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 am also in my 60s and agree about the bad dentistry, all my teeth have large fillings, the ones I have left. Also being sent out all day in the school holidays with jam sandwiches, I must have been about 10.

I am glad to have lived through an era of great change though, from the black and white telly of the 60s, calculators first coming out, the early large computers to carrying a small computer in my pocket and the instant stuff it brings.

Every era has its good and bad, hasn't it?

What struck me about how we were in the 60's and into the 70's (I was born in the early '60s) was a) how much toil housework was- Wash day was an entire day! but b) how the 'only' pressure on my mum on that day was to do the washing.

She did the odd 'pin' money job (where us pre-schoolers tagged along), but otherwise, I recall coffee mornings, hours at the hairdressers, lots of gardening (inc veg growing). We were LMC, but my dad, b. '33, benefitted from a GS education thus despite not having been to uni, got a job that paid for a bungalow in Essex- no CH, mind! Jack Frost on the bedroom window in the morning! And a VW Beetle to be chucked in the back of, with pillows, on the 3x a year 9 hour drive to Cornwall.

To me, what was much better was no SM to enshrine your misdemeanors for ever. And being forced to interact with actual humans as that was the primary way we did! Face to face, cold hallway to cold hallway with your dad tapping his watch every five minutes as you gossiped with your bestie on the landline.

Yes to loads of fillings and jam sandwiches, Deal; and we also saw the first moon landings.

My dad worked for Marconi/Plessey and I recall the day he brought a calculator home from his work, to show us. It was a Hewlett Packard 'scientific' which worked on 'reverse Polish' whatever that meant to us! It would've been around 1976? And it cost £400.

It was a time of great change.

Way simpler but bad things weren’t uncovered and risk never even came into the equation.

Whilst it’s more open now; I find the pc correctness completely over the top.

People’s self entitlement is on another level now- was nowhere near quite so precious years ago.

I would rather those days than this tbh when comparing childhoods to that of mine in comparison to my children. We were allowed to be children. Way too much pressure on children in this day and age.

It’s all about me though these days. It is completely all about meeeee.

One thing I have noticed is that my attention span is not like it used to be, I seem to be constantly distracted and find it much more difficult to concentrate on one thing for ages as I am looking at my iPad or phone while doing other stuff. This is not a good thing.

MrsAriadneOliver looking back I can’t believe the sugar we consumed. My brothers and I would guzzle the sugar cubes in coffee shops and as well as the sticky school puds every day we called into the sweet shop on the way home for penny sweets 😱

Rousette I also can’t believe how neither my brothers or I haven’t got dentist phobias after the agonising treatment we were subjected to growing up. I remember our one as a monster with huge hairy hands.

BlueLady so glad you got good dental work in that era. My DC have one filling each and our in their 30s. I did everything I could to avoid them ending up with such a horrible mouth as mine.

One thing I think was better in my childhood were the fruit, vegetables and fish Really fresh and flavoursome.

And of course the sugar sandwiches...

Some people would probably argue it wasn't much simpler and maybe it wasn't because everyone generally tends to think they have it tougher than everyone else but I have to say sometimes I also ask myself that sort of thing.

My MIL's neighbour worked in one job all his life. The job was 20 minutes from his home. It obviously paid well enough to allow him to buy a nice home in a very nice area. His wife never worked. After decades in the same job, he took early retirement before he turned 50. He retired in the early 80s. He is on final salary pension, which still allows them to go on nice foreign holidays more than once a year today! They live well and although they are not rich, they aren't poor either and certainly don't think twice about putting their heating on in winter.

And I can tell you loads of other stories like that!

Today, none of us have a chance of ever getting the same sort of thing as a result of our work in ordinary jobs in most companies. Remember that this guy wasn't self-employed and he wasn't a CEO of a massive company. Before retirement he achieved a middle management position, which was normal after the amount of time he spent in that company.

Today, most of us have no job security, no final salary pension. Many mortgages far exceed our salaries. We have to commute God knows where to get to work and pay thousands for the privilege. And not many people can afford to live on single income. Even where they can, most would worry what would happen if their partner was made redundant. Childcare costs are absolutely ridiculous and make it impossible for some people to work or have children at all....

And just to finish on this cheerful note, I don't think things are going to get any easier as more and more jobs are getting automated and people's skills are simply not keeping up with the pace of technology.

I am not saying that people didn't have hardships before but I do think we have it very, very tough and quite possibly tougher than many people of our parents generation.

Yeah but while he wasn't the only one, there are plenty of people born between 1980 and 1990 who are just fine.

And plenty of baby boomers who were massively affected by the strikes in the 70s, miner's strike in the 80s, the early 90s recession

Pyotrkrolik I clearly remember being at primary school and my Mum taking me to sadist dentist up the road. In the waiting room was a boy from school who literally stood there and when his name was called he just wet himself through fear. There was absolutely no bedside manner or niceties for children sitting in the chair petrified. I love dentists now, they are so nice and friendly

Totally agree derxa

Tomatoes tasted sublime, not like red cotton wool. As did apples. And every Christmas I moan about how tasteless tangerines are compared to my childhood.

Good and bad

It’s addictive but also I can translate what I’m saying to people who don’t speak the same language as me

Quality of entertainment is better but people’s lives are very consumerist

A generation of spoilt, violent kids, anxiety and depression on the rise. Kids self harming more than ever. Bullying is disgusting and now follows kids online. Suicide on the rise. Working all the hours to rent lucky if you get on the property ladder with a nice mortgage. More pressure than ever on schools and therefore causing a rise in anxiety in teenagers as well. Obesity on the rise. No imagination or creativity in kids like we had. Too much gaming and internet,social media pressure to look good and have everything. Coming from a time when I was a teenager in the 80's give me that any day. Yes it was simpler. I was also smacked haha and oh shock horror I have a relationship with my parents most of you dream of. We are all so close. I never done drugs or went off the rails. I own my home now and have lovely kids. I am proud but i do worry my Grand children will live in crappier times.

What a pile of bollox

The point is that children were happy making their own entertainment - no need for the relentless TV, Ipads, phones, etc. Children have little imagination for making up simple games and amusing themselves now., The worst invention EVER was mobile phones - I hate them.

How weird that you hate such a convenient device.

Convenient? Yes, if you like being getatable all the time. No down time from people pressurising you to do something or go somewhere or just bothering you when you want some time on your own.

Hi Roussette
Sorry to hear about your terrible dentistry experiences. My teeth are terrible and I remember the gas mask in the dentist's. It's nothing to compare to my parents though. My mother had all her top teeth out in her late thirties and my dad had one tooth in his head in his 90s.

@MilkTrayLimeBarrel put your phone on silent, don't answer, say no.

Hilda leaving, she had to put her children into care because of Satan's violence.
Well fuck me, I did not know Corrie got all dark and religious.

There are lots of things that are so much better now, especially learning to be kinder to each other and not having tolerance for racism and violence like we used to turn a blind eye to back then. But I agree with you about the tecnological side. It's so much easier to get your shopping, and to be able to watch what you want and to communicate instantly with people, but this whole online thing has exploded and things are done not so much face to face these days. I took my Mum shopping the other day and she was queuing up behind some other people at the till. I pointed out a smaller queue at another till and she said 'no it's OK, I want to have a quick chat with Tracy' (a lady she got to know purely through shopping). I thought how nice that was.

Sock monster. I don't think kids are more violent. In the 70s and 80s, there was football hooliganism, the Brixton Riots, the miners strike, drunken fights. There's less sexism and racism now.

Houses 3x income, only one earner needed - House prices are a problem of modern times, agreed. Mind you, there were plenty of repossessions in the early 90s because of the recession which was a pretty shit period.

-But at least then you could get back on the property ladder later- that won’t happen now.

busses were cheap so Asa teen it was cheap to visit friends and go out places together dunno where you lived, tis true it only cost me 35p to get to town but once an hour and took about a year to get there grin

-busses now are infrequent and take ages!

no embarrassing drunk photos on line true, tbh though I wish there were more. Not embarrassing drunk ones but photos of me as a youngster and with friends

-there were plenty of disposable cameras in the late 90s

book shops on most high streets Waterstone's hasn't closed wink

-but borders/ ottakers lots of independents have

supermarkets you could get round in 20 mins tesco express?

-charges £££ more

easy driving test and cheap petrol really?

-yes theory only brought in late 90s with no extra test then, petrol 70p pl

cheap food and fuel food is cheapwww.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45559594

-look up supermarket bread wars in late 90s, fuel bills of £10/20pcm not uncommon, gas prices spiked in 00s

council houses for everyone who wanted one then as now it depends on where you lived. There were plenty of families spending years in bed and breakfast accommodation in the 80s and 90s, trust me.

-homelessness and housing waiting lists are much higher now, council rents were also much cheaper

almost no private renting not sure about that

-went from 8% to near 25%

no uni fees true but that's because not many actually went to university

• 1 in 3 went to uni in mid 90s

lower entrance requirements, grants instead of loans see above

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.

Tax credits started in the 90s! Also had single parent benefit, family credit, single parents didn’t need to look for work til youngest was 16

comfy fashion 90s fashion is back now, amidst a sea of denim

-Spanx?

higher quality tv really?

-viewing figures of 25 million

Mr Darcy coming out of the lake

no internet porn plenty of girlie magazines though and "free" tits in the Sun

-most kids didn’t have access to these things, def not in the playground, page 3 v different to gonzo porn

no online bullying plenty of bullying though, and very little done about it.

-as long as there are schools there will be school bullying, at least now kids can escape at 3pm, self harm is up

love letters, mix tapes that's just that freedom of the end of childhood isn't it, looking at adult life but not there yet

freedom to roam goes dark pretty quickly: sexual assaults, violence, murder

-just as many kids murdered now, more sexual assaults on record now

spending pocket money in the body shop and Woolworths, pen pals you can still do those things. Well, not WW admittedly.

Who has a pen pal in 2019??

Life will never be the same since woolies closed!

Absolutely not. Life is much better and simpler now. I live in a non-English speaking country and I am grateful every day for the incredible time-saving help that is Google Translate. I am renovating a house and I can find tradesmen, with references, via an app, extremely easily. As a busy working mum I can buy the things I need online. I can pay my bills in the evening online. I can work from home when my kids are ill. I can watch anything I like on TV anytime I want. I can send photos and chat to my friends all over the over the world in seconds.

Life may have been "simpler" but it was also boring and a lot more work. A lot more work for women/mums in particular, I might add.

If you want to shut off technology - put your phone on flight mode.