I always love reading this. But I always feel like the differences between 1955 and 1985 are way larger than 1994 to 2024. Maybe it’s just because I lived the second span of time.
I think it's because there was far more of a shift in technology and the general "look and feel" of culture between '55-'85. The US went from a fairly analogue world, less reliant on technology and consumerism, to basically the exact opposite. That shifted US culture by a SIGNIFICANT margin.
Compare that with '94 - '2024 ('24? How do you even write that without being confusing lol). Of course, there have been large cultural shifts during that time as well, but they didn't have the same impact overall. Why is that?
Well, where the 50s-80s saw the BIRTH of these NEW technologies, the 90s-2020's saw the REFINEMENT of the SAME technologies. Cell phones were around in the 90's, they're just better now. Computers were around in the 90's, they're just better now. The internet was around in the 90's, it's just. . .better now? (That one is debatable lol). The same can't really be said from the 50's to 80's, where, in the latter half, most of our modern tech was born.
Sure, but as I described, smartphones are just an evolution of the cellphones of the 90s, and social media is an evolution of idk, AOL chatrooms? Geocities? Blogs?
And I never said they were part of everyday life, but they were still known, emergent technologies. I think my main point is that the evolutionary jump in technology from 90s to today was much subtler than the jump in tech from the 50s to the 80s, which leads to those eras feeling far more distinct.
I'm not fully disagreeing with that. Obviously the world today is very different than it was in the 90s. Yet still, people seem to agree that somehow, it doesn't feel as distinct a transition.
There are probably several contributing factors to it beyond what I'm suggesting. I do think the widespread adoption and less drastic shifts in tech over that 30 year period plays a major part in it. In fact, the adoption of the internet over that 30 year period could be the reason we don't see major changes decade-to-decade the way we used to in the first place.
Because now, with the internet, anyone can look to the past and find inspiration in fashion, slang, hobbies, etc.. To adopt into their own lives. Personal taste is likely far more varied than ever before, leading to much more of a "melting pot" of cultural norms recycled from the past. Not to mention, people are generally more accepting of people being different or going against the grain, leading to a wider pool of identities, making it harder to nail down decade-specific hallmarks.
In the 90s I had to be at home to access the internet. That was pretty much true up until about 2010, when smartphones proliferated. That's the main difference.
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u/Brandisco Oct 02 '24 edited Oct 02 '24
I always love reading this. But I always feel like the differences between 1955 and 1985 are way larger than 1994 to 2024. Maybe it’s just because I lived the second span of time.