When was the best time to be young?

Well, to talk about X versus Y, I watched a film purporting to be about how generation Y thinks, and it was SCARY! If most feel like that, I fear they won't live another 30 years!

And the poisons, etc... that are being released today, WOW!

I would almost say that growing up in the 50s would be better. Seriously, a lot of things seemed better. And I saw things decline from the 60s-70s-80s-2000-2010.

GRANTED the 70s brought a LOT more things....Networking, microcomputers, phone choices, touch tone, etc.... The 80s brough higher density products, faster/bigger computers, more phone connection methods, etc.... The 90s brought the web. If I could bring that into the 50s, and not affect the 50s, WOW!

So I don't know. People and the envioronment are getting WORSE, technology is getting better.

Steve

I think you have an insightful daughter. When you talk about 18-20 something I think we did have a better time of it.

But maybe it's normal to think your parents had it easier or better (though I don't remember thinking that myself).

My own feeling is that I had a much time - and more fun - than kids do today. I wasn't connected at all times or plugged in and had a freedom that kids now don't seem to enjoy. My sons had that same freedom but I don't think my grandchildren will.

I like many of the new technologies but wonder if by being so connected with everyone else at all times makes us just circle the drain.

kay

Absolutely correct - the moment teenagers were born - how well I remember that time, I would have been 16-19 then.
I remember going to see "Rock around the clock", with teenagers dancing in the aisles - outrageous!

I still remember the first record I ever bought - "Hound Dog" b/w "Don't be cruel" (Yes, records had two sides back then).

Teenagers were super cool, and Bill Haley, James Dean and Elvis had everything to do with that.

Also I remember the first time I heard Cliff Richard, he was so great and he was British!

I wonder how on earth we could have so much fun hanging out at a milk bar, with no alcohol, not even a car.

One very valid point has been raised - I am definitely looking at the time from a U.K. perspective.

Vietnam might as well have been on the moon
Seeing a black person was a rare occurrence, so civil rights meant nothing to us.

So, I apologise to all you U.S. people, some of whom may not have been as lucky as we were.

But, as I said, I'm definitely not promoting my time as the best, merely passing on a thought that my daughter gave me.

Thank you for an interesting discussion, and of course whichever era you prefer, you are all right.

I think most people prefer to remember the good times, and try to forget about the bad times.

So as time passes by, the past may seem happier than you thought at the time.

Collins English Dictionary says this about nostalgia:
1. a yearning for the return of past circumstances, events, etc.
2. the evocation of this emotion, as in a book, film, etc.
3. longing for home or family; homesickness

Anticipation is listed as an antonym for nostalgia.

Collins English Dictionary says this about anticipation:

1. the act of anticipating; expectation, premonition, or foresight
2. (Economics, Accounting & Finance / Banking & Finance) the act of taking or dealing with funds before they are legally available or due
3. (Music, other) Music an unstressed, usually short note introduced before a downbeat and harmonically related to the chord immediately following it Compare suspension [11]

I find it interesting that while the word nostalgia seems to imply "things were better before", the word listed as an antonym seems more neutral in it's meaning?

My memory of the time is actually QUITE good. I remember when a kid, around 1971 tried to run me over in his tan VW beetle. I remember playing carems around 1973. I remember around 1968 or so when we had 4 wire phones, with the BIG plugs, don't ask me why, and they were ONE type. I remember the bullys, the bad presidents, etc... and I developed my opinion as time went on, NOT just today. And YES, I remember seeing my first computer schematic in 1971. I had the magazine until about 11-12 years ago.

ANOTHER thing! When I was in the hospital as a little kid, they didn't try to FORCE me to cough so hard I could break stitches, because of MRSA. HECK, MRSA probably didn't exist then!

Steve

My great grandmother talks about how the kids of her generation thought having a tin can to kick around was luxury.

I don't see having little kids tied to electronics as a good thing. Sure learn to use a computer - but don't spend all day wired and connected.

When kids are learning cyber space and nothing about the real world they live in, how can they learn to respect the planet? It's been shown that cyber spacers don't learn empathy either.

Kids need to learn what lakes are rivers and forests and wildlife are about. Teaching virtual life without real planetary existence is just very dangerous.

And whoever said that it's our generation's fault -- Ours and two ahead of us. We've been on the way downhill for awhile as far as our planetary existence is going. As far as global connection, we're on top right now. So what's more important? Cyberspace or the planet? Sometimes it is a hard choice, but - if you don't see the planet as coming first, I'm wondering how long there will be humans here to create a cyberspace at all.

The 80's. We had the best cartoons and the best action movies

That was my thought when I read to the thread title. Made me think of a few quotes:

• What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult. ~Sigmund Freud
• He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. ~Albert Einstein
• A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. ~Rachel Carson

My view-I am always a child of God no matter what age I am and exist in an impermanent, ever-expanding universe that will always present new and beautiful things/experiences as long as I am willing to perceive through "childlike" eyes.

I think this last quote provides a good conclusion:

I am often accused of being childish. I prefer to interpret that as child-like. I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things. I tend to exaggerate and fantasize and embellish. I still listen to instinctual urges. I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind. I never water my garden without soaking myself. It has been after such times of joy that I have achieved my greatest creativity and produced my best work. ~Leo F. Buscaglia, Bus 9 to Paradise

Namaste,
BJ

SEE, THAT is the reason I don't like taking ethnicity or race into it. If we put age in, MANY may feel the same way as you.

When you're a little kid, you can be happy about things you wouldn't care less about now. Heck, at the time you probably didn't know of, or care about, the date. For that matter, you judged things ONLY on how they affected YOU! Not beliefs or long held grudges. HECK, I didn't care about politics AT ALL until I was like 18. I didn't even want to listen to the news, ESPECIALLY if it wasn't very local.

Steve

TELL ME ABOUT IT!

When they first came out, I think they were just cute.
THEN, they got better quality and more slapstick, but still fun.
The most disfunctional was probably the jetsons or flintstones.

And NOW!?!?!? The quality is generally WORSE and they seem to mostly shoot for being GROSE! And they may have an AGENDA!

Steve

NOPE!

1959:

Digital Equipment Corporation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PDP 1 took up little more than a wall. About as much space as a bed. Terminal not included

1969:

Data General Nova - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NOVA took up about as much space as an IBM AT. Terminal and storage not included.

1970:
WOW, something I did NOT know!!!!!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!!!!!! I didn't know it actually had a father, but this is basically the father of the 4004/8008!!!!!

Datapoint 2200 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, you have THIS, the 4004, the 8008, the 8080(when microcomputers really started taking off), the 8086, 8088, 80186(for some reason generally only used in controllers), 80286,80386,80486, pentium, etc.... Of course, that is only INTELS processors, and THIS was designed by intel also. AND, interestingly, this was like the 8008. The 4004 was REALLY a 8008 clocked 4 bits at a time to reduce support chips.

BTW WANT TO FEEL OLD!?!?!?

1998 a 1GB MECHANICAL drive was about as big as 2 mice and cost about $1000USD!

2009 a 16GB FLASH memory chip is about the size of the LED inside one of those mice and costs about $30!

2010 may even see a 64GB FLASH memory chip that still costs about $30! BTW a TERABYTE drive, same physical size as the gigabyte one, but 1000 times the space, costs about $100!(1000 times the space for a tenth the price!)

BTW prior to 1985, INTEL didn't cheat on CPUs. Speed increase was LINEAR with the full speed of the system. If memory, support, and clock speed were doubled, processing was doubled, 100% of the time! Since then, they have cheated every single year. Clock doublers, interleaving, various additional caches, etc... And NOW multiple CPUs and internal multitasking. Although it would have taken more realestate earlier, they could have done it earlier. Of course, that would have been with the same slow core, but most computers haven't been able to run their full speed since the early eighties! The fastest most computers have been able to run, FULL BORE, in the 80s to early nineties has been about 12Mhz. And MOST ran closer to 8Mhz. Bear in mind, that I am not saying the CPU was that slow, or even ran that slow, but merely saying that it was CRIPPLED by the slow memory, etc... In the early nineties they added cache and pipelines to try to mitigate that. But, EVEN TODAY, they say the maximum is perhaps 1Ghz, but they cheat THERE also!

Steve

No, I don't mean Lady Gaga, which should be obvious since I was was referring to *non-mainstream* performers all around the world who can now easily share their music online. That said, I have nothing against Lady Gaga. In fact, I appreciate and recognize her talent as a singer and musician and rather enjoy her performances (with the exception of "Fernando" which is one of the all-time worst songs, joining Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps").

I'm with you Kim.
Interestingly, I was at a karaoke evening the other night, and what were the biggest hits of the night?
"I want to hold your hand" and "Delilah", with an honourable mention to "Mamma Mia"
Everyone (and it was a mixed generation group) put down their glasses and joined in with great enthusiasm.
These songs are 30 and 40 years old!
I humbly suggest that 30 years from now, it will still be the same showstoppers, and not one song from 2010 will be heard.
To paraphrase a sporting quote "Fame is temporary, talent lasts forever"

You obviously don't know what your talking about.
Please explain your concept as to baby boomers having everything handed to them.

MAN, what BULL! My mother was relatively poor, and my father paid as little as he could having divorced my mother LONG ago. I DID have a friend that was basically like a father to me, and every now and then he took me fishing on his boat, etc... It seems like HE had a lot of money, etc... but he had a VW bettle the whole time I knew him, and the boat he had had damage to the hull around the running light that I don't remember getting fixed. BTW the boat was rated for 7 people. My mother also had a VW bug.

Our meals were simple(Like what a middle class family has NOW), and going out was a treat. My mother struggled to send me to private schools, but 78% of the time I was in PUBLIC schools! The area that I lived in kept being encroached upon. When I moved in, it was middle class. TODAY they are probably all slums. My mother never actually owned a home, we were in apartments.

BTW I don't think my mother ever made over $35,000.

As for the boom economy? That wasn't really a "BOOM" economy. It was a NORMAL one. NOW, people have been CHEATED! It used to be that almost any non american item was frowned on or even LAUGHED AT, LITERALLY! SERIOUSLY! Made in japan, china, korea meant it was JUNK! And TODAY, some do the same with AMERICAN products. DON'T WORRY THOUGH! The US doesn't make that much. HECK, even FOOD! Just TRY buying american peanuts, cashews, etc... It is NOT easy.

BTW They were called baby boomers because the generation came after a big war and, like usually, there were a LOT of babies! Want to know HOW many? Well, I saw a factoid just YESTERDAY! In 2035 FOR THE FIRST TIME there will be more OVER 65 than there will be 5 or under! SO, there may have been a lot, but there were more people to care for. NOW, by contrast, there are more people that can care for the others. WHY!?!?!? Because all the baby boomers are between 46 and 64. 1970 was 40 years ago so THEN, the kids were 6-24

AND, in the 70s, they made some things like furniture with partical board and veneer. OH, that was NEAT! The furniture might look BEAUTIFUL, but it STUNK, sliding it accross the floor could break it, etc... FORM over function!

As for computers? They didn't become economically feasible until about 71, and weren't widely available until 75. They didn't catch on for small businesses until 81. They didn't get usable economical WANs until like 92.

HECK, LEDs weren't really used until the 70s. LCDs didn't appear until the late 70s. LCDs as YOU know them didn't really appear until like the mid 90s!

OH YEAH, my father isn't exactly poor, but the CPU unit he got for me ended up costing $1200. I don't think he was happy about the cost. When I graduated highschool, he bought me a 5.25" floppy disk drive. It cost about $700! MAN was I ECSTATIC a couple years ago when I found one at a computer show for ONLY $250. OH YEAH, I saved up for a hard disk drive! I found a 5MB one for $75! That drive only lasted about a year. 8-(

HEY want to know ANOTHER way in which we were so spoiled? Just ask!

So we DID have LOWER inflation. People seemed nicer. The government was more reasonable. But don't go talking like we were spoiled. And I wasn't just allowed to do whatever I wanted. Sadly, a person came to some acclaim. His name was "Dr. Spock"! Apparently he had some STUPID ideas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock Outside of basically having a stupid operation, I doubt his ideas affected the way I was treated, etc...

BTW Babyboomers are going to have a harder retirement! Younger ones, such as I am, will have a HARDER time! Granted, the next generation may be no better, but the baby boomers will be the worst yet. AGAIN, because of our numbers.

Steve

That's the funniest thing I've heard today.

Thanks for the laugh.

Once again you make a post that is not really factual. I was born in the 50s,yet I enjoy music from the 40s (and earlier) to the 90s..As far as the music being mostly-white,I'm sorry if that was the type of music you were somewhat restricted to, but it was certainly not the way music was.
I grew up istening to real blues ( Talk to Kurt, he seems to be the closest expert here). I grew up listening to real Rock and roll.I grew up listening to real soul,which is really hard to find "mostly-white" connactions to at all.

You are correct though, I do have a very large comtempt for what they call music now, as it is mostly devoid of real music and devoid of talent.
Most of what you see now is pre-canned pap that is being mass produced generically and being fed to a generation that for the most part can't recognize talent.

Proof of what I saw cant be aptly demostrated in two shows right now.
American Idol and America's Got Talent.

If you appear on either show you are almost always guaranteed a standing ovation. Even if what you do is crap. A lot of contestants would have been better off as contestants on the late Gong Show.

Just by a few of the threads here you can see there are many Warriors that can recognize actual talent,but are smart enough to know that just because someone tells them someone is talented ,that doesn't make it so.

When you were.

Outside of the deal about smoking tobacco and marijuana, I agree with you 100%! The sad thing about MANY creatures. Is that if you are too lenient and make things too easy, they may want a lot and expect it. People LIKE to talk about adult this and adult that BUT, emotionally, they are really 2 year olds! THINK ABOUT IT! There is a phenomenon known as "The Terrible Twos" Wikipedia ignores this, so let's use Terrible Twos and Your Toddler as a reference:

People were just SO permissive, etc...

Steve

Gangrenous tooth cavities were a common cause of death 2000 years ago.

I think the thread's gone past my original post, which may have been too vague.

I wasn't talking about how young you feel now, perhaps I'll rephrase the question:
"When was the best time to be a teenager?"

I still reckon is was when I was that age, being a teenager was cool, hanging around with your mates outside the milk bar, looking at the girls in their frilly dresses, forever combing your hair.

Ah, happy days! (and no, my real name is not Richie Cunningham or Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli)

Glad to see Steven's on board - he always adds a touch of class to any thread.

Thunderbird,

No need to say you're sorry, if you being male preferred Rod over Lady Gaga, I'd be a bit concerned!:p

Anyway, the reason I love Rod Stewart besides the fact that I love his music, is that his songs have sentimental value as well.

You see, my mom was killed in a car accident when I was 19 years old. Before that life altering, tragic event, my mom and I would throw down dancing together in the living room and those times are some of the most memorable moments in my life.

It was my mom who helped give me my love of music with very eclectic tastes and my love of dance. She absolutely loved Rod Stewart. As a matter of fact, on the way to the hospital when we came across the accident scene, my mom's car was still flipped over and her things scattered about on the high way. I freaked out and made my boyfriend (now hubby) pull over. I ran out of the car and grabbed an eight track of Rod Stewart before the policeman grabbed me and stopped me from gathering more items. One officer after getting the details then gave us an escort to the hospital.

I still have that eight track today and unfortunately when we were given her effects, all of her other music was no where to be found.

May I suggest that perhaps before you ridicule someone for their taste in music, as in your post prior to the one I just quoted, you stop yourself because you really have no idea of the reasoning behind it.

Terra

The best time to be young?


When you're old.

I've never been to OZ but I wouldn't be surprised if their broadcasters bought up U.S. programming just like ours do (I'm in Canada too). It's cheaper and there's lots of it.

No, I was actually in New Zealand at the time, but American teenage culture was everywhere - we loved everything American, tried to look like James Dean or Elvis, or the coolest of them all, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes from the TV show "77 Sunset Strip"

We really did hang around milk bars, as there was nowhere else to go on a Friday night. That was late night shopping night, so that was when the girls did their shopping, and where there were girls..............

As I've said before, we had full employment, great music, safety on the streets, no drugs, NZ had so much money coming into the country from wool, so everything was cheap. We were so far away from world affairs, the cold war, a very insular existence.

I wouldn't dare claim that era to be the best, that's too subjective a call, but life was pretty good.

My kids certainly live in a different world, which is what started this whole thread.

I'm afraid I have to repectfully disagree, with regard to my own circumstances.
I believe my generation, in the U.K. were the first generation (late 50s - early 60's)to grow up knowing that they had a better life than their parents.

We lived in Bristol, a favourite target for German bombers, I well remember the air raid shelter at the bottom of our garden. Our chain fence at the front of the house was taken to melt down for the war effort. Mother spent every Monday hand washing clothes and putting them through the mangle.

All food was rationed, half a pound of meat per week, no lollies for the kids.

I recognise that my parents had a tougher life than me, as I said, perhaps the first generation to realise that.

Incidentally, while re-reading these posts, it seems that all the people who say today is better cite the improvement in technology as the reason.

Is that all there is to today's society?