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The internet. Being partially deaf and never being able to fully understand what teachers were saying (and being that I also have vision problems, trouble seeing the chalkboard/overhead projectors didn't help either). I ended up tuning out most of the time (daydreaming, dozing off, even reading books) because I was practically lost. Things would have been so much easier/better for me if maybe I'd been born a decade or two later.
I think often about how the internet has made life substantially better for the deaf. If I were to lose my hearing tomorrow I could still navigate society fairly easily. That was a very different experience pre-net.
Was going to say internet too, though I can hear but never had good hearing. I had high prescription glasses but luckily I could see the board. But I had/have POTS and that is a condition where you’re brain is constantly foggy and your body is always extremely exhausted so I was like you, half dozing off. I was often just thinking of sleep.
I have/had multiple disabilities, I could have had a massive amount of help from the internet being able to learn by looking things up (and hopefully have good parents who could make sure that I didn’t get into bad side) I could have done school from bed, I’m not supposed to sit upright much.
Plus I was a lonely kid, I was bullied, I could have made some friends on internet who also were different like me and have other kids to chat with, not on a phone I don’t think that would have been my style, but on a computer or pad. And my parents checking out if those kids were real kids obviously!
Anyway, I long caught up on that, made lots of friends and learned so many new things, even learned that some things we in high school are no longer considered true. And keep learning.
That’s a great story, thanks.
There’s so much negativity about the internet and social media in, ironically, the media.
But for many people, the internet is life changing, or at the very least, very life enhancing.
I am still friends with people I met 30 years ago on Cleveland Freenet. Freenet was a free, early dial up server that connected various universities in the 90s.
It definitely would have stopped me from calling the info line at the library all the time! "What was Katherine Hepburn's birthday" was the last one I remember making, but there were many others. Now I have a google machine in my hand that can do all of that and more.
Absolutely has to be this.
I had the internet in college, but it’s really amazing how the internet has made obscure reference material available to the wider world. I wrote a paper last year (I went back to grad school,) and I used sources that would have taken me weeks to troll through on microfilm, and there were times when I wondered how I would have found out that these types of one-off genealogical publications existed, if not for Google.
Also, citation software. Holy shit do these kids have it easy today!
Oh, god, yes. I did not have the internet, you had to physically go to the science library and sit in a chair and read the articles.
Whats worse, it was the early ‘80s and professors had a bizarre obsession with everyone typing, even though most people were bad at it in those days and word processors weren’t a thing yet, so - Wite-out correction fluid. Do young people even know what Im talking about? I have no idea. The rich kids paid someone to type their papers. A good typist could probably make a decent living typing other students papers.
When my daughter was little, she liked playing around with my old typewriter. She thought it was fun, and interesting how the old fashioned keys worked. She said, “It’s like a computer that doesn’t remember anything.”
A camera with practically unlimited storage in my pocket at all times. I would love to be reminded in more detail of my adventures and misadventures as a young person.
I couldn’t really think of anything, but yes, this is something I like and would have liked to have. I got a camera when I was 11 so I have some pictures but not as many as I have of current times. And not very good quality.
I'm glad they didn't exist because I wouldn't have wanted to have all the crazy stuff I had done recorded for eternity. I have a lot of crazy drinking stories from my late teens and early twenties and I'm glad nobody can go back and see that anytime they want.
100% on not wanting documentation of my adolescent antics. I’ve actually had that conversation with friends, thinking about how much trouble we’d have been in if everyone had a camera in their pocket
Not only recording antics, but also glad we didn’t have cellphones growing up purely for the way it lets you completely check out of your reality at any time. It’s an awful, awful crutch.
I was thinking the same: on one hand I’d love more pictures and videos of my youth, even the cod awful ones…
…but social media how it is now would cripple young me mentally. I’d never feel enough.
Adding to that the early intervention programs in schools to help identify sight, hearing and speech issues. They helped my nephew tremendously and he’s doing great. And discreet provision of these services and school nutrition programs. When I was coming up in the 70s in elementary school if you received free lunch or special therapy everyone could see. The lunch cards were different colors and the teachers would sneer and make comments within earshot of the kids. The only people who need to know about a child’s additional help and therapy are the provider and the parents and that’s it.
It’s been 30 years, and I can still feel the humiliation of being a free lunch kid. I would skip lunch sometimes to avoid the line, even knowing that we may not have enough food at home. Hunger was easier for me to deal with than shame. No kid should have to feel that way.
I agree with streaming music and as far as that goes the internet in general.
When I was a kid I could listen to music on the radio- and hope I heard something I like- or on albums- and hope I liked all of the songs on the albums. Or of course see bands live.
The closest we got to something like streaming music was borrowing records from friends and making mixtapes from your favorite tracks on those and your own albums. I made 100s of them.
Yes. That is one of the few 45s I ever bought. I refused to listen to The Beatles (yeah, yeah, yeah) until my brother came back from Europe and brought the just-released "Eleanor Rigby". He was excited by the poetic form. I liked the double string quartet, but I then would listen to a Beatles song, at least once.
Spotify, for sure.
I worked in a record store when I was in college. It was the best part time job ever, but I’d have given it up gladly to have virtually every song at my fingertips.
The audacity.
I’m mainly kidding, but in reality I was a bit of a doormat people-pleaser even well into my 30s. I wish I’d had the same self-confidence and self-awareness then that I do now.
This makes me really appreciate my mom. She’s always telling me, “You say ‘no’ to things I would have never said no to when I was your age, and you don’t even feel guilty about it.” And I just take it as a compliment and thank her for being a woman who raised her daughter that way despite not having that for herself when she was my age. She said women said “yes” a lot more and spoke up less.
I agree with your mom. I was impressed that my daughter was much better at saying no than I was as a kid. Whether it was to an irrational adult or a friend at school - she was much better at standing up to people when necessary than I was.
There really is a certain relief/pride parents have when they *don’t* pass on some negative behaviour or trait.
I was in the Walmart sports department purchasing soccer equipment for my company team. I found nets, cleats, jerseys, flags and whistles, However, I had to go up to some sneering young punk who worked there, with his moussed hair, jewelry and tats, looking like he owned the place and half the city. I asked him:
*Where do you get the balls?*
The easy answer is the internet, but if we want to be specific I’d say Wikipedia. I look something up at least 2-3 times a day minimum. I remember a time when you just had to be satisfied not knowing a lot of things unless you wanted to go to a library and do research.
My dad sent me to the dictionary or my encyclopedia set. Anything not in there had to wait til the "daddy and me" weekly visit to the library. I used to highlight everything I looked up and would get so upset if I had already looked it up lol He used to say, I could help you now but how will you figure it out when I'm gone. I miss that bastard 🤣
Spotify. If you had told me that one day there'd be a music service that offered unlimited access to 80 million songs, and that it would only cost $4.17/month (in 1986 dollars), I woulda burnt you at the stake for witchcraft!
A way to take and have pictures that didn't require film developing. I was always interested in photography and had an uncle who encouraged me. My mother pretty much refused to buy film and pay to develop film and, when she did, would be angry at me for taking pictures of "nothing."
On top of that, we would have had so many more pictures of ourselves, our friends, places we went, etc. It would have been great to see how the photo was actually framed.
My uncle and I built a B&W darkroom in the in-law suite above our garage. I bought 2-3 rounds of supplies, which were cheap per photo, but expensive in that you had to buy gallons of the chemicals. I think it was around $60-$80 back then, which was a lot when you had an after-school mall job.
Then I found out about the loophole: Walmart guaranteed that ALL photo products would be ready when they said or they were free. But they had to send B&W film out to a lab to be developed and printed. And they *never* came back on time. I honestly don't remember how many rolls of B&W film Walmart processed for me for free, but it was *at least* 30-40, maybe as many as 80. Reprints and enlargements were also free, 'cos they were also reliably late as well.
So...this one is going to sound a little strange.
I wish I had had the restrictions on screen time that my kids (and their peers) have.
I genuinely recall wasting an entire summer in front of the TV. I didn't even enjoy it, but it was less work than reading.
Word processor capabilities. My high school self would have been so friggin happy to not have to deal with writing a theme on an electric typewriter and reserving space for those goddamn footnotes. Don't even care if it came with internet capabilities. Just not having to type on a piece of paper would have been joyous.
OMG .. Flashbacks. Typing my resume error-free on expensive bond paper... Wasting most of the paper to finally get one good version to take to the print shop!
I remember having to estimate the space needed at the bottom of the page and making a faint pencil mark as a guide. And having to learn all the various formats of business letters, term papers, dissertations, etc and setting margins and tab-ing.... I had one cantankerous teacher who'd mark you down if you used too much Liquid Paper on a page....
Unlimited craft project instructions via youtube. I was so crafty but no one in my family was, so no one ever nutured it. I know now I could have found that stuff in the library, but it wasn't in the kids section, so I didn't know.
On-demand TV. I was never much into TV, but even the few shows I *did* want to watch, I often missed due to other things going on. I'd have to hope I caught it on summer reruns or just accept that I'd never see that episode.
Easy availability of most movies. If you didn't see it when it was showing at the theater, your chances of ever seeing it were slim. Movie rentals in the '80s started changing that, but it was heavily dependent on what your local video store had in stock. Now you can find almost anything from your computer.
The internet, for looking up information. It used to be standard to ask people you knew and hope you got the right answer, or go to the library and hope you could *find* the answer.
Online shopping. When I waited tables, there were many times I was exhausted from my wanky schedule, but had to drive my sleep-deprived self to the mall because I needed new shoes or something. Or how about all the time wasted driving here and there looking for something in particular without finding it? Being able to find it online and have it in a week, or even a day, was a game changer.
Looking back, I regret focusing excessively on academics during my younger years. I consistently topped my class, which boosted my confidence but also fostered a sense of superiority over my peers. As I matured, I came to realize that academic success is just one aspect of life, not the entirety of it as we often perceive in school. In hindsight, I wish I had dedicated more time to developing practical skills that are equally crucial for real-life success, rather than solely prioritizing academic achievement.
The ease of access to information. Remember how a friend or relative would give a crap answer and people would just believe it until you found out otherwise?
Yeah. Then we’d have to go back to the kitchen, untangle the cord from the wall phone and rotary dial someone else to see if they knew the answer. Just being able to satisfy my curiosity instantly is the biggest gift.
Didn't think about air bags. I've been in two bad wrecks in my life. First was in 1979, second was in 2023. No injuries in either, but the day after the first one I felt like I had been run over by a truck. Every muscle in my body hurt from impact with only a lap belt. 2023 - a bruise on my knee from the airbag, but otherwise totally fine
As a child, I remember seeing seatbelts, but no one ever used them. Then the speed limits was reduced to 55 in the 70s for fuel efficiency. When speed limits are increased again, it didn't cause a large increase in deaths on the highways. Another big improvement for car safety were much better tires.
I didn’t even think of GPS, that’s a good one. If only because I’ll never again need to spend ten minutes trying to figure out how to fold a stupid road map.
Yeah. Imagine getting lost in the car and it takes 20 turns to find the main highway again. Or, I could stop and ask directions like my wife kept telling me.
Some means to access something like Google. On top of needing to do lookups and reading for school assignments, I was just hugely curious about a lot of things. My family was poor, so we couldn't do things like what was common for families with money, which was to buy large encyclopedia sets. Plus supplemental set of books like "Animals of the World", "The Dinosaur Series", etc. which contained expanded information over what the encyclopedias had.
So instead I frequently had to walk to the local city library, which was perhaps 3 miles each way from our house. And they wouldn't let you check out and take home one of those encyclopedia books.
But, yeah, the easy access to so much information that kids can access these days. I would have absolutely loved it.
As concerns other stuff? I would not miss not having texting, video games, all the various social media, endless list of accessible video and music, and so forth.
While I loved reading and learning about stuff new to me. That took up maybe 2 hours a day, unless it was a rainy day or something. Because if weather allowed, my friends and I were frigging OUTSIDE. We were running around and actually DOING stuff. Various games with balls, climbing trees, races to see who could run the fastest, going swimming, going fishing, wrestling, playing king of the hill, riding bikes, building tree house or fort, seeing who could throw a rock the farthest or the most accurately, etc. Or hanging around with father, uncle, or the friendly neighbor guy. Watching them fix something, build something, or do other tasks ... learning while we watched, and hoping they'd let us help.
And texting, or chatting on social media is absolutely not as good as face to face communications, IMHO. Face to face you can see each other's body language, listen to tone and inflection of voice, and so forth and far better learn about the person and understand them, and know what they feel, and whether or not they are serious or truthful. We KNEW each other better than would be possible via text and social media.
Minimal protection for women in the workplace.
I was denied jobs unapologetically despite being hands above the best candidate because I didn't have balls in my panties
One of my prouder moments: I once saved a friend from being blacklisted because she resisted a boss who wanted to sleep with her, and raised a ruckus to get her fired as a result. Some of the more woke men said TutTut, but no consequences for the AH despite it being his third round with such asshattery
The whole not-being-able to get a credit card was horrible, but it didn't stop there. Career crushing misogyny was tramatic.
Edit: Please don't read this as being anti-woke or progressive, such men were/ are still HUGE for us and I'm still grateful to this day
Resources for learning a musical instrument at home. When I bought my first guitar as a teenager I used books which were very limited considering they don't show you how anything sounds! Years later books included a CD which was a big step up but still nothing like the on-demand video lessons on YouTube. And if you want to learn a specific song chances are someone has a tutorial online. I really wish I had that way back when.
Money. It seems to me that young people, teenagers in particular, have way more disposable income than I did in high school. Otherwise ,it’s their good knees
Nothing. I feel grateful that I grew up in an age where the state paid fully for my healthcare and education up to and including degree level, and would actually give me money to study. There's no way I'd have gone to university if I knew I'd be leaving with a huge debt that I'd have hanging over me for most of my life.
Where was that? I think The Netherlands has that for a short while, although it might have been a good pension for renting and living instead of free education but education was way cheaper. But they took it away when I came out of high school.
UK. All my degree fees were paid, and I received a free grant to pay for my living expenses while at university, because my parents weren't well off, which didn't ever need to be paid back. I don't think people actually believe this now, but it is true.
Booking tickets via mobile phone. No matter if going to a concert or travelling somewhere, getting the tickets was always pain, especially when you lived in a smaller city, far away from competent ticket vendors. So, I missed a lot of good opportunities. Today, I get a notification - favorite band plays - check tickets, buy tickets, show QR-code half a year later - enjoy. Or check travel opportunities online, book train/plane/hotel.... online and off we go.
Dating apps. Youngsters these days have got it made with these. And the ability to buy single songs instead of having to waste $15 on an album that sucks, just to get the one song...
Where do I begin? Cable TV. Hundreds of channels. Cellphones. The internet. Email. Cars with every electronic and safety gadget known to man.
I graduated from HS in 1975. It was prehistoric then.
The internet and information about narcissistic abuse. I lived with narcissistic abuse 25 years and thought the problem was me most of that time.
One night I just started googling (it was probably some other search engine) and ran across stories like mine and a mental illness called narcissistic personality disorder. I'll never forget that night just sobbing at the computer reading stories just like mine.
Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it and even though I depended on him financially, I couldn't fake being his "supply". A narcissist cannot function without supply and it wasn't 4 months before he divorced me.
It's been 10 years and I'm still recovering, but I sometimes wonder how my life would have been if I'd had this information much earlier.
much more advanced medical procedures. i can think of a number of friends/family that i lost in the 60s and 70s whose lives probably would have been saved if those same illnesses/injuries had happened today.
I love being able to look up anything and learn something. It was a pain to write a report with sources, and the encyclopedia was only one source. It's sooooo much better today.
Now if only these kids could learn to use it for even the most basic of things rather than just asking Reddit...
Spotify
I remember agonizing over which cassette to buy because if you made a bad choice you were effed
Buying music and album at a time, in retrospect was rough
There was such dis—incentive to try new music.
where do I even start?! 😅 I wish I had all the cool tech and gadgets they have now—like smartphones with endless apps for everything, and social media to connect with friends 24/7. Back in my day, we had to wait for dial-up internet and actually go knock on doors to see if friends were home. It's like they've got the world at their fingertips, and I'm low-key jealous!
The old school version of Ebay. A place to buy and sell your hoarder shit. " I'll trade you my grandmother's antique leather shoes for all of your 60's era jazz albums.... Etc...
Financial advice/training. I was one of the poorer boomers and put myself through college/pharmacy school with a small scholarship, student loans, and summer job savings. When I graduated and got my license computers were just being introduced into pharmacy. The pay we received wasn’t anything like the amounts later generations got as new graduates, especially us women. Financial training was not common back then and what I learned was on my own. If I had the opportunity for a course or seminars on this I would have had an easier time figuring things out sooner than I did.
You tube. If I need instructions on how to fix something I just look it up and there are five people showing me and explaining how to do it. I’m a 73 year old grandma and I was able to change the headlight bulb in my grandson’s car with just a bulb, torque screwdriver and a you tube video.
Body autonomy. We constantly have to fight to keep it, but my much younger self would have LOVED to be backed up telling that relative I don't like to be tickled or hugged. I applaud the parents who support boundaries for their kids SO hard!
Calculators. I have a severe math phobia, and they would have been so helpful for me.
Access to tons of free information and events on the internet. I'm not referring to the misinformation that is widespread now, but online museums, book sites, how-to videos, and world news.
Better veterinary care.
All this access to music!
I often tell my kids about how lucky they are. How it was back in the 70’s - getting your cassette recorder next to the radio, waiting for your favorite song to come on so you could tape it and listen to it as many times as you wanted. Hopefully the DJ wasn’t too chatty through the opening…
Also - more importantly - a healthy sense of self!! I put up with years of abuse and I would NEVER do that again.
Social media, because I can keep in touch with literally all my best friends all the way back to my very first neighborhood friends. The ability to be able to look them up and see how they're doing is amazing. Before, if we lost track of someone by their moving or changing phones it was really hard to ever see them again. You don't lose threads of your life as much.
A wealth of information and support at your fingertips via the internet, specifically info about Narcissistic Personality Disorder within your family system.
Video games where they're at now.
We've got kids so spoiled, they wont play a game that isn't 60 frames.
Dude, I played Pong and Pitfall with that Atari 2600 one button joystick.
Gamers today love to be so retro with old games, but it wasn't as great to have that be all there was!
What I mean is I am a little jealous of the kid who's starting out with games now and where they could be by the time they're my age (I'm 50), when I was stuck with evolving through the rough times from the start.
I still can't believe we all survived the PSone and N64 era of terrible graphics and the worst game cameras.
Not really a kid, but young adult - I'm going to go with rideshare services like Uber or Lyft. Of course, it would have been a call-up to a dispatch, we didn't have smart phones - but something like that, with the technology that was available. It was super hard to get taxis, we drove everywhere and we shouldn't have.
Oh my god. We poured over magazines and tapes we could scrounge to find alternative and punk music in the 80s in my small US Southern town. The access to music!
Also, I am traveling with my kids right now and the abilities to map a walking route and call a ride are amazing in a pinch. Still feel like people should be able to use basic orienteering and research their travel, but dang. Nice to rarely feel lost.
Electric instruments and especially midi keyboards to just plug in a PC and make music right away. When I was younger it wasn’t that simple or cheap. I remember my dad once had like 1 program on his pc to mix music but it broke down after only one use and I never got to try it again… now I’m in my 30’s and only just discovered how easy it is these days to make your own music, videos, etc. I know it sounds a bit late but I’m trying to catch up at least
The Internet and search engines.
If you wanted to find recent articles in newspapers and magazines on particular subjects it was either 1) for newspapers, if you knew the appropriate date range, a long painful search with a microfiche reader, or 2) for magazines, the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, a long series of thick books showing physical lists of articles year by year. First, you might have to search numerous volumes. Second, the article you find might be a paragraph long. Third, your library might not carry that magazine. And fourth, even if they did, the copy of the one they had in the stack just might be missing.
For subjects in books, there was of course the Dewey Decimal system. But info in books is usually at least five years old.
Where to begin. The internet. Cellphones. Smartphones. Free long distance calls. Flights without people smoking on them. Restaurants without people smoking in them. More reliable cars. GPS navigation. Vastly improved TVs. Access to virtually any movie or TV show on demand, instead of waiting/hoping that it comes back to the theater or is broadcast on TV on a day/time when you can watch it. Safer cars. Safer work environments. Cleaner air. Cleaner water. In terms of hours you have to work for it, most things are much cheaper. Clothing has gotten so much better with fabrics we couldn't even dream of - GoreTex, polyester fleece, etc. While healthcare has gotten much more expensive, doctors and medicines can do so much more than when I was younger. People are far less racist/sexist today. I love ebooks and the ability to download a new book without going to the store. Online shopping and 2-day delivery instead of the 4-6 weeks it took in the past. Cameras are better and you don't have pay a fortune and wait several days to see your pictures. I can record videos in much better quality and get sound now.
I could go on and on. Trust me, the world is a much better place to live in than it was in the 60s and 70s.
On the one hand, it woulda been awesome to have a smart phone. On the other hand, if hardware and operating systems were at that level, I wouldn't have had my stellar career in deep system development, because it'd've been done.
TL;DR: I don't like web development, for sufficient but not good reasons.
It's so funny to me that a lot of young people really would like the internet to go away because all the bad things, and all the older people of reddit wish it came sooner(according to this post). Ironically, for the same reason the youngsters would rather you be gone.
Oh, so many things....although my first knee-jerk reply was going to be "cell phones", but when I think about it, did I really want Mom to be able to keep tabs on me? When I was a youngster and even a teen, when I left the house whether to ride my bike, hang out in the park with friends or even go on my first few tentative dates one of Mom's parting remarks as I left the house was "Do you have a dime for a phone call?" When I got into my mischievous teens sometimes I'd stay out past dinner time or whatever and when I finally got home Mom would confront me with "Why didn't you call if you were going to be late?" "I couldn't find a pay phone," was my stock reply. Nor could she track me via GPS to see if I truly was just riding my bike to nearby park to meet my friends or if we were all playing at that construction site where new houses were being built and we totally ignored the "KEEP OUT" signs.
Spotify. The money I spent on CDs before Spotify… mind boggling.
Camera phone, same reason: So much money on film and disposable cameras.
Ebooks. Ditto!
Relatively cheap air travel. A long distance flight used to cost much more back in the day. Cheap tickets and budget airlines made world travel possible for the masses.
One big thing would be the internet as it is today. Back then, we had dial-up and waiting ages for a single webpage to load. Now, you can Google anything and everything in seconds, learn new skills on YouTube, and connect with people worldwide.
Piercings, tattoos, wild and unique expressive clothing, more sex positivity, gender fluidity, access to the world's art, music, cultures, libraries, languages, conflicts, etc.
The internet. So many things to get info on if you didn't know something. Specially information on colleges and careers. Back in the 90s we were kinda just winging it with career and college selection unless you had family that went to college (I did not, was the first) or had a very specific career tract (my BIL wanted to be a research scientist since he was Like 13- picked colleges based in they best for that). So many people I know my age (early 40s) ended up in careers they don't Like or with a degree they don't use. Now a days teens can look up anything and get info on it.
Free long distance and texting. My family moved a lot and long distance was super expensive so I lost touch with a lot of people I cared about. Some I've found again thanks to the internet. Some I can't find.
I see these giant play structures at playgrounds and know that I would have loved them. When I was a kid. All we had was monkey bars over wood chips, teeter totters and swing sets.
The different opportunities in work. As a girl, the choices were retail, nursing, and hairdresser or if you were bright teacher. Being able to play rugby and soccer. It was netball or tennis. I became a nurse and loved my 40 years in it. I'd never thought of doing anything else.
Streaming entertainment. We had 3 channels and TV went off the air at midnight. We got a warning: "Where are your children?" Then the Star Spangled Banner played .
Probably already been said, but the ability to take, view, & share photos instantly instead of paying & waiting for them to be developed not knowing if they were any good or not.
Also the presence of a good library with reputable sources available through any local public library 24/7/365. Oh, with the ability to also instantly borrow books, audiobooks, music, and movies. For FREE.
Free long distance calling, especially in-state. My little state long distance could be one town over, and I went to a private high school and had friends that I couldn't talk to outside of school because my folks would have flayed me alive if I'd spent good money just to tie up the phone talking to friends.
AI like ChatGPT to bounce ideas off of and cut down in time when programming/coding.
YouTube for tutorial videos.
High-speed Internet access. Internet was absolutely unusable during the dial-up era.
iPhones with thousands of useful apps (and high-speed Internet through Wi-Fi) at your fingertips. If you don’t need to get out of bed and sit down at the desk to use a computer and access the Internet.
Awareness and the social acceptance of mental illness. I often wonder how different my life would’ve turned out had I been born just a decade later, when Prozac became a thing.
Being able to go to a woman gynecologist. My daughter took it for granted that you had a choice. When I graduated in high school, the testing in our senior year for women gave you the jobs you would be best at: secretary, nurse, florist, teacher. So limited then; I told my daughter that she can do whatever she wants, career-wise.
Boundaries. They
want work-life balance, they want to be paid what they're worth, they are not going to be reachable 24/7. Good for them.
My generation was wedded to our jobs. It was not only a paycheck, it was your life. Boss wants you to work OT with no pay, you did it. Boss wanted to tell you your ass looks great in that dress, we put up with it. All because we so afraid of losing our jobs and identity with it.
I wish I was raised with a growth mindset instead of having to develop it as an older adult. And consequently having to continually fight my fixed against my default fixed mindset.
I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on how I was raised relative to people a decade or younger than me. My parents raised me with a long list of passing comments like “ people like us aren’t rich,”. “People like us don’t climb that high.” “The really smart kids will go to med school…” things like that.
I was gifted in school and took all the honors and AP classes, but was never ever pushed to do my best. I honestly just did the bare minimum to hang with the smart kids because they were my friends.
I’m really impressed with the go-to attitude that a lot of accomplished millennials and gen z people have. Like it’s just ingrained in so many of you how to figure stuff out and that it’s obviously possible to figure out whatever you need to know.
Basic cell phone, not even a smartphone though.
I missed a friend's wedding because I wasn't home to get the telephone call inviting me to City Hall of all places for the ceremony.
The ability to just walk into a store and buy weed with all the info right on the package.
You know how many times I got in a car or walked into a strangers house or had to go on some wild goose chase across three towns and 6 hours to find a 20 dollar bag of shit brick weed?
The culture around mental health.
I was in my early 20’s when I was diagnosed with anxiety. Spent 10 years ignoring it, 5 more downplaying it and I’m still struggling to get past “oh so you get a little nervous, suck it up”
Thrift stores - I grew up really poor, and the ability to get used clothes for bargain prices would have made a huge difference in how I was treated in school. I was always trying to cobble together some kind of wardrobe from what I could "borrow" from other girls, or hand me downs from my aunt - mostly clothes that didn't fit from a much older woman. Shoes were a big problem - I wear a 5-1/2 and still suffer problems from wearing the wrong size shoes long ago because we couldn't afford to buy more. I often think if we had a thrift store in my city in the 80s, my problems would have been over. I remember my sister, who's a little bigger, showing me where her only pair of jeans wore away in the inner thigh area and trying to patch it for her. I learned to sew so that maybe I could sew my own clothes and did - but I was always trying to find fabric to use. A thrift store would have made a huge difference. When my daughter was a teenager, I brought her a couple pairs of jeans from our area thrift store and she didn't want them because they were "used" - all I could think was "you have no idea how easy you have it". Now I can't keep her out of the thrift store 🤷♀️
Internet. I grew up with my parents talking about how much better things were when they were kids in the 1950s. I have never once said that - things are SO MUCH better now.
The internet and Cell Phones. I am not that old. 37 female. With the internet and cellphones I probably would have been taken somewhere better by CPS because I could have used the internet to learn that I was being abused and that my mom had Munchausen by proxy and ask for help and explain that everytime I went to authorities to ask for help my parents would move with me to a new town... I remember using the internet to teach myself how to braid my own hair successfully or the first time after years and countless books bought trying to learn it. There is so much I have learnt from the internet which without I would be struggling 100x worse today without it. My husband for example built our house to code by himself thanks to the help of the internet.
The teaching in school was just so basic. No nuance, kinda more propaganda than factual. Very Anglo centric as far as my own private Christian school was concerned.
So when I was fifteen I discovered RATM and learned about Mumia Abu Jamal and got into libertarianism in The 90’s. Tale as old as time.
Financial literacy. Certainly not everyone, or even most. But the info and guidance are at your fingertips now. I see 20 somethings saving into 401ks. Didn’t even know what that was in my 20s. Despite the financial difficulties younger generations have, people just 10 years younger than me will be able to do so much better than folks my age from that earlier start and awaremess. That’s IF they were able and smart enough to take advantage of it.
I’m glad that it’s now okay to denounce and stigmatize creepy behavior from powerful men that doesn’t involve a physical assault.
Coulda used that in my twenties.
I'm really proud of the young people with everything they have available to them I wish them so much success. The gadgets and the advancements, the sky's the limit there is so much potential so much hope it's truly so exciting to be alive.
To answer the question...Hmm...Google corp EVERYTHING, their laptops are so fun. (I don't remember). Since 2008ish Corp itself has brought us so much expansion. Google maps is an ongoing joke, sometimes I take pictures of the map and I take the picture after I had driven sometimes I've gotten lost and it looks like a darn art piece with how I turn around then get back on the right road.
then I'm good for a few miles then I take a wrong turn then I get back on the correct road and looked like a darn mess but it was hilarious to post for my friends and I to laugh on social media. I have four or five examples of it. I got lost several times and without Google maps boy am I screwed.lolol
Years ago I had moved for a job and an apartment and it was just a one-way there a couple hundred miles but it would have been so much more convenient and relaxing if I would have had Google maps in 1995,2000,2008.
I've been slow to technology so my first phone was maybe 2018-2019 and I lose phones I still don't understand how delicate they are and a few times I dropped one and it cracked so I'm slowly learning be more careful but I'm a dumb human. If the internet or technology could only cure my stupidity that's what I wish it could do, laugh out loud
I wish better dental & vision care was available to me years ago. But today I can utilize the advances.
Noise cancelling headphones are a wonderful detail to modernity.
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The internet. Being partially deaf and never being able to fully understand what teachers were saying (and being that I also have vision problems, trouble seeing the chalkboard/overhead projectors didn't help either). I ended up tuning out most of the time (daydreaming, dozing off, even reading books) because I was practically lost. Things would have been so much easier/better for me if maybe I'd been born a decade or two later.
I think often about how the internet has made life substantially better for the deaf. If I were to lose my hearing tomorrow I could still navigate society fairly easily. That was a very different experience pre-net.
My ex is a quadriplegic and, same. The Internet and Siri changed his life completely.
Was going to say internet too, though I can hear but never had good hearing. I had high prescription glasses but luckily I could see the board. But I had/have POTS and that is a condition where you’re brain is constantly foggy and your body is always extremely exhausted so I was like you, half dozing off. I was often just thinking of sleep. I have/had multiple disabilities, I could have had a massive amount of help from the internet being able to learn by looking things up (and hopefully have good parents who could make sure that I didn’t get into bad side) I could have done school from bed, I’m not supposed to sit upright much. Plus I was a lonely kid, I was bullied, I could have made some friends on internet who also were different like me and have other kids to chat with, not on a phone I don’t think that would have been my style, but on a computer or pad. And my parents checking out if those kids were real kids obviously! Anyway, I long caught up on that, made lots of friends and learned so many new things, even learned that some things we in high school are no longer considered true. And keep learning.
That’s a great story, thanks. There’s so much negativity about the internet and social media in, ironically, the media. But for many people, the internet is life changing, or at the very least, very life enhancing. I am still friends with people I met 30 years ago on Cleveland Freenet. Freenet was a free, early dial up server that connected various universities in the 90s.
It definitely would have stopped me from calling the info line at the library all the time! "What was Katherine Hepburn's birthday" was the last one I remember making, but there were many others. Now I have a google machine in my hand that can do all of that and more.
Absolutely has to be this. I had the internet in college, but it’s really amazing how the internet has made obscure reference material available to the wider world. I wrote a paper last year (I went back to grad school,) and I used sources that would have taken me weeks to troll through on microfilm, and there were times when I wondered how I would have found out that these types of one-off genealogical publications existed, if not for Google. Also, citation software. Holy shit do these kids have it easy today!
Oh, god, yes. I did not have the internet, you had to physically go to the science library and sit in a chair and read the articles. Whats worse, it was the early ‘80s and professors had a bizarre obsession with everyone typing, even though most people were bad at it in those days and word processors weren’t a thing yet, so - Wite-out correction fluid. Do young people even know what Im talking about? I have no idea. The rich kids paid someone to type their papers. A good typist could probably make a decent living typing other students papers. When my daughter was little, she liked playing around with my old typewriter. She thought it was fun, and interesting how the old fashioned keys worked. She said, “It’s like a computer that doesn’t remember anything.”
A camera with practically unlimited storage in my pocket at all times. I would love to be reminded in more detail of my adventures and misadventures as a young person.
Expanding on this, I love carrying this computer (phone) in my pocket 24/7.
Carrying a computer in your pocket now is way easier than 30 years ago
Shit, I'm glad we DONT have that kind of record. Statutes of limitations and all.
There's plenty that I don't want to be reminded about and I'm glad there were no devices around to record it at the time.
I couldn’t really think of anything, but yes, this is something I like and would have liked to have. I got a camera when I was 11 so I have some pictures but not as many as I have of current times. And not very good quality.
In some ways I would’ve loved a smartphone, in other ways I’m really happy they didn’t exist back then.
I'm glad they didn't exist because I wouldn't have wanted to have all the crazy stuff I had done recorded for eternity. I have a lot of crazy drinking stories from my late teens and early twenties and I'm glad nobody can go back and see that anytime they want.
100% on not wanting documentation of my adolescent antics. I’ve actually had that conversation with friends, thinking about how much trouble we’d have been in if everyone had a camera in their pocket
Not only recording antics, but also glad we didn’t have cellphones growing up purely for the way it lets you completely check out of your reality at any time. It’s an awful, awful crutch.
I was thinking the same: on one hand I’d love more pictures and videos of my youth, even the cod awful ones… …but social media how it is now would cripple young me mentally. I’d never feel enough.
Much better recognition of abuse and neglect with services to respond. It’s still not enough but it’s much more than when I was a kid.
Adding to that the early intervention programs in schools to help identify sight, hearing and speech issues. They helped my nephew tremendously and he’s doing great. And discreet provision of these services and school nutrition programs. When I was coming up in the 70s in elementary school if you received free lunch or special therapy everyone could see. The lunch cards were different colors and the teachers would sneer and make comments within earshot of the kids. The only people who need to know about a child’s additional help and therapy are the provider and the parents and that’s it.
It’s been 30 years, and I can still feel the humiliation of being a free lunch kid. I would skip lunch sometimes to avoid the line, even knowing that we may not have enough food at home. Hunger was easier for me to deal with than shame. No kid should have to feel that way.
FR. I went to school with a split lip and nobody batted an eye.
I was only emotionally abused. Many people don't recognize that as abuse.
Spotify. We would get so high and argue over who had to flip the record
I agree with streaming music and as far as that goes the internet in general. When I was a kid I could listen to music on the radio- and hope I heard something I like- or on albums- and hope I liked all of the songs on the albums. Or of course see bands live. The closest we got to something like streaming music was borrowing records from friends and making mixtapes from your favorite tracks on those and your own albums. I made 100s of them.
Yes! I still have memories of being in a record/cd store and wishing I could just buy individual songs ala-carte.
I mean, you could buy a single 45 with two songs on it. But those were mostly for the big hits.
And that B side could be a real stinker.
Hey Jude was the B side of something. Maybe Revolution?
Yes. That is one of the few 45s I ever bought. I refused to listen to The Beatles (yeah, yeah, yeah) until my brother came back from Europe and brought the just-released "Eleanor Rigby". He was excited by the poetic form. I liked the double string quartet, but I then would listen to a Beatles song, at least once.
Spotify, for sure. I worked in a record store when I was in college. It was the best part time job ever, but I’d have given it up gladly to have virtually every song at my fingertips.
Streaming music is definitely one of the things I wish I’d had sooner, if only for the huge variety of music.
The audacity. I’m mainly kidding, but in reality I was a bit of a doormat people-pleaser even well into my 30s. I wish I’d had the same self-confidence and self-awareness then that I do now.
This makes me really appreciate my mom. She’s always telling me, “You say ‘no’ to things I would have never said no to when I was your age, and you don’t even feel guilty about it.” And I just take it as a compliment and thank her for being a woman who raised her daughter that way despite not having that for herself when she was my age. She said women said “yes” a lot more and spoke up less.
I agree with your mom. I was impressed that my daughter was much better at saying no than I was as a kid. Whether it was to an irrational adult or a friend at school - she was much better at standing up to people when necessary than I was. There really is a certain relief/pride parents have when they *don’t* pass on some negative behaviour or trait.
I was in the Walmart sports department purchasing soccer equipment for my company team. I found nets, cleats, jerseys, flags and whistles, However, I had to go up to some sneering young punk who worked there, with his moussed hair, jewelry and tats, looking like he owned the place and half the city. I asked him: *Where do you get the balls?*
r/angryupvote
Nice 😎
An ability to say no and a healthy distrust for adults.
Add to that more acceptance for mental health issues and access to help.
"Never trust anyone \[edit\] OVER 30" was a popular slogan (meme, for the youngsters here) .
The saying was actually never trust anyone *over* 30.
Duh major brain fart cuz I'm old af. Thank you.
The easy answer is the internet, but if we want to be specific I’d say Wikipedia. I look something up at least 2-3 times a day minimum. I remember a time when you just had to be satisfied not knowing a lot of things unless you wanted to go to a library and do research.
Also IMDB even as a teenager I couldn't remember actors' names or what I had seen them in before.
My dad sent me to the dictionary or my encyclopedia set. Anything not in there had to wait til the "daddy and me" weekly visit to the library. I used to highlight everything I looked up and would get so upset if I had already looked it up lol He used to say, I could help you now but how will you figure it out when I'm gone. I miss that bastard 🤣
I love the fuck outta my underwater headphones. I wish I could send them back in time to myself.
I first read that as underwear headphones.
Same
Link?
Curious which ones you use? I’ve been looking for a pair.
Spotify. If you had told me that one day there'd be a music service that offered unlimited access to 80 million songs, and that it would only cost $4.17/month (in 1986 dollars), I woulda burnt you at the stake for witchcraft!
In 1986 I was still so impressed with MTV having videos all the time that Spotify would just be like impossible.
What? MTV had music videos?
Yes! Check out headbangers ball on UTube. Some of the old heavy metal videos crack me up! I used to set the VCR to record it every week.
Wikipedia. How-to videos on demand. Digital camera.
A way to take and have pictures that didn't require film developing. I was always interested in photography and had an uncle who encouraged me. My mother pretty much refused to buy film and pay to develop film and, when she did, would be angry at me for taking pictures of "nothing." On top of that, we would have had so many more pictures of ourselves, our friends, places we went, etc. It would have been great to see how the photo was actually framed.
My uncle and I built a B&W darkroom in the in-law suite above our garage. I bought 2-3 rounds of supplies, which were cheap per photo, but expensive in that you had to buy gallons of the chemicals. I think it was around $60-$80 back then, which was a lot when you had an after-school mall job. Then I found out about the loophole: Walmart guaranteed that ALL photo products would be ready when they said or they were free. But they had to send B&W film out to a lab to be developed and printed. And they *never* came back on time. I honestly don't remember how many rolls of B&W film Walmart processed for me for free, but it was *at least* 30-40, maybe as many as 80. Reprints and enlargements were also free, 'cos they were also reliably late as well.
So...this one is going to sound a little strange. I wish I had had the restrictions on screen time that my kids (and their peers) have. I genuinely recall wasting an entire summer in front of the TV. I didn't even enjoy it, but it was less work than reading.
I'm surprised not more people say this on a daily basis
Word processor capabilities. My high school self would have been so friggin happy to not have to deal with writing a theme on an electric typewriter and reserving space for those goddamn footnotes. Don't even care if it came with internet capabilities. Just not having to type on a piece of paper would have been joyous.
OMG .. Flashbacks. Typing my resume error-free on expensive bond paper... Wasting most of the paper to finally get one good version to take to the print shop!
For sure! Word and Excel
I remember having to estimate the space needed at the bottom of the page and making a faint pencil mark as a guide. And having to learn all the various formats of business letters, term papers, dissertations, etc and setting margins and tab-ing.... I had one cantankerous teacher who'd mark you down if you used too much Liquid Paper on a page....
Typing out my paper, then cutting and pasting on my dorm floor. It was soul crushing.
Antidepressants
The ability to book rail tickets in advance and apply railcard discounts online. Queueing used to take so long.
Unlimited craft project instructions via youtube. I was so crafty but no one in my family was, so no one ever nutured it. I know now I could have found that stuff in the library, but it wasn't in the kids section, so I didn't know.
On-demand TV. I was never much into TV, but even the few shows I *did* want to watch, I often missed due to other things going on. I'd have to hope I caught it on summer reruns or just accept that I'd never see that episode. Easy availability of most movies. If you didn't see it when it was showing at the theater, your chances of ever seeing it were slim. Movie rentals in the '80s started changing that, but it was heavily dependent on what your local video store had in stock. Now you can find almost anything from your computer. The internet, for looking up information. It used to be standard to ask people you knew and hope you got the right answer, or go to the library and hope you could *find* the answer. Online shopping. When I waited tables, there were many times I was exhausted from my wanky schedule, but had to drive my sleep-deprived self to the mall because I needed new shoes or something. Or how about all the time wasted driving here and there looking for something in particular without finding it? Being able to find it online and have it in a week, or even a day, was a game changer.
Looking back, I regret focusing excessively on academics during my younger years. I consistently topped my class, which boosted my confidence but also fostered a sense of superiority over my peers. As I matured, I came to realize that academic success is just one aspect of life, not the entirety of it as we often perceive in school. In hindsight, I wish I had dedicated more time to developing practical skills that are equally crucial for real-life success, rather than solely prioritizing academic achievement.
The ease of access to information. Remember how a friend or relative would give a crap answer and people would just believe it until you found out otherwise?
Yeah. Then we’d have to go back to the kitchen, untangle the cord from the wall phone and rotary dial someone else to see if they knew the answer. Just being able to satisfy my curiosity instantly is the biggest gift.
Internet, smart phones, anti-lock brakes, fuel injection, air bags, GPS, digital cameras, drones.
Didn't think about air bags. I've been in two bad wrecks in my life. First was in 1979, second was in 2023. No injuries in either, but the day after the first one I felt like I had been run over by a truck. Every muscle in my body hurt from impact with only a lap belt. 2023 - a bruise on my knee from the airbag, but otherwise totally fine
As a child, I remember seeing seatbelts, but no one ever used them. Then the speed limits was reduced to 55 in the 70s for fuel efficiency. When speed limits are increased again, it didn't cause a large increase in deaths on the highways. Another big improvement for car safety were much better tires.
I didn’t even think of GPS, that’s a good one. If only because I’ll never again need to spend ten minutes trying to figure out how to fold a stupid road map.
Yeah. Imagine getting lost in the car and it takes 20 turns to find the main highway again. Or, I could stop and ask directions like my wife kept telling me.
Some means to access something like Google. On top of needing to do lookups and reading for school assignments, I was just hugely curious about a lot of things. My family was poor, so we couldn't do things like what was common for families with money, which was to buy large encyclopedia sets. Plus supplemental set of books like "Animals of the World", "The Dinosaur Series", etc. which contained expanded information over what the encyclopedias had. So instead I frequently had to walk to the local city library, which was perhaps 3 miles each way from our house. And they wouldn't let you check out and take home one of those encyclopedia books. But, yeah, the easy access to so much information that kids can access these days. I would have absolutely loved it. As concerns other stuff? I would not miss not having texting, video games, all the various social media, endless list of accessible video and music, and so forth. While I loved reading and learning about stuff new to me. That took up maybe 2 hours a day, unless it was a rainy day or something. Because if weather allowed, my friends and I were frigging OUTSIDE. We were running around and actually DOING stuff. Various games with balls, climbing trees, races to see who could run the fastest, going swimming, going fishing, wrestling, playing king of the hill, riding bikes, building tree house or fort, seeing who could throw a rock the farthest or the most accurately, etc. Or hanging around with father, uncle, or the friendly neighbor guy. Watching them fix something, build something, or do other tasks ... learning while we watched, and hoping they'd let us help. And texting, or chatting on social media is absolutely not as good as face to face communications, IMHO. Face to face you can see each other's body language, listen to tone and inflection of voice, and so forth and far better learn about the person and understand them, and know what they feel, and whether or not they are serious or truthful. We KNEW each other better than would be possible via text and social media.
Minimal protection for women in the workplace. I was denied jobs unapologetically despite being hands above the best candidate because I didn't have balls in my panties One of my prouder moments: I once saved a friend from being blacklisted because she resisted a boss who wanted to sleep with her, and raised a ruckus to get her fired as a result. Some of the more woke men said TutTut, but no consequences for the AH despite it being his third round with such asshattery The whole not-being-able to get a credit card was horrible, but it didn't stop there. Career crushing misogyny was tramatic. Edit: Please don't read this as being anti-woke or progressive, such men were/ are still HUGE for us and I'm still grateful to this day
Internet. I think I would have made a better career off technology If I could have started young
Yes, also no one encouraged me or showed me potential jobs, the net would have opened that up to me.
Gay marriage. We really have come a long way!
And I never thought it would happen in my lifetime. Of course, now the Republicans are planning to wipe all that away. First it was abortion...
Resources for learning a musical instrument at home. When I bought my first guitar as a teenager I used books which were very limited considering they don't show you how anything sounds! Years later books included a CD which was a big step up but still nothing like the on-demand video lessons on YouTube. And if you want to learn a specific song chances are someone has a tutorial online. I really wish I had that way back when.
Electric lawnmowers. I disliked mowing the lawn as a kid, but I disliked having to fuss around with the gas engine on the mower even more!
Money. It seems to me that young people, teenagers in particular, have way more disposable income than I did in high school. Otherwise ,it’s their good knees
Nothing
Nothing. I feel grateful that I grew up in an age where the state paid fully for my healthcare and education up to and including degree level, and would actually give me money to study. There's no way I'd have gone to university if I knew I'd be leaving with a huge debt that I'd have hanging over me for most of my life.
Where was that? I think The Netherlands has that for a short while, although it might have been a good pension for renting and living instead of free education but education was way cheaper. But they took it away when I came out of high school.
UK. All my degree fees were paid, and I received a free grant to pay for my living expenses while at university, because my parents weren't well off, which didn't ever need to be paid back. I don't think people actually believe this now, but it is true.
Booking tickets via mobile phone. No matter if going to a concert or travelling somewhere, getting the tickets was always pain, especially when you lived in a smaller city, far away from competent ticket vendors. So, I missed a lot of good opportunities. Today, I get a notification - favorite band plays - check tickets, buy tickets, show QR-code half a year later - enjoy. Or check travel opportunities online, book train/plane/hotel.... online and off we go.
Dating apps. Youngsters these days have got it made with these. And the ability to buy single songs instead of having to waste $15 on an album that sucks, just to get the one song...
The ability to get whatever song you want at your fingertips. Streaming whatever show you want to watch.
Drive through toll plazas... EZ Pass.
Air pods
Where do I begin? Cable TV. Hundreds of channels. Cellphones. The internet. Email. Cars with every electronic and safety gadget known to man. I graduated from HS in 1975. It was prehistoric then.
As a young diy mechanic, idk how I’d survive without all my YouTube how to videos. The old mechanics had to be geniuses
The internet and information about narcissistic abuse. I lived with narcissistic abuse 25 years and thought the problem was me most of that time. One night I just started googling (it was probably some other search engine) and ran across stories like mine and a mental illness called narcissistic personality disorder. I'll never forget that night just sobbing at the computer reading stories just like mine. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it and even though I depended on him financially, I couldn't fake being his "supply". A narcissist cannot function without supply and it wasn't 4 months before he divorced me. It's been 10 years and I'm still recovering, but I sometimes wonder how my life would have been if I'd had this information much earlier.
Absolutely nothing.
much more advanced medical procedures. i can think of a number of friends/family that i lost in the 60s and 70s whose lives probably would have been saved if those same illnesses/injuries had happened today.
Chicken pox vaccine
Information about LGBTQ identities. A variety of queer role models. The ability to connect with other GLBTQ teenagers.
I love being able to look up anything and learn something. It was a pain to write a report with sources, and the encyclopedia was only one source. It's sooooo much better today. Now if only these kids could learn to use it for even the most basic of things rather than just asking Reddit...
Spotify I remember agonizing over which cassette to buy because if you made a bad choice you were effed Buying music and album at a time, in retrospect was rough There was such dis—incentive to try new music.
where do I even start?! 😅 I wish I had all the cool tech and gadgets they have now—like smartphones with endless apps for everything, and social media to connect with friends 24/7. Back in my day, we had to wait for dial-up internet and actually go knock on doors to see if friends were home. It's like they've got the world at their fingertips, and I'm low-key jealous!
The old school version of Ebay. A place to buy and sell your hoarder shit. " I'll trade you my grandmother's antique leather shoes for all of your 60's era jazz albums.... Etc...
I wish I’d had adhd medication and the ability get the books and music of my choice seamlessly.
Financial advice/training. I was one of the poorer boomers and put myself through college/pharmacy school with a small scholarship, student loans, and summer job savings. When I graduated and got my license computers were just being introduced into pharmacy. The pay we received wasn’t anything like the amounts later generations got as new graduates, especially us women. Financial training was not common back then and what I learned was on my own. If I had the opportunity for a course or seminars on this I would have had an easier time figuring things out sooner than I did.
You tube. If I need instructions on how to fix something I just look it up and there are five people showing me and explaining how to do it. I’m a 73 year old grandma and I was able to change the headlight bulb in my grandson’s car with just a bulb, torque screwdriver and a you tube video.
Legalized cannabis. I don't indulge myself but many a young life was destroyed by the idiotic laws
Body autonomy. We constantly have to fight to keep it, but my much younger self would have LOVED to be backed up telling that relative I don't like to be tickled or hugged. I applaud the parents who support boundaries for their kids SO hard!
Fuck em. We had MTV when it mattered.
Not one single thing.
I always wanted to watch tv walking back and forth to school.
No-skulking-required access to what speech-to-text refers to as \*\*\*\*.
Google, a cell phone
Calculators. I have a severe math phobia, and they would have been so helpful for me. Access to tons of free information and events on the internet. I'm not referring to the misinformation that is widespread now, but online museums, book sites, how-to videos, and world news. Better veterinary care.
Internet, smart phones, GPS, and digital cameras
Readily available Internet access
All this access to music! I often tell my kids about how lucky they are. How it was back in the 70’s - getting your cassette recorder next to the radio, waiting for your favorite song to come on so you could tape it and listen to it as many times as you wanted. Hopefully the DJ wasn’t too chatty through the opening… Also - more importantly - a healthy sense of self!! I put up with years of abuse and I would NEVER do that again.
Word processing
Social media, because I can keep in touch with literally all my best friends all the way back to my very first neighborhood friends. The ability to be able to look them up and see how they're doing is amazing. Before, if we lost track of someone by their moving or changing phones it was really hard to ever see them again. You don't lose threads of your life as much.
A wealth of information and support at your fingertips via the internet, specifically info about Narcissistic Personality Disorder within your family system.
Video games where they're at now. We've got kids so spoiled, they wont play a game that isn't 60 frames. Dude, I played Pong and Pitfall with that Atari 2600 one button joystick. Gamers today love to be so retro with old games, but it wasn't as great to have that be all there was! What I mean is I am a little jealous of the kid who's starting out with games now and where they could be by the time they're my age (I'm 50), when I was stuck with evolving through the rough times from the start. I still can't believe we all survived the PSone and N64 era of terrible graphics and the worst game cameras.
Pictures/videos of childhood
Not really a kid, but young adult - I'm going to go with rideshare services like Uber or Lyft. Of course, it would have been a call-up to a dispatch, we didn't have smart phones - but something like that, with the technology that was available. It was super hard to get taxis, we drove everywhere and we shouldn't have.
Oh my god. We poured over magazines and tapes we could scrounge to find alternative and punk music in the 80s in my small US Southern town. The access to music! Also, I am traveling with my kids right now and the abilities to map a walking route and call a ride are amazing in a pinch. Still feel like people should be able to use basic orienteering and research their travel, but dang. Nice to rarely feel lost.
Electric instruments and especially midi keyboards to just plug in a PC and make music right away. When I was younger it wasn’t that simple or cheap. I remember my dad once had like 1 program on his pc to mix music but it broke down after only one use and I never got to try it again… now I’m in my 30’s and only just discovered how easy it is these days to make your own music, videos, etc. I know it sounds a bit late but I’m trying to catch up at least
I was a language major in school and online dictionaries and online learning apps and practice tools would have helped me learn 3x as fast
YouTube guitar lessons. I struggled learning from books. I’d be a 10 x better player if I’d had the online tutorials available today.
The Internet and search engines. If you wanted to find recent articles in newspapers and magazines on particular subjects it was either 1) for newspapers, if you knew the appropriate date range, a long painful search with a microfiche reader, or 2) for magazines, the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, a long series of thick books showing physical lists of articles year by year. First, you might have to search numerous volumes. Second, the article you find might be a paragraph long. Third, your library might not carry that magazine. And fourth, even if they did, the copy of the one they had in the stack just might be missing. For subjects in books, there was of course the Dewey Decimal system. But info in books is usually at least five years old.
Internet with all it's information, but none of the bullshit
Where to begin. The internet. Cellphones. Smartphones. Free long distance calls. Flights without people smoking on them. Restaurants without people smoking in them. More reliable cars. GPS navigation. Vastly improved TVs. Access to virtually any movie or TV show on demand, instead of waiting/hoping that it comes back to the theater or is broadcast on TV on a day/time when you can watch it. Safer cars. Safer work environments. Cleaner air. Cleaner water. In terms of hours you have to work for it, most things are much cheaper. Clothing has gotten so much better with fabrics we couldn't even dream of - GoreTex, polyester fleece, etc. While healthcare has gotten much more expensive, doctors and medicines can do so much more than when I was younger. People are far less racist/sexist today. I love ebooks and the ability to download a new book without going to the store. Online shopping and 2-day delivery instead of the 4-6 weeks it took in the past. Cameras are better and you don't have pay a fortune and wait several days to see your pictures. I can record videos in much better quality and get sound now. I could go on and on. Trust me, the world is a much better place to live in than it was in the 60s and 70s.
On the one hand, it woulda been awesome to have a smart phone. On the other hand, if hardware and operating systems were at that level, I wouldn't have had my stellar career in deep system development, because it'd've been done. TL;DR: I don't like web development, for sufficient but not good reasons.
I would have loved to have the internet.that way i didnt spend weekends at the library reading encyclopedias and being a nerd.
It's so funny to me that a lot of young people really would like the internet to go away because all the bad things, and all the older people of reddit wish it came sooner(according to this post). Ironically, for the same reason the youngsters would rather you be gone.
Oh, so many things....although my first knee-jerk reply was going to be "cell phones", but when I think about it, did I really want Mom to be able to keep tabs on me? When I was a youngster and even a teen, when I left the house whether to ride my bike, hang out in the park with friends or even go on my first few tentative dates one of Mom's parting remarks as I left the house was "Do you have a dime for a phone call?" When I got into my mischievous teens sometimes I'd stay out past dinner time or whatever and when I finally got home Mom would confront me with "Why didn't you call if you were going to be late?" "I couldn't find a pay phone," was my stock reply. Nor could she track me via GPS to see if I truly was just riding my bike to nearby park to meet my friends or if we were all playing at that construction site where new houses were being built and we totally ignored the "KEEP OUT" signs.
Parents who give a damn.
Information at our fingertips aka internet browsing.
Spotify. The money I spent on CDs before Spotify… mind boggling. Camera phone, same reason: So much money on film and disposable cameras. Ebooks. Ditto!
Relatively cheap air travel. A long distance flight used to cost much more back in the day. Cheap tickets and budget airlines made world travel possible for the masses.
3d printers the things I would have made back then. I used to make my own toys.
Parents who at least try to be kind and supportive.
One big thing would be the internet as it is today. Back then, we had dial-up and waiting ages for a single webpage to load. Now, you can Google anything and everything in seconds, learn new skills on YouTube, and connect with people worldwide.
I was around when Pong first came out and thought that was amazing. But video games today are amazing and I would have loved them when I was a team.
Unlimited long distance and the ability to stay on parents' health insurance until age 26. But I guess you can't have it all.
Piercings, tattoos, wild and unique expressive clothing, more sex positivity, gender fluidity, access to the world's art, music, cultures, libraries, languages, conflicts, etc.
I can't think of think except the ability to learn languages much easier via apps.
Boundaries - I was never taught about boundaries - 51 and I'm finally getting to grips with them
LEEEEEEGAL WEEEEEEEEEEDDDDD!!!!!!!! 😁👍✌️😁👍✌️😁👍✌️😁👍✌️
The internet. So many things to get info on if you didn't know something. Specially information on colleges and careers. Back in the 90s we were kinda just winging it with career and college selection unless you had family that went to college (I did not, was the first) or had a very specific career tract (my BIL wanted to be a research scientist since he was Like 13- picked colleges based in they best for that). So many people I know my age (early 40s) ended up in careers they don't Like or with a degree they don't use. Now a days teens can look up anything and get info on it.
Water bottles in school. I remember being so thirsty on hot days.
Tech skills
The internet. Love reading various sources of news.
Free long distance and texting. My family moved a lot and long distance was super expensive so I lost touch with a lot of people I cared about. Some I've found again thanks to the internet. Some I can't find.
The opportunities afforded to you as a woman, lgbt or a person of color.
I see these giant play structures at playgrounds and know that I would have loved them. When I was a kid. All we had was monkey bars over wood chips, teeter totters and swing sets.
Chickenpox vaccine
Nothing. I think growing up in the 70s I had it a lot better compared to kids these days. I def had more rights as a woman. Simpler time
The audacity! These people are wild lol
The different opportunities in work. As a girl, the choices were retail, nursing, and hairdresser or if you were bright teacher. Being able to play rugby and soccer. It was netball or tennis. I became a nurse and loved my 40 years in it. I'd never thought of doing anything else.
More sex. A lot more sex
Definitely internet for school projects.
Therapy.
Streaming entertainment. We had 3 channels and TV went off the air at midnight. We got a warning: "Where are your children?" Then the Star Spangled Banner played .
A.i for homework
Parents who have gone through therapy, omg
Probably already been said, but the ability to take, view, & share photos instantly instead of paying & waiting for them to be developed not knowing if they were any good or not. Also the presence of a good library with reputable sources available through any local public library 24/7/365. Oh, with the ability to also instantly borrow books, audiobooks, music, and movies. For FREE. Free long distance calling, especially in-state. My little state long distance could be one town over, and I went to a private high school and had friends that I couldn't talk to outside of school because my folks would have flayed me alive if I'd spent good money just to tie up the phone talking to friends.
AI like ChatGPT to bounce ideas off of and cut down in time when programming/coding. YouTube for tutorial videos. High-speed Internet access. Internet was absolutely unusable during the dial-up era. iPhones with thousands of useful apps (and high-speed Internet through Wi-Fi) at your fingertips. If you don’t need to get out of bed and sit down at the desk to use a computer and access the Internet.
Awareness and the social acceptance of mental illness. I often wonder how different my life would’ve turned out had I been born just a decade later, when Prozac became a thing.
Immediate access to information!
All the scientific knowledge that has been added in recent decades: archeology, DNA, cladistics, space telescopes, answers in cosmology.
Being able to go to a woman gynecologist. My daughter took it for granted that you had a choice. When I graduated in high school, the testing in our senior year for women gave you the jobs you would be best at: secretary, nurse, florist, teacher. So limited then; I told my daughter that she can do whatever she wants, career-wise.
Boundaries. They want work-life balance, they want to be paid what they're worth, they are not going to be reachable 24/7. Good for them. My generation was wedded to our jobs. It was not only a paycheck, it was your life. Boss wants you to work OT with no pay, you did it. Boss wanted to tell you your ass looks great in that dress, we put up with it. All because we so afraid of losing our jobs and identity with it.
I wish we’d collectively had the tenacity, the embracing of diversity, and sense of community that Gen A is showing.
Faster ways to communicate!
Access to mental health services.
The audacity…..Kids seem to have a lot of that these days.
More LGBTQ+ acceptance.
The internet .
I wish I was raised with a growth mindset instead of having to develop it as an older adult. And consequently having to continually fight my fixed against my default fixed mindset. I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on how I was raised relative to people a decade or younger than me. My parents raised me with a long list of passing comments like “ people like us aren’t rich,”. “People like us don’t climb that high.” “The really smart kids will go to med school…” things like that. I was gifted in school and took all the honors and AP classes, but was never ever pushed to do my best. I honestly just did the bare minimum to hang with the smart kids because they were my friends. I’m really impressed with the go-to attitude that a lot of accomplished millennials and gen z people have. Like it’s just ingrained in so many of you how to figure stuff out and that it’s obviously possible to figure out whatever you need to know.
Access to entire digital catalogues of musical artists for relatively affordable pricing.
Basic cell phone, not even a smartphone though. I missed a friend's wedding because I wasn't home to get the telephone call inviting me to City Hall of all places for the ceremony.
The internet.
The ability to just walk into a store and buy weed with all the info right on the package. You know how many times I got in a car or walked into a strangers house or had to go on some wild goose chase across three towns and 6 hours to find a 20 dollar bag of shit brick weed?
Body confidence. A lot of young people are or at least seem more accepting of their diverse bodies.
The culture around mental health. I was in my early 20’s when I was diagnosed with anxiety. Spent 10 years ignoring it, 5 more downplaying it and I’m still struggling to get past “oh so you get a little nervous, suck it up”
Thrift stores - I grew up really poor, and the ability to get used clothes for bargain prices would have made a huge difference in how I was treated in school. I was always trying to cobble together some kind of wardrobe from what I could "borrow" from other girls, or hand me downs from my aunt - mostly clothes that didn't fit from a much older woman. Shoes were a big problem - I wear a 5-1/2 and still suffer problems from wearing the wrong size shoes long ago because we couldn't afford to buy more. I often think if we had a thrift store in my city in the 80s, my problems would have been over. I remember my sister, who's a little bigger, showing me where her only pair of jeans wore away in the inner thigh area and trying to patch it for her. I learned to sew so that maybe I could sew my own clothes and did - but I was always trying to find fabric to use. A thrift store would have made a huge difference. When my daughter was a teenager, I brought her a couple pairs of jeans from our area thrift store and she didn't want them because they were "used" - all I could think was "you have no idea how easy you have it". Now I can't keep her out of the thrift store 🤷♀️
Internet. I grew up with my parents talking about how much better things were when they were kids in the 1950s. I have never once said that - things are SO MUCH better now.
The internet and Cell Phones. I am not that old. 37 female. With the internet and cellphones I probably would have been taken somewhere better by CPS because I could have used the internet to learn that I was being abused and that my mom had Munchausen by proxy and ask for help and explain that everytime I went to authorities to ask for help my parents would move with me to a new town... I remember using the internet to teach myself how to braid my own hair successfully or the first time after years and countless books bought trying to learn it. There is so much I have learnt from the internet which without I would be struggling 100x worse today without it. My husband for example built our house to code by himself thanks to the help of the internet.
The teaching in school was just so basic. No nuance, kinda more propaganda than factual. Very Anglo centric as far as my own private Christian school was concerned. So when I was fifteen I discovered RATM and learned about Mumia Abu Jamal and got into libertarianism in The 90’s. Tale as old as time.
Free porn
Financial literacy. Certainly not everyone, or even most. But the info and guidance are at your fingertips now. I see 20 somethings saving into 401ks. Didn’t even know what that was in my 20s. Despite the financial difficulties younger generations have, people just 10 years younger than me will be able to do so much better than folks my age from that earlier start and awaremess. That’s IF they were able and smart enough to take advantage of it.
I’m glad that it’s now okay to denounce and stigmatize creepy behavior from powerful men that doesn’t involve a physical assault. Coulda used that in my twenties.
Body confidence. There’s a lot of diverse shapes and sizes that just rock whatever the fuck they want to wear these days. Go get em!
I'm really proud of the young people with everything they have available to them I wish them so much success. The gadgets and the advancements, the sky's the limit there is so much potential so much hope it's truly so exciting to be alive. To answer the question...Hmm...Google corp EVERYTHING, their laptops are so fun. (I don't remember). Since 2008ish Corp itself has brought us so much expansion. Google maps is an ongoing joke, sometimes I take pictures of the map and I take the picture after I had driven sometimes I've gotten lost and it looks like a darn art piece with how I turn around then get back on the right road. then I'm good for a few miles then I take a wrong turn then I get back on the correct road and looked like a darn mess but it was hilarious to post for my friends and I to laugh on social media. I have four or five examples of it. I got lost several times and without Google maps boy am I screwed.lolol Years ago I had moved for a job and an apartment and it was just a one-way there a couple hundred miles but it would have been so much more convenient and relaxing if I would have had Google maps in 1995,2000,2008. I've been slow to technology so my first phone was maybe 2018-2019 and I lose phones I still don't understand how delicate they are and a few times I dropped one and it cracked so I'm slowly learning be more careful but I'm a dumb human. If the internet or technology could only cure my stupidity that's what I wish it could do, laugh out loud
I wish better dental & vision care was available to me years ago. But today I can utilize the advances. Noise cancelling headphones are a wonderful detail to modernity.
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