What has actually changed over the years?

There is always going to be a debate that “back in the day” was better than anything there is today.  While this might be the case with some things (Who misses milk deliveries?), it can’t be said for others (How good is the internet?).

The question of what has actually changed since your youth has started a big conversation of the site Reddit. The comments seem to centre around a few particular topics; Products, childhood, and community.

Products seem to have the biggest change over the years. The idea that products are “made to last” seems to be more in the past than episodes of Number 96. One user writes, “Consumerism has totally remade society and economics in post-industrial countries. Consumer goods, like clothes and furniture, used to be hand-made and ready to repair. Things were made to last a lifetime, or more. Now, we buy cheap junk and throw it away whenever a new version comes out. I’m not just waxing nostalgic about how, ‘they don’t make stuff like they used to.’ The constant cycle of consumption and waste has had dire social and environmental consequences.”

Even if you had a product pre-1989, the idea was if the product malfunction or broke you would have it repaired not just buy another. One community member pointed that out in what they missed the most writing, “Repair shops. There used to be TV repair shops, vacuum cleaner repair shops, shoe repair shops. Things would break and then you would take them to a shop, or even go and buy a part, and fix them. Now everyone just buys a new whatever.”

Childhood and community were the areas with the biggest sense of loss. People reminiscing about having maybe one or two television shows they would watch per week and be spending the rest of the time outside playing until dark. There was a greater sense of community pre-1980s with many communities acting like larger families. One commenter writing, “People used to visit each other randomly and ‘just drop by”‘ Now, there seems to be a lot less community and people are less inclined to be social.”

One of the possible reasons for people becoming less social could be summarised with another post with the user writing, “Single income families. For those in the generation before mine, it was normal for a man’s income to cover all of the costs of living for a family. For those in the generation after mine, it takes two incomes.” It could be that many homes where everyone has to work to pay the bills making less time to be social. 

What do you think?  What has changed the most for you over the years?  What do you think is better and worse today? We would love to read your comments in the section down below.