3 ms·

"I remember 1995 pretty well; I think 2016 has a lot more in common with it than 1995 has in common with 1974. Honestly, I don't think life has changed all that

by rsync 10y ago

"I remember 1995 pretty well; I think 2016 has a lot more in common with it than 1995 has in common with 1974. Honestly, I don't think life has changed all that much in the last twenty years. Sure, everyone has a smartphone, and back then almost no-one had a _cell_phone, and the Internet is faster, and computers can do more and are more reliable, but things really aren't fundamentally different." I think I would be genuinely surprised and delighted by uber/lyft ... mainly because I was genuinely surprised and delighted by them just a year or so ago. To a lesser degree, VRBO and airbnb. We have a workable, fully electric car that isn't chintzy and dorky. Unlimited calling, without long distance fees. We didn't have that in 1995. ALSO, look at who got disrupted - there are zero record stores, lots of bookstores are gone, video rentals no longer exist. Circuit city is gone, Best Buy is struggling ... But people still play M:TG just like 1995 - who would have guessed!?

dragonwriter 10y ago
> ALSO, look at who got disrupted - there are zero record stores There are fewer record stores, but a lot more than zero. > video rentals no longer exist. Even leaving aside streaming rentals and Netflix's disc business, video rental kiosks are in grocery stores. Dedicated video rental storefronts are a lot more rare than in 1995, but video rental is very much still a thing.
- rsync 10y ago
  "There are fewer record stores, but a lot more than zero." Well yes, of course I realize that there exist stores within which I can buy a CD/record. I mean, there are no more of the Sam Goody / Tower Records / etc. stores that used to be everywhere.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > I mean, there are no more of the Sam Goody / Tower Records / etc. stores that used to be everywhere. There also remain chain entertainment media stores of that type, though those particular chains are now gone (Sam Goody having been purchased by fye, which is one of the surviving chains.)
ghaff 10y ago
I'd probably have to do a really detailed analysis to see which span of years was more different to me as a consumer--though I think the examples you cite are relatively trivial. Uber, electric cars, long distance fees are all pretty trivial in the grand scheme of things. But to consider the difference between 1974 and 1995. Consider that in 1974, there were basically no PCs, calculators were just appearing, no answering machines, no way to record television (or to buy/rent movies), no cable, and no cell phones of course. So no direct use of computers available to the typical person and essentially any exchange of information involved going to a physical place or exchanging information with someone at a specific location verbally. Even thinking about 10 years+ later, I've frequently joked that if I went back in time I'd feel so information starved that I'd consider doing my job impossible.

by rsync 10y ago

dragonwriter 10y ago

> ALSO, look at who got disrupted - there are zero record stores There are fewer record stores, but a lot more than zero. > video rentals no longer exist. Even leaving aside streaming rentals and Netflix's disc business, video rental kiosks are in grocery stores. Dedicated video rental storefronts are a lot more rare than in 1995, but video rental is very much still a thing.

rsync 10y ago
"There are fewer record stores, but a lot more than zero." Well yes, of course I realize that there exist stores within which I can buy a CD/record. I mean, there are no more of the Sam Goody / Tower Records / etc. stores that used to be everywhere.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > I mean, there are no more of the Sam Goody / Tower Records / etc. stores that used to be everywhere. There also remain chain entertainment media stores of that type, though those particular chains are now gone (Sam Goody having been purchased by fye, which is one of the surviving chains.)

ghaff 10y ago

I'd probably have to do a really detailed analysis to see which span of years was more different to me as a consumer--though I think the examples you cite are relatively trivial. Uber, electric cars, long distance fees are all pretty trivial in the grand scheme of things. But to consider the difference between 1974 and 1995. Consider that in 1974, there were basically no PCs, calculators were just appearing, no answering machines, no way to record television (or to buy/rent movies), no cable, and no cell phones of course. So no direct use of computers available to the typical person and essentially any exchange of information involved going to a physical place or exchanging information with someone at a specific location verbally. Even thinking about 10 years+ later, I've frequently joked that if I went back in time I'd feel so information starved that I'd consider doing my job impossible.