Modern Life is Rubbish?

There's a phrase I hear more and more these days, an old cliché normally trotted out by someone in the autumn of their years. The phrase of course is “We never had that in my day”. This can be used for almost anything, from people’s manners to the much maligned youth of today.

Now at the age of 30, I’m neither young nor old and live in a limbo like status somewhere between being too old for Radio 1, but too young to become a fully paid up member of the Radio 2 listenership. So I’ll take you back, like a Pie Loving Barrovian Doctor Who, to a simpler time. That time is of course “my day” (that being my Secondary School days 1992-1997)

In my day” the internet was a bit like early TV, in that it wasn’t that widespread and tended to be something only people with parents who are early technology adopters had at home. It was also very slow, with a connection speed somewhere between ‘it’s not working’ and ‘this is taking forever’.

If I wanted to make a phone call first I had to recall the number from memory or locate a phone book, and then locate 10p to use something that the youth of today would feel was archaic, that being the lesser spotted phone box. Most people over a certain age will remember the dreaded “pips” and trying to relay whatever message you needed to relay before your 10p ran out, but inevitably failing to finalise your plans for Friday evening. You could of course use the house phone for this, but this would risk your plans being overheard by a parent or sibling, and this level of privacy simply wouldn’t be good enough for any teenager.

If I wanted to listen to some of Britpop’s finest whilst out and about, I had two options. Either make a mix tape (when mix tapes were actual tapes), selecting only the finest cuts of the latest releases the popscene had to offer to be included, and trying to get the timing right so you neither had loads of silence at the end of one side or even worse cut a song off in it’s prime. The other alternative was a CD walkman, but this meant either carting half a branch of Andy’s Records round with you in a bag the size of a cow, or carefully selecting a single album to listen to all day.

Then there's knowledge. Back then, knowledge either came from a book, which meant having to wade through various volumes to find what you are actually after, or referring to a copy of Microsoft Encarta. This was a CD based encyclopedia, which was great for school work but if you wanted to know exactly how many goals Eric Cantona had scored during 1993/1994 season*, or what position the Blur album that gives this blog it’s headline peaked at* it was utterly useless.

Flash forward back to 2012. I don’t have to choose between Radio 1 and 2, as I can fit enough music to last me several weeks onto something the size of a matchbox. Technology also allows me to plug this into my car, rendering Steve Wright and Chris Moyles completely redundant.

Anything I want to know is at my fingertips. My mobile phone can makes calls, text people, and allows me fast access to Internet, Facebook and Twitter, so I can happily plan my evenings. I don’t even need to put 10p in it first.

At home I have a Laptop which wirelessly connects to the internet, from which I can get the answer to almost any question instantaneously, and if I miss an episode of my favourite TV show I can watch it online, whilst doing my shopping and booking the car in for a service.

Some might say that modern life is rubbish but it isn't - it’s marvelous.
 

*Answers – 25 and 15. Thanks Wikipedia