"Back in the day"

[mooncat]

One reason older people say things like "We only had 3 TV channels, blah blah blah...!" is they get a little tired of hearing people bitch about there being "nothing to do" or "there's nothing on TV!" It just seems like people today (of all ages) are spoiled for choice. There are dozens of fast food chains where once there was just McDonald's, Dairy Queen and Kentucky Fried Chicken. There are 100's of TV channels where once there were 3. And internet? There was NOTHING like that.

However, this is all relative. Frankly, I agree that "there's nothing on TV" which is why I hardly ever watch anymore. And I love being online! But we get used to what we have and we get impatient when it doesn't perform to our expectations.

[bara]

The grass is greener where you are going and where youve been.

[blas87]

What really bugs me is people who go on and on about "back in the day" when it was well before their day.

My parents were born in the early 60s. Dad lives in a fantasy land at times, where it's still the early 1900s on the farm/area where his family came from. My mom also lives in a fantasy land, though a little later, the 20s and 30s around where she was raised.

There's nostalgia and comforting memories, but to me, it befuddles me, because I don't fantasize about how great life was in the 50s, 60, or 70s, because I wasn't there. Or even most of the 80s. I mean sure, I think my fashion sense is more suited for the 70s and I love the hair and makeup and music, but at the same time, my life and focus is on the now and future.

[HYHYBT]

Right. The thing to do is not to live in the past, but to bring forward the parts worth keeping. If I were forced to move and leave behind every thing I own but one (and if that were the only condition) that one thing would be the player piano. But I have no desire to live in society as it was in the 1920's, never mind doing without the technological improvements of the past 85 years.

[telecom_goddess]

My parents were born in the early 60s. .

oh now I feel old...I was born in 1965

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Three channels? I wouldn't want to go back to that, but I miss the days when Cable TV had channels that catered to specific interests. You know...when MTV was actually Music TV?

Now we have 80 channels of television that if I scroll through the lineup I can find CSI (in one form or another) on 50 of them and reality shows on the rest.

I can do without the three channels, but is it so hard to wonder why I long for the "Good Old Days" of being able to learn something on "The Learning Channel"?

"All dem gadgets". While I would admit to missing my toys and goodies, I can see where this is coming from. I am frequently annoyed trying to hold a conversation with someone who makes me hold my thought and interrupts me so they can answer a text or a tweet on their smart phones.

Or all the stories where someone is so wrapped up in their toy that they walk out in to traffic. I've almost splattered a couple of idjits myself.

And then there is the fact that nowadays if you took away their toys these people are LOST. My step son in an act of extreme boneheaded-ness jumped off the high dive into the 12 foot deep section of the swimming pool with his iPhone in his pocket.

Yeah... totaled it. I'd be pissed but it was his Dad's phone plan and not mine.

His dad didn't get him another smart phone for two years (when he was eligible for an upgrade) and replaced it with a cheap AT&T go-phone that you can get for $30.

For two years I got to listen to how badly his phone sucked and how he couldn't tweet, facebook, or any of bazillion functions that he was denied with a crappy phone.

So I could see how one could long for the days before people started becoming so fucking addicted to their technology that you can't get three words in before someone has to deal with someone else tweeting about the fact that they just took a massive shit.

I'm not joking. I've looked over the shoulder of my son. His friends frequently tweet about shit. Literally.

"Walk to school barefoot in the show, uphill both ways"

That is a commentary about how kids today complain about a lot of things. They have buses that are heated and air conditioned and have very padded and cushioned seats. And they complain about it. They have parents who will drive them to school and they complain. They have their own cars and they bitch and whine.

Or going back to the smart phones. Back in my day if I wanted to call my friends I had to do it in the living room when I got home from school and in hearing range of my parents. Now they can talk privately, they can talk as soon as they are out of school and they can keep in constant communications with their friends...

And they still bitch and complain if their phones are older than 30 days.

It's not that we lived under such harsh conditions, it's that we had to make do with far less than is available today and many of today's youth think they have it so rough because they have the iPhone 4 and not a brand spanking new iPhone 4s. And we point that out making the "uphill both ways in the snow" joke.

"Would have gotten whooped..."

Part of that is our expression of how things that were taboo are not anymore, the rest of that is the lack of respect that is often given.

In my day I was pushing the envelope if I told my parents that I really didn't agree with them, but their rules are the rules and will be obeyed. Today you see kids actively talking back to their parents and nothing getting done about it.

Case in point was a post I made on CS . We now live in a society that frowns on disciplining a child. And I'm not talking about stopping physical punishments, ANY thing you do to stop a child is considered to be a "stifling of the child's creative processes and stunts their emotional growth".

So you see more and more children who get away with being verbally abusive to their elders, having no respect for anyone and get away with stuff that we would have been punished for.

Seriously. I grew up saying please and thank you to everyone. I was raised to respect people and to be kind (as much as can be reasonably expected) to others. Look at a lot of kids today. There is a lack of simple basic courtesy from an increasing number of them. There are still nice children and teenagers...but they are a dying breed.

[Greenday]

Usually, my response to people starting in with the back in the day crap, I usually just respond "Sucks!" I'm JUST old enough to remember having to call multiple friends and leaving messages to see if people want to hang out. Not having a cell phone. When hanging out with friends meant doing stuff outside. And now that I've experienced facebook, texting, video gaming with friends? I don't miss it. If life was so much better back then, we would have stopped inventing new stuff that makes it even more awesome now. If we were all pleased with what we have now, society wouldn't advance anywhere.

[senor boogie woogie]

I love the internet. It's my heroin. Basically when I am at home, I sitting on the computer if I am not sleeping, showering or using the toilet. It is my news source, entertainment, communication, it serves many purposes and to me is by far the greatest invention of my lifetime. Thank you Al Gore!

But for the moment, I have very little interest in getting, for example and I-Pad. I just dont think I would use it that much. I think it would be a pain to carry around. The one time that I would like to have one is if I was in a place or situation that requires waiting, like a bus station, the airport, on the bus, train or plane, or something like that.

I do have an I-Phone. For some reason, I lost the battery charger for it and have not really gone out to buy another one. I just do not care for the phone. It's heavy in my pocket, it is overly complicated, and the internet service is in my area, very expensive. I just dont have much of a use for it.

I have an old NOKIA phone that I actually found in a junk drawer. Got a charger for it and it is a great little phone. Easy to use functions, very lightweight. It is also very durable. I dont need all those "bells and whistles".

Although I have a Facebook account, I never use it. One big reason is that I am a foreigner in China and Facebook is blocked. I was here before it was blocked and never used it. I dont understand why anyone would use it. I for one, like privacy. I was looking at it last year and I could not find any friends from high school or college on it. These people would be about 40-45 years old now. The only thing that I could find was a general High School reunion photos of the douchebag "popular kids" sucking down adult cocktails. I was thinking 'Damn, they are old and fat!'

Amazon? Why? One thing that I think is a lot of fun is to actually leave the house and go shopping. To get up, get out and feel the merchandise. I dont want to give someone my credit card number. I dont want to wait for my stuff to come.


Except for the sports games, I don't much care for new video games either. Most video games are now basically an interactive movie and/or they are so complicated that to me isn't worth the effort. I have a control with 12 different buttons on it.