc…
I have to agree with Sam Stone. Every generation complains about “kids these days” but with kids 20 years ago, the big complaint was that we were too wild, too disaffected and too apathatic. Kids these days are too fat, too overprotected and too poorly socialized.
Everything these days seems “slicker” and “overproduced” compared to what I remember from the 70s and 80s. Much of that is a function of technology like Photoshop, improved production values, CGI and advanced editing tools. But IMHO it gives everything a sort of “unreal” quality about it.
It seems like there is more “anti-intellectualism” these days as well. Or maybe “intellectual laziness” is a better term. It seems like there is a much greater value placed on slick presentation than actual talent, ability and value added. “Fake it til you make it” has replaced “success comes from hard work and preparation”.
I also feel like there is a general de-valuing of the working classes. I’m not sure how to describe it exactly. It’s like in the 70s and 80s I remember lots of beer and truck commercials and whatnot depecting manly men erecting steel structures, building cars and harvesting crops and whatnot (but not as gay as that sounded). Sort of this romanticized view of your job being something people took pride in. Now, it’s like Office Space or Fight Club where people who actually do work are viewed as miserable misfortunate dopes slaving away like serfs for some uncaring, overintellectualized boss. I’m sure much of this is a function of how corporations have been treating their employees over the past 40 years.
Comic books: Everything worth reading is a graphic novel. Even the comics are printed on magazine paper instead of pulp, and today’s comics cost an arm and a leg. Also, all the stories today copy the Watchmen or the Dark Knight from 1985.
Music: Actually, the music when I was young wasn’t good either (Michael Jackson, Kylie Minogue, etc.) I think the best music came from the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Chuck Berry.
Radio stations: when I was young, the standard top-40 format was like the news. If they played it on that station, we knew it was hot. Nowadays, nearly all the stations play some sort of oldies or stick to a single genre, and there’s only 2 stations that I know of that use the top-40 format.
TV’s: I think the best TV’s were made in the 90’s: 30", flat screen, CRT. I read an article that plasma TV’s and LCD’s are expected to last 5-10 years. The CRT’s last forever, and you could get them repaired locally.
Photos: I don’t like digital pictures (even on TV.) If you look close enough, you can see the pixels. Pictures made from negatives had much better edges. Also, the majority of cameras today are 1.2 megapixel or maybe 2 megapixel (by majority, I mean those included with phones or MP3 players) which still produces a shitty picture.
Pro sports: When I was young, the Mets cocaine scandal ruined baseball, but the steroids scandal, Yankees and spoiled stars in the NBA are doing far more damage.