In my life time I've seen so many incredible advancements, particularly in the world of technology, but sometimes, I do reminisce about the 80s and even early 90s and so many things that have been lost to the current generation. I know times are different and we should always look forward and never look back but I do occasionally get a little nostalgic for those simpler times.
"Simpler ??" they screamed in unison. Yes, simpler. Less cluttered and simpler pleasures. As technology has advanced, so , it seems have our desires. We get more, we want more. So for all you 'millenials' out there, this is what you missed and I know whatever I tell you about, you'll simply answer, "there's an app for that" but often that app takes all the fun and sense of achievement from things.
So here we go, a 51 year old's guide to the pre digital age and things I feel have been made more complicated or less enjoyable by technology,
1 Photos
I can't deny that digital cameras were a revolution, snapping away to your hearts content with gay abandon hoping for that perfect shot before deleting all the junk ones and there storing it in an unlimited digital library. Incredible. History of the the future will be so different, so undeniable with all the photographic evidence available to discover and research. Geo tags, time and date stamps, it's all there but what's lost ?
What's lost is that patience and craft in composing a beautiful picture, only taking shots of what mattered because a roll of film and the associated developing costs were expensive to kids in the 70s and 80s. There was also the wait! The time taken to finish your roll of film, and trying to squeeze out an extra shot or two at the end of your roll of kodak 36 and also the sense of anticipation and excitement felt when you dropped it off at Boots to get it developed. Time dragged by as you waited to go on the alloted date or time, to pick up your prints. Then rushing outside, standing in the street and ripping open the envelope, opening the sleeve and quickly thumbing through the prints before you got back home.
2 Travel
I won't waste my time telling you about all the millions of apps which make life so much easier these days, but a couple of things I do kind of miss are the huge thick glossy travel brochures for the travel agents full of sunshine and cataloging thousands of hotels. Even just sitting in the travel agent booking your 2 weeks in Spain, trying to sort flights and available hotels was fun, and again, the anticipation of booking a trip 6 or 7 months in advance made the holiday more special when it finally arrived. Later on when I became more adventurous, I loved the piles of 'Rough Guides' and mountains of in-depth information they supplied on their wafer-thin pages. Planning a trip was almost as much fun as taking the trip!
The other thing was smoking on planes, OK, not a good thing but it was great to be able to sit back with a glass of your favourite tipple and cig as you flew through the air as well as being a crutch for the nervous travellers!
Funny how you see very few nervous flyers these days and I've always questioned the need for sick bags as in over 500 flights, i've never seen anyone use one for it's intended purpose!
3 Talking
No one talks anymore! Everything is chat apps and communication by posts on social media. Even dating is done by filling in forms and choosing from a catalogue! I remmebr the days when you firstly had to have the courage to get a girls phone number, or look her up in the phone book, again which don't seem to exist anymore, and then build up the bottle to actually call her and ask her out. Especially difficult for an ugly, awkward and geeky teenage Nathen!
4 Music
I miss reading up about new album and single releases and then the excitement of waiting to listen to the first play on radio, theres no build up anymore. Rushing out to the record shop to buy a new album from your favourite band and then rushing home to play it was a simple wonderful pleasure. Even just a trip to the record shop was exciting as you thumbed through the racks of LPs, and even later with the CD's looking for back catalogues or undiscovered treasures. Even better when they were discovered in the basement bin! For me, I'd spend the whole of almost every Saturday morning in my two local record shops. Especially in the lates 80s when House hit the scene, searching out new mixes added an extra dimension. I loved it, and while we're on the subject. Square carrier bags! Where did they go ?
Of course, it was all a bit of a record company con. There would be two or three single released BEFORE the album meaning you'd end up buying the singles and then buying the same tracks on the album, but Hey ho ! Thats life.
5 Computer Games
Somewhere during the early 2000s I gave up on 'gaming' as it's known these days. Too complicated, too many buttons, missions, it takes too long to learn. It's supposed to be a quick sit down and play to relax. Up, Down, Left, Right, Fire..what else is needed. I recently went back and played Doom for the first time in maybe 20 years. So enjoyable and straightforward. I am in awe of modern games and the incredible complexity and graphics, but to be honest, I simply can't be arsed. Lifes too short!
Looking back at what I've just written, I think the main thing missing these days is anticipation and tactility. Very few things in the digital age excite me anymore. I'm still in wander at new events and advancements in technology but I can't seem to generate too much giddiness about them. Everything is switched on and now, information is so instant and takes so little to discover, in some ways it devalues it for me. There is no marvel or awe anymore. I just find it a little sad.
By the way, I need to add that Im not exactly a 51 year old dinosaur. I had email in 1984 (telecom Gold), was online regularly since about 1989, was a junior developer on 'Packet Switching' and the OSI 7 layer model in the mid 80s, bought my first stock online in about 97 and was meeting people from sites similar to this and chatting from the late 90s...late 80s if you include the dark days of dial in bulletin boards and compuserve. I could even pick up a phone, dial up a network and handshke with it simply by whistling the exact frequency of carrier tone.....youve no idea what the hell Im talking about do you ? lol
Early 80's modem porn, a Datel modem 13a, max speed, 300bits per second !
What do you miss ? What didnt you know you might have missed ? lol
I am so lucky to have witnessesed, and been apart of such incredible technological advancements in the last 40 years and joking aside, I wouldn't change a thing.....except perhaps how I wish I could light up a cig on my 13 hour Thai Airways A380 flight next week!
