Were things really boring in the 80s?

[Egyptiancottonhouse]

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.

men who knew hold to converse and not be glued to a phone

And no porn! You'd have to buy a magazine from the top rack of the newsagents or rent a fairly tame video.

Pubic hair was normal and men were willing to put in the work and build relationships with women. He'd have to ask for your phone number, no sliding into anyone's DM or unsolicited dick pics. There was dating and it was fun!

I was 4-14 in the 80s. As a young teen I remember the shops in our city being amazing. No online shopping obviously but far far better actual shops.
music shops sold gig tickets and had listening posts with headphones so you could just hang out there and browse for hours. I remember visiting tower records in London at about age 16.
information was at the library - town library or school then university library.
socialising (for adults) was in the local pub and for kids the street.
thinking about it we all just spent far less time inside our homes, and more time out and about.
lid be interested to know if people with young children in the 80s / 90s felt isolated at home or if they too were out and about more.

ime the 80s were far from boring!

Without screens to entertain us people actually went out and had a lot of fun. We had our own "internet" to find out about new recipes it was called talking to each other! Or we used books and maps!

We had a different set of skills, a better sense of direction and were not terrified of going out without having a phone!

😂

In the 90s a friend and I use to have a quiet evening at the cinema to watch a 15 film. The cinema use to have a bar. We where likely to get ID'ed buying our cinema ticket but not for the bar.

Then when I went to college to do my A levels we would sometimes to go the pub at lunch time and use the pool tables. One or two of our lecturers/tutors would come in as well and we would politely say "hello" to each other.

Funny thing is all the bar and pub staff knew we were under age, but as they were dispensing the drinks we couldn't get drunk.

One of our college lecturers tracked us down at the pub as we'd bunked off and he brought his notes with him, told us to buy him and beer and gave the lesson in the pub!

Look up some you tube videos of the Live Aid concert, do the audience look bored? No they are enjoying the moment instead of holding their mobiles up trying to capture it or let their friends know where they are. I think people went out and interacted with each other more then, they actually spoke words to each other instead of relying on sending messages.

Yes! @WallaceinAnderland - completely agree. In stark contrast to what DD has to endure on the dating scene. Men had to literally man up and ask a girl out. Or vice versa.

The 80s were brilliant. I was never bored.
The music, the fashions, the going out pubbing and clubbing with your mates every weekend. Getting chatted up, or you chatting them up etc.
Sunday's were for dying with a hangover in your bed while swearing that you'd never drink again....until the next weekend.
It was great. 😁

I find 'now' pretty boring, to be honest.

People seemed less precious and willing to have a laugh/fun in those days. We had less than we do now but, somehow, we had more fulfilling lives. Children had more freedom to roam and were genuinely resilient.

Some of the best music, films and TV shows were products of that time. We got to see them when they aired which was pretty exhilarating.

At least when you was a teen you weren't tracked by your parents on Find my iPhone

No such thing as ID in the 80s. I'm staggered at what we got away with (and I was a good girl!!)

Those of us who were around in the 80s… I’m just imagining asking the “old folk” at that time how boring the 40s were - which would have been the equivalent of this thread.

TBF Brookside was bloody brilliant back then - remember the siege?

It did, but it was mainly used by businesses and the military etc.
It wasn't really until the very early nineties that it took off in a domestic sense.

Longer conscentration spans, more shared experiences, telly absolutely everone watched at the same time...

No social media, no ubiquitous porn, no selfies and filters.

No, it wasn't boring. It was good.

The irony of posting "longer concentration spans" and misspelling it isn't lost on me. 😉

I think things are more boring now tbh. Back then, we made our own fun/entertainment.

The 80s...

crashing out of the ERM Interest rates going up 5% in one day (that wasn't boring)
IRA bombs, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall.

At home life was smaller, clubbing, holidays in Spain and France. More tv, no internet.great music, dubious fashion. Too many shoulder pads 😀

In 1980 I was 16, it was a great time to be alive. No Internet yes, but it was so much fun sitting on the stairs yakking to friends on the phone for hours, giving your number to a boy at a disco and waiting for it to ring, the excitement of getting to know people without being able to check them out first online, realistic expectations when it came to appearance, no filtering, body hair expected and accepted, porn for most teens limited to top shelf mags that were seen as iffy rather than mainstream and were very very tame compared to what's available now. (If fact in Ireland almost impossible to access). Discobars everywhere on every corner so no shortage of places to go at night, and while some of the fashion was a bit dodgy, in general the clothes were comfy, baggy trousers, pedal pushers and flat shoes/boots. I can still remember the thrill of the very first McDonald's opening in our area, and of going to the record shop and buying the latest number one, or finding a book you really wanted in the library. Life is too instant now imo, you can get whatever you want when you want it so there is no real anticipation.

I was born in 70s so a teen in 80s. Don't remember it being boring. We all played out and didn't come home until tea time. Wasn't all roses though. I wasn't a happy teen and I think if we had the internet back then I could have maybe explored ways to get help or seen that what I was going through was maybe normal or abusive. Certainly was abusive in the early days. We used to make our own games and enjoyed being outside more. We had basic computer with games and holidays in the UK. I like watching things from the 80s and really appreciate the music now. I think with internet and social media it's a two edged sword. Could be good for those like me was a troubled child to say the least or could have made me feel worse. But as for tv programmes etc we liked what we had at the time although watching some back now they wouldn't be made today and good thing. I do like modern tech and wouldn't want to be a housewife in the 80s. I do like my gadgets 😂

Teen, early twenties in the 80's. So much better than today. Much freerer actually. Out all day and night, even mid teens. Wear what you wanted, look like you wanted. No judgement. Lots of discos, cocktail bars, pubbing, public snogging! Great music. Freedom.

Some of the best music, films and TV shows were products of that time.
And Channel 4 was new and edgy and funny, a million miles from the tedious and inexplicably naked Channel Snore it's become (seriously does it not have a wardrobe budget?)

It wasn't boring. I grew up in the 80s and early 90s. Went to university in 94 and had email and internet for the first time but it was nothing compared to how it is now.
We phoned each other on landlines (after 6pm) and actually talked for hours (none of this messaging only that seems to go on these days - do people actually chat on the phone any more?)
We arranged to go out on Saturdays and that meant showing up to the meeting place at the agreed time because no one had mobiles. Then we hung around the shops - listened to music in the Virgin Megastore with the headphones. Thought we were really grown up going for coffee in some independent cafe. We went to the cinema a lot - someone would bring in the local newspaper on a Friday and we'd decide what we wanted to watch.
I was never bored - there was always something going on.
At university the computer science students were enjoying the start of online gaming - spending hours playing Doom (or whatever it was) and ordering pizzas to be delivered to the computer room (someone would have to go out to the pay phone to phone the shop - there were normally flyers from the pizza shop lying around the phone booths on campus).
There was always something going on - it was a great time. We went to the pub a lot. Went on day trips.
It was a great time really - I'm probably nostalgic because I was young then, but it certainly wasn't boring.
I find it more boring now - very few people actually want to meet up in person and no one seems to have time for a chat on the phone.
Also if you do go out, half the night is spent with people showing fucking tik tok and youtube videos on phones and everyone trying to crowd around some fucking tiny screen to see something which is supposed to be hilarious and isn't.
Annoying too is if someone says something or asks something, someone will say "I'll google that" and then that person disappears down the wormhole of the internet for a while.
I've got a friend who is a lot older than me - 70 - and you can be chatting to her at a meal and she'll suddenly disappear into her phone and then have to answer 10 messages from other random people and I'm just sitting there day-dreaming until she returns from her online world!

It was better then. You'd see people rather than sit at home scrolling or watching Netflix. So many people are lonely now.

I was an older teen/student/started my career in the 80s. I left home and was able to afford to move to London for my first job. It wasn’t boring at all - quite the opposite! Nobody was sat looking at their phone or spending hours taking pictures of themselves, we were just having fun and living in the moment.

Much less introspective and self-obsessed than it seems now. And far less pressure on youngsters.

I was born in 1982. I felt quite lonely sometimes as a teen, as I only had a handful of friends, and as they lived in different villages to me, I only saw them at school - I probably would have had more contact with them if we'd all had smartphones back in the day. But like others have said, I feel quite nostalgic about being a kid, playing out in the street with my friends, doing lots of reading, listening to the radio, magazines etc etc. I also loved writing letters and had about 9 pen pals in my early teens!

In the late 90s/early 00s, Glastonbury tickets were a LOT easier (and cheaper!) to obtain! I went to Glasto 1998 and I think we only bought the tickets 3 weeks beforehand! I don't remember any problems getting tickets in 2000 or 2002 either...

I miss having tapes and CDs (or rather having something to play them on - I still have most of my old CDs in the loft). Nowadays you end up being reliant on whatever Amazon music will let you hear and I honestly can't remember the last time I listened to an album.

On the other hand, as a parent of a child with special needs, I can't imagine not having access to all the FB and WhatsApp support groups I have today. It must have been such an isolating experience (particularly if you couldn't drive) to in person events or not being able to gather other people's experiences of things.