Was life simpler in years gone by?

[Coralnails]

I've been watching Classic Corrie from the 80s and 90s recently and it's made me nostalgic for those decades.

Even though I wouldn't swap my smartphone, internet and all the choices we have these days, in some ways I feel like things were better back then.

It's like we never switch off these days, phones are attached to us 24/7, with things like online shopping we've got so much choice it can be overwhelming. Screen time is a big thing for children now with tablets, phones, YouTube. I could think of more examples, passwords for everything, so much more we have to think about now. Everything is so instant these days too, it's convenient but can take the fun out of things.

Back then if you went out, you were out, not attached to your phone and emails all the time.

There were 4 channels, and children's programmes all finished in time for dinner. A comic and a 10p mix up was enough to please most children.

Remember waiting to get your photos developed from your disposable camera.

Going to the video shop on a Saturday evening to rent a film.

Looking through the newspaper to see the film times.

I wouldn't go back knowing what I know now, but I do think modern technology has taken some of the simple joys away.

I'm obviously really lucky because I don't recognise the shit dentistry. I'm 65, have fillings that were all done with local anaesthetic, am missing only two wisdom teeth and have had a six monthly scale and polish for the last 50 years.

I think so, but that's only based on my experience. As for technology, if it's becoming a problem you can switch off from it, even if it's just a couple of hours, surely?

Pyotrkrolik oh yes. The dentist we went to was a sadist, no other word for him. Every one of my back teeth were filled before I got to secondary school. There weren't the xrays to see what what going on underneath, the answer was to just fill the teeth.

My (adult) DCs know what I've been through with my teeth. They've seen me in agony, face swollen with abscesses, bridge work, huge dentistry bills, implants blah blah. They are all late twenties plus and none of them even has a filling, I think I put the fear of God into them!

I'm the age I could be a grandmother of adults (I was a late starter haha) but by god I'm not nostalgic for past times. But I've always been a looking forward type of person.

That's fantastic Bluelady and I'm a similar age. I'd never even heard of scale and polish years ago. But I have been unlucky with dentists up until I was about 30. Childhood dentist was a sadistic useless man I was made to go to. When I left home, the dentist I registered with assaulted me (that's a whole other story). I then went to one who was clearly under qualified and didn't pick up on my problems of gum disease so let everything just develop in the worst way possible.

And I've been playing catch up since.

It's a wonder I don't have dentist phobia! I don't! I go every 3 months to keep on top of things.

more generous benefits that is not true - no tax credits, for one thing. Single parents - usually mothers - had to rely on income support, child maintenance was taken into account. No minimum wage either. My mum earned £2.50 an hour. Ace.

No tax credits until post 1997. I know my mum had £7 to feed us for the week once in about 1987.

I was 18 in 1997. I loved the culture but I might have been happier in more recent times. Think I would have got less grief about make up now than then!

No paternity leave. My DH went back to work the day after I had the children.

No parent and child places anywhere. I remember when they first brought them in, in a multi storey at a shopping centre near me, it was a revelation!

Remember, in forty years time it'll be your children and grandchildren sneering at you! I hope they'll be saying 'Were people really so wet and incapable of making a decision for themselves?'

@Pyotrkrolik

My grandmother was advised by two different teachers in the 1970’s that she should send her daughters to school with sugar sandwiches in their lunchboxes - a great energy booster!

@waitingforthenextbus

I think the war gave a hell of a lot of purpose to life. My grandfather often said it was the only time in his life he knew exactly what he was doing.

There's good and bad to both, always remember waiting at the bus stop hurrying home to find out what was going to happen to Ross and Rachel-everyone else at the bus stop was freaking out too!!! I also think things were slower and friendlier, and I think it's harder to own a home now or get loans but there have been some amazing advances on all fronts too

No one's sneering at anybody (except perverted men)

I know some stuff in 2019 is shit, but it's better than 1999, which was better than 1979, which was better than 1959. Progress, innit.

I was born in the 50’s, and I echo the PP who said the 60’s and 70’s were a great time to be young.
We had few tv channels, but there were excellent programmes on every night. Ground breaking documentaries, dramas and comedy, the BBC was willing to take a chance on young writers and give people like the Monty Python team a whole series at the drop of a hat. Star Trek started in the 60’s, at a time of great optimism and scientific innovation, the first Moon landing etc. The feminist movement was making strides leading to the abortion act and the equal pay act, homosexuality was legalised, pop music was fabulous.
Houses and cars were cheap and affordable, there were grants to go to uni, not loans to pay back. There were state grammar schools that helped poor but bright kids like me get to uni at all.
After the horrors of WW2 and the austerity that followed, the 60’s were just so upbeat and positive, anything felt possible.
And yes, no mobile phones or computers! Kids were free to go out and play all day without any monitoring by parents. We were much more self sufficient from an early age. I walked alone to school from 5 years old, was a latchkey child from 7. And no awful selfies or online bullying as a teenager. You were completely off the radar and any mistakes weren’t recorded for posterity! Amazing era - I look back on it as a golden age in many ways.

Great days when Dallas was the big thing on tv. Also can anyone remember Howard's Way? Based around sailing on south coast. Bit like our version of Dallas. Loved that too.

Yes to Howard's Way! Loved it. So sophisticated unlike me

My Spanish friends went to school in 1960s-70s with watered down wine in their lunchboxes.

See I just do not see 7 year old latchkey kids as a good thing, or children shoved out to play all day, I'm sorry. I really don't.

MrsAdriadneOliver - was that sense of purpose killing other people?? nothing like the deaths of 70-85 million people to give one a real sense of purpose. FFS. Maybe that what we need, I jolly nice big war, give the youngsters something to focus on other than Instagram.

Definitely much less convenient. You actually had to go to a physical store and buy your own groceries. You were at the mercy of the salesperson in the shop for larger purchases because, aside from magazines, there was little chance of researching it. Horror of horrors, you had to plug in your vacuum cleaner and sometimes move the plug to a different socket. Your house would likely have had heating but not necessarily double glazing. Your car probably didn't start on a damp morning and you were more likely to be seriously hurt if you crashed it.

The point is that it was completely safe for kids to disappear to play all day. And far better for us than sitting inside glued to a screen. There was very little child obesity because we ran around all the time.

I think today’s children are under too much supervision & are probably too protected. Imo there needs to be a balance, some stresses & strains are necessary in order to build resilience.

It wasn't completely safe, though.

I can think off the top of my head of a handful of high profile and horrendous child murders from that period that should not have happened: the children were too young to be out without adult supervision.

I am not victim blaming, I know that those parents were simply acting quite normally for the times they lived in, but I'm also glad that we don't think it's OK for five year olds to be out alone any more.

And before anyone starts with how rare they were, maybe. Traffic fatalities, physical assaults from other kids, injuries and deaths from general misadventure (remember public service announcements? Don't play near water and drown, don't play on railway lines and meet your death, don't play on electricity pylons, don't play on farms) and not mentioning the number of adults who preyed on lonely kids chucked out all day.

Nah, like I say, I'll stick to 2019.

In the 70s supermarkets were about the size of a Tesco Express today. They tended not to sell fruit and veg, fresh meat or fresh bread you had to go elsewhere for those.

lol some of us still have to carry things on the buses and walk in the rain and don't have double glazing? I don't recognise a lot of the stuff in this thread though I also do recognise a lot.
I was a child in the seventies. We only had three tv channels. It wasn't any more boring than now as we went outside to play or played with our toys if there was nothing on. Or drew pictures, or as teens cycled to see friends or read or went for walks (rural location).
One positive I see in the internet is it is great for people who are socially isolated or have mental health problems to communicate and reach out. I know lots of people in online support groups who wouldn't feel able to attend anything IRL.

@Artfullydead, 2019 has much to recommend it, equally it has many aspects which are distinctly worse than the past. Every era has different challenges.

Actually based on another thread I'm on, having self serve tills are good for those embarrassing items! But don't buy alcohol or go on self scan as you could get a bag check! So good progress.