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re: Was Day-to-day American life in 1996 closer to 2016 or 1976?
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:06 am to ChunkyLover54
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:06 am to ChunkyLover54
The funny thing is I think the Internet really blew up in like 97 or 98 and cell phones gained prominence around 99, so while 96 may have been very different than 2016 from a tech standpoint, modernization was really only a year or so away.
Also, music now is very similar, all the edm that's popular now got started in the late 90s, rap hasn't changed a whole lot and all that bubblegum pop stuff sound similar to today's pop.
Also, music now is very similar, all the edm that's popular now got started in the late 90s, rap hasn't changed a whole lot and all that bubblegum pop stuff sound similar to today's pop.
0
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:07 am to ChunkyLover54
In 1976:
I had an American car with a big block V8 engine.
I had a landline
I had Pong console (I think I had the Odyssey console by then, as well)
Many of my friends had parents who had never attended college.
Cuisine in the burbs was burgers, diners drive-in's, some greasy pizzas, maybe a meat & 3, or bad chinese. And an extremely rare visit to a steakhouse.
In 1996.
I had a computer.
I had internet access.
I had a playstation.
I had a cell phone.
I had a Japanese Car.
The majority of my friends had completed college.
Classical French restaurats, fin examples of asian and island cuisines were readily available. And lebanese, greek and other Mediterranean foods were all around.
In 2016:
I have German, Japanese, Korean, and American cars.
My family has five laptops, a desktop, three tablets.
My kids have PS4, XBox One, and Wii U consoles.
All five of us have smartphones.
All three of them are in college, as are almost all of their friends.
Within just a few miles, I can enjoy high end cuisine from dozens of cultures
So, yeah, it's more like 2016 and it's not that close.
I had an American car with a big block V8 engine.
I had a landline
I had Pong console (I think I had the Odyssey console by then, as well)
Many of my friends had parents who had never attended college.
Cuisine in the burbs was burgers, diners drive-in's, some greasy pizzas, maybe a meat & 3, or bad chinese. And an extremely rare visit to a steakhouse.
In 1996.
I had a computer.
I had internet access.
I had a playstation.
I had a cell phone.
I had a Japanese Car.
The majority of my friends had completed college.
Classical French restaurats, fin examples of asian and island cuisines were readily available. And lebanese, greek and other Mediterranean foods were all around.
In 2016:
I have German, Japanese, Korean, and American cars.
My family has five laptops, a desktop, three tablets.
My kids have PS4, XBox One, and Wii U consoles.
All five of us have smartphones.
All three of them are in college, as are almost all of their friends.
Within just a few miles, I can enjoy high end cuisine from dozens of cultures
So, yeah, it's more like 2016 and it's not that close.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:08 am to ChunkyLover54
quote:
That was my experience at 15. Yes, they existed, but nothing like today. The few people with cell phones who were not doctors or drug dealers didn't use them.
Exactly. They existed but few people, especially under 20, had any access to them. The pager was our generations smart phone.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:08 am to ChunkyLover54
1996 porn 
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:10 am to THRILLHO
quote:
video games and portable electronics. 1976 had none of those.
It most certainly did have them.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:11 am to northshorebamaman
quote:
Maybe my perspective is different because I was only 17 in 1996 but I knew one kid with a cell phone and two kids with internet at home (and we didn't even know what to do on the internet other than troll chat rooms). They just weren't really a factor in my experience but I'm sure older folks feel different. We did have a shite load of cable channels though.
I actually think agree and think 1976 is the correct answer. Yes in 1996 we had the Internet and cell phones but the average person used them less than 10 minutes a day, today the average person spends at least a few hours on them.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:12 am to northshorebamaman
quote:
Exactly. They existed but few people, especially under 20, had any access to them. The pager was our generations smart phone.
We had computers in our house, satellite TV and cell phones. My kids grew up with computers in the 90's.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:14 am to Paul Allen
quote:
1996 fashions and dress are closer to current style than 1976
How so?
Because my fashion hasn't changed much since then and I get by. Meanwhile, just look at 70's fashions.
The 80's are more different from the 90's than the millennium. The millennium never really hit it's mark as far as fashion.
Like you could throw a 70's party and people know what to wear, 80's party same thing. Can even do 90's and people will recognize some things, but do a 00's party, what would people wear different than now? Crocs? Cargo shorts?
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:19 am to RogerTheShrubber
quote:
We had computers in our house, satellite TV and cell phones. My kids grew up with computers in the 90's.
Same here. Hell, I even had the SAME satellite company in 1996 as I do now.
Nothing like 1976 at all.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:20 am to RogerTheShrubber
quote:
We had computers in our house, satellite TV and cell phones. My kids grew up with computers in the 90's.
We had a computer in 1996 but no internet. I think I spent 15 minutes on it playing a flight simulator before I lost interest. Cell phones were absolutely not common for high schoolers in 1996.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:28 am to Napoleon
quote:
, just look at 70's fashions.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:33 am to RogerTheShrubber
Fashion is no question. If I took a time machine to 1996, wearing 2016 clothes, nobody would look twice. Take a guy from 76 and drop him in 1996, and he's going to be noticed. 
This post was edited on 4/28/16 at 1:34 am
Posted on 4/28/16 at 1:54 am to northshorebamaman
quote:
but I knew one kid with a cell phone and two kids with internet at home (and we didn't even know what to do on the internet other than troll chat rooms).
You didn't ICQ in 1996? Plenty of kids I went to school with used ICQ a ton by the end of 1996 early 1997. By the time Aim came out just about every kid I knew was online. Parents had no clue what to do on computers though.
ICQ is the father of texting/social media. That reason alone at least for kids, growing up in 1996 is more like 2016. My JNCO jeans sure looked like some 70's bell bottoms though
Posted on 4/28/16 at 2:01 am to clhstrojans
quote:
You didn't ICQ in 1996? Plenty of kids I went to school with used ICQ a ton by the end of 1996 early 1997. By the time Aim came out just about every kid I knew was online. Parents had no clue what to do on computers though
No, I was out of school in 1996. The only computer class I had in high school was MS DOS.
I didn't even have internet until 2004. I didn't think I had a need for it until then.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 4:43 am to northshorebamaman
quote:
could still avoid people by simply not answering your home phone
I miss those days.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 5:00 am to ChunkyLover54
76
This post was edited on 4/28/16 at 6:25 am
Posted on 4/28/16 at 5:42 am to CajunSoldier225
Yea, I hate the expectation that a text or phone call must be answered in a couple minutes. I also get annoyed when a plan can't be made and people say "I'll call you in 20 minutes" or something.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 5:46 am to RogerTheShrubber
I was in college in 1996. The cell phone we had was a car phone that cost like 20 bucks a minute. The internet we had was 28.8k dial up. You still had to go the library to find anything useful. You could not search the internet for an answer. Prodigy and AOL were your "internet choices." People actaully had conversations instead of texting, facebooking, etc. The ICQ folks were a tiny segment of the population.
In 2016, I am back in college. I research papers through the online library that I use with my 1 GB internet connection. I take online tests. I collaborate with fellow students via google chat.
I rarely pay bills via envelope and stamp. I do at least half of my shopping online. I can price compare via my phone instead of traveling to multiple stores or picking up a pay phone and making a call. I don't have to pull out a VHS tape to record a show.
I would argue that daily living was way more like 76 the 2016. The majority of the population did not have access to the internet or cell phones, and those that did, did not have nearly the functionality that they do now.
In 2016, I am back in college. I research papers through the online library that I use with my 1 GB internet connection. I take online tests. I collaborate with fellow students via google chat.
I rarely pay bills via envelope and stamp. I do at least half of my shopping online. I can price compare via my phone instead of traveling to multiple stores or picking up a pay phone and making a call. I don't have to pull out a VHS tape to record a show.
I would argue that daily living was way more like 76 the 2016. The majority of the population did not have access to the internet or cell phones, and those that did, did not have nearly the functionality that they do now.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 6:05 am to ChunkyLover54
i'll go with 76.
Posted on 4/28/16 at 6:13 am to Boss
Good post. The internet seemed like a curiosity to me in 96. A curiosity with a lot of promise but it hadn't worked itself into most people's daily lives. Comedians were still mocking it as a joke. I remember Dennis Leary had a bit about it. It had little to no effect on my daily life back then.
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