This is the first of two forum posts inspired by the fabulous Sir David of Retrohenshire of RetroHen blog fame. His post made me think about changes that I've witnessed and experienced over the years - some I never saw coming.
Here are some of them:
A king of England rather than a queen!
The closure of many of Britain's leading high street stores such as Woolworths; Tammy Girl; Granada etc.
Print publications practically on their way out!
The end of News of the World!
Mobile phones and this little thing called the internet taking over the world.
People no longer having to lie about having met their partner online!
The rise of social media
A pandemic that shut the whole world down and changed the way we lived and worked.
I could go on all day! What changes and major events have occurred over the years that you yourself have experienced that have had an impact, either on you individually or on society as a whole?
This is a sad one but the deaths of music legends especially from the kind of music I listen to like Chester Bennington, Chris Cornell, Joey Jordison etc. I remember when Kurt Cobain died. Coming from Washington, it felt like the whole state was in mourning. I guess I got a feeling of how it was when news broke that Elvis had died.
I think the most important change and one most of us never thought we'd see in our lifetime is gay marriage and gay people having the same rights as everyone else. And about time too! Even though homophobia still exists sadly, people are a lot more accepting of gay people and relationships today as they should be. The people I grew up with, the circles I move in, gay people are very much the 'norm' so I never knew what the problem was.
It's not a major disaster but the end of the black and white telly! There were loads when I were growing up in the seventies. Especially the one in the bedroom. You might of had a colour one downstairs in living room. Black and white were obviously cheaper. But who wants a black and white telly now? Joeys girl also remembered when we used to rent TV sets instead of buy them. We definitely did that!
I also remember when hardly anyone had a debit or credit card and just about everything was paid using cash. Now cards are on the way out and people are linking their accounts to their phones!
One thing that was quite common when I was a child but doesn't happen any more, and that would shock my sons, was people renting their television sets instead of paying for them outright. They'd pay a rental fee every month but I'm guessing they must have had to pay some kind of deposit first. I think you could also do that with video players as well. Definitely a thing of the past now. We never rented our TVs but back then it was quite common.
Being an old bird, there's a lot of changes I'd have seen over the years. The demise of Top of the Pops for a start! Now that's one I didn't think could ever happen!
I suppose it's just the way the world has become very digitalized. I'm not from the dark ages, of course I've grown up with technology, but this is now on a much broader scale. We've also become so much more reliant on technology and devices more now than ever before.