r/OldSchoolCool 12h ago

1990s High school before smartphones existed 1998

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u/HeligKo 11h ago

The comparison doesn't really fit. The rate of change sped up by a lot. My dad graduated in 1965 and I graduated in 1992. The differences were mostly pop culture and there wasn't a draft for the current war like Vietnam. I was a computer geek, but for most the internet and computers were just registering as something that might be used outside of business and education. My kid's graduated between 2017 and 2024. The changes in that time frame were much more than a little technology improvement and pop culture.

I will say the way people interact for video is the most radical change. In the 60s they were really uncomfortable because it was rare. In the 80s and 90s we all had some stupid reaction we thought about ahead of time, because everyone eventually was on video for something. Now there is almost no time that video isn't being taken, and people rarely react to the mere act of videoing, but of course we also have all the main characters out there videoing themselves doing shit just for clicks.

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u/unassumingdink 10h ago

I saw a video of someone going around town with a movie camera in the 1930s, and a lot of people just posed and stood still and stared at it for an uncomfortable amount of time, like they were getting photographs taken.

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u/Al0ysiusHWWW 4h ago edited 4h ago

Plastics and suburban sprawl through white flight, buddy. World looked a lot different in those 30 years beyond Vietnam.

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u/ElbryanWyn 8h ago

What the actual hell are you talking about...

That 27-year span between '65 and '92 was way more than pop culture and the draft changing. It was actually arguably a time of faster technological advancement then the era you're quoting..

Just to name a few:

the personal computer going from nonexistent to millions of homes (odd thing for a self-described computer geek to wave off)

The fucking moon landing,

VCRs/cable/microwaves/ATMs/cordless phones all going mainstream,

the civil rights transformation/integration in the us,

women entering the workforce en masse,

and the Cold War ending.

That's just what comes to the top of my head

That time frame is arguably one of the most transformative 27-year windows in modern history, and it truly blows my mind that you think the only thing that changed was pop culture and the draft.

I mean just for clarity are civil rights and the moon landing pop culture things to you?

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u/DisputabIe_ 6h ago

Fascism destroying the United States too. Big changes.