I always hear people say something along the lines of “I wish I was born in the 19xx, life would have been so much better”. There is a perception that the past is this mystical time of living that we aren’t experiencing now. While there are many changes and in some cases things might have been better for you personally, every generation had its fair share of problems for the average everyday person. Today might be different but I wouldn’t say day to day live is more complex. We might have more advanced gadgets, but the core problems of what make human beings, human, still exist.
There is a word called Anemoia, which is nostalgia for a time that you have never known. There is a fantastic video made by Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows that talks about this phenomenon. I have to say that I definitely have this feeling commonly and find myself daydreaming what it would be like to live in the 80s or 90s. Not because I think life would be simpler, but because those times seemed so hopeful on the outside. Like I said before though, I know that there was the same problems we have today, if not worse, but we only hear about the good parts of the decade.
I think TV shows and other forms of media from the times glorify a nice cozy and simple existence even though it is far from reality. People fall into the trap while watching shows like “Leave it to Beaver”, and believe that was an authentic representation of what the 50s was like. Media plays the primary role in creating Anemoia for many people who were born much later. Even I admit that I sometimes will flip through the channels and watch something like “Saved By the Bell” and wish that was my highschool experience.
I think the desire for living in another generation is subconsciously a desire for happiness that you haven’t found in this world. Rather than trying to find happiness here and in our current reality, many search in the past as if it would be easier to obtain. However this search will end up only disappointing. You can never go back and the more you want to , youll just become depressed. You have to do the best with what you have here and now and stop dreaming about the past. Everyone and a while it is okay to indulge in a fantasy, but every moment is not healthy.
Ive actually had feelings of Anemoia long before I knew the term for it and Im sure many of you have as well. What do you think about this phenomenon and have you ever experienced it? If we were to indulge in this fantasy, if you could live at any point in time, what would you chose and why? I love to hear from everyone and I always read every response even if I don’t respond. Look forward to hearing what generation most people choose. Im sure many of you have lived through the 80s and 90s, but even if you want to relive them again, I would understand.
What you're feeling my be more simple than at first glance. I did live in the 80's and 90's and I can tell you the world has changed a lot, and much of it not for the better. You may recognize that somehow and that might be where at least some of it comes from.
Do you know what it was like to go to the airport just minutes before your flight took off and not be gropped by the TSA? I do and it was a better time. That's just one example off the top of my head.
I'm not trying to say what you said is not what's going on, but thought I'd add this thought to it to legitimize your feelings.
I was going to say the same thing. The censorship and generally acceptable repression (for example, the financial repression of below-inflation interest rates for savers) simply did not exist. The TSA is an amazing example.
Things have been getting worse, but the tide may be turning. I think the internet might have turned the tide for now. It's an ebb and flow.
I think the desire for living in another generation is subconsciously a desire for happiness that you haven’t found in this world
This is so true. It is so easy to find happiness in any time outside of the present.
Great article and an interesting read. You have my follow.
I like being a millenial. I always listen and get awestruck of my parent's stories about their time where everyone were in bikes, writing mail, and people knowing each other personally. Those times are grand but sooner or later we have to adapt to the innovative ideas we are creating. I thank my parents for the lessons they provided me during their time, thats what made optimistic to the days ahead
Because every generation is full of toxic people who form the image of that generation. I hate my generation. I hate millennials, gen X, Y, Z. You name it I hate the name the worst give the rest.
Of course the world has changed. So have people. The scum has stayed the same.
I am thankful that I was even born, never mind when. So many things could have happened to me. I could have been lost through miscarriage or death at birth and my parents could not even have conceived me. I got one chance to enter this world and that one chance was enough. That's a lot to be thankful for!! If it wasn't for that one chance I wouldn't be on Steemit.
show some gratitude that you are alive :)
I am happy to be alive in today's era, the Internet changed my life and helped me gain knowledge that I wouldn't have had access to otherwise. Just look at Steemit, nobody would have dreamt of such a thing 20 years ago!
....and people always criticize the youner generation too. Every generation always forgets that it shaped the next one. Instead of criticism, I always look for the good in other generations - we need the younger generation to keep pushing us forward and the older generation to show us where they went wrong. We're only human.
we try and find an excuse on the mistakes the younger people make by saying things like "oh this generation is blah blah blah" when.. its the older generation that taught the younger... Time basically repeats it's self.. the current living generation will always look down upon the younger... Just how it is...
Interesting post. I'm a Gen Xer and I love it. Going to uni in the 90s was the best. We are all thankful there's very little photographic evidence of what happened back then.
The days we took selfies with a Polaroid LOL.
Nice post. When I first heard about HIV/AIDs...in the 90s...I was so worried and wishes why my generation...wished I was born much earlier when such fears were not. You not alone. Tks for bringing to my knowlwgde the term Anemoia...
Thats curious, I never felt that way. I see humanity progressing all the time, and even though Im getting older now (mid forties) I cant wait to see what is next.
I honestly think right now is the time to be alive! Look at what we are acheiving as a human race, we have ways to harvest clean renewable energy, we are beginning to understand our own biology and all other biology at a level where we can start curing terrible diseases. We are becoming aware of the true majesty and complexity of the universe, and our tiny but valuable place in it.
Im so grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of the crypto-currency revolution, I have been mining for over 2 years now, and its given me the chance (just a chance mind you), to start thinking I may not need a 'real job' ever again. I have started learning computer programming and have built a completely unique proof of concept tool; I mean how often do you get to be on the front of the wave, and just be an ordinary person.
So if I look back to my youth and pull a reference from when music was better (ironic humor intended), I think we can use the great band Talk Talk's Lifes What You Make It as our mantra!
Hey now, I love 90's music 😂😂😂
I like my generation growing up in the late 70's and 80's. I am glad I grew up in the time period that I did. Good and interesting article
I think, people always expect for more in life.
People fall into the trap while watching shows like “Leave it to Beaver”, and believe that was an authentic representation of what the 50s was like.
well yeah...it kinda was.
I grew up in the fifties.
that show was pretty much spot on.
Thank you for saying that. I didn't, but did see the 60's as a small child and I was thinking Leave it to Beaver was pretty close.
TV changed in the seventies. It became dark...anti-hero...anti-american. That's when I quit watching it.
Sounds like your socioeconomic group must have been pretty middle class. And yes, to someone in particular groups which I believe from your brief statement, I can surmise you belong to, I would say "Leave it to Beaver " was "spot on". Truth is life was more like "Knock on Any Door". And for good measure you might want to ask Viola Liuzzo and Kitty Genovese what they thought of the "good old days" in the early 60's before the "bad old days" later 60's when everything that the "good old days" stood for changed. I kinda remember when you wanted something done and if you had the money or close to someone it could be done, and the local government was willing to go along. The system is in place and it doesn't change read not so ancient history and you'll find that "when is the U.S. do as the Americans do", or was that Rome?
we were pretty poor.
Seven of us in the family
Dad bought a house for
$5,000. when I was little
he took out a 30yr VA loan on it.
then he worked ten hour days
six days a week to pay the mortgage
LIved in in for Fifty years.
until mom died..then he sold it.
You haven't answered my statement concerning your socioeconomic group, put plainly, what type of work did your father do? Joe Kennedy had NINE children worked a lot of hours etc.
what pare of POOR do you not understand?
dad was a parts manager at a small automobile dealership...in a small town.
What, I love my Generation.....Generation X rules!
Not me, I love my generation so much that ppl say that I'm stuck in the past lol I know what you mean though I hear ppl say that all the time.
i wouldn't rather be alive at any other point in history TBH
I am a Baby Boomer and a lot of people talk about the good old days, but in my opinion, life is much better now than it was before. I can write to a total stranger and his followers, who in fact is not such strangers to me anymore, reading your ideas and others', brings us so much closer together.
We never imagined this to be possible in "the good old days".
Times were very hard and life was definitely not as easy as it is now. Now you can virtually go anywhere in the world and the wonderful thing is, people (normal ones!) are all the same loving, interesting people as in my country. We all have the same needs, feelings and emotions - we are all unique.
The only thing I really miss for our children, is the freedom that we had. We could play outside in the veld or have picnics in the mountains without fear of being killed or even raped. Now the children gets locked up in their homes.
The Millennials are lots of fun, you can have interesting conversations with them, they are always willing to help with modern technology and their general knowledge is amazing. They were the ones who taught me about internet and what an amazing instrument a computer is. My adopted son is a millennial baby and he is absolutely normal and very up to date with what is going on in the world, if you want to know something they 'google' it, now I do my google myself, thanks to the millennials!
Times are changing, but not people. The only thing I don't like about the millennials is their music - there are some tunes that you can actually whistle when listening to it! As long as they are enjoying it, I'm happy, tastes differ, thanks goodness for that.
As a gen Xer I love the time that I grew up and I love life now, but I always thought it would be cool to go back to a different generation and experience what life was like, like the 50's.
I agree with you completely that people think living in some past generation would somehow give them relief from the present age. Well let me say that just because you've read a book or two about life in a different time period, don't think life or people were any better. I've personally lived in two centuries and two millennia and can tell you life and people in the 50's was not "Happy Days" and "Beaver Cleaver". The 60's weren't any better or worse. So were the 70's, 80's or 90's. Cops took bribes, politicians lined their pockets, big corporations ran the government who in tern governed us. And US, well we just kept our head down trying not to "rock the boat" and make a few shekels for ourselves. What else can the little guy do? When do read books about the past, I read books written in the particular century the were written in especially diaries and what I've found is that nothing changes. Read Flavius Josephus war, history and people don't change just the electronics.
An older co-worker and I were talking about nostalgia, and I asked if he thought things were better "back in the day". He said hell no! It was awful. There was no internet! LoL While I do admire some other time periods, particularly the 60's for their musical contributions. I still have no desire to go back in time and live there.
1970 was pretty the perfect year to be born. I was able to experience America's greatest decade (1980's) in the prime of my life. Those days ain't coming back sadly.