Gen Xers and older millennials really just want to go back in time to before the

[ZLoth]

From Fast Company:

Gen Xers and older millennials really just want to go back in time to before the internet existed
According to a new survey, Americans are yearning for an era before constant connectivity. Can we blame them?

According to a new Harris Poll shared exclusively with Fast Company, most Americans would prefer to live in a simpler era before everyone was obsessed with screens and social media, and this sentiment is especially strong among older millennials and Gen Xers.

Asked whether they would like to return to a time before humanity was "plugged in" –meaning before people had wide access to the internet and smartphones–77% of Americans age 35-54 said they would, the highest of any group.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

I think some of these folks are nostalgic for a "simpler time" when we weren't always online. I agree with some of that sentiment, however, I also look at the tradeoffs, especially when some of that connectivity comes with a bigger paycheck and allows me to better utilize my time and be more selective about my entertainment choices.

[kphoger]

There's a difference between "before constant connectivity" and "before the internet existed".  In my opinion, the right balance is in between–i.e., before smartphones.

[abefroman329]

I catch myself having similar waves of nostalgia as well. And yes, I absolutely would not lead the life I lead today if it weren't for the Internet and smartphones, but there's also fact that the world was a much meaner place for kids back then. I remember being no more than 12, flipping off cars from the back of the school bus with a friend, and a guy on a motorcycle followed us till the bus stopped and threatened to kick our asses when we got off. I'd like to think that wouldn't happen today.

[formulanone]

I could probably get around the smartphone thing. I can imagine a time when I didn't need the Internet, but my job in the mid-1990s barely required a computer. I get the nostalgia thing but I suppose there was also a lot more downtime between doing things (which is likely filled with tasks related to smartphone/internet convenience and its maintenance). One feature I enjoy is just being able to learn more about something you've just heard about or discovered, and I'd really miss that. Sure, you could go to a library but there's no guarantee the info would be relevant or even present in the first place. Maybe that made us a little more discerning and patient, or maybe not.

Having to do my current actual job (circa-1995) would be largely the same, but the associated things like checking into flights and waiting around at a ticket counter for checking would be a massive waste of time. I would also need to spend a lot more time and money on maps. I suppose I'd also have to a lot more time on the phone to confirm hotel stays and any other travel arrangements. And if you wanted to do something on the 'web, you'd have to wait until you were home or somewhere else with connectivity, or look for a pay phone.

I guess I'd read more books, which is something I do a lot less of since owning a smartphone, but I guess all that map reading would also keep me busy. Or just going back to talking to people and listening to them. On the other hand, folks could actually just use less time on their phones more wisely, maybe feeling better about things by saying no to the unnecessary online activities we dread...perhaps the best of both worlds?

[CtrlAltDel]

There's a difference between "before constant connectivity" and "before the internet existed".  In my opinion, the right balance is in between–i.e., before smartphones.

That would mean The Matrix was right, and the best time to live was the late '90s. 

[1995hoo]

There are some benefits to smartphones that I would not want to give up. Two that readily come to mind are that mobile banking is exceptionally convenient, as are things like being able to download train, airline, or other tickets without having to waste either paper printing them or time checking in at the counter.

With that said...

... but there's also fact that the world was a much meaner place for kids back then. ....

I don't know if I agree with this. I'm glad I grew up prior to smartphones, connectivity, and everyone having a camera. When I was a kid, if you did something stupid and embarrassing, it didn't spread through the whole school like wildfire almost instantly unless you did something utterly unbelievably idiotic (and even then, the circumstances would have to be exceptional for it to spread almost instantly–like one day when a guy at my high school used the phrase "piss you off" when giving the morning PA announcements). Nowadays, everything gets filmed and circulated almost immediately. In terms of nastiness and bullying, kids have always been mean to each other and I don't have a sense for whether that's any better or worse today, but it certainly seems to get more attention than it used to.

[kphoger]

[NWI_Irish96]

I'm squarely in the middle of GenX and I really don't want to go back. There are some aspects of pre-2000 life that I prefer, but on the whole I wouldn't trade.

[kalvado]

I catch myself having similar waves of nostalgia as well. And yes, I absolutely would not lead the life I lead today if it weren't for the Internet and smartphones, but there's also fact that the world was a much meaner place for kids back then. I remember being no more than 12, flipping off cars from the back of the school bus with a friend, and a guy on a motorcycle followed us till the bus stopped and threatened to kick our asses when we got off. I'd like to think that wouldn't happen today.

Is that glass half-empty or half-full? There's also fact that the world was a much meaner place for kids back then and kids actually learnt what "good" and "bad" is..

[J N Winkler]

Overall, I think of technology as an enabler.  I like the fact that I can just sit back on Monday evening and watch as a script pulls in whatever new construction plans Caltrans and TxDOT uploaded over the past week--in the pre-Internet age, all of that would have had to be ordered manually from blueprint companies.  But I do agree it's facile to say the solution to problems like social media addiction, generative AI destroying economic niches, etc. is "keep technology on tap, not on top."  Jevons' paradox takes many forms.

[hobsini2]

My full time job is being a dispatcher for a student transportation company in Suburban Chicago. Part of me wishes we could go back to before everyone having a GPS in their hands and they actually had to have a geographical knowledge of things. In my 25 years of being in the transportation industry, drivers as a whole have gotten so dependent on their smart phones for GPS, half my drivers would be clueless on how to get to things like, oh I don't know, the freaking schools we work with!

When I started in the industry as a limo driver, we had to take quizzes on things like:
What is the name of the street that is 7200 West? How do you get from O'Hare to Joliet (and having to list 3 legit ways to go)? What streets should you avoid during a Cubs game or Sox game?
Things of this nature.

If I asked some of my drivers something simple like, "I-88 is called what?", they would look at me funny and say just I-88. Thing is, if you are listening to the traffic reports on either WBBM or WGN, the 2 stations that will do traffic reports consistently, they don't refer to 88 as such. They call it the Reagan Tollway.

Rant done.

[NWI_Irish96]

When I started in the industry as a limo driver, we had to take quizzes on things like:
What is the name of the street that is 7200 West? How do you get from O'Hare to Joliet (and having to list 3 legit ways to go)? What streets should you avoid during a Cubs game or Sox game?

1. Harlem Ave
2. (a)I-190 east, I-294 south, I-55 south; (b) I-190 east, I-90 east, I-55 south; (c) Lagrange Rd south, I-80 west
3. (a) Mainly Clark and Addison, but probably also Belmont and Halsted; (b) 35th and Wentworth, to a lesser extent Pershing and 31st.

[hobsini2]

When I started in the industry as a limo driver, we had to take quizzes on things like:
What is the name of the street that is 7200 West? How do you get from O'Hare to Joliet (and having to list 3 legit ways to go)? What streets should you avoid during a Cubs game or Sox game?

1. Harlem Ave
2. (a)I-190 east, I-294 south, I-55 south; (b) I-190 east, I-90 east, I-55 south; (c) Lagrange Rd south, I-80 west
3. (a) Mainly Clark and Addison, but probably also Belmont and Halsted; (b) 35th and Wentworth, to a lesser extent Pershing and 31st.

Very Good. The only one you should have included in the Cubs streets to avoid was Irving Park Rd.

[NWI_Irish96]

When I started in the industry as a limo driver, we had to take quizzes on things like:
What is the name of the street that is 7200 West? How do you get from O'Hare to Joliet (and having to list 3 legit ways to go)? What streets should you avoid during a Cubs game or Sox game?

1. Harlem Ave
2. (a)I-190 east, I-294 south, I-55 south; (b) I-190 east, I-90 east, I-55 south; (c) Lagrange Rd south, I-80 west
3. (a) Mainly Clark and Addison, but probably also Belmont and Halsted; (b) 35th and Wentworth, to a lesser extent Pershing and 31st.

Very Good. The only one you should have included in the Cubs streets to avoid was Irving Park Rd.

I've never been near Wrigley during or before/after a game so I was really guessing as to the traffic patterns.

[hobsini2]

When I started in the industry as a limo driver, we had to take quizzes on things like:
What is the name of the street that is 7200 West? How do you get from O'Hare to Joliet (and having to list 3 legit ways to go)? What streets should you avoid during a Cubs game or Sox game?

1. Harlem Ave
2. (a)I-190 east, I-294 south, I-55 south; (b) I-190 east, I-90 east, I-55 south; (c) Lagrange Rd south, I-80 west
3. (a) Mainly Clark and Addison, but probably also Belmont and Halsted; (b) 35th and Wentworth, to a lesser extent Pershing and 31st.

Very Good. The only one you should have included in the Cubs streets to avoid was Irving Park Rd.

I've never been near Wrigley during or before/after a game so I was really guessing as to the traffic patterns.

Believe it or not, when I have had to take people to Wrigley, I found the best thing was after the game to have them walk to me near Southport Ave and Addison St about 1/4 mile west of the ballpark and then head south on Southport until I got to like Belmont or Fullerton before heading to the Kennedy.

[Big John]

Autistic Gen Xer here.  Pariah pre-internet.  Internet was a great equalizer.

[abefroman329]

There are some benefits to smartphones that I would not want to give up. Two that readily come to mind are that mobile banking is exceptionally convenient, as are things like being able to download train, airline, or other tickets without having to waste either paper printing them or time checking in at the counter.

With that said...

... but there's also fact that the world was a much meaner place for kids back then. ....

I don't know if I agree with this. I'm glad I grew up prior to smartphones, connectivity, and everyone having a camera. When I was a kid, if you did something stupid and embarrassing, it didn't spread through the whole school like wildfire almost instantly unless you did something utterly unbelievably idiotic (and even then, the circumstances would have to be exceptional for it to spread almost instantly–like one day when a guy at my high school used the phrase "piss you off" when giving the morning PA announcements). Nowadays, everything gets filmed and circulated almost immediately. In terms of nastiness and bullying, kids have always been mean to each other and I don't have a sense for whether that's any better or worse today, but it certainly seems to get more attention than it used to.

Oh, I was thinking of the way adults treated kids, not the way kids treat each other.  Yeah, that's still an issue (and a much more sophisticated one).

kids actually learnt what "good" and "bad" is..

Do you have kids?  If not, maybe don't make idiotic blanket statements like this one.  Kids still learn what "good" and "bad" is, just not through the use of beatings and mental/emotional abuse.  If that's what you miss, well, OK then.

[1995hoo]

The notion of how adults treated kids didn't really occur to me, but that's probably because I only knew one kid who had a particularly nasty father–his father would, and I mean this literally, haul off and kick his son's arse (fairly hard, too) in public. I hope that kid beat the shit out of his father once he got old enough, but I don't know because I lost track of them after we moved out of that neighborhood (all I know is his parents divorced a year after we moved).

[Ted$8roadFan]

There's a difference between "before constant connectivity" and "before the internet existed".  In my opinion, the right balance is in between–i.e., before smartphones.

That would mean The Matrix was right, and the best time to live was the late '90s. 

Yes, the late 90s was the sweet spot for the Internet and technology. 

[hotdogPi]

Could this forum even have existed in the 1990s? I understand that 2009 (the actual year this forum was created) was a late start, but the 1990s seems early.

[abefroman329]

Yeah, I've kinda been thinking about it a lot now that I have a four-year-old son and there are so, so many daily interactions he has with adults that are completely different from the ones I remember as a child.

I hope that kid beat the shit out of his father once he got old enough

I'd settle for the father dying alone in a shitty nursing home, personally.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Could this forum even have existed in the 1990s? I understand that 2009 (the actual year this forum was created) was a late start, but the 1990s seems early.

The forum could have existed in the mid-1990s (many did). Although it wouldn't have the capabilities that this forum does now. I'll leave it to the more techie types to explain how.

[LilianaUwU]

I want to scream "OK boomer" at whoever wrote this article.

[Ted$8roadFan]

I'm a middle Gen-Xer who is old enough to remember life before the internet, which will soon be 30 years old. I can sympathize with those who are nostalgic for a simpler time (and many are these days). But the real way to look at the past as well to the present with regards to how much our lives have changed is to see the technological revolution as a series of trade offs. The ease with which technology has made many things easier (i.e. buying anything at anytime) has made other things worse (empty storefronts). Our social network friends probably outnumber our real friends by increasing multiples. The same could be said for any other aspect of life today. It all depends on perspective.

[gonealookin]

As a Boomer, I was very glad that ATMs were invented just about the time I was in college, so the only time I had to stand in a bank line routinely was when I was a child and Mom would take me into the bank so she could write her check to Cash and get her $25.

As far as information technology, I do sort of miss dead tree newspapers, not for the ink-smudged fingers but for the fact that I would read some stories that didn't directly affect me or that on the surface I wouldn't have any interest in.  Now when I read news on the Internet I have to actively click on the link to a specific article, so I'm not gaining any of that other information by that process of osmosis.  More information available but less well informed, perhaps.