https://waitbutwhy.com/2020/01/its-2...he-future.html
Anyone feeling old yet? If not, try changing your perspective a bit.
"When World War 2 started, the Civil War felt as far away to Americans as WW2 feels to us now."
"The Wonder Years aired from 1988 and 1993 and depicted the years between 1968 and 1973. When I watched the show, it felt like it was set in a time long ago. If a new Wonder Years premiered today, it would cover the years between 2000 and 2005."
"Also, remember when Jurassic Park, The Lion King, and Forrest Gump came out in theaters? Closer to the moon landing than today."
Or how about this one:
"As for you, if you’re 60 or older, you were born closer to the 1800s than today. Today’s 35-year-olds were born closer to the 1940s than to today."
Sorry to rain on what may otherwise have been an ordinary happy day. Now drink a beer and tell the kids to get off your lawn, you've earned it
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge" -Stephen Hawking
I think about this sometimes in terms of music. When I try to get my kids to listen to Joshua tree or achtung baby, it’s like my parents playing me music from the 50s, which i would have had no patience for.
On the other hand...
Not everything old is new again, but some things are. I have two new bouncing baby knees that are less than six months old.
Look at the before and after pics. Tell me the one on the right doesn’t look fresh and new.
2472F965-EC98-47D7-BA45-0B91E82215D3.jpg
Now I can repurpose my cane for dramatic effect only, to shake at those youngsters on my lawn.
I can tell you that what passes as "old" changes with time, both with individuals and with society at large.
What age do you now consider to be old?
I saw one survey which claimed people aged 30-49 think 69 is old; 50-64 year olds think 72 is old; and people over 65 think 74 is old.
As for me, I felt young this morning, then I walked five miles with the dog thru about six inches of snow, then came home and shoveled snow for 45 minutes, and now I feel old. Hope to feel young again tomorrow morning.
My mom has been alive for 41% of the time that the US has been a country. A bit tough for me to get my head around that one.
I'm nearly 56 and I am so glad I am not younger. I am happy I got to grow up watching the moon landings, watching TV go from black and white to color to UHD, playing outside from dawn to dusk without interference from grownups, riding bikes without helmets, laying across, the back seat shelf on road trips, going to the outer banks before the OBXers came and ruined it, living life without computers or cell phones, and so much more. People who did not get to experience that live a pithy existence in my view. Everyday life now seems like LA. Fake, plastic, and processed. Getting out into nature is the only escape from the idiocracy and that is getting harder to find. I read the opening post and nothing in it struck me as surprising. My father remembers parades with old Civil War vets in them. No matter how strange things get I will have lived a large part of my life in a simpler era, and that gives me solace - and I'm not even that old!