What’s better now than it used to be?

[DataPestle]

So many things feel like they’re getting worse - wars, the environment, the internet, treatment of women - can we think of things, big and small, that are actually getting better?

I’ll start:

Children are listened to now, whether it’s about abuse claims or their general emotions

Things like Duolingo make languages feel more accessible, so more people
go even a bit towards learning a new language

There are lots more restaurants/cafes serving food from around the world, whereas when I was young I was lucky to have a Chinese takeaway in our town

Performances for cinemas and theatres have accessible options for disabilities/ND audiences

Any more?

Telly (well, everything apart from terrestrial telly that is).

Phones.

Stating the bleeding obvious but the knowledge that is accessible to us now vs before The Internet is mind blowing.

Having an argument about who knows something better than you? Google it

Want to get a recipe for using up shit in your fridge? Google it

Want to book a flight? Used to have to make an appointment at the travel agent.

Want to get advice from someone that’s in the same boat as you? This was really hard to access before social media and sites like this.

Want to know anything about anything? Google it. You used to try the encyclopaedia Britannica or perhaps the library but most stuff you’d just ponder and never know.

Life in Northern Ireland. It was shit when I was growing up, it's so much better now.

This is contentious, but cheap air travel. I've seen so much of the world which seemed completely out of reach as a kid.

Excellent point. I grew up very working class in the 80s, and when we had a holiday it was in Skegness. The idea that I might one day be able to afford to fly to Spain, never mind America, seemed like a fantasy. Now, I am planning the four foreign holidays I plan to take this year.

Much of the disapproval of cheap flights is nothing more than snobbishness, from those who don’t think ordinary people should be able to travel in the way the affluent middle classes have always done.

I agree. University education is technically available to all - but at what cost? About £50k. Pockets of privilege like Oxbridge make it slightly cheaper for a miniscule percentage, but in the main it costs the student and/or the family £££ in England.

Grammar schools are in the main populated by the sharp elbowed middle classes, whilst sink schools continue to grow and fester. Arts in state schools has as well as disappeared as the curriculum shrinks to the governments demands.

I’d say on balance therefore that education is on a downwards spiral.

@BarelyLiterate "Much of the disapproval of cheap flights is nothing more than snobbishness, from those who don’t think ordinary people should be able to travel in the way the affluent middle classes have always done."

That really is bollocks, you know!

Young people with anxiety are listened to. I suffered so badly in the 60s and 70s, my mother didn't want to hear about it and my doctor just gave me valium for years.
I had a couple of eating disorders that no- one knew about so I had to cope with everything by myself, feeling shameful. Teachers weren't approachable then either. I think it's marvellous that children and young adults can access the support they need now.

My hair. Ive finally got swishy hair at 50.

Hair products and equipment especially straighteners! I went through my teens looking like cousin It. Now I can have nice glossy straight hair on the daily if I can be bothered to do it.

Great minds @Teenagersscarethelivinshitoutofme !

The dentist

As a child I was terrified but no one listened. There were sessions when I just cried and the dentist extracted a tooth anyway.

Nowadays, my dentist says if you want me to stop at anytime raise your right hand. I've never needed to, instead of tensing up I breath out and really notice whether it's actually hurting. The. Heather's works and it really doesn't hurt.

Numbing the gum with topical. anaesthetic was a game changer for me, too.

Agree with the dentist (if you can get/afford one). Mine is lovely.

Yes, these are all great examples, thank you! Access to education for girls around the world, in particular, is higher than it’s ever been.

@ComtesseDeSpair I think we all have a lot to be grateful for, and I think it’s human nature to look for the worst at any time we’ve been alive, but I do think we’re at a crunch point generally. Between AI and billionaire wealth-hoarders (while others starve and freeze to death), plus the internet stoking divisive and populist politics and the collapse of social morals (through less communal religion in the western world) - I want to be optimistic, but to ignore the global issues is quite a luxury, perhaps!

I’ll add access to journalism, too - quality writing from around the world on a whole host of topics and a range of views.

Unfortunately although girls/women outperform boys/men in education now, we are still paid less. We still give up our careers at the drop of a hat to become stay at home mums. We still do the majority of life admin. We are still discriminated against in interviews, in favour of men with wives at home doing all the heavy lifting. Every single woman who has chosen to be a stay at home mum says that it was their decision and they're happy to do it but if you look at the numbers then societal expectations must come into it. Why are those women already being paid less before going on maternity in order for it to 'make sense' for them to stop working after they give birth?
It's either biological (more women want to look after their children rather than work), societal (mothers expected to do everything, dads not offered or more likely don't ask for flexibility) or due to a lack of opportunities for working mothers. It cannot be just freewill, or the amount of fathers choosing to the same would be roughly the same.

I like how you can dress literally however you want and everyone just accepts it at worst, and compliments you at best

Agreed. There is a really interesting section in Victoria Smith’s book “Hags” that takes this one step further, about the expectation of women who have stayed at home to look after children, to then do the same for ageing parents.

It isn't, it's about the damage to the environment and it's mainly private jets which are in the firing line (quite rightly).

Yes it does seem much better now than it was in the 1980s, when you were square if you didn't keep up with the latest fashions (or listen to the latest music). Now you can wear what you want and listen to what you want.

Yes to glue, smoking bans, divorce being acceptable, disability acceptance, supermarket deliveries, the air condition generally, and plumbing! God, good plumbing. What a game changer.

I wonder if progress has moved so fast that we can’t easily tease out the good bits and the bad bits, so we don’t improve what needs improving because we’re so busy enjoying the benefits. Affordable air travel - good for our minds and experiences, terrible for the environment; cheaper clothes - accessible and fun way of expressing ourselves, cataclysmic for the countries who produce them; medical advances - amazing for those who have/will benefit from them; the more successful they are, the more they get bought up by organisations who hike the prices or even shut off development to enable the success of medical products they’ve already invested in.

Capitalism seems the main culprit in most of these issues, but I will just try to enjoy my functioning warm shower and the Tesco van pulling up outside.

Availability of information - internet
Supermarket shopping
TV options - smart streaming
Drug treatment
Understanding of neurodiversity
Children's rights
Mental health - still a long way to go
Women's rights - still a long way to go
Internalised homophobia and gender dysphoria - NOT UNDERSTOOD

@TiaSeeya oh I can completely agree. Mrs Williams is already at home with baby Matilda and so it makes more sense for her to take MIL and FIL for their hospital appointments and before long she's dropping in daily to do personal care. Her husband (their son) obviously doesn't want to be inconvenienced with their appointments and so Mrs Williams is unable to return to work after Matilda is in school, as originally planned, as she now has two elderly people who rely on her.

If progress was linear then given that the majority of women could go to university for about the last four decades, society should be more equal by now.

Vaccination. When my parents were young, there were epidemics of polio, diphtheria, every family in their village lost at least one child. Thank heavens that is ancient history now.

I'm a genealogist and I look at hundreds of death certificates a week. If people were truly aware how different life was just two generations ago literally nobody would want the good old days back.

Pissing and moaning about the NHS is laughable. My gran shared a bed in hospital as a little girl getting her tonsils out. No visitors were allowed. My dad didn't have indoor plumbing until he was 10. My mum helped set up Womans Aid in her town in the 70s, the police still didn't routinely attend 'domestics'.

@FarleyHatcherEsq I so agree. The idea that seems to be prevalent that feminism is "finished" because of equality legislation, when women are still massively disadvantaged in the domestic and the public realm is very frustrating and depressing.

The GP’s retort calls on the principle of continuity, according to Smith. “ The person who took time off work to look after babies will be the person more likely to do the same to look after older relatives, not least because her earlier career breaks and/or recourse to part time work will mean she is earning less than a male partner or male siblings. And anyway, if a woman who’s already spent years providing such services suddenly says no, isn’t she just being mean?”