Thinking Aloud On a Sunday

~ beetleypete

Times change.

We are all aware how fast things change. I am using a computer to type this, yet when I left school, I never imagined that such a thing would exist. And I am posting this online, over the Internet. Who could ever have thought of that?

Whenever I complain about how things are, people wisely remind me that ‘times change’, or ‘it’s just progress’. Staring at mobile phones all day is progress then, I assume. I do try, I really do. Look how much I use technology to blog, and to spread the word about everything from how much it rains, to the stories I have written. But I confess that it is never less than a daily struggle, trying to keep up with those changing times.

As I get older, I complain a great deal. Regular readers will no doubt have noticed the increase in that, I’m sure.

Much of what I lament is caused by the addition of rose-tinted spectacles, and they make me firmly believe that everything was better ‘before’. Before times changed, and before so much progress. Does anyone under forty realise that their beloved smartphones and Internet televisions will be laughed at in thirty year’s time? I don’t know, and it doesn’t really matter.

But they will be.

Is life really so much better because you can switch on your house lights from the bus, by using an app on your phone? Well that is certainly progress, but is it either a good thing, or necessary? I struggle to believe it is.

When you are young, moany old codgers get on your nerves, always going on about how things were so much better ‘before’. They did it when I was young, and now I am upholding the tradition. And for you younger readers, a word of warning.

You will do it too.

You will hear yourself saying that your old X-Box was better than whatever is around when you are seventy years old. You will drone on about films and TV shows being so much better in your youth, and how the celebrities and stars of your day were much better-looking, and nicer people too. You will bore the pants off the future younger generation by going on about the food you used to eat, and how you used to cook it. The fast-food places that no longer exist, and the shops that closed down when you were in your sixties.

You will tell them about High Street Shops, and how you could buy just one cake in a baker’s. Regale them with how good it was to go to a doctor or the hospital, and not have to pay. You will become misty-eyed with memories of how people got state pensions, winter fuel allowance, and free bus travel when they were old. Of course, you will not have any of that for yourself, but you will remember when other people did.

You will find it hard to cope with progress, and increasingly difficult to change with the times.

I know, because I can see into your future.

And it is the same as mine.

59 thoughts on “Thinking Aloud On a Sunday”

  5. Great post 🙂 Changes are a mixed blessing. One good thing it has done is that it gives bloggers like us a way to hold a conversation with each other and others 🙂 Anyway, keep up the great work as always 🙂

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  11. I am reading a memoir from an Author who said that the one thing young people will NEVER have is the experience he had, because they can’t go back in time…and those experiences have given him the perspective they will never have…

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  14. Like most things in life, I can see both sides of the coin. I appreciate the ability to get the news so much quicker, and yet, I still love reading the newspaper rather than an online version. It’s marvelous to be able to interact with people around the world in real-time, but it bugs the hell out of me when I see folks eating out and spending the whole time on their phones rather than interacting with the people directly in front of them. It is an interesting problem.

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  15. Woah, very profound! I’m in my early 30s and already reminisce about the good ole days (the 90s) and how we were the last generation to play outside all day every day, ya da ya da. I just regaled my 14year old art student the other day about the day my mother brought home a remote control for our tv 😆

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      1. Yes and then there’s the 70’s and now the 80’s. The day started out with the opening an account with a store to take advantage of a one-day only bargain. Needed a dozen things including my smart phone, which I hardly ever use, number. All this before my first cup of coffee. Grrr. Cursed the new ways. Then I looked at the new snow and the below zero reading and realized that in the ‘good old days I would have to go out in this weather instead of ordering what I just bought on line.

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        1. It does have its benefits, Don, I can’t argue with that. But I didn’t think twice about going to the shops before online shopping. I used to encounter people, and feel part of a community. These days, I hardly know anyone, unless they are walking a dog.
          Best wishes, Pete.

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  16. There are advances I appreciate so much, but some have not always been for the betterment of our society. I guess we all get nostalgic about times gone by. I just wish everyone could slow down a bit. Everything moves too fast. ( I have missed your Sunday Thinking Aloud posts).

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    1. Thanks, Maggie. Twitter is the perfect example of something moving too fast for me.
      (I only publish the thinking aloud posts when I think of something worth writing about. 🙂 )
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  19. I remember the day I was moaning to my son about the bands he listened to all ‘sounded the same’ and realising that was exactly what my dad said about the Beatles and the Stones. I am grateful for the technology that allows us to blog and make friends all around the world – but I don’t have a smart phone so when I’m out and about you’ll never catch me staring at a screen 🙂

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  20. Perhaps being able to reminisce and, of course, sometimes complain about how things are changing too quickly and not always for the better, are compensations of older age to be appreciated & enjoyed? I always find the French epithet encapsulates the feeling rather well, and I tend to use it quite frequently: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose! Hindsight’s a wonderful thing, and the young have to learn it their own way. Cheers, Jon.

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  23. So very true….I like to remind my daughter of what she was up to and then tell her to look at her daughter who is probably one of the best teenagers around…..I have memories but I try to look forward not back…..the older I get the harder it is for me to do that…..chuq

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    1. I think we are all destined to follow the same paths in time, and also to look back to when we thought it was better. Just letting young people know that they will do that too, even though they probably think they won’t. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  25. My mother used to say ‘It’s a good thing my father isn’t alive to see this’ . Sadly her father died in his fifties, in the fifties and she was saying this in the sixties! What would he make of the world now!

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  26. A very thoughtful piece of work and a fair commentary on the times.
    Sixty five years ago I used to lay in bed as a boy and listen to my old dad and his mate playing the piano and singing songs. Dad wasn’t much of a pianist and his mate Bert was a passable baritone , but the point was they unwound their cares and it forcefully came through to me.
    Technology has not altered our humanity and in some ways it has blurred our vision by selling us the lie of progress.
    Technology has not brought general contentment , appreciation of what we have and empathy with others.

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