To ask what you miss the most about the past?

[Appalonia]

Been thinking recently about how much we've lost due to the internet, although of course there are lots of amazing things too. For me, I think I miss things like record stores, long conversations on the phone with friends, so many high street shops that are now gone forever, online shopping just isn't the same, especially as you can't try something on, mix tapes, seeing a film in a big cinema, bookshops, lots of independent shops, so much is commercialised now, department stores, in my city, there was only Debenhams and now that's gone, I miss going into town and browsing, there's nothing left other than pound stores, it's so sad.

What do you miss that modern life has robbed you of?

I miss the city centre being full of great shops. Now there's hardly anything left. Where do the older ladies go for a tea and scone? They dont want starbucks, they want bhs or Debenhams cafe. But they are all gone.

I miss places feeling more different from each other? Things feel really homogenised to me now.

That everyone ,except film stars, had normal faces. The weird face-lift look was on the TV and in the cinema but not in the street. They eye brows these days oh dear god why. The eyelashes that look like draught excluders from the bottom of a door.

Equality, social mobility, hope. I don't have any hope for the future really. Just feel pfttt about life and spend some days wondering how I'm gonna croak it when I'm in my 60's and make it look accidental. Can't really be bothered with it, but I have kids, so just try to make the best of things and count my blessings where I can, and also prepare my kids for it when they are an adult if our world leaders haven't got their shit together by then.

I do miss Gino Ginelli tutti fruity ice cream though 😂

And only film and tv stars had really white teeth.

Smash Hits magazine archive, I was well and truly down this rabbit hole over Xmas - www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/collections/72157622124067234/

I miss so much about this! The lyrics, the interviews, the clothing and posters, etc. in the small ads for starters. The increasingly irreverent questions that were asked - now interviewers are a weird mix of in thrall to celebs while simultaneously ready to knife them in the back. Plus we only got to know just enough about them, not like now.

But most of all - the styles (and lack of). So many different looks, animated faces that weren't frozen and stretched, all sorts of weird and wonderful make up and hairstyles that many of us tried (and usually failed) to copy in the hope of making our way into our own style tribes. And YY to lack of constant photos if we got it wrong.

Yes! Even beauty is very homogenised now. Back then it felt very fresh.

Less bureaucracy. Everything is so unnecessarily complicated now.

@JamSandle, spot on. Many of the looks were experimental, shabby and raw. But all with different twists with the likes of charity shop and attic finds because of lack of money. Everyone was a little bit different even within their style tribes.

I'm officially sounding like a grumpy old woman now but where are the style tribes? It's rare to spot a young teenager who stands out clothing-wise, although it seems some university students are sporting a very 90s grunge look.

I miss the feeling of excitement when the photos of the camera film I'd sent off to Truprint arrived in the post and then opening the envelope and being really disappointed that the photos didn't do the occasion justice!

The 'having to wait til Saturday' to bus to the local town's record shop to get the latest vinyl single by Wham! or Madonna and bus straight back home, slap it on the record player and listen to it ALL weekend (driving the parents mad!)

I miss the really thin, really crinkly Christmas wrapping paper from the 80's; somehow made Christmas extra special for me.

I miss the free and easy life as a teen where my only worries were getting the latest Rimmel lipstick or an outfit to wear for a friends party on Saturday so a trip to C&A or Top Shop was on the cards.

I don't know why but I also miss the closing of shops at 5pm on a Saturday that then didn't open again until 9am Monday and some would close on a Wednesday afternoon too. Yeah I'm old.

That's what I was saying - brands and globalisation.

bit puzzled by the poster saying they miss stationery.

love current music too.

Record shops/vinyl is coming back I think. There are now three independent record shops within walking distance of me (plus a weird HMV concept store that’s 90% vinyl). And the 17-year-old lad downstairs was asking DH’s advice on turntables the other week.

😂true.

I know that I'm very fortunate in not particularly yearning for anything from the past. However, two things that have been mentioned upthread really resonate.

Public behaviour. Why is it now (apparently) acceptable to yell, to shove, to behave in a totally 'look at me' way in public? What happened to decorum (I'm not old!) and consideration for others? I don't want to hear your phone conversation, or you screaming at your 'mates' across the street, or watch you making a complete as of yourself in the middle of the shopping centre.

Botox and the like. Why do young women all want to look exactly the same? It's really creepy, and so, so sad. It's as though AI has already taken over and we are surrounded by robots. Don't they realise that they look like identikit plastic pretend people? Is that what they really want?

This. Also the 'making memories' shite. My mum had no pressure to take us anywhere in the summer holidays. My friends were all farming children so they couldn't go anywhere so no competition about who was having the most glamorous holiday. Absolutely no one I knew ever had a holiday that involved sitting on a swing above a beautiful blue lagoon. We used to go to our grandparents for 2 weeks. We spent hours outside 'helping' grandad on his huge allotments, helping my grandmother make bread. Oh the joyous memories. My mum couldn't drive and dad would be working so we packed a picnic, walked up onto the local Downs, walked through the wood, had a cheese sandwich and walked home. My children are 28 and 30 now. When we went for days out with friends we would take a picnic and the children would play with friends and we would sit and chat. We took more photos than my parents did but there were no camera phones, just cameras with film that had to be developed. Photos in an hour was a very exciting thing. The thing I most take from that time is that we just went out with friends. There were no selfies or posting to social media, no likes. The people you were with knew you were having a nice time. The people who weren't there didn't know anything about it. My SIL is 20 years younger than me and a day out when her daughter was under 10 wasn't a good day until she had posted a million pictures on Facebook and had 'friends' say " Oh hun such lovely memories" " oh luv you've got such a lovely family" blah blah. Once other people had verified that she had had a good day she would visibly relax and believe that she had had a good day. I am so glad I didn't have any of that crap. I was a single parent for years. Christmas eve boxes, that bastard elf and matching NEW pj's would have been such a hideous pressure. Pj's weren't replaced until the youngest child absolutely couldn't squeeze in to the hand me downs from his brother.

@Iamwhatiam52 , you've just reminded me - I miss the wrapping paper and the cheesy old Xmas decorations! Tinsel, crepe paper bells, mismatched baubles, etc. Tree usually knocked over by our cat wanting to be the fairy on top of the tree 😆

Christmas Radio Times and TV Times - circling what you were going to watch.

And YY to the free make up with magazines. Red Rimmel lipstick with Just Seventeen when I was 13. I felt so grown up 😊

I don't want to sound like hypocrite, because I use social media, but boy I miss times when they weren't invented. I don't mind using them to contact people, but it's all about show off now.

TV shows in the 70s/80s used to have much more memorable theme tunes. There was a TV drama called The Brothers on a Sunday evening that I would watch with my parents as a teen. Listening to the theme brings back the most piercing memories of those Sunday evenings.

Oh, I loved The Brothers - and the theme tune! My late DM and I used to watch it together.

Looking at magazine adverts trying to decide which mobile background you'd get... If only you had a phone. And £3 to spend on it.

Disposable cameras.

I remember going on a girls holiday and when we got home we took our many disposable cameras to get developed then all sat looking through them laughing and remembering the memories.

No filters, no posing, just a quick picture of that moment.

I also miss younger kids having more freedom. I remember being allowed to walk to the town centre shops with a friend at about age 9 (in the 90s). We would basically just walk there, drift around the sweet shop, library, new look & boots and then walk home but we felt really grown up and behaved a lot better than we would have with parents around.

Ive chosen to live in a small place in the hope i can still give my kids freedom to go a few places locally without me.

And a thumb/ finger over part of the lens . Or suncream goop smeared across. 😂

Putting LPs on my record player and playing an album from start to finish. Dancing round my bedroom to the Top Twenty.
Smearing Vaseline on my lips to look like Farah Fawcett Major.
Being with my lovely friends, doing nothing much, in the days before consumerism took hold.
Reading lots and lots of books and swapping with friends, then discussing the books.
Getting excited when a boy wanted to kiss me (and no boys ever wanted to strangle me or stick their dicks in my ass).
Discos.
Knitting, crocheting, making stuff, so much free time.
Wearing pencil skirts and looking lean and beautiful.
80s tans (even though so bad) and smoking (like another PP, so bad, but miss it strangely).
Song thrushes.

The list goes on and on ...

"And no boys wanted to strangle me or stick their dick in my ass"
Oh happy days. This made me laugh out loud. 😂

😂