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Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

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Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#51

Post by gladiatr72 »

Hrm. As a nerd growing up in the rural midwest (b.1972) (hundreds of miles from a significant population center, there were some entertainment concepts that were born (Tron, Max Headroom, Knight Rider) that were pretty neat to a 12-17 year-old. 8-bit computer mags were fun to collect--the 8-bit market had some distinctive architectures (z80, 65xx, 8088) that made it fun to try to create similar programs for different systems; some mags would publish the source code for a game or utility for multiple systems in the same issue--it was fun to try with our own code.

Other than that, the 80's were shit. The economy tanked. Rural America embraced Reaganomics during the campaign. Didn't turn out to be such a good deal for most of us, BUT...

We Gen-X rats were fed Superior Bullshit.

The 80's had the Star Wars Project. It is worth looking up--basically, we (the US) ran a (supposedly) successful con on the Soviet Union. Around $61 billion dollars was spent to incite a false tech race with the hope of siphoning Soviet resources into research that neither country had a hope of viably creating. The Reagan admin's winning card was having the money to cover the bluff (that money was doled out on legal contracts with not-altogether-clear film footage of some pieces of in-flight ICBM interdiction tech being dropped every few years).

How much that project contributed to the end of the USSR? Dunno. But it was cool!

Oh, and the Internet was wee. Most nerd comms were done by way of "borrowing time" on one of the corporate X25 networks (chat with a few primitive bulletin-board type systems) or by BBS. I don't know if that actually contributed to the 80's un/pleasantness, but they were fun (as long as you could dodge the bill).

The 80's might also have been the last complete decade that no one was arrested for letting their kids play outside by themselves.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#53

Post by moistly »

cmollis wrote: post #9

I was born in 1967.. so I remember the 80's very well. First, let me say that it wasn't all great: AIDS was pretty scary (as someone else noted).. no one knew what the hell that was and it was killing a lot of people. There was also the ever-present spectre of nuclear war with Russia...Iran-Contra, 1987 stock market crash.. However, to your point, there was no exhausting news cycle, no exhausting bullshit social medi…

Hey, fellow 67’er.

My graduation class chose Alphaville’s “Forever Young” as its commencement song. Yah, the one that starts off

> Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while > Heaven can wait, we're only watching the skies > Hoping for the best but expecting the worst > Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?

I think that that musical choice perfectly encapsulates what it was to grow up as Gen X.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#54

Post by p0d »

I was 10 in 81. I would travel several miles from home playing with my friends. Bikes were a big thing. I had no computer and played D&D. I read books like Stig of the Dump, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Your favourite tv show was on once a week. I recorded music from the television or radio on a little cassette player. I had a record player. I slept in tents in friend's back gardens in the summer. I played soccer with friends until it was dark. I went swimming with friends in the sea and the swimming pool. I grew up in Belfast and encountered several nearby bombings. Children seem more afraid and unhappy now than then.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#55

Post by codingdave »

You know the fear of nuclear war that the younger folk have been experiencing for the first time the last few weeks. It was like that. Constantly.

Sure, video games and MTV were new and fun. Computers were new. But aside from that, it was different decade with different styles, but the day-to-day life was the same. Go to school, hang out with friends, have dinner with family, maybe watch a little mork & mindy on channel 57, and go to bed.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#56

Post by Randolf_Scott »

Joke:

Well, back in the 80's all you had to do to worship Satan was play your record backwards. Now it is so much more of a ritual.

Back in the 80's I felt like the year 2000 would be the epitome of tech, but now I have no hope for floating skate-boards.

Back in the 80's I had protection for my hair-do, but now my hair stands vulnerable to all forces of nature.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#57

Post by apohn »

jshaqaw wrote: post #21

Given this is Hacker News… it was a magical time for technology. Yes it helped I was ages 5-15 for that period. Computers were just coming into the general population and that was a mind blowing thing. At the same time, the pre-mass internet era meant that our brains were our own. Concentration and space to think weren’t yet deprecated features. Other than that it had the same ups and downs as any other time.

>Given this is Hacker News… it was a magical time for technology.

Honestly, I was probably the most "techy" person I knew and I remember spending a lot of time back then messing around configuring memory and what was loaded to get things to run. It was interesting at the time, but I was also young and had nothing better to do.

To me, I find technology today be a lot more magical. I'm really glad I don't have to spend so much time just to get something basic running today.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#58

Post by Dracophoenix »

mancerayder wrote: post #44
cmollis wrote: post #9

I was born in 1967.. so I remember the 80's very well. First, let me say that it wasn't all great: AIDS was pretty scary (as someone else noted).. no one knew what the hell that was and it was killing a lot of people. There was also the ever-present spectre of nuclear war with Russia...Iran-Contra, 1987 stock market crash.. However, to your point, there was no exhausting news cycle, no exhausting bullshit social medi…

Flying internationally was great. Planes felt mostly empty, lines were faster and shoes weren't taken off. Upgrades were more common, even as a child. On the other hand people sometimes smoked and luggage was sometimes lost.

How cheap were plane tickets during the '80s in nominal dollars?

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#59

Post by Dracophoenix »

vavrek wrote: post #20

Was born in 1973 and grew up in the Redwoods of Northern California, near what would eventually become Silicon Valley. In that place and time, the 80's were mostly a very fun and exciting bunch of years to be a child, with the crazy hippie 60's/70's mentality of the adults crossing over into a new "cleaner" era of exploding fresh technology and intelligent comic vision. Records became cassettes. Being able to record…

>The environment was less toxic and people were far less paranoid in general.

The Satanic Panic or moral crusades about horror movies like Poltergiest had no bearing on your life?

>The 80's officially died in a wave of hip-hop, rap, awful "butt rock," bad films,

Why do you think those music genres killed the '80s?

>and a sudden appreciation for general stupidity.

Is this in reference to the Simpsons or something else?

>The inspiring momentum of what felt like a positive movement seemed to fall apart suddenly with corporate consolidation of media, commercialization of everything, and a darker, harsher, lifeless cultural attitude.

Wasn't the media already consolidated to begin with (i.e. 3 channels if you didn't have cable or satellite)?

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#60

Post by gadders »

cmollis wrote: post #9

I was born in 1967.. so I remember the 80's very well. First, let me say that it wasn't all great: AIDS was pretty scary (as someone else noted).. no one knew what the hell that was and it was killing a lot of people. There was also the ever-present spectre of nuclear war with Russia...Iran-Contra, 1987 stock market crash.. However, to your point, there was no exhausting news cycle, no exhausting bullshit social medi…

The thing I remember about living in the UK in the 80's is that there was an economic boom where people became wealthier. Not just the equivalent of dotcom billionaires, but your average blue collar worker.

It was enough of a cultural phenomenon that there was a comedian created a character called "Loadsamoney" - a cockney carpenter that was earning massive amounts of money.

People moan about "boom and bust" economies, but for the last 20 years I think all we have had is "bust" and no "boom".

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