I was listening to an interview with the creators of the hit Netflix TV show Stranger Things and something they said has stayed with me ever since. When asked why they set the backdrop as the 1980’s they said it was because it was an era before cell phones. So much of the plot would’ve been impossible if characters in the show could simply call their parents or the police. The show would’ve been impossible in a more modern setting.
I’ve been mulling over the special place in history that the 1980’s seem to have and asked myself what was it that makes it so different? Was it simply just the absence of cell phones? No, it wasn’t just that. The 1980’s seems to be a special time where media content was exploding but cell phones and social media didn’t exist yet
The 1980’s was a sweet spot where we had access to media like never before. In the 1970’s you could never dream about walking down to a Blockbuster video and perusing hundreds…or maybe thousands of movie titles to take home with you. In the 1970’s the thought of rollerskating down the street with your personal Walkman cassette player on your hip pumping Prince’s Purple Rain into your ears via headphones was the stuff of science fiction. In the 1970’s there was no concept of Music Television, or MTV.
I loved the 1980’s. The kids of the 80’s were free in away that today’s Gen Z can only dream of. We were free from the mind shaping influences of Tik Tok or Instagram. We had no idea what the latest dance moves were until they came out on video and never worried that any of our mistakes might “go viral”. If we were at a party on Friday night there were rarely ever cameras around, let alone video recorders. What happened at the party stayed at the party.
If you made a mistake, you just waited until it blew over and everyone forgot about it. I remember various kids having troubles in my high school. Sometimes they would transfer to a different school across town for a fresh start. No one at that school in the same city knew who they were or anything that they had done. That seems almost impossible for kids today. Gossip today travels faster than lightning.
Having lived through the 1980’s I’ll be the first to admit it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows though. Not having access to communication devices like today also allowed some bad stuff to happen. So you had to be smart. Because you knew no one was coming to save you if you got into a bad spot. You couldn’t call mom or dad to advise you on every little decision. But in way, even those circumstances made us stronger and more independent.
It’s hard to believe that the final year of the 1980’s was 35 years ago. But for me, I think about those years all the time. Hearing a song on the radio or seeing one of my old high school friends on Facebook can instantly transport me back to 1986 in my mind. We didn’t have all of today’s technology or social media in the 80’s. But I would never trade growing up then for now. It was the sweet spot of history.
The 1980’s was a sweet spot where we had access to media like never before. In the 1970’s you could never dream about walking down to a Blockbuster video and perusing hundreds…or maybe thousands of movie titles to take home with you. In the 1970’s the thought of rollerskating down the street with your personal Walkman cassette player on your hip pumping Prince’s Purple Rain into your ears via headphones was the stuff of science fiction. In the 1970’s there was no concept of Music Television, or MTV.
I loved the 1980’s. The kids of the 80’s were free in away that today’s Gen Z can only dream of. We were free from the mind shaping influences of Tik Tok or Instagram. We had no idea what the latest dance moves were until they came out on video and never worried that any of our mistakes might “go viral”. If we were at a party on Friday night there were rarely ever cameras around, let alone video recorders. What happened at the party stayed at the party.
If you made a mistake, you just waited until it blew over and everyone forgot about it. I remember various kids having troubles in my high school. Sometimes they would transfer to a different school across town for a fresh start. No one at that school in the same city knew who they were or anything that they had done. That seems almost impossible for kids today. Gossip today travels faster than lightning.
Having lived through the 1980’s I’ll be the first to admit it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows though. Not having access to communication devices like today also allowed some bad stuff to happen. So you had to be smart. Because you knew no one was coming to save you if you got into a bad spot. You couldn’t call mom or dad to advise you on every little decision. But in way, even those circumstances made us stronger and more independent.
It’s hard to believe that the final year of the 1980’s was 35 years ago. But for me, I think about those years all the time. Hearing a song on the radio or seeing one of my old high school friends on Facebook can instantly transport me back to 1986 in my mind. We didn’t have all of today’s technology or social media in the 80’s. But I would never trade growing up then for now. It was the sweet spot of history.
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