Alex Buscemi
Boomers love reminiscing about the “good old days,” but even they can admit society’s come a long way.
Sure, they talk about simpler times, but a lot of them are impressed with how much progress we’ve made.
Things like technology, medicine, and inclusivity are huge improvements. From smartphones to streaming, they can’t deny how convenient life has become.
Plus, mental health awareness, diversity, and gender equality have made the world more open-minded.
Even if they sometimes miss the past, a lot of boomers will admit it’s pretty cool to see how society’s evolved for the better in so many ways.
On the subreddit r/AskOldPeople, Reddit user u/GOMD777 asked older generations which things have improved since they were young — here are the top responses.
1.
Reliability of almost every car component. And then the reliability of the entire car improved astronomically. I’m 61.
Agree. I saw a post where someone was complaining about engine repair on a car with “only 150k miles” on it. Back in the day cars barely made it to 100k. Dad would trade cars at 75k miles.
2.
Long-distance phone calls were so expensive, and now, with wifi, we can video chat around the world for free.
I remember you didn’t even need to call that far away to get hit with long-distance charges. People waited until evening time to call family members the next county over to avoid outrageous fees.
3.
The availability of fresh fruit and vegetables. I’m 74, and worked in the grocery business starting at age 13. In my youth, there were only a few months of the year when fresh fruits and vegetables were both available and affordable. I can remember working in the store and by October if we could get lettuce at all it came in half spoiled and I’d have to go through a crate of the stuff ripping or cutting off all the spoiled areas to get an end product that was only half or a third of the original head. I can remember marking down fresh green beans by a LOT, because the customer would have to go through pounds of the stuff to get enough for dinner for Then there was corn on the cob, having to strip off the shucks, cutting off the bad parts, then putting the remainder out on deep discount. Come Thanksgiving each year, we’d get a shipment from somewhere, probably California or similar, of actual fresh apples and oranges in prime condition. But they’d be so expensive that only people making more money than most could afford to buy the darn things. They’d go for as much as $1 apiece, which adjusted for inflation would be about $13 now.
4.
Information about sex is much more available than it used to be. I’m not talking about porn and internet chatter, but solid information from reputable sources.
When I was in school in the ’50s, the idea that schools would offer sex education was unacceptable to almost every parent, left or right. It wasn’t mentioned. Teen pregnancy rates were much higher than they are now.
5.
When I was little, nobody said the ‘c’ word, because it was a death sentence. When I was a young mother, getting it a second time meant you lost the battle. Now I’m in my 60s and a quarter of my friends are survivors. I know people who had stage 4 (metastasized cancer) 10 years ago and no trace now. I know people living with stage 4 cancer in them for years.
6.
I’m deaf and hard-of-hearing. We didn’t get closed captions on our TV t’il the mid-90s. Before that, you needed to buy a separate thing to attach to your TV. And now, every TV has them. Every streaming service. The only time closed captions aren’t on in our living room is when my husband is watching sports. Because I don’t watch them and the live captions are disruptive to him.
7.
I don’t know if women realize how much better things have gotten in the workplace. I was in the military 1993-99, and what would be causing harassment lawsuits today was just part of the job. Also, just part of the job was the idea that as a woman in a male-dominated field, not only did you have to be better than most at your job, you also didn’t complain.
8.
I worked in a grocery store back in the day. One of the closing jobs was emptying the ashtrays at the end of each aisle.
By everywhere, I mean everywhere. Your house, your friend’s house, the doctor’s office, school, everywhere.
9.
Having access to your money before there was online banking, ATMs, and apps such as Paypal and Venmo. Before the 80s, you had to get to the bank by a certain time to make a withdrawal or you were screwed. I got paid on Fridays and had to rush to the bank and wait in line to cash my check. I think they were open a little late on Fridays and Wednesdays. Saturdays they closed at noon and Sundays they were just closed. It was a real pain in the ass. One time the company I worked for was late giving us our checks and I didn’t make it to the bank on time, so I didn’t have much food in the house that weekend. BTW, they were paper checks. There was no direct deposit!
10.
You have no idea what a breakthrough microwave ovens were. Frozen meals (what we used to call TV Dinners) could take up to 40 minutes to thaw, heat up in the oven, then cool down enough to eat. To prepare the most convenient form of popcorn there was, ‘Jiffy Pop,’ you had to stand at a stove and continuously shake it over one of the burners for about ten minutes. Heating up leftovers was a production; leftover pizza was generally eaten cold.
11.
Crime rates are waaaaay down.
God yes. The 70s, 80s, and 90s were awful.
12.
Definitely people’s feelings towards being gay. I remember how taboo it was in the 90s. Now I easily tell people I’m a lesbian and it barely moves any kind of needle. Other than some small weird enclaves, it’s been largely normalized.
13.
Air pollution in cities. It’s still bad but you can’t imagine how bad it was in the ’60s and ’70s.
14.
As hard as we fight to reduce it today, racism is far less of problem than it ever was 50 years ago or even 30. The racists are louder than they used to be but that’s because they’re being squeezed harder. They march in the streets and say, you will not replace us, but we are doing it slowly and steadily.
15.
In the 70s and 80s you had to tear out the order form in the back of the catalogue, fill it out with your order, include a check (credit cards were rarer, and women weren’t allowed to have one in their name for a long time), stick it in an envelope, get a stamp, drop it off in a mailbox, wait for them to get it, fill it and send it to you…. and you had no clue if they received the order, when it would arrive. It could take up to a month to get your order, so people also didn’t buy things on a whim.
16.
Mental health and talking about our mental struggles, depression, anxiety, etc. That wasn’t a thing when I was younger.
I am 60 now. I really think it all began with Oprah. She sort of opened the door by having guests on her show address these issues.
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