Originally it was going to be “over the last twenty years” but I decided to be more flexible.
A lot of discussions about how society has changed or how the world is different always circle around to smartphones, social media, “no one talks to each other in person, they’re on their phones always” and the like.
Outside of those topics, what else has changed, by your perception?
smoking
gay
Amazon
conspiracy
racism
mental health
I’ve watched things go from “how can we profit from this?” to “how much can we profit from this without quite killing the plebs?”
There are more idiots. Flatearthers, space deniers, antivaxxers. The more information people have access to the less intelligent society seems to get.
Surveillance Capitalism is getting more out of hand every year. Combined with more data breaches it’s not great.
The number of idiots definitely grew, but the percentage of idiots overall probably dropped.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
People got smarter. Idiots grew louder.
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I’d go further than that. I remember smoking being pretty common everywhere in the 1980s, and cigarette butts being common anywhere outdoors in a public setting.
I rarely see anyone smoking anymore, and rarely see a single cigarette butt.
That being said, where you are in the US is gonna be a factor, and there are some countries that do still see a fair bit of smoking.
In some airport I’ve had transfers in a few times (I want to say Detroit?) they have a smoking lounge that’s just four glass walls hooked up to a filtration system, and it cracks my shit up every single time to see the smoker terrarium.
Negative: Worse driving interactions (as a pedestrian/cyclist), especially post-covid.
Positive: People are generally more accepting of things, and people seem to be more comfortable sharing parts of them that make themselves different from the “norm”.
When I was still a kid, we went from bring a plate of cookies to your neighbor and introduce yourself to DON’T TALK TO STRANGERS!!
I grew up with the “Dont talk to strangers” mindset.
Doesn’t help that my birth country have an epidemic of kidnappings.
Nobody thinks my country has a history of way too many kidnappings, but America has the market cornered on propaganda.
I wanna say that mindset has no discernable effect on the number of crimes committed, at least when they reviewed the statistics years later. That’s what I heard anyway.
When children are abducted in the US, the vast majority of cases involve family members. At around 200 per year, true kidnappings in which children are taken by strangers for molestation, murder or ransom are relatively rare. Those held for ransom are usually the children of wealthy families, with resources to match demands. In stark contrast are the poor, often uneducated families of an estimated 70,000 children who go missing in China each year for forced labor, adoption or prostitution.
The number of children who go missing each year fluctuates wildly depending on the source. Earlier this year China National Radio estimated that 200,000 children are abducted in China each year, but the government officially estimates that number to be 10,000. For the purposes of the film, Custer consulted independent contractors who estimated that 70,000 children are lost each year.
My mother told me that girls get raped and sold into prostitution, boys get organs harvested. Government like to hide the real stats, perhaps the fear comes from hearing stories go around. Free press is not a thing where I was from.
Fears tend to linger, even with migration to a different country.
Interesting. I appreciate the link.
Funny how the US numbers reported are only for a very specific circumstance - possibly taken from conviction rates for such crimes? But anyway, with no data on family/close friend kidnappings, that stat is basically useless isn’t it.
The mall was full of stores with good quality products that you would value for a non insignificant amount of time if purchased.
Better but much more expensive insulin, although price has gone down significantly since Affordable Care act.
The death of appointment television.
haha my dad was a tech nerd and when he bought his first programmable VCR back in the '80s he was on top of the world. He was recording everything…
Appointment television?
A very popular show that everyone would watch live as it aired the first time. Then you could talk about it with everyone for a week because everyone is on the same episode. There was little to no ways to watch it if you missed it and you’d basically be screwed.
Oh I wasn’t allowed to watch tele growing up. No wonder I have no idea what this is
I haven’t heard the term but I assume it means watching TV on the station’s schedule. You know, broadcast and cable.
Cable TV use to be something that teathered us all together in a way. We were all stuck on the same schedule for premiers of new episodes of different shows so we all had a common thing to talk about come the next day. Now I have no idea what’s playing on what service and have just given up on staying up to date on the new shows. I could have access to $TVShow but probably won’t watch it because I don’t like to binge watch so it takes me longer to catch up and by the time I do it has already left the minds of my peers so why bother.
Game of Thrones was the last time I had this experience.
I could have access to $TVShow but probably won’t watch it because I don’t like to binge watch so it takes me longer to catch up and by the time I do it has already left the minds of my peers so why bother.
I enjoy not having my entertainment options constrained by whether other people are watching them at the same time, so I’m loving the change. Especially since I didn’t like over half of the shows that ‘everybody’ watched.
Hot take but Sam and Diane had no chemistry
“NORM!”
From an American perspective, flying on an airplane sucks. 9/11/01 resulted in a whole bunch of security theatre at the airport and airlines have slowly whittled away whatever comfort or convience remained.
Remember being able to walk people to their gate, hug them goodbye, and watch the plane leave? Now you can only do this if you’re taking an unaccompanied minor to their gate.
Actually, it depends on the airport. A lot of them you only need to show ID now, not a ticket.
Good to hear that’s changing!
i got fed up enough that i decided i’m never flying again. if i can’t get there in time by driving, so sorry, i won’t be able to attend
Domestic flights should basically not be a thing. Trains should be the default option if you don’t have to cross an ocean.
Ahh yes, trade 6 hours for a 3 day, $400 train ride to NYC.
Lmfao what a shit suggestion
The American train system isn’t normal.
With the current level of train infrastructure and service, I agree with you. That is why domestics flights are a thing. But trains would be a much better choice if rail wasn’t actively defunded and sabotaged for the last 70 years or so.
Its this lack of imagination of what could be (and already exists around the world) that makes everyone laugh at Americans.
Even with high speed rail you’re looking at 30+ hours from Seattle to NYC. And that’s optimistic, ignoring the numerous alpine mountains. No thanks.
Yes, all domestic flights in North America are Seattle to NYC.
Why do people always go here?
- Fine: coast to coast, north to south should have flights. However almost all domestic flights are shorter and most of those are between city pairs where rail could be more efficient.
- Fine: keep your bush pilots and feeder airlines, but 80% of the population is in metro areas.
- high speed rail advocates generally speak in terms of population density and distance for choosing the right option: generally city pairs less than 500 miles apart can be more efficiently served by rail. That’s most cities in the US, and metro areas are 80% the population
We don’t need to argue about it not being absolute,if you can recognized the predominant needs
It’s 14 hours by bullet train. Spend 8 of it sleeping and save the planet
Completely agree. The state of the US passenger train system is absolutely pitiful, and useless for any of the trips I needed to take.
I would gladly take the Texas Eagle to Chicago on a regular basis to see family if it didn’t cost $1,800 for a very small room in the sleeper car. I prefer the train to flying or driving. It’s just a LOT cheaper to load up the minivan and drive 12 hours instead.
I’m close. I only fly to see family and drive everywhere else. If I can’t complete the vacation without driving I’m just not doing it.
It’s weird because flights are cheaper but then I don’t have a vehicle where I land and most of the places I want to go I need a vehicle. I’m not much of a city boy.
You used to get proper meals even if it was a crazy short flight. Now it’s like $6 bag of cheese it.
Why specify the year? Everyone knows what 9/11 is, it’s not going to get confused with another 9/11.
Because over time people will forget the year. Like many hear July 4th and couldn’t tell you it is for 1776. People get lazy, and knowing the year gives a nice reference for time and how it has gone by.
Man sometimes I forget just how utterly brain dead some people are. Forgetting 1776.
Is 1776 an American thing? Because it does not seem to ring a bell for me…
No more milk delivered each morning to my door.
More aggressive driving. Statistics even support it so it’s not just an anecdotal thing.
the population of the u.s. has increased by almost 100,000,000 since 1990. that’s a lot more assholes on the road
https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/population
Bigger cars, wider roads, more lanes, more noise, longer commutes
Brighter lights
I’ve noticed that too. I also noticed a very large uptick after Covid and things opened back up. It seems like people genuinely forgot tact, decency, and rules. It’s weird because Covid wasn’t THAT long that we were locked down.
- People are way more free to talk about their mental health problems.
- Climate change is part of mainstream awareness, most people want to see action on it.
- Gays and lesbians are very broadly accepted in many parts of the world. Trans people are too (and they are more visible), even if there is also a culture war backlash.
- Nearly everyone hates capitalism. Not everyone has figured out what needs to be done about it, but it’s a good start.
- Conspiracy thinking is more rampant, presumably because of internet (mis/dis)information bubbles
(I was born in the early 80s, so this is over the last 30ish years, since the mid 90s)
People are way more free to talk about their mental health problems.
People still don’t understand.
“Just be happy” is still a thing.
I didn’t say it was perfect. Just better. And I’m sure it’s improved more in some places than others.
I’ve noticed an increase in noticing other people being not well, but a decrease in the depth that people care. It used to feel that you might have one or two friends who cared about you deeply. They’d drop everything to help and wouldn’t ask for anything in return. Now it seems like everyone cares about everyone but not enough to actually do anything.
It’s more like everyone is literally at their limit for taking care of themselves and literally has no energy leftover for others.
I think this is purposeful to socially divide us.
Could be. But I also see it as a change of mindset. It used to be you cared deeply for a few people. Now it seems like you’re expected to care about everyone. And if you spread it that far it becomes thin.
Yeah.
We had twins nearly 2 years ago.
I never really expected “help” but when we were pregnant there were people coming over every day telling us how much they were going to help. My wife has a huge social group, it was kinda overwhelming.
Since they were born, there’s been 1 person who has just been amazing. She’s here for a few hours several times a week and just plays with the kids. She’s been really consistent.
No one else really knows how to help I think. Or maybe they think everyone else is helping. Or maybe just doing their own thing (which is fine ofc).
