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Original poster

Were things really boring in the 80s?

272 replies

Egyptiancottonhouse · 28/04/2023 13:54

I was born in the 80s, grew up in the 90s but it's difficult to imagine now how things were.

I'm watching reruns of Brookside from 82 I think.

It's very nostalgic but things must have been so boring, although people didn't know any different. I don't think most of us today would cope without the Internet, TV on demand, online shopping, social media.

Being able to research anything you want in a second, look up a recipe, look at a map and street view.

The Internet really has changed our lives beyond recognition.

OP posts:
gogohmm · 30/04/2023 14:13

You don't miss what you don't know about. I had a spectrum and fought with my brothers for time on it!

TonTonMacoute · 30/04/2023 14:19

No, it was a brilliant decade to be young, I was never bored.

Frankly, OPs definition of fun and interesting - ie spending all day online - sounds like early death.

feellikeanalien · 30/04/2023 14:20

I loved the 80s. Some of the best times of my life. Graduated from uni and moved to London. Made life long friends, socialised loads. Could afford to actually live in London and go out to cinemas, restaurants and theatres. I may be being nostalgic but I'm so glad I'm not living through that stage in my life now.

I don't remember ever being bored.

Kazzyhoward · 30/04/2023 15:17

Nothing wrong with being bored occasionally. Gives you time to think, clear your mind, etc. Basically a "lite" version of meditation!

Arniesleftleg · 30/04/2023 15:46

Absolutely not. The 80's were amazing. Simple times, but we had the best music and the craziest fashions.

Boring on a Sunday though as nothing was open and all that was on TV were Songs of Praise or Antiques Roadshow.

Coxspurplepippin · 30/04/2023 15:55

Brilliant decade. Fantastic music, gigs, hooning around on motorbikes, camping, campfires on beaches, guitars, stargazing, rowing on lakes, midnight swimming. Reading, writing, drawing, painting, hiking all over Europe, spending a year in the US, playing in a band, afternoons in pub gardens playing cards. Learning to cross country ski, tobogganing, large scale snowball fights.

Original poster
Egyptiancottonhouse · 30/04/2023 16:42

I definitely didn't say that my idea of fun was spending all day online.

But there are times such as on a Sunday afternoon when things could be pretty boring without modern conveniences.

It isn't just about mindlessly scrolling. It deciding to make some cakes on a Sunday afternoon and being able to instantly find a recipe, and a good one too, with reviews. It's being able to watch your TV show on demand if you miss the start, it's being able to send a photo instantly.

Of course people managed for generations, but it's difficult to imagine now.

I'm old enough to remember the 80s and 99s but being a child/teen was a simpler time. I wouldn't fancy it as an adult.

OP posts:
Sage71 · 30/04/2023 17:13

Born early 70’s and grew up through 80’s and I actually wish we still lived like that. Didn’t miss what we had never had. Sunday was all about family as most shops etc. we’re shut. As a child it was easier to focus on getting my homework etc. done as I didn’t have unlimited choices to distract me no phone, on demand tv, online gaming etc. We didn’t have designer clothes so weren’t targeted for them and if you got bullied at school you got a break when you got home as they couldn’t bombard you with messages and videos. Bring back the 80’s from my point of view I would love to be bringing my own children up like that.

Sage71 · 30/04/2023 17:18

Absolutely this love it

Sage71 · 30/04/2023 17:20

SundaeLove · 28/04/2023 14:47

I love this ! All true for me too

Show quote history

Love this so true

MissingMoominMamma · 30/04/2023 17:21

It was less boring because people weren’t glued to devices!

Delia123 · 30/04/2023 17:27

Life was so much better when no one was filming you being a teenage idiot. Honestly, the teenage me today would be so much more restrained and boring that the 1980s me purely out of fear about what would end up on social media.

Birchtrees · 30/04/2023 17:49

MissingMoominMamma · 30/04/2023 17:21

It was less boring because people weren’t glued to devices!

Absolutely this .

Serena73 · 30/04/2023 19:21

I was born in the 70s, grew up in the 80s. The 80s were awesome. We spent more time together as a family in the house, rather than all being separately absorbed by the internet. Sometimes we were bored, but being bored meant thinking of something to do, rather than mindlessly watching drivel like social media. The music was amazing and every weekend we wanted to go to the record shop to buy a new single. We watched Top of the Pops together as a family and recorded the Charts on Sunday nights on a cassette. I went out a lot more than my own children, in my later teens I would want to go out every night to avoid being bored. We could drink in the pub from 16 because no one cared enough to refuse you. Went clubbing at 16 too. Read all the time, could read for hours on a rainy day. Being able to research on the internet now is a plus point, but I don't believe that people are happier now. I think there was less pressure then, especially for young people.

Aslanplustwo · 30/04/2023 20:46

All these people who were so "bored" because there was nothing to do at the weekends!!!! Around here Saturday was sports day, most people either played or watched, and Sunday was usually family time - we used to go for Sunday drives, often with a picnic. I don't know how we have got to this stage where young people constantly need to be entertained and can't find ways of entertaining themselves unless it involves a screen, or looking around the shops. Everyone does get bored now and again, you just have to deal with it. As for those who were so "bored" that they read a book - words fail me!!!

StillMedusa · 30/04/2023 21:09

I was a teen during the 80's.. it was great!
We called for our friends (or used the house phone in the hallway after 6pm)
We could be out for hours, not tracked, or having to call home, we played out. We did all the dreadful things teenaegers do but no one found out Grin

We had Blockbusters so the highlight of Saturday was choosing a new video, and scaring ourselves silly watching Friday 13th!

I read so much, taped Top of the Pops and the top 40, tried out terrible clothes and makeup.. no one to take pics for others to laugh at. Life had it's usual problems but I only remember one girl in my girls' school who developed anorexia, far fewer MH problems.

The downsides were the threat of nuclear war and then AIDS (just as I was off to Uni)

Scottsy200 · 01/05/2023 00:35

They were amazing not boring at all and everyone wasn’t always crying about being offended all the timers, good old Gen X’ers

Doubletroublemummy2 · 01/05/2023 01:13

Things are far more boring now than they were in the 80's.

Bonjovispjs · 01/05/2023 01:21

I was a teenager in the 80s and had the best time ever, it was amazing.

JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn · 01/05/2023 12:02

I was at Uni in the 80s. I certainly wasn't bored. Fashion and music was great. In particular there was fashion for young people. I despair now of the young people with their 'perfect' hair, pouting, makeup and selfies. Everyone looks so much older and is definitely pushed to look a certain way by social media. In the 80s we trawled second hand shops for clothes to customise and had great fun experimenting with mad spikey hairstyles and makeup. And no one was worried about being labelled gay/trans/bi etc. we just 'were'. Boys and girls dressed how they wanted and wore makeup if they wanted to. And people were a lot less offended.

I used to read a lot... always had an atlas in the car... and used to write long rambling letters to friends and family. Who used to write back! TV was very different but there was a great excitement about waiting for the next episode and a shared experience of 'who watched what' last night... going to see a band was pretty cheap and no one went to the gym. They didn't exist. You had to be more organised about meeting and going out but I don't remember it being a problem.

I didn't get a mobile phone until I was in my 30s. And that was provided by my employer. Getting a phone for myself was something I thought long and hard about. And at that time it that was 'just' a phone that you could use for texts and calls. I do like the smartphone I have now, it's great to have all this information at my finger tips, but looking at what DD and her friends use their phones for... I despair! It's all so vacuous. There doesn't seem to be a lot of curiosity. I'd be bored stupid looking at a lot of the stuff that's 'popular' online. If the internet was switched off tomorrow it'd take me time to adjust but I wouldn't be bored.

Daffodilwoman · 02/05/2023 08:28

I’ve been thinking about the family thing too.
No social media meant I spent a lot of time with my cousins and aunts and uncles. Visiting then regularly. Sunday was family time. We visited my grandma and my cousins visited us. If I wanted to see a friend or speak to them I had to physically go and call for them, I doubt that happens much now teenagers will just message each other.
So I believe I was much, much closer to my aunties, uncles and cousins than people are now. How often do people see each other in the flesh? Once every 6 weeks? For us it was weekly at least, spending several ours together at weekends. I was explaining this to my dd the other day as one of my relatives is dying. We were close in a way that the younger generation won’t be. Most people are far more insular. That’s good in sone ways maybe but not so good in other ways.
Oh and family breakdown (far more common now) that also contributes to families not being as close. Also when we were together we played and had real conversations. Look at people now. Physically together but sat looking at their phones. Tiny children sat glued to an iPad rather than interacting with their family. Probably more entertains for everyone but at what cost?

Nzyellowbelly · 03/05/2023 23:41

I loved the 80's. I turned 16 in 1980 it was the defining decade of my life. It shaped my outlook in music, politics, relationships etc. The worse thing was AIDs hitting and Margaret Thatcher, who to be honest, didn't seem that bad at the time as I hadn't really known anything else. The best thing was the freedom to be & do without fear of it all appearing on social media the next day. Having said that - the Internet is pretty amazing for information - although I worry that people will forget how to research information in books so what will happen when the apocalypse comes and we have to try and rebuild the world? 🤪😜

Paul2023 · 23/08/2023 18:45

I just found this thread.I think the point is in the 1980s, most people didn’t have mobile phones, certainly no internet, and there wasn’t on demand television and 24 hours tv like now.

But people didn’t know any difference, they can’t miss what didn’t exist then!

I remember even well into the 1990s, my family were looking for my grandparents house , who had moved and had trouble finding it. Even an A- Z wasn’t much use because it was a new house on a new estate.

My dad found a telephone box and called my grandparents landline for directions!

I can’t imagine anyone nowadays being in a situation where they’d have to use a public telephone box to call a landline !

Children’s tv finished by the afternoon, unless you had Sky tv which again didn’t really start until the early 90s. But less channels and no recording like now.

charabang · 23/08/2023 19:03

The thing I remember most vividly from the 80s were my huge stash of magazines. I would spend a fortune fashion, design and music mags like The Face, ID, Melody Maker and NME. I'd pour over them for hours with my friend as we worked out our own sense of style. Also album covers were works of art and I had an extensive 12" vinyl collection. It all went a bit downhill with cassettes and DVDs.

Paul2023 · 23/08/2023 19:49

What I find quite unbelievable is the fact that the difference in time between now and the 90s is the same as it was between the 1960s and 1990… I mean 1993 doesn’t seem all that long ago. Yet 30 years before 1993 it was 1963.
I still listen to 80s /90s music and most radio stations still plays music from then. I don’t think young people in the 90s listened to 50 or 60s music..