To having been born in the 1970s and see how much the world has changed?

[Deeperthantheocean]

Yes, so a '70s child so have lived through everything beyond the days of MN world, with advice and experiences of parents and grandparents.

I feel so fortunate to have embraced technology. I am in awe of how the world has been revolutionised it as mostly to the greater good of mankind in many ways.

Just from a personal perspective, I feel it's so sad that the school playgrounds we used to go to to play the sports with our friends are all now barricaded, the youth clubs we went to and had a 10p drink and 12p bag of crisps for a night our aged 13, also the innocent early 1980s school discos we did just dance and had fun with our dowdy outfits. My Mum made me a rara skirt from an old skirt to look more modern, amazing talent among so many others.

So, back to my title, oh boy the works has changed so much! My generation knows how much our parents' generation had it hard and those before then so much harder. Poverty was working to be able to work and buy food on rations, that was women also.

Now we do generally have to work as parents but please don't forget our Mums and grandmother's also did, but after looking after children. Unsociable hours, after hours, basically anytime husbands were home to listen out for anything.

I remember crisps being 2 and 1/2p a bag, and I was only born in 1966!

I love Life on Mars. I remember getting quite tearful with nostalgia the first time I watched it.

I was too young to realise how shit the 70s really were- for me it was long summers and mum at home. Even the power cuts were exciting for a child.

I think you're a bit confused, OP. I was born in the 50s and it was my grandmothers who had the drudge of bringing up families on rations, doing war work etc. My mother was 8 when the war began and 14 when it finished. You seem also to have forgotten the 60s and the huge women's lib movement and how that affected our lives. I was at university in the 70s and started my family in the early 80s and I have never been downtrodden as a woman. I agree that, as a general rule, we have so much to thank our lucky stars for, but you seem to have got your generations in a real muddle.

I was born in 1967, think it was a great time to grow up, loved the youth clubs of the 70', walking home from school and playing out until dark. love the Internet and my mobile now but appreciate growing up without it, having to make plans in advance, before my parents to let me use home phone(which was weirdly always in the cold dark hall).
I was even thinking today that the year l spent travelling in1989 is so different to my kids experiences, we basically got on a plane and wrote home once a month, now it's a daily whatsapp

Omg I was born in 1972 and can relate to di much of this

Anyone remember free school milk at break times then suddenly having it taken off is circa 1980?

Just 3 TV channels ?

I remember it all 🙌

Ah another Gen X er who remembers free break time milk!! 💪

your year of birth was great for music btw - Massachusetts, anyone?

I was born in 1972 but my mum born exactly same time as yours 🤣

All of this sepia toned nostalgia is making this 1970's person feel like a right old gimmer! 50 is the new 30!

Yep. Ringo’s too! I used to love them.

My brother got his first computer console and it was just 2 “bats” at either side of the screen, bouncing a “ball” back and too! It was so basic but he loved it!

I waa born in 1973, the milk we got at school has given me a life long hatred of milk tbh ,for some reason known only to the school they didn't give it to us in the morning when it was fresh ,they gave it to us after it had Been in a,warm classroom all day vile 🤮
Would it have killed them to.put it in a fridge 🤔

Every era has its problems and advantages. There’s a lot I’d change but I quite like modern life!

Yes so, as an 8 year old when the war began, your mother wasn't feeding her family throughout war time rationing. That was my point.

Yes we have the internet, smart phones so technology has changed but other than that no I don't think it has, I think people want to think that but each generation does

Given some comments on MN, it was the olden days.
Try being born in the early 60s - positively ancient!

Everyone striked?
It was for a short period not the whole fucking 70s
As for the rest of your post
😂😂😂😂
We are talking 1970s not 1570s, ffs
Shock announcement - we had carpets, no-one nicked our milk (apart from the birds who pecked through the foil to get at the cream), not 'everyone' smoked, and not every day was a bombing or shooting day
Jesus, where were you living?

It was a period of constant workplace unrest. The bin strike and power cuts are the ‘iconic’ ones but strikes and the threat of strikes were part of the background throughout the ‘70s.

Like you, I lived through the decade when I was old enough to remember and understand. Nostalgia for prawn cocktail, Spangles and Cortinas (and arbitrary union power, if that’s your thing) apart, the ‘70s were ugly years.

TBH, what that poster said doesn't sound dissimilar to now. People living in poverty, strikes, bombings... 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was born in the early 70s and had a very happy childhood. I remember the strikes but don't remember it affecting us.

I love lots of aspects of tech but it has changed us as a society and not for the better. I think people are generally unhappier these days. Despite all the labour saving tech people have less time than ever.

I saw some family photos the other week from the 50s and 60s. Large group photos with everyone laughing. It made me think 'happy times'. You could see the sense of community. Any photos of groups now seem to be posing for social media. There's a different vibe.

This is all a bit I remember the corned beef of my childhood and as a 70s baby I would quite like to avoid being old enough for that kind of thing.

You know why school playgrounds are fenced and youth clubs (certainly our local one) closed? Safeguarding. I am not sorry about living in a world where we care more about children's safety, although you have made me hungry for a packet of Discos.

Personally, I think the current time period will be seen as a massive "waste" of opportunity due to far too many people not taking advantage of the benefits of technology.

Rather than using it to enhance our lives, improve our knowledge, etc., it seems to be dumbing us down to just taking selfies for likes and gadgets to make us lazy!

When I was at school, I'd have killed for the vast amount of knowledge now available at our fingertips. I was limited to the text books and scrappy worksheets handed out by our teachers and whatever I could get out of the school library. Parents had no money to buy books and we didn't have a library within walking distance. Now kids can get literally any and all information they want from their smart phone, but instead they watch mindless youtube videos! So sad!

Like I say, I think the last couple of decades will go down in history as a wasted opportunity.

I think that’s very perceptive, and very accurate.

I despise social media (by which I mean primarily Instagram, X and Facebook) because of the vanity, falsehood, fraud and stupidity it encourages. But we’ll get over that, I think, with changing social attitudes and expectations, and regulation where necessary.

The internet is a singularly powerful force for information and learning though. Once that is properly harnessed and promoted we’ll all benefit hugely.

But it wasn't all like that!
Exaggeration abounded in that post

You are entirely unreasonable to be born in the 70s. How dare you. The audacity!

In all seriousness, I was born a decade later and I can see the changes and am curious what is still to come. Like always it will be some good, some bad.

Simpler times, I do feel sorry for children today that don't have the same access to roaming across the countryside that we had - even though I understand why.
I have so many incredible nature-based memories from childhood that really shaped me. But even now as an adult who walks miles most days, I dont see as much wildlife as I used to. It's so sad.

Something that has definitely improved since the 70s - safeguarding children. My parents cheerfully left me and my sister with a wide circle of extended family, friends, acquaintances and neighbours. Not all those experiences were happy ones although we were never actually abused exactly. But I look back on various things and shudder. A friend of my mums who looked after us sometimes had a boyfriend who used to walk about and stand about naked in front of us, in hindsight he clearly got off on exposing himself to little girls. Another woman who lived on our street looked after us after school sometimes and often she would lose her temper, mostly with her own kids, and would scream and smack thenm and throw crockery etc and cry. One uncle was v.strange and used to make us try foods we didnt want to like blue cheeses etc, things that children wouldn't typically want to try but we were bullied into it in a weird, twisted jokey way. My dads work pal and his wife had us over sometimes as we were good company for their children but it wasn't a comfortable experience, the children were always cowed and silent, nothing like how they were when they came to us and we would have to scrub taps and rake gravel etc and it was such an intense, strange atmosphere. An older brother of my friend used to shut me in his room with him try to get me to put my hands down his trousers, horrible smelly, fat thing he was.

The strangest thing is I never told my parents about any of this until adulthood, and I really don't know why.