If you could hearken back to a simpler time (technology wise)?

[steve-in-kville]

I am aware of the average ages are here on MN, but I think I will see some surprising results on this poll. We live with mini-computers in our pockets, which is real handy, but is it?

This subject came up in our home recently in regards to our school children having access to iPads and the like. My wife pined for the days before computers were in most homes and your home phone hung on the wall of the dinning room or kitchen.

Vote for two, discuss as needed.

(I enabled the change vote feature this time!)

[Josh]

I am aware of the average ages are here on MN, but I think I will see some surprising results on this poll. We live with mini-computers in our pockets, which is real handy, but is it?

This subject came up in our home recently in regards to our school children having access to iPads and the like. My wife pined for the days before computers were in most homes and your home phone hung on the wall of the dinning room or kitchen.

Vote for two, discuss as needed.

(I enabled the change vote feature this time!)

Good poll, but doesn't go back far enough. I consider one of the most insidious technology advances to be the automobile.

[temporal1]

before cheap/free birth control pills, rampant/promoted abortion.

[steve-in-kville]

I should clarify... any two decades you've lived through. The option of "being born at the wrong time" crossed my mind. Perhaps in another thread?

[Josh]

before cheap/free birth control pills, rampant/promoted abortion.

Would be before 1930 (the watershed moment is usually acknowledge to be 1930, when the Anglicans/Episcopalians started tolerating b/c after condemning it in 1908 and 1920, with complete acceptance in 1958).

A bigger question, much related to steve's poll, is why something that is very clearly right or wrong in 1908 can become wrong or right by 1958.

[Josh]

I should clarify... any two decades you've lived through. The option of "being born at the wrong time" crossed my mind. Perhaps in another thread?

In that case, back to the 80s/90s. Of course, the major bummer in the 80s was Communism and the threat of nuclear war, but since it never happened, I could just go back and tell my young self "don't worry about it".

[Szdfan]

I think it would be interesting to go back to the time of my childhood with the knowledge and experiences of an adult to see how I would perceive those times differently now.

[temporal1]

before cheap/free birth control pills, rampant/promoted abortion.

Would be before 1930 (the watershed moment is usually acknowledge to be 1930, when the Anglicans/Episcopalians started tolerating b/c after condemning it in 1908 and 1920, with complete acceptance in 1958).

A bigger question, much related to steve's poll, is why something that is very clearly right or wrong in 1908 can become wrong or right by 1958.

Without checking, i expect you are correct. (mostly before my time.)

In my life experience: i was born into a world when bc pills+abortion were unknown/taboo. Divorce was uncommon; fornication and adultery were matters of shame and taboo. In a not small public high school, i heard rumors of 2 girls getting pregnant, one was from a wealthy family, the other in poverty, both removed from school. Rumors. Health ed was about using deodorants. No gov sex ed.
We figured it out. There is nothing wrong with fear+mystery. Longing. It’s actually the source of a lot of great literature.

Close to graduation, my quiet mother spoke to me about the advent of bc pills - for married couples. New in our world!
Married women were to go to their doctors to get a prescription, prescriptions were paid out of pocket, ordinary people did not have health insurance, gov programs, et al.

Looking back, i honestly believe, had the early public known what would soon result from this [“help” for MARRIED couples to “plan” their families] - i believe the early public would have demanded the things be altogether banned. immediately.

The early public had ZERO idea that these pills (and for-profit abortions) would become available to ALL, including not married, teens and children; that ALL of it would be funded+promoted with taxpayer dollars. That divorce and adultery and fornication and sodomy would become the pride of the country. ETC.

Our lives “before” were not easy or glorious. The price of the trade-offs are wretched.

Changing “that 1 thing” might make the greatest overall impact, regardless of horses/cars, radios/TVs, even the internet.

Because it would return VERY HIGH VALUE to women+children, marriage+families.
Value has been seriously eroded, for what? Carnal sin.

[Neto]

I was born in 55, but chose the 60's, partly because I barely remember the 50's, just a bit from 1959, when I was 4 years old.).

Actually, however, I would choose 'OTHER' if it were an option. That's what I plan to do as much as possible as soon as I can sell my technology business - choose the other path. I know that I'll still have to have a cell phone (because my wife will insist), but I would choose to "Just Say No" to a lot of this modern stuff. I'll be selective, keeping my computer (but sticking with Win 7 if at all possible), and my daily driver will be something from at least as far back as the very early 60's. (1962 at the latest. First I need to finish rebuilding the 46 Plymouth I already have. Maybe just stick with that. But that was built before I was born.) Modern appliances don't last. (I have one of those old toasters like from when I was growing up, the type with flip lids on the side. You could toast two pieces of bread at a time, but just one side. Then you pull the lid down, and the bread slid down and then you could toast the other side. I always loved the way the butter soaked into those grooves created by the wire supports.) We already converted this house to almost all wood floors, tearing out all of the carpet. (Only the stairways & areas on cement have carpet. Carpet is nasty. Oh, the downstairs bathroom and utility are cement, but have vinyl flooring currently.) Doing the same now on my wife's dad's house, where we plan to move. We MAY put carpet back in the master bedroom, but I vote no. We'll see.

[Ken]

I should clarify... any two decades you've lived through. The option of "being born at the wrong time" crossed my mind. Perhaps in another thread?

I was going to say, how about back to the Roman Empire and time of Christ? That would be interesting.