Discussion What age group were last to grow up without technology we take for granted today?

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Color TV, Touch Tone phones, FM radio, some RC toys, though they may have been wired. VCRs and video cameras were in some schools. Cassette recorders and players.


Some of those things were available to kids born earlier, but they grew up without them for the most part. I remember when those things first hit the stores. Kids born after 1970 don't. They already existed.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Air conditioning for that matter. It didn't really hit the average home until the 80s.

 

[Pohemi]

Color TV, Touch Tone phones, FM radio, some RC toys, though they may have been wired. VCRs and video cameras were in some schools. Cassette recorders and players.

Some of those things were available to kids born earlier, but they grew up without them for the most part. I remember when those things first hit the stores. Kids born after 1970 don't. They already existed.

Hmm. I get what you're saying about them being around but not common yet, but...

Color TVs came out in the early 60s, and by the 70s were fairly common.
FM radio broadcasts were around for decades already. Did you just mean the car radios? I know FM wasn't common on them until into the 70s.
Touch tone phones were an advancement of devices for an already existing (and old) technology. Kind of like answering machines. Years later it was cordless phones. They all still used the same communication lines.

Not much in that time period from 1970 to 1990ish stood out in my memory as a new technology that became widespread and common, where it wasn't a niche or high income only product. Media storage and cellular phones were the most obvious to me, and the phones weren't common and widespread until at least the late 90s. Sort of like PCs.

 

[AdamK47]

Hmm. I get what you're saying about them being around but not common yet, but...

Color TVs came out in the early 60s, and by the 70s were fairly common.
FM radio broadcasts were around for decades already. Did you just mean the car radios? I know FM wasn't common on them until into the 70s.
Touch tone phones were an advancement of devices for an already existing (and old) technology. Kind of like answering machines. Years later it was cordless phones. They all still used the same communication lines.

Not much in that time period from 1970 to 1990ish stood out in my memory as a new technology that became widespread and common, where it wasn't a niche or high income only product. Media storage and cellular phones were the most obvious to me, and the phones weren't common and widespread until at least the late 90s. Sort of like PCs.

The Walkman, CDs, video game consoles, flux capacitors, home PCs, and cable TV.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

What I said was, kids born before the 70s experienced life without them and saw them come into daily life. Kids born after 1970 or so did not experience life without them. They were already in common use.

Going to the PC, not computers in general, kids born after 1990 or so did not experience life without them. Kids born in the 70s may have had pocket calculators though.

 

[Pohemi]

The Walkman, CDs, video game consoles, flux capacitors, home PCs, and cable TV.

Not one of those would apply to kids/teens born in 1970, which is what I was basing it on for replying to Lost

NES and CDs might've been more widely used by 1988...when those kids and teens would be adults. PCs and cable TV were around, but still not common.

 

[dlerious]

Kids today grow up without experiencing 8-track tapes and CB radio.

 

[shortylickens]

Kids today grow up without experiencing 8-track tapes and CB radio.

that is very true but OP said "without technology we take for granted today".
To me technology we take for granted to day is home internet, smartphones (with internet), Air conditioning, and things of that nature. Only cops and truckers use CB today. No one but really old men, and possibly hipster nerds, use 8-tracks.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Pretty sure Microwave ovens weren't common in the 70s. They may have started to appear by then.

 

[shortylickens]

Pretty sure Microwave ovens weren't common in the 70s. They may have started to appear by then.

Microwave oven - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Patented in 1937.
Depending on where you grew up in the world, its possible many homes had them back then. I was talking to an old dude at work who grew up middle class and he claimed lots of homes had them in the 70's. As an 80s kid in the middle class suburbs around Minneapolis, almost everybody had one in their kitchen. Some of them were older models that kept chugging along. But any time one broke down and couldnt be repaired, the family got a new model as soon as they could. They did not save up for years to buy one, they got it on a credit card right away.

 

[sdifox]

I grew up in a third world Country to a modest family. Everything was like 10 years or more behind the USA. Cable TV did not become common until 1988 more or less. No computers during my high school years available. No where sold computer consoles or desktops either. No computer stores and magazines were only found at public libraries. technology wise I was out of the loop. I had no clue what was the latest tech or games out there. My life revolved around football and BMX bikes with some baseball thrown in. We always wanted to be out the house doing some physical activity or recreation. I lived on an Island that was 6 miles off the mainland, so diving and water sports were common as well.

Funny part is that I miss those care free active days. I would go back then and start all over again without fancy tech.

I was in Buenos Aires between 83 and 90. We had to go to the telco to make a long distance call. As in the actual telco office, line up and then the operator connects you to the number you want.


But in Taiwan before I moved, I have seen a Zenith TV with built in telephone at my dad's friend's store.

 

[Hans Gruber]

Cartoons were great from the late 60's into the 90's. I guess you could argue that is a generation X thing. But I think it goes back to the end of the baby boomer generation.

 

[SKORPI0]

1. Mass-market Home/consumer/personal computers (not hobbist/homebrew PC) became available about 1977 (Apple II. Pet 2001, TRS-80).
2. The first publicly/commercial cell phones , 1983. Motorola DynaTAC 8000x .
3. .The Internet, the way we know it today (WWW, browsers, etc,) became widely available to general public, late 1995.

So any person born about the early/mid 80s (Xennials) and then be a teenager wouldn't experience all 3 together until late 1995/early 1996. Someone in their early 40s today.

There's a term for people born in the early 80's who don't feel like a millennial or Gen Xer

Exactly when Generation X ends and the millennial generation begins depends on who you ask. People born in the early 1980's often feel like they don't belong.

www.businessinsider.com

Xennials: The new micro-generation and what you need to know - Keep It Usable

www.keepitusable.com

 

[IronWing]

People born after 1990 never experienced a world where five blade razors weren't a thing.

I think Gillette should make a tank track razor with fifty whirling blades of face ripping goodness.

 

[AdamK47]

People born after 1990 never experienced a world where five blade razors weren't a thing.

I think Gillette should make a tank track razor with fifty whirling blades of face ripping goodness.
View attachment 78119

So many blades on a Gillette and yet still inferior to razors invented 100+ years prior. Straight or butterfly safety razors are still superior.

 

[nakedfrog]

1. Mass-market Home/consumer/personal computers (not hobbist/homebrew PC) became available about 1977 (Apple II. Pet 2001, TRS-80).
2. The first publicly/commercial cell phones , 1983. Motorola DynaTAC 8000x .
3. .The Internet, the way we know it today (WWW, browsers, etc,) became widely available to general public, late 1995.

So any person born about the early/mid 80s (Xennials) and then be a teenager wouldn't experience all 3 together until late 1995/early 1996. Someone in their early 40s today.

There's a term for people born in the early 80's who don't feel like a millennial or Gen Xer

Exactly when Generation X ends and the millennial generation begins depends on who you ask. People born in the early 1980's often feel like they don't belong.

www.businessinsider.com

Xennials: The new micro-generation and what you need to know - Keep It Usable

www.keepitusable.com

View attachment 78111

I like "Oregon Trail generation" more.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Didn't grow up with a computer in the house until I was 10 or 11, parents didn't have cellphones until the late 90s. Honestly, it's hard to fathom either at this point.

We were outside a looooooooooot.

 

[Grooveriding]

I was born in the late 70s. Grew up with Nintendo/Sega consoles starting around the early 90s. One of my friends who was very wealthy had a Neo Geo. I had an NES then a SNES.

Was fortunate, when I was 13 my father came home with I think it was an 8088 or 286, whichever fits the year right for 1990.

By the mid to latish 90s I had a cell phone and high speed internet. I grew up in a large city though, and these were available fairly early on here after the tech going live.

 

[Muse]

Hello guys,

So, any child born within last 10 years will grow up with solid internet, cell phones and widely used home computers of any shape or form like laptops, tablets, desktops etc.

-snip-

I take issue with that right there. There are lots of kids, even in the USA, that are growing up without a lot of that stuff.

 

[Torn Mind]

I take issue with that right there. There are lots of kids, even in the USA, that are growing up without a lot of that stuff.

I would doubt cell phones are an issue. Lifeline+ACP can often net any low-income individual that qualifies some sort of smartphone, however buggy and cheap such a smartphone is.
Computers, maybe some people really living on the, but not having one is far less common than 10-20 years ago. I mean, the public library used to have huge queues in my high school years and now there's plenty of time and space. Universities are turning former lab spaces into just study areas; I walked through University of Maryland and many of the rooms I remembered as labs are now just tables and chairs. There's probably Core 2 systems that can be scooped up at a thrift shop.

Solid internet could be an issue in really rural areas but with the ACP, Verizon and Xfinity(or their local equivalent) can connect a low-income family or individual to the web.

 

[nakedfrog]

I would doubt cell phones are an issue. Lifeline+ACP can often net any low-income individual that qualifies some sort of smartphone, however buggy and cheap such a smartphone is.
Computers, maybe some people really living on the, but not having one is far less common than 10-20 years ago. I mean, the public library used to have huge queues in my high school years and now there's plenty of time and space. Universities are turning former lab spaces into just study areas; I walked through University of Maryland and many of the rooms I remembered as labs are now just tables and chairs. There's probably Core 2 systems that can be scooped up at a thrift shop.

Solid internet could be an issue in really rural areas but with the ACP, Verizon and Xfinity(or their local equivalent) can connect a low-income family or individual to the web.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if overall PC ownership is down with the rise of smartphones.

 

[Torn Mind]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if overall PC ownership is down with the rise of smartphones.

I would think a laptop PC would still be in nearly every household if only for word processing or a better browser experience; some sites suck on the small screen. Plus with decades of saturation, there can be super cheap ones that can function not too badly.
Chromebooks are still too limited and unpolished; my Chromebook had a Wifi issue trying to use a university guest network; a pretty big deal since Wifi is key to life these days. I like it, but it's not a daily driver.

Desktops though, are likely to become a nostalgia product at some point; even gamers can now get full power gaming hardware in a laptop, theoretically. Professional companies could still use desktop though.

 

[akenbennu]

Born in 74. I got a C64 in 1984. That thing only had a cassette drive though and no modem. Friend down the street had an Apple II, again no modem. I would go to middle school early to play games in their computer lab but no internet. Web was just hitting mainstream when I was in college.

Pretty much the same. C64, 300 baud modem for internet in the early 90s. I miss Archon.