what did we do 20 years ago

backinthenines · February 2011

I have left friends at restaurants because they couldn't turn off their freakin phone while with me. I didn't drive 45 miles to sit alone. I can do that at home in my jammies LOL
I have no problem excusing myself and leaving. They don't pull that crap a 2nd time.

I LOVE that!! :laugh:

Carl01 · February 2011

I was born in 1964,my father in 1905 and his father in 1850 so through those 3 generations the telephone went from being non existent to rare to that 4 lb black thing with a dial I grew up with to what they are today.
Along the way horses gave way to autos,traveling easily to any part of the world developed,etc.

My high school had a computer room...there was one computer in it and it filled the room,just was a novelty thing,and now here we all sit at one or carry one in a hip pocket
Test papers were mimeographs with ink that reeked,the TV only had 3 channels to watch and if you were bored out here in the country you went outside for walks or whatever you could to entertain yourself.

Point is that through out you could pick any 20-30 year "ago" time period and write the same,it is the nature if our lives and the change we go through.
Personally I don`t like some of it (texting non stop or always talking on a cell phone) but it is the same progression I suppose that older generations then me disliked about television.

porcelain_doll · February 2011

I think it's affecting our (well maybe not all of us) ability to socialize as we are getting used to meeting and talking to people online instead of face-to-face. It seems like kids especially are more comfortable having conversations via texting than talking. I don't really think that is good for socialization. We were made to interact and be in each other's presence. My 12-year-old nephew will sit and text with a friend, or a girl, for hours at a time. I can't help but wonder if they could've had that same conversation in 15 min. if they would've just called each other or talked in person!

My brother and I used to fight over our landline phone like crazy growing up. I would have killed to have my own cell phone during those years. So technology is good for something in that regard! We didn't have the internet until I was about 15. It had just become available and I thought it was the coolest thing, even if I had to wait to dial in and connect. I remember the first time I chatted with someone online playing a game. I just thought it was amazing that I was talking to someone on the other side of the world!

NYIceQueen · February 2011

Funny we just talked about that at work.
When I was a kid we were always playing outside. We were on our bikes, on rollerskates, climbing trees etc. As long as we were home for dinner time and parents had a vague idea where we were there was little “adult supervision”. There wasn’t this parental paranoia and “stranger danger” that we have now. I think it’s ridiculous that 8-year olds are strutting around with their own mobile phones!!!!
There is an interesting series in the UK called “Child of our Times”. It’s effectively a longitudinal social study of children who were all born on 1.1.2000. They are followed up on an annual basis in terms of their physical, social, psychological, educational development and come from various social circles. I think it was in 2009 when they looked at child’s play and measured how much time these children spend in front of a “screen” or other, and how much was spent in “unstructured play” (i.e. not going to a club for some structured activity). It was a real shocker just how much time these kids spent online, playing computer games or watching TV!!! No wonder they are so unfit. Part of the problem was the parents not allowing the kids outside on their own. They were asked a question, who let their child walk to the corner shop to buy some milk for example, and hardly any of them did. This false sense of “protecting children” is actually putting them at huge risks in other ways, but seems that people can’t see that.

It also really depends on where you live. My brother-in-law allows his daughter to go to the corner store (she's 12) but it's an actual corner store. My nearest "Corner store" is about 1 mile down a very busy highway with no sidewalks, and especially in winter (Buffalo) the snow piles on the side force folks waiting for the bus to stand on the actual road. No place for a 9 yo girl.

And no offense, but pretty sure if I let my 9 yo walk that mile to the store to "teach her independence" some cop would grab her and bring her home and arrest ME or something like that.

And based on my own experience, stranger danger is very real. I was lucky. Lots of others have not.

Bootzey · February 2011

I am completely flabbergasted over the popularity of Wii. Why would you choose to do that virtually, over going outside and doing it physically.

heathersmilez · February 2011

We own one pay-as-you-go cell that we keep in the car we drive to work daily in so it costs less than $20 a year to add money for "emergencies-only" which are actually usually rare occurrences that I need to be contacted while out somewhere busy.

We are only 28 so very much part of the cell generation (but it didn’t hit us until mid-high school) and you can reach us during the day at work, at home in the evenings and during our commute we DO NOT WANT TO TALK TO YOU!! If I'm grocery shopping, at the gym whatever, why does someone need to reach me?

And yes, our friends still love us and we see them regularly

KristenAnn711 · February 2011

I was a year old. Probably drooling and crawling around

Tass175 · February 2011

Yeah phone books just dont get used in our house except for recycling. As far as cell phones, I hardly use them, love my land line. My son goes out and plays he is very limited on any tv use weather it be video games or movies, and we do not have cable.

hooah_mj · February 2011

2 and a half channels on the tube to choose from, on the only set in the house.

mama'd yell out the window when supper was ready.

5 miles to school or the pool on our bikes, I was 10.

barefoot at 3:05, regardless of the scorching sidewalk on the way home from school.

when mama said, "I'll give you something to cry about" SHE MEANT IT

Aw, those were the days :bigsmile:

what did we do 20 years ago

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