Poll: Would you rather be living 2025 or 1985?

[Reesh]

If only we could know then what we know now.

 

[MannyGlocks]

Cars?

Pish Posh I say.

Nah, pick up trucks...for the win.

After that, tractors.

 

[mkwerx]

I'm a child of the 80's - born in 81. My earliest memories start around 83. Even though we're 40+ years hence, and time tends to make the good times seem better, I would 10,000 times over pick 1985 over 2025. As much as I love the technology that has in some ways made life better - that same technology has made life far worse in many ways.

In 1985 we weren't tied down with electronic leashes at the beck and call of any jerk with your phone number. There was no e-mail unless you were in some obscure academic program or government role. You could be unreachable and people didn't bat an eye. When someone wanted or needed to speak to you - they often had to come in person or get you to answer your land line phone. We didn't even have an answering machine in our house until the early 90's. We had a party-line phone until 1987.

Music was better. Movies were better. TV was better. Creativity in media was not just re-treading what came before. There was no 24-hour hot and cold running news cycle.

Fashion - well, some parts of 80's fashion should've been avoided but overall, it wasn't bad.

Yeah, maybe things like shall-issue concealed carry were a lot less common, but in 1985 you could buy a brand new machine gun made that year.

Fishin' tackle might not have been as refined as it is these days, but that just means I could craft some of my favorite baits of today and show them something they've likely never seen before.

I can just imagine loading up the family in a truck like the one we had when I was a kid - a 1980 F-250. The smell of the vinyl seats and floor boards, the AM/FM radio playing what these days is classic country music - a tent, cooler, camp stove in the back with some fishin' poles and a tackle box. Or maybe it'd be an old square body Suburban with barn doors. No tent needed, just some blankets and pillows laid out in the back. Drive out to a favorite spot in the woods, cook on the ground, play all day. Stare up at a sky with way less light pollution and a lot more visible stars.

If I could somehow be plucked out of time and plopped down in 1985 I'd be happy as a pig in poop, so long as I had my wife & son, and dogs to join me. I couldn't make that trade if it meant leaving them, but if I could take them with me? We're gone in a flash.

Hell - I'd even take going back to the 1990's over what we have become today. I think nostalgia and a longing for what was might be a natural part of getting older but I really don't think today is the golden age of my generation.

 

[UsernameS]

So much has changed, in 40 years, I wonder what, 2065 will be like?
You can almost get a idea of what age people are, who answer this poll

 

[nammac]

So much has changed, in 40 years, I wonder what, 2065 will be like?
You can almost get a idea of what age people are, who answer this poll

Well heck, 2065 I'll be over 100…. I have no
Interest in seeing me at 100 years old. Surprised I've made it this far…

 

[brass_buzzard]

1985

 

[nwslopoke]

Well heck, 2065 I'll be over 100…. I have no
Interest in seeing me at 100 years old. Surprised I've made it this far…

Pre 2000s and in general from the mid 60s - 80s music had a rebellious wing from rock to punk to early rap. I like the 80s with Dirty Laundry from Don Henly or Dead Kennedy's, We've got a Bigger Problem Now (California Uber Alles). Songs that would name names and say the hard parts out loud. Any song that I can think of now is a comedy or parody of a problem that artist are too afraid to say straight up.

I doubt I'll make it to 2065 as well. Maybe by then everyone will have their own pet flying monkeys with lasers, but in my lifetime (outside of medicines) there is very little new as far as gadgets, just smaller and faster.

 

[Mono1]

Music was better. Movies were better. TV was better.

Yeah agree. But,

I am thinking I was made for the 1850's or thereabouts. OK maybe 1870's.

But No Later.

 

[Jeepsnguns]

I doubt I'll make it to 2065 as well. Maybe by then everyone will have their own pet flying monkeys with lasers, but in my lifetime (outside of medicines) there is very little new as far as gadgets, just smaller and faster.

So far the one invention since becoming an adult that has greatly improved my life is the microwave oven, I used to have to cook a Stouffer's frozen Lasagna 45 min in the oven, that time has dropped down to 6.5 min. zapped in the micro which I'm thankful for.
Now that's progress!!!
Gotta say the thought of owning a pet flying monkey with lasers is simultaneously intriguing and terrifying...

 

[nwslopoke]

So far the one invention since becoming an adult that has greatly improved my life is the microwave oven, I used to have to cook a Stouffer's frozen Lasagna 45 min in the oven, that time has dropped down to 6.5 min. zapped in the micro which I'm thankful for.
Now that's progress!!!
Gotta say the thought of owning a pet flying monkey with lasers is simultaneously intriguing and terrifying...

Without the lasers they're just...well, bird poop is bad enough.

 

[Mono1]

I remember reading about a study that was done.

Back in the 1950's they asked 1,000 people how Happy they were on a scale of 1 to 5. 5 being most Happy.

The result was the average came back as 2.7.

Then they redid the question like 50 years later (so people had micowaves, cell phones, all that sh*t.

Results came back 2.7.

Progress.

 

[nwslopoke]

I remember reading about a study that was done.

Back in the 1950's they asked 1,000 people how Happy they were on a scale of 1 to 5. 5 being most Happy.

The result was the average came back as 2.7.

Then they redid the question like 50 years later (so people had micowaves, cell phones, all that sh*t.

Results came back 2.7.

Progress.

Although I was pretty happy in 1985, I'd be miserable if I had to go back to that exact life. I didn't know any better. I'm sure microwaves were a thing in 85, but we didn't have one. I did have a motorcycle and year around good weather, so life definitely had a bright side.

 

[Jeepsnguns]

I forgot to mention the personal computer/internet.
When I was a kid my mom couldn't afford to buy me the encyclopedia Britannica, not everyone here probably knows what an encyclopedia is.
From the perspective of a person my age the personal computer/internet is simply amazing.
Here we are, folks from various states communicating instantaneously and it's a normal thing, being able to do what we are doing here would have sounded somewhat outrageous 50 or so years ago

 

[nammac]

I forgot to mention the personal computer/internet.
When I was a kid my mom couldn't afford to buy me the encyclopedia Britannica, not everyone here probably knows what an encyclopedia is.
From the perspective of a person my age the personal computer/internet is simply amazing.
Here we are, folks from various states communicating instantaneously and it's a normal thing, being able to do what we are doing here would have sounded somewhat outrageous 50 or so years ago

FaceTime…. Otherwise known as video calling, required highly specialized equipment on both ends as well as dedicated lines back in the early '70's…

Now we do it over the air with cell phones…

And many of us have an electronic leash to our jobs. We don't get to leave them behind like our fathers did…. Blurs the line between work and family time. I do long for the days when the job wasn't a 24X7 responsibility.

 

[Jeepsnguns]

FaceTime…. Otherwise known as video calling

If memory serves, the first time I saw video calling I was 11 yrs old watching 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

[nwslopoke]

Technology is a double edged sword. We were able to monitor our porch camera from overseas, but all that did was get me frustrated at the neighbor's kids playing next to my truck. Couldn't do anything about it. That and it's harder to unplug from work and others. As much as people "hate" to contact you, they still do.

 

[Mikej]

1985. Providing I'm my current age. In the last 10-15 years too many have gone B-S Crazy where I live. It would have been nice to not have to be dealing with that.

 

[HPD]

1985 for me.

 

[TTSX]

So much has changed, in 40 years, I wonder what, 2065 will be like?
You can almost get a idea of what age people are, who answer this poll

2065 is going to be utter bubblegum to live in.

 

[Jeepsnguns]

So much has changed, in 40 years, I wonder what, 2065 will be like?

Soilent Green...