I think the difference is between how much things were chamging back then. The 50s were very different to the 80s. Technology changed completely and also the 80s were post-vietnam which caused huge changes in the culture. As for the 90s its all about digital technology and computers aaand so is today? Theres a reason for(at least for people arround me cause im gen z 💀) our grandparents being ‘technology shocked’ so much while our parents grew up sorta with the same stuff as us. Yes the access was different but my mom used to play pirated videogames on a computer at the library. That definitely wasnt a thing in the 50s. Thats my perspective at least. Also me being eastern european may influence this cause for us time and progression was locked for so long and the 80s freed all of it up.
The omnipresence of the internet and its perversion into a tool of the surveillance state would be the most shocking thing to a lot of people, I think. If you told an adult from the early 90s that all of their communications would go through one device that you kept in your pocket and that large corporations and governments were collecting data from it 24/7, they’d shit a brick.
I think a teenager like Marty from today would have a hard time navigating communication in the 90s as well. Like you had to get your hands on the Yellow Pages and use a pay phone or a land line somewhere. People weren’t walking around with cell phones that you could just borrow, and you couldn’t just look someone up with their name on social media and send them a DM. That’s something that I think is much more different 1996 to 2026 than 1955 to 1985.
Today, the Internet is something which just exists and is deeply (forcefully) entrenched in our everyday lives. A teenager from today would have their mind blown that in 1995 you had to hook your computer up to the phone jack to access the Internet and it’d be difficult to do much without Google as the default search.
1995-2005 was all about Chatrooms (AOL, IRC, AIM) and early social media. 2015-2026 is all about Chatrooms and social media being taken over by corporate interests, state actors, and political public opinion manipulation all posing as the AOL, IRC, AIM era.
I think the difference is between how much things were chamging back then. The 50s were very different to the 80s. Technology changed completely and also the 80s were post-vietnam which caused huge changes in the culture. As for the 90s its all about digital technology and computers aaand so is today? Theres a reason for(at least for people arround me cause im gen z 💀) our grandparents being ‘technology shocked’ so much while our parents grew up sorta with the same stuff as us. Yes the access was different but my mom used to play pirated videogames on a computer at the library. That definitely wasnt a thing in the 50s. Thats my perspective at least. Also me being eastern european may influence this cause for us time and progression was locked for so long and the 80s freed all of it up.
The omnipresence of the internet and its perversion into a tool of the surveillance state would be the most shocking thing to a lot of people, I think. If you told an adult from the early 90s that all of their communications would go through one device that you kept in your pocket and that large corporations and governments were collecting data from it 24/7, they’d shit a brick.
I think a teenager like Marty from today would have a hard time navigating communication in the 90s as well. Like you had to get your hands on the Yellow Pages and use a pay phone or a land line somewhere. People weren’t walking around with cell phones that you could just borrow, and you couldn’t just look someone up with their name on social media and send them a DM. That’s something that I think is much more different 1996 to 2026 than 1955 to 1985.
Today, the Internet is something which just exists and is deeply (forcefully) entrenched in our everyday lives. A teenager from today would have their mind blown that in 1995 you had to hook your computer up to the phone jack to access the Internet and it’d be difficult to do much without Google as the default search.
1995-2005 was all about Chatrooms (AOL, IRC, AIM) and early social media. 2015-2026 is all about Chatrooms and social media being taken over by corporate interests, state actors, and political public opinion manipulation all posing as the AOL, IRC, AIM era.
In 1998, my father sent me to school with a pager you could leave voice messages on. My friends were amazed how advanced it was.