Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.

1980s definatly, and back..Why were people more fit, toned and healthy Looking?

1679111214

Replies

  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
    Again in the 50s, our tv was a 9-inch black and white with poor reception. It’s the only one I ever saw like it, except in pictures. All my friends families had larger color TVs. We got a big color tv when I was 12 or 13?
  • Speakeasy76
    Speakeasy76 Posts: 961 Member
    I'm an 80's kid and not only do I clearly remember having a boatload of unhealthy snacks in the house, but we also had cable TV AND video game systems and computer games. I definitely played outside a lot when I was younger, but as we got older our activities became more and more sedentary.

    Ironically, my mom has never struggled with her weight..or at least not that I was aware of.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,428 Member
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    MsCzar wrote: »
    I was
    So, so many snacks.

    Having an afternoon snack right after school was a solid tradition. We lived near a Hostess Bakery outlet and boxes of Ho-ho's, Banana Flips, Snowballs and Zingers could be had for 50¢. We kids thought nothing of polishing off half a box in one go. Little Debbie apple cakes didn't last long either.

    Of course the activity after the snack was going outside and playing not sitting on a video game eating more snacks like now.

    Well, sometimes I'd have a snack and read a book or play with paper dolls or draw on the Etch-a-Sketch. Modern kids didn't invent sedentary hobbies. There probably are trends in physical activity that are relevant here, but I feel like this conversation overall is really flattening out differences and assuming an experience of 1980s life that is not necessarily accurate.

    Agreed.

    I also feel like it's treating the 80s like it was a million years ago and an entirely different world.

    No.

    We had prepackaged snacks. Video games. Television/cable. EVEN ELECTRICITY AND INDOOR PLUMBING.

    I have to admit, my comment were from a point of view of a child growing up in the 60's and 70's so not video games (maybe someone that was rich had a Pong at their house, other than that late 70's video games were at an arcade or bar). TV consisted of 3 networks plus an educational and independent station. TV geared to kids was mainly Saturday mornings. Cable was the early 1980's.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    MsCzar wrote: »
    I was
    So, so many snacks.

    Having an afternoon snack right after school was a solid tradition. We lived near a Hostess Bakery outlet and boxes of Ho-ho's, Banana Flips, Snowballs and Zingers could be had for 50¢. We kids thought nothing of polishing off half a box in one go. Little Debbie apple cakes didn't last long either.

    Of course the activity after the snack was going outside and playing not sitting on a video game eating more snacks like now.

    Well, sometimes I'd have a snack and read a book or play with paper dolls or draw on the Etch-a-Sketch. Modern kids didn't invent sedentary hobbies. There probably are trends in physical activity that are relevant here, but I feel like this conversation overall is really flattening out differences and assuming an experience of 1980s life that is not necessarily accurate.

    Yeah. It's almost starting to feel like that other debate thread a while back - I think it was about how people lost weight before calorie counting, or something like that - in which one guy asserted that people couldn't lose weight in the 1960s, because we didn't know about calories yet. 🙄

    1980s: Outdoor play only, no snacks, ubiquitous cocaine, back before supermarkets. Jeez.

    In popular culture it feels like the 1980s have already been wrapped up in the blanket of a cuddly "idealized past." The things perceived as their fears and concerns are painted as quaint, things that trouble people today are perceived as working well then.

    Kids were really kids then, women were really women, food was really food, eating out was always special, etc.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    Again in the 50s, our tv was a 9-inch black and white with poor reception. It’s the only one I ever saw like it, except in pictures. All my friends families had larger color TVs. We got a big color tv when I was 12 or 13?

    We had two or three of those in the house during the 70s/80s -- they were freebies/inticements for opening new accounts at some financial institution.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    MsCzar wrote: »
    I was
    So, so many snacks.

    Having an afternoon snack right after school was a solid tradition. We lived near a Hostess Bakery outlet and boxes of Ho-ho's, Banana Flips, Snowballs and Zingers could be had for 50¢. We kids thought nothing of polishing off half a box in one go. Little Debbie apple cakes didn't last long either.

    Of course the activity after the snack was going outside and playing not sitting on a video game eating more snacks like now.

    Well, sometimes I'd have a snack and read a book or play with paper dolls or draw on the Etch-a-Sketch. Modern kids didn't invent sedentary hobbies. There probably are trends in physical activity that are relevant here, but I feel like this conversation overall is really flattening out differences and assuming an experience of 1980s life that is not necessarily accurate.

    Yeah. It's almost starting to feel like that other debate thread a while back - I think it was about how people lost weight before calorie counting, or something like that - in which one guy asserted that people couldn't lose weight in the 1960s, because we didn't know about calories yet. 🙄

    1980s: Outdoor play only, no snacks, ubiquitous cocaine, back before supermarkets. Jeez.

    In popular culture it feels like the 1980s have already been wrapped up in the blanket of a cuddly "idealized past." The things perceived as their fears and concerns are painted as quaint, things that trouble people today are perceived as working well then.

    Kids were really kids then, women were really women, food was really food, eating out was always special, etc.

    Girls were girls and men were men.
    Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again...

    ;-)


    Gee, our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days.

    (when I was a kid, I always heard it as "Mystery could use a man like Herbert Hoover again." Very confusing. I thought Herbert Hoover was a movie detective like Sherlock Holmes or Charlie Chan.)
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,366 Member
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    MsCzar wrote: »
    I was
    So, so many snacks.

    Having an afternoon snack right after school was a solid tradition. We lived near a Hostess Bakery outlet and boxes of Ho-ho's, Banana Flips, Snowballs and Zingers could be had for 50¢. We kids thought nothing of polishing off half a box in one go. Little Debbie apple cakes didn't last long either.

    Of course the activity after the snack was going outside and playing not sitting on a video game eating more snacks like now.

    Well, sometimes I'd have a snack and read a book or play with paper dolls or draw on the Etch-a-Sketch. Modern kids didn't invent sedentary hobbies. There probably are trends in physical activity that are relevant here, but I feel like this conversation overall is really flattening out differences and assuming an experience of 1980s life that is not necessarily accurate.

    Agreed.

    I also feel like it's treating the 80s like it was a million years ago and an entirely different world.

    No.

    We had prepackaged snacks. Video games. Television/cable. EVEN ELECTRICITY AND INDOOR PLUMBING.

    I have to admit, my comment were from a point of view of a child growing up in the 60's and 70's so not video games (maybe someone that was rich had a Pong at their house, other than that late 70's video games were at an arcade or bar). TV consisted of 3 networks plus an educational and independent station. TV geared to kids was mainly Saturday mornings. Cable was the early 1980's.

    That's what I remember too. Twelve or thirteen channels, although more than two required a cable subscription where I lived. You got up to change the channel or adjust the volume in my house. I think corded remote controls might have been a thing in other people's houses. Space Invaders was an arcade game in the very early 80s but pinball machines outnumbered computer-style games.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
    ythannah wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    MsCzar wrote: »
    I was
    So, so many snacks.

    Having an afternoon snack right after school was a solid tradition. We lived near a Hostess Bakery outlet and boxes of Ho-ho's, Banana Flips, Snowballs and Zingers could be had for 50¢. We kids thought nothing of polishing off half a box in one go. Little Debbie apple cakes didn't last long either.

    Of course the activity after the snack was going outside and playing not sitting on a video game eating more snacks like now.

    Well, sometimes I'd have a snack and read a book or play with paper dolls or draw on the Etch-a-Sketch. Modern kids didn't invent sedentary hobbies. There probably are trends in physical activity that are relevant here, but I feel like this conversation overall is really flattening out differences and assuming an experience of 1980s life that is not necessarily accurate.

    Agreed.

    I also feel like it's treating the 80s like it was a million years ago and an entirely different world.

    No.

    We had prepackaged snacks. Video games. Television/cable. EVEN ELECTRICITY AND INDOOR PLUMBING.

    I have to admit, my comment were from a point of view of a child growing up in the 60's and 70's so not video games (maybe someone that was rich had a Pong at their house, other than that late 70's video games were at an arcade or bar). TV consisted of 3 networks plus an educational and independent station. TV geared to kids was mainly Saturday mornings. Cable was the early 1980's.

    That's what I remember too. Twelve or thirteen channels, although more than two required a cable subscription where I lived. You got up to change the channel or adjust the volume in my house. I think corded remote controls might have been a thing in other people's houses. Space Invaders was an arcade game in the very early 80s but pinball machines outnumbered computer-style games.

    Atari was out in the late 70s - and not prohibitively expensive, albeit with just a few games. Nintendo was out with games aand popular by the mid 80s.
  • azuki
    azuki Posts: 38 Member
    I would say the ease, cost, and availability of processed food skyrocketed since the 1980s.
  • Mellouk89
    Mellouk89 Posts: 469 Member
    edited June 2021
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    MsCzar wrote: »
    I was
    So, so many snacks.

    Having an afternoon snack right after school was a solid tradition. We lived near a Hostess Bakery outlet and boxes of Ho-ho's, Banana Flips, Snowballs and Zingers could be had for 50¢. We kids thought nothing of polishing off half a box in one go. Little Debbie apple cakes didn't last long either.

    Of course the activity after the snack was going outside and playing not sitting on a video game eating more snacks like now.

    I don't know when did this change occur but I grew up in the ealy 2000s and we were outside most of the time. We did play videogames but it was mostly at night, during the day we were doing stuff outside.

    I don't know what it's like today. I know it's more socially acceptable to be a gamer nowadays, but in my days it was looked down upon, kind of.
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,311 Member
    ythannah wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    MsCzar wrote: »
    I was
    So, so many snacks.

    Having an afternoon snack right after school was a solid tradition. We lived near a Hostess Bakery outlet and boxes of Ho-ho's, Banana Flips, Snowballs and Zingers could be had for 50¢. We kids thought nothing of polishing off half a box in one go. Little Debbie apple cakes didn't last long either.

    Of course the activity after the snack was going outside and playing not sitting on a video game eating more snacks like now.

    Well, sometimes I'd have a snack and read a book or play with paper dolls or draw on the Etch-a-Sketch. Modern kids didn't invent sedentary hobbies. There probably are trends in physical activity that are relevant here, but I feel like this conversation overall is really flattening out differences and assuming an experience of 1980s life that is not necessarily accurate.

    Agreed.

    I also feel like it's treating the 80s like it was a million years ago and an entirely different world.

    No.

    We had prepackaged snacks. Video games. Television/cable. EVEN ELECTRICITY AND INDOOR PLUMBING.

    I have to admit, my comment were from a point of view of a child growing up in the 60's and 70's so not video games (maybe someone that was rich had a Pong at their house, other than that late 70's video games were at an arcade or bar). TV consisted of 3 networks plus an educational and independent station. TV geared to kids was mainly Saturday mornings. Cable was the early 1980's.

    That's what I remember too. Twelve or thirteen channels, although more than two required a cable subscription where I lived. You got up to change the channel or adjust the volume in my house. I think corded remote controls might have been a thing in other people's houses. Space Invaders was an arcade game in the very early 80s but pinball machines outnumbered computer-style games.

    In the UK we had 3 channels - can’t remember when 4 came in but there was a LOT of excitement. Until we all worked out we didn’t have the reception (unless you lived in London) and went back to our VHS. Friday night was spent staring the videos in the local rental shop, hoping someone hadn’t taken the one copy of the film you wanted. TBH, living in a semi rural area, download speeds were so bad that we probably kept the rental business of films going 🤣
  • dolorsit
    dolorsit Posts: 92 Member
    And no remote controls back then, well, not til later. Think of all the calories expended getting up to change to one of the other two channels.
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,366 Member
    dolorsit wrote: »
    And no remote controls back then, well, not til later. Think of all the calories expended getting up to change to one of the other two channels.

    And the calories expended getting up to fiddle with the rabbit ears (antenna) to improve the reception when things got a little fuzzy,