I loathe today's world

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I turned 28 and since I was born, all areas of society has decayed or turned to crap. I don't mean always, but a lot of things have been moving in that direction lately and I don't think it will end. This is probably one of the reasons I lean toward conservatism. I really wanted to be at least an older teen during the early 90s at the point I was just born instead. I hope I can go back to this world in later half of the 20th century when I die. I hate having missed out on it in the first place too.

While I loved being a kid in the 90s, I still wish I grew up in the 50s and was a young adult in the 60s and 70s. Towns were smaller back then, everybody knew each other, people were more friendly, kids were more respectful of their elders, there weren't so much of all this political correctness crap, technology was a luxury instead of a necessity, there was less traffic congestion everywhere, there wasn't so much drug-related crime, and there wasn't as much greed and competition like there is today. Yes they had tough times, more people were poor, etc, but they still got on with it, were happy with what they had, and looked out for each other.

These days kids don't know they're born and are wrapped in cotton wool, and spanking has become frowned upon. People are easily offended now, everything's 'racist' or 'abuse', and the internet is taking over everything and destroying businesses.

Personally, I think the past had both good sides and bad sides compared to present day. If we go back 40-60 years, well, becoming succesfull financially was definitely easier around here. Property prices were lot lower than today when compared to salaries, not to mention way more people had salaries in the first place. There was enough work for everybody, even for the not so educated ones as long as they could do physical labor. I suppose you could also count it as a plus that, in general, people knew less about the world, so they didn't aim for more and more the same way 'cause they didn't know what they were missing out on. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.
On the bright side though, I'm glad that I wasn't born back then. While there's still a lot of work to be done, women's rights are way better today than 50 years ago, as are the rights of the disabled.

I remember thinking how great it was that things like Facebook were becoming popular because people would have to put their real identities/names out there with their opinions, making for intelligent conversations. In reality, things have gone the exact opposite: I swear the smartphone generation has literally signed over their critical thinking skills to Google and it is like Junior High all over again. I also thought that being autistic would be a goldmine in this 'connected' generation but people are phonier than ever and even more intolerant of my differences.

That's not to say the 80s were all sunshine and roses. Not only were buildings hideously ugly and sickness was rampant in them but many of my childhood memories involve either coughing uncontrollably, my clothes having an unbearable stink and having trouble seeing through the haze because people literally smoked everywhere, including banks and government offices. Even young adults today find it hard to grasp that as late as 2000, you could not only smoke in restaurants (and literally every single restaurant except Subway and one small cafe downtown allowed it) but also in the local athletic facility/sports stadium! The irony is astounding now but back then it was considered normal to smoke there and rude to 'offend' smokers by asking them to step outside.

Overall though I miss the fact I don't have many "places" to go. The local game store just closed down and all the video stores are long gone: my son will never know the thrill of going to the video store and seeing fellow movie/game enthusiasts in person.

I only encountered "video stores" in my adulthood. They didn't exist until I was already in my 20s.

I went straight from reliance on landline and public phones to cell phones. Never had a beeper.

When I was a kid, I only played pinball and skeeball in arcades. Video games didn't start appearing in arcades until 1978, when I was 17.

Saying this.....I like the convenience of being able to get money from an ATM when I'm broke----instead of having to wait until Monday to get money if I was broke during the weekend. Very few banks had ATM's until the 1980s. And if you lost your "passbook," you were sort of dead in the water.

I like being able to shop on Amazon, rather than having to go to a mall store. And I like the quick delivery aspect of Amazon. I like being able to pay bills online, too.

Can't you just move away from it all and bury your head in the sand? That's what I would do if I could.

I actually find "Millennials" very similar to "Boomers" or "Generation X-ers" at the same ages.

College kids today are very similar to college kid in the 1980s.

Yeah well, the young (teens to early thirties) always get dissed regardless of the generation. The fact that (currently) young people are the root of all evil will never change.

“Back in my day kids listened!” No, they didn’t. LOL If they did, it’s because they were punished in ways that would summon child services within minutes today.

There is some evidence to suggest that kids are better these days. Both teen pregnancy and drug use are down. In my grandmother’s era, it was perfectly normal for a pregnant student to get married and drop out of school. That’s what my grandmother did, actually...

Kids certainly didn't listen during the 60's and 70's.

Punishments were more severe, in general, than what what occurs today. Spanking was considered a normal part of raising a kid back then.

They were much more rebellious than today's kids.

I grant that the internet destroying business in itself is debatable, but I agree that it is destroying slowly the social interaction aspect of it.

That last thought scares me a little too.

I like online shopping. There’s so much more variety, and I can find whatever book or movie that I want.

My son likes it because he can get whatever costume he wants for Halloween, no matter how unusual as well as books and toys centered around his special interest.

I also like being able to see product reviews before buying things like toys and small kitchen appliances. It’s handy and convenient.

I also like that there’s little social interaction.

I hear this one all the time and while I complain about the laziness and immaturity of today's young adults (30 going on 15, mostly the result of helicopter parents) I wonder what planet they are from. Kids were FAR more out of control back in the 90s compared to today: for example, gangs of kids used to cause trouble at the local mall all the time to the point they had security posted near certain doors. Today, you might see an occasional group of teenagers who are usually too busy on their phones to even notice each other. Heck I can remember in my neighborhood you would see gangs of 20-30 kids just hanging out in the middle of the street at 2am in the Summer, some as young as 11/12. You would NEVER see that today.

On the subject of malls, I do miss when they were actually fun to visit. No wonder Amazon is taking over the world: malls today are B-O-R-I-N-G places full of overpriced products for rich, phony people. I could deal with the cigarette smoke to go somewhere actually fun to browse rather than the same boring stores trying to sell me the same "sale" items with the same useless extended warranties. What's the point when online is so much easier? I also don't miss the fact that malls back in the 90s were only open 3 nights a week (Wed-Fri) and closed Sunday.

One positive thing I will say related to my username is that going to hockey games, not only is there a lot less violence on the ice but the crowd is generally far better behaved than they were 20-25 years ago. Back then, people threw garbage on the ice regularly and drunk idiots were out of control but today you never see those issues and they are quick to deal with the rare person who falls out of line: I certainly don't miss that crap. Of course I should mention the cloud of cigarette smoke so thick you couldn't see the other end of the concourse!

Getting back to the original topic, the #1 thing that annoys me the most is that not only does nearly everyone in public stay glued to their phone but they use that as a communication device even when I am literally in the same room. Very few things in life annoy me more than that.

On the subject of hockey games, one think I dislike about going to sporting events in general nowadays is how pervasive the advertising is compared to growing up in the late 90's

It's a bore realizing that there isn't any way we'll be able to actually go back and interact and live in the past times.