The whole gay marriage thing caught me by surprise. I read the headlines when the court case in Ontario cleared the way for it here, and thought, “Of course! Why didn’t that ever occur to me?” and immediately supported it. It’s just that somehow it never, ever entered my mind as something that would ever happen in real life, even though I read all kinds of science fiction that had all kinds of different living arrangements.
Other changes: the social phenomena supported by always-on internet connections.
Twenty years ago, I was aware of the internet, although it had not made its way out of the universities in Canada. In 1986, I had an Amiga and wanted a modem and was aware of BBSs, but I used to go to disc-swap meetings to get software and be social. Even earlier, in 1984, when I was at university, I never saw the internet, because I was not studying computers. I would not encounter the internet directly until I tried FTP at the computer lab at Sheridan College in early 1993.
The big change was when high-speed internet connections became affordable, and you didn’t have to dial in to go online. You turned on your computer and the internet was there. That led to the rise of all sorts of things, like instant messaging, that changed the whole social aspect of the net. Compare the difference between instant messaging and IRC.
The fact that long distance calling is no big deal.
In about 1980, I had a friend I met at summer camp who lived in the next state over. After camp was over, there was some point where my parents asked what I wanted as a gift (Christmas? birthday?) and I asked to be allowed to call her on the phone. This was WAY SERIOUS, and I was thrilled they said yes, and I could talk to her for five minutes (we timed it with the oven timer).
Freshman year of college, I got a scholarship to take an intersession class in Italy, I would be away for four weeks. Before going, I got instructions about how to place an overseas call to my parents JUST IN CASE there was an emergency. Being dead was pretty much the threshold for emergency. I could call if I was dead.
I was out to lunch with a friend the other day, and she got a cell phone call from her daughter, who was calling to say hi. From FRANCE. The mind boggles.
TV remotes then stereo remotes and garage door remotes and ceiling fan remotes.
Blockbuster and Netflix—you could see a movie at home, a movie you’d want to see.
Everyone has gotten a divorce.
Giant cups of soda.
The projection of impenetrable force fields around people and objects, protecting them and stopping time for them.
Or did I dream that?
OK, I’ll just say “internet” then. Especially getting my news off the internet, and rarely picking up a newspaper or watching TV news anymore (I used to be a news junkie).
And it makes me very happy I never expected that as an adult, I’d be one of the “cool kids.” When I was a kid, nerd was most definitely NOT in. Only geeks went to the library and the art gallery for fun.
I think what surprises (and gratifies) me most, though, is the growing acceptance of alternative lifestyles. Not just homosexuality, though that’s a biggie, but also non-mainstream diets, non-mainstream religions, non-mainstream jobs. Though we still encounter bigots and 'phobes of all stripes in all areas, I think there’s been a huge upswell in acceptance in my lifetime. When I was in high school, a kid who was suspected of being gay was tormented with the tacit approval of authority figures. Now, my daughter is an officer in the Gay/Straight Alliance in her high school… and they have a FACULTY ADVISOR!
The complete acceptance of infomercials. Just look at most of the hundreds of channels that we can now get. Every single one of them is showing paid programming late at night.
Just one data point, NYC wasn’t that bad before the 90’s either. Took our grammar school kiddies, little sis, and niece to the big city during the 80’s and stayed in times square. Walked all over manhatten day and night, no problems. Only weird thing was we went to the America Cafe (probably defunct now) and thought we were way cool. Halfway thru dinner a couple of servers came over and told us that all the servers had a bet on what state we were from, Wi or Mn. We thought we were fitting in so well, then took a look around and we were the only group of totally blond people in the whole place, two adults and 4 kids.
Sometimes it seems like everything in the past was either better or worse than it is now, but mostly it’s just the same.
On the other hand things I’m surprised at:
Cell phones, I still call mine a car phone and keep it in the car for emergencies.
The internets, god, I love the internet. I started out with the telphone land-line tela-type connection in high school, 1969. Ya know, put the phone receiver on the 10 bite modem dealy. I supported myself in college as a card-puncher.
bottled water, used to think it was stupid now I love it.
the internets again, yeah, I love being able to google stuff, history, math, engineering, books, poetry, crazy shit, youtube, etc.
Oh and the smoking thing. Growing up everyone I knew smoked, mom, dad, sis, brother, aunts, uncles, and all friends. My high school had a designated smoking lounge for students open to all students from freshman to seniors. I think MrSin and I were the only non-smokers in our families, our college group, and as practicing engineers when we graduated in the mid-70’s. Check out all the old NASA videos. Whenever one of us went to a work meeting the other knew when we got home because of the ciggie smell on our bodies. It was a mandatory immediate trip to the showers after a work meeting. And none of the smokers had a clue that they smelled smokey. YIKES.
Funny thing about engineers, I swear that 90% of them quit smoking between the 70’s and the 80’s. Anybody else notice this phenom?
And it still happens a lot, sadly. Although leads me to my next one: the fact that high schools – some of them, at any rate – will actually allow me to go there and tell them about how gay people aren’t bug-eyed aliens from Mars and about how you really shouldn’t torment them, please.
Oh, and the fact that someone actually used the word “genderqueer” on the floor of the House of Commons. It was Bill Siksay, of course, but still.
Is that the really large restaurant in lower Manhattan, with the regional food? Because that was still there as of 2003, when I learned that Canadians really should not try to eat chicken-fried steak.
When I was a wee lad the YMCA song was nothing more than a fun little ditty to sing. The same went for Macho Man, but now I can’t believe how gay those songs are. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Funny, we appear to be the polar opposite.
Well for me, not gay marriage. When I was growing up in the sixties, my neighborhood was full of same sex couples. Not a big deal.
What did catch me by surprise? Cell phones you can put in your pocket. The first cell phones in the 80’s were freaking huge.
Going back a little longer affordable pocket calculators. When they first came out pocket calculators cost about $300. (four function Add, subtract, multiply and divide + memory) Then the dropped to $100. I saw one of these on sale for $75.00, and I bought it with the reasoning that they will never be that cheap again. Yeah, right.
I never would have imagined they’d ban smoking in pubs.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist type, but the demise of smoking has been so sudden that I’m sure the alcohol industry has something to do with it. Sure it’s bad, but it’s not the portal to cancer-ville it’s often portrayed as.
Oh, and the retirement of Concorde caught me off guard. We’re going backwards here… surely that’s not right?
The anti-PC movement, with “liberal” as a dirty word.
The way women continue to present themselves as sex objects. I thought we’d been liberated, and for a long time couldn’t understand why women continued to cede their power. It took me a while to learn that beauty actually IS a source of power.
The stupidity of prime-time television (I grew up on Bob Newhart and All in the Family), and how rude people like Simon Cowell are - the first time I saw American Idol, I was stunned by his language, and I couldn’t believe Ryan Seacrest’s inanity. I did get used to it, though, and enjoyed last season in particular.
That MTV is no longer about videos, and hasn’t been for quite a while.
Puff Daddy/Diddy/whatever – given his success, he must be brilliant, but I swear in every photograph I’ve ever seen he looks like a moron. I loathe his expression, but it seems a lot of people want to emulate him.
The way the Internet has led to communities, messageboards, connections between people.
I never expected that as an adult, I’d be one of the “cool kids.” When I was a kid, nerd was most definitely NOT in. Only geeks went to the library and the art gallery for fun.
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