The newer way of doing the same old things.

I have had many of those moments when you remember something that used to be a common occurrence which is either no longer common or completely non-existent now.  Much of this will naturally come with age as more and more of the past becomes obsolete.  Some of it will just happen due to our natural changes in life preferences as we become different people.  One of the basic examples that comes to mind is the vast differences in general telephone communication over the years.  And what about all the different elements of the internet experience.  Even it has made many changes of it's own since its widespread expansion took root in the daily lives of almost everyone.  Society is something quite different these days. Change is the inevitable constant driving it all.

Getting more specific about the telephone communication I was thinking how strange life used to be when everything was done on landlines.  Heck, the term landline did not even really exist since there was nothing to differentiate a "land" line from.  Not only that but telephone companies competed for who had the best clarity which reflected in their advertising more prominently than price did... and one of the marketed proofs of clarity was the ability to hear a pin dropping to the floor in the room of the person on the other end of the line.  When was the last time you saw/heard a cell carrier make reference to their line clarity?  Has it even ever happened?  They were much more concerned with coverage for most of the first decade and now it seems to be more about data transfer and pricing now that coverage is relatively uniform across the board.

Not everybody had answering machines so that made it somewhat of a challenge to even get the person you were looking for on the phone.  They literally had to be at the location you were calling(their house) at the very time you were calling.  And, before "call waiting" existed, you had to hope that nobody at their house was already using the phone.  You just had to call back later since they would not even know if you had tried to call them in the first place.  If you got through to somebody at the house that was not your intended person of choice you had to hope the person you talked to would actually somehow connect to the person you wanted, whether that was physically going to get them or just write down a message for them if they were not available at the time.  What a headache!  It is amazing we were even able to get a hold of people ever... but somehow it happened all the time.  Do you remember the last time you took a call that was for somebody other than yourself?  I don't.  I'm sure it has only happened a few times since I started using cell phones, which in itself is fairly odd anyway.

Remember what life was like before personal computers?  What about the internet?  People had to go to the library, a bookstore, a magazine rack, or school to get new things to read.  The encyclopedia was the biggest compilation of facts(useless and otherwise) that we had access to.  There was more fascination with trivia game shows, I would say.  People got outside to do things more often.  Things like jump ropes, bicycles(no bicycle helmets), frisbees, baseballs, sticks, and rocks were considered fun.  Kids ran around on the streets and in between houses, played in ditches and any nearby forested areas, had fun in their yards doing just about anything, and would stay out until their parents had to call them back in the house. I know many of these things still happen but I am not sure where... I don't remember seeing any children, teenagers, or adults playing anywhere except in or near a school playground once in a while.  Sure, video games sort of prepped society for the transition into computer-fed inertia, and have been widely available for as long as I can remember(sometime in the early '80s.)  But the people who only played video games actually seemed out of the ordinary.  Addiction to digital media took quite a while to lose its obvious visibility and recognition.

The younger generations had a lot more respect for the older ones.  They seemed to "know" things in ways the younger folk would have to wait for through the life experience required to get them to the same place.  Sure, the know-it-all kid existed, but was somewhat of an anomaly and not taken very seriously anyway.  Now, the younger generation seems quite a bit more arrogant and high-minded taking their relative position in society into account.  The leap into the technologically saturated way of life was a little too fast for many of the older generation who now often leans on the younger generation for support in navigating the whole mess.  This minor role-reversal has built a different attitude into the up an coming generation.  Their sense of entitlement and superiority seems disproportionate to their capabilities and understanding.

I don't remember people being as obsessed with the public figures of the day as they are today.  The role-models and heroes are now placed on such a high pedestal that the cracks and human frailties become incredibly magnified... to the point of creating a pulse and swing of drama, highly edible to the escape artists people are becoming.  Given the greater power of a person's voice, through mass and social media outlets, the number of talking heads seems to be far greater, and the messages they send more extreme.  Actors, politicians(is there a difference?), and marketers all share the same platform for conveyance of their agendas to those willing to consume.  The lines have become more and more foggy.

This all has been a bit more aimless than I intended but, as it has been my personal challenge, I should not complain about my methods of execution, especially when the fatigue I have been attacked by has been yielded to by my own poor semblance of priorities.  I guess tomorrow should be something entirely different altogether.