To having been born in the 1970s and see how much the world has changed?

Why be so rude? You could have disagreed politely.

I think one good thing of the 70s (and 80s) was adult education. "Adults" had a massive choice of local college/Poly courses, not just for trades, but also hobbies/crafts, professions, office work, sports, etc. Evening classes, day release, etc was very common and available to all. Lots of courses were heavily discounted and often in numerous locations making them accessible.

I studied for my O levels, A levels and chartered accountancy qualification between our local college of FE (within a mile of home), a Poly just 30 minutes away and another college about an hour away (for my accountancy finals).

My OH did extra O levels to allow him to change careers in his 30's by evening classes.

My mother studied and qualified as a teacher by doing evening classes at a local college (again within a mile of her home!), in her 30s after having children.

Thinking back, in our small seaside town, we had three colleges doing adult education courses, and the nearby small city also had 3 or 4 colleges. There were also adult education courses in other places (mostly for hobby/craft/sports) in places like school/church halls, local school sports centres/swimming pools, etc.

We'd get a booklet twice a year prepared by the local council with a full list of adult education courses, with timings/duration, cost, location, etc. It was really pushed and encouraged.

With the advent of Blair's 50% stupidity, all educational resources are now thrown at 16-21 year olds, whether university, apprenticeships, or basic life skills learnings. Yes, there are "some" things that adults can participate in, but they're now very limited.

Such a shame that a, literally, World leading adult education system was just flushed down the toilet in the 90s and 00s! And boy, are we feeling the repercussions now!

Naturally you would, as would most people in 2024. What I'm saying is that in 1974, the majority opinion would have been different.

@Sethera

The moral compass is not fixed - it swings with the majority. The fact that 70s TV aligned with what the majority thought was acceptable at the time doesn't make it bad TV.

Nail on the head. I fully agree with that.

I'm not sure about the restrictions on content being tighter, they were just different. Sure, The Sex Pistols saying "fuck" offended many people, but it didn't dehumanise whole classes of people the way that the rampant racism, sexism and homophobia did.

If I had to choose between my DCs watching Sex Education or Bernard Manning, I'm not going to choose the racist.

I was born in the early 70s. My mum stayed at home until I went to school and worked part time until she died! I also did the same (apart from the dying part 😉). My dad changed my nappies as did dh change our DCs - the only thing my dad didn’t do was cook, but he washed up and hoovered. I’d say the division of Labour was much the same.
Obviously prices have rocketed, and it’s harder to get on the housing ladder. But more people now are educated, my DPs and PIL’s education was disrupted by WW2 whereas Dh and I have degrees and our DCs are students.
Re music - I have no idea what’s going on these days but myDCs love music - gigs are live and kicking - it’s def not a homogenous mess (maybe that’s mainstream but they’re not in to mainstream).
Internet / has its good and bad points.

But on the other hand, there were far tighter restrictions on the kind of content deemed offensive then, to which attitudes have now relaxed. Think of the scandal when Johnny Rotten said the word 'fuck' on TV. Explicit sexual content was far rarer. Now, swearing and sex are commonplace on TV, yet there are still people who'd be offended by that content.

In 50 years' time I expect people will be talking about how offensive the TV of 2024 was (I leave it to your imagination what might be unacceptable by then).

The moral compass is not fixed - it swings with the majority. The fact that 70s TV aligned with what the majority thought was acceptable at the time doesn't make it bad TV.

I was born in 1973 and i m guessing I'm a couple of years older than you
I agree the 90 s waa the best decade but I think that, s because I was young and care free and had no responsibility.

People didn't seem to move their boyfriends in and stand back or join in while he killed the kids though.

I was a 70,s baby too and my parents had a much higher standard of living than I do .

Very, very true. There were some appalling attitudes then.

And, as PPs have said, strikes and powercuts.

My personal favourite crappy - but unimportant - thing was not being able to buy stamps except at the Post Office or in funny little machines attached to pillar boxes.

But I cling to the misty-eyed bits. Thank you for reminding me that liberalisation has worked wonders! 👍

Mind Your Language, The Black and White Minstrel Show, Benny Hill, On The Buses, It Ain't Half Hot, Mum, Jim Davidson, Bernard Manning etc telling racist "jokes" on prime-time TV, anything that even hinted at homosexuality being treated as a joke at best or an outrage at worst, people being horrified when there was a BLACK WOMAN reading the news!!??!...

It wasn't all Fawlty Towers and The Good Life.

Policewoman, The Onedin Line, proper Dr Who, The Professionals, The Persuaders, Captain Pugwash etc etc.

The world’s gone downhill ever since.

Yes that was my teenage years. Bloody depressing.

Sounds like you had a colourful and varied time (not all good though 😯), unlike my rather dry, Catholic one 😁

@BunnyLake
Yes that all happened in the 80s but the OP stated she was a 70s child and talked about 80s school discos so I suppose she's of an age with me.

That’s a very different 70s to the one I had 😯

Wouldn’t that have been the 80s for you?

@Deeperthantheocean ,

‘There was a lot more inequality and things have changed so much for the better in many ways.’

I am not sure I agree with that. There was a lot more inequality based on sex and race, a lot less on wealth. I think there was far more social mobility then.

Covid was the worst time with some children isolated in large houses and gardens, with live in maids and bespoke lessons zoomed from private schools and others stuck in a couple of sweaty rooms with close to zero education and maybe abusive parents.

Also the 80s were a time of massive progress for women’s rights. When I went to Uni in the 80s my female friends all had total equality and all started at some of the best grad trainee programs in the country. And relationships tended to be based on equality and mutual respect. As you met fewer potential partners (nothing online) you focused on who you were with, not a smorgasbord of possibilities. And sex was more ‘normal’, no weird internet porn normalising weird fetishes.

We all idealise our youth (assuming it was decent) but I do think the internet has been damaging in many ways.

I was born in the late 60s. It was NI so it wasn't exactly the best of times. I remember bombs and shootings, and our neighbour checking his car each morning for car bombs. I also remember the emergency alerts on the TV telling keyholders to go back to their shops to check for incendiary devices and going to the shop with my mum to check for them. My parents split up when I was eight, single parenthood was highly stigmatised, people could be very unpleasant about it. I had a job from thirteen years old, and started going to nightclubs at fifteen, I remember a lot of sleazy older men trying to pick up young girls. I also remember a lot of boredom, especially Sunday, getting my first ZX Spectrum was extremely exciting! The 80s were good fun, the music was fantastic! I moved to London in the 90s, that was incredible fun, the rave scene was an absolute blast. But on balance I have a much better life now, it is fun to look back but its easy to have rose-tinted specs. I do think its amazing that my grandparents didn't have indoor plumbing until the 70s (and my grand mother had ten kids!), and now we have the internet and robot vacuum cleaners and AI. It makes me wish I could see what things will be like in another fifty years.

Me too! Fabulous decade for me! My formative years, loved every second of it!

I’m a bit older than you, born mid 60s and I get really fed up with this nostalgic view that leaves out so many things. A few examples: rape in marriage only finally made illegal in 70s, ditto women being able to get mortgages in their own names, endemic unchallenged sexism in most institutions from school onwards and many more things. Of course we face many and different challenges now but it wasn’t all sunshine and ginger beer.

Women in my family worked my Grandmother's Mum Aunties all had jobs.

I was born at the end of the 50s and I loved the 70s. Would go back in a heartbeat.

It was simpler in some ways but I personally found life then much harder than I do now. Not because my finances are better (they’re not particularly) but there’s far more access to support and advice than there was then (thanks to our double edged internet).

There are much stronger boundaries in place now against sexual harassment, verbal bullying, financial abuse etc. On one hand the internet is poison but on the other it can open doors to all sorts of positive things. If I had been able to access the internet then I’d probably have been able to find better career paths, get support for bullying at school and work etc and just generally learn about things I just couldn’t then (unless I waded through reference books in libraries).

I know people who look back very nostalgically at the 70s but to me it seemed as dingy and grim as you see on old film footage.

Yes, agree with most of that. I had a horrendous time at secondary school due to bullying which made me suicidal and turned me from a straight A* pupil at 11 years old into leaving school after failing all my O levels and CSEs. I truanted just to avoid being kicked and punched by the bullies, not to mention regular fag end burns on my arms! I know bullying is still a problem, but these days it seems to be more of a mental thing which (I know some will disagree) isn't as bad as being kicked and punched and burned on an almost daily basis!

Once I escaped that hell hole, I taught myself (and via evening classes) my O levels and A levels. It was hard because I had to borrow books from the library which wasn't easy as I was working full time in a crap job (due to no qualifications!) and couldn't afford to buy my own text books etc., so struggled with limited resources.

I'd have moved hell and Earth to have had access to the internet where I could do research, download free resources, view reference books, etc. It annoys me that we now have such brilliant resources at our fingertips yet choose to use them to watch brain numbing tik tok videos etc!