Was life in the past preferable to today?

Life 50yrs ago was better, today we are slowly been poisoned by chemicals in our food, too many beauty & household products that its nearly impossible to get away from & air pollution, a beautiful world slowly been made sick. judi

I think life for children was much less complicated, family life seemed less stressful . As a child of those times we may not have had everything but we had everything that was important, We had a family life that today is under so much pressure. As mama was a housewife we were surrounded by love , extended family and our parents had time for us , something sadly due to the pressures of modern living a lot of children today miss out on. Money was tight, but we always had new outfits , a holiday at the seaside . Many things have improved like medicines. Looking back though without Rose Tinted Glasses I look back on the childhood my parents give me ,my brothers and sisters and am grateful for it, I would say it was better than lots of the local children ,who may have every gadget money can buy , but sadly they do not have the family unit I had.

The most basic reason for preferring our earlier days lies with the elementary human determination of future development. Having lived for 72 years, the successes and failures of my life will be most unlikely to be equalled in the remainder of my existence. There will be much fewer challenges as the years roll by, each experience I have gleaned can only enhance the present, as the future is unknown.

I feel life was better then for children.
They had freedom to enjoy being a child.
These days they have access to the internet which isn't always a good thing.
Family life has changed radically, and I think they are missing out on the simple pleasures of life as it used to be.

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People's lives were more difficult in the past, work outside and inside the home was harder, money was short but I do believe families were closer than today. I grew up in a small village where everyone knew everyone else and neighbours helped out in a crisis, now I am on speaking terms with my nearest neighbours but that's about it, I fell down the stairs and was taken away in an ambulance, no-one checked on me when I got home.

It's so easy to look back with nostalgia isn't it? Every generation has probably said exactly the same - that life in their youth was better. The fact is, many things were far worse than today. Men slaving in mines and filthy factories and going home to just a tin bath by the fire, women with no rights who were used as skivvies, overcrowded slums, poor hygiene etc. The cosy footage of smart parents and upright neatly dressed children sitting round a fire listening to the wireless may have been the norm for some middle class families but certainly not for many others. We tend to cherry pick the pleasant memories, long hot summers (was that ever so?) and cheery bobbies, no "evil" predators preying on children, contented adults happy with their modest "lot". I can almost hear the Hovis music .......

Simple time's, freedom for children, time playing all kind of game's we were all in the same boat, lot's of respect for people.

Many things are better now like medicine, health & safety houses, etc but we have, in many cases, become a society who are not prepared to take responsibility for their own actions, safety, health, finances, manners. There is also a great lack of respect both for others and oneself.
The media have become bullying and insensitive and seem to think that everyone has a right to know everything about the"private" lives of anyone in the public eye.
Sports stars are revered more than members of the emergency services and certainly paid far too much. Care for the environment is sadly lacking and community spirit doesn't exist in many areas until a tragedy happens. Finally we have become a materialistic society where some families can't seem to exist without mobile phones attached to their hands even when eating out, at the theatre & cinema and most rudely at the checkout in the supermarket. Come on Britain get your respect back.

I think life it's self was better then than now in a lot of respects, one thing being, you could keep your doors open and no one would walk in and steel from you, that's one thing you can't do today. There are a lot of good things today also.
I agree with comments below.

Respect, discipline, decency and a moral code is in short supply on today's society. Possibly it is that we always see the negative side of things. There are many parents who bring their children up to show respect, are considerate to others, do not use vulgar and crude language in front of others, dress appropriately and attend learning establishments to gain qualifications rather than abuse teachers. We view the good things from the past but the horrors of war, child deaths, unsafe and unsanitary housing, lack of education for the majority surely means living in the present is better

I love most of the modern things we have now but what I regret the most is the loss of respect for everything and everybody and I guess that is taught by parents in the first instance and supported by the media and teachers. No-one seems ashamed to swear in public. The breakdown of marriage is seen as nothing to worry about. Many people (and I am including older people as they are fast catching up with younger people) seem to have the view that they are entitled to have everything - now! The current crises in politics has brought out the worst in people who do not seem to have any kind of filter on how nasty they can be about people who they do not know. Trolls are despised on the internet but they are fast appearing in normal society too. I despair when I hear my friends getting heated about University fees, NHS, social care etc, why does everyone think everything must be free - where is the money coming from? when we all have so much more money to spend. This have it all society is really making me very annoyed.

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I am surprised that 72% think life was preferable in the past. I'm not sure I would want to live without electricity. I wouldn't want outside toilets, tin baths in front of the fire, no modern kitchen appliances, tb, polio, diptheria, measles, whooping cough, no NHS, leaving school at 14 to go to work.if we could have a bit more respect for others and more discipline for children then I would say I am pretty happy with my lot at present

Would I want to live back in the 60's? No, because even tho' I can use my selective memory to pretend that life was better then, I have to be honest and admit that many aspects of modern life are better. eg Medical advances, Womens' rights, Equal ops, Trading standards and consumer protection, Technology and Transport to name but a few. There are aspects of modern life that need addressing too but while modern life is not perfect we can embrace the parts of it that we like and actively try and make a difference to those parts that we dislike.

We all go though changes in our lives each generation looks back on the past with mixed memories .Progress must be made whether we embrace it or not ,just think today's generation will look back in another 50 yrs time and so life goes on .Except for us silversurfers.

Much better today-we tend to look at life through rose tinted glasses and 50 years ago there where strikes all the time, trains did not run on times, cars were terrible, TV was lousy, clothes were terrible...apart from that life was fine. It was probably safer with less crime and people may have been friendlier. At least they were not all looking at their phones as the only phone I used was in a dreadfully smelling Red telephone box. ,

Over all i think we are better off today. It is in our nature to be nostalgic and we are very good at blocking out bad memories !

I think it's 50/50. A lot of things in the past were much better but equally a lot of things today are much better.
In the past we had very little and we appreciated everything we had. Nowadays there is that feeling of "entitlement" and things come too easy to too many and aren't appreciated. Debt in particular is a huge problem which didn't exist back in the 50's. You had no choice but to live according to your means and that was definitely a much better way then incurring huge debts which can't be paid back. Debt alone has led to very many people committing suicide.

We didn't have the massive amount of single parent families of which many are supported by the state. I'm not pointing fingers here.....just stating a fact.

Life was a much slower pace and cars were far and few between so the atmosphere was much cleaner apart from the very smoky chimneys. Of course the cities had more cars as well so the atmosphere was terrible. The smog in London during those days was horrendous. I was born and bred in Devon though so I never experienced this.

We didn't have foreign holidays ........ in fact we didn't have holidays apart from day trips out. Good or bad? I remember very clearly our family day trips and I loved them. I'd never been "on holiday" so I didn't miss it.
To this day we rarely go abroad but we do try and take our grandchildren out on family days complete with a picnic and they love it. Maybe the foreign holidays are aimed more at the parents then the children? I know our grandchildren are just as happy splashing about in an English stream then sitting by a pool in heat which is far too much for them.

Medicine and technology has to make our current day take first place in the poll though.
I wouldn't be here now had it not been for the wonderful NHS and all the medical advances that have happened since the 50's. It's incredible just how far medical science has advanced. You only need to look at the fantastic scanners that we have and also the wonderful cancer treatments which have reduced death from cancer drastically.

Also the wonderful prem baby facilities and medical advances which mean that more and more babies born very premature are surviving. It's nothing short of a miracle...... so modern day medicine definitely wins 100% over 50's medicine.
We must never forget those that have donated their bodies to medical science and those brave people who trialled drugs as a last resort to saving their lives. Without those generous and brave people I doubt we'd be where we are today.

As for technology.........one of our greatest advancements of all time, which definitely puts present day way ahead of life in the past, is the internet.
The internet alone has opened up vast opportunities for the majority of the planet. Personally I couldn't live without it now. It's a means of communicating with people all over the world....and our families.

I find digital photography to be the bee's knees. The old way used to cost a fortune in films and developing the films. It took a while to get your photo's back and it cost you even for the duds that you took! lol To be able to take as many pics of the family and my darling grandchildren is huge to me because I know I can cherry pick the best without it costing me a penny.

Medical treatment is so much better these days as well but there is a huge potential problem on the horizon because of the over-use of antibiotics over a period of time. Particularly in more recent years antibiotics were used to cure every complaint made by patients which has resulted in a watering down of their efficiency.

There are modern scourges that make the "past" more desirable and that is the amount of immigration that has happened. Good or bad.......people have their own opinions, but for whatever cause we are finding the country being over crowded with resources being hit badly. That is a fact and a huge problem that wasn't around in the 50's despite huge numbers of people coming into the country for refuge from the war.

So........would I prefer life in the past or in the present day? I would like to take a mix of both but I also have to say that my life in the past was a child born in 1951 who had a secure family background.
BUT.....we all move on as we grow and if I'm totally honest I wouldn't swap what I have now for what I had back in the 50's. I wouldn't swap for a Kings ransom! lol. Just for starters I wouldn't be here right now and neither would any of those that chose life in the past.

Present day is a definite thumbs up for me anyhow but I will always retain the happy memories of my past as well.

I'm not sure such a question may be answered!

Always memory is selective. We remember the good bits and, sometimes choose to, forget the bad bits. Was it better being brought up for a few years in my grand parents home in a Norfolk village with a khazi 50 yards up the back yard? Not nice on a freezing night. Was it better using a Jerry in the pitch black because the electricity lines were down? Or granny cooking on a coal fired range?

Past retiring age now, I think we have lost more than we gained with so called progress. Yes, there has been important medical advances, there has been progress towards egalitarianism, but this latter may not be a great step forward. No, we've lost our sense of place in this society, our security with what is.

Maybe much progress could have been made in freeing up people without the consequent losses of freedoms and the liberation of perverts.

Who knows? Perhaps the one comes hand in hand with the other.

It is much harder for young people today.Although far.fewer people studied in colleges and universities we did not have to pay exorbitant fees.

I usually find it easy to vote in these questions but this one has me stumped and I don't think there's one simple answer; there were/are good in both eras Imo

If only we could have the sense of community which was more apparent back then it would make life much better, but how on earth did we manage to live without the internet.

Yes Dads are more involved in childcare now, but back in the day Mums were at home caring for the children not out working to help make ends meet.

The list of comparisons goes on and on and I won't list them all, but it seems to me that different eras have different positives and negatives and it's not easy to make simple choices about which is preferable. Interesting thinking about it though 🙂

When my children were young they all played out with friends. More socialising. My grandchildren are lost if they haven't got iPad phone or games console. They do go out with friends but nothing like my children did. My kids used to make games up both inside and outside the home. Socialising is how many so called friends they have on Facebook.
Texting and social media is how they keep in touch. But as one of my grandsons said you could just go and knock on a friend's door. Families and friends are scattered now. No community anymore. Everybody too busy rushing around On saying all this I would be lost without my iPhone and iPad these days. Sad I think

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Nostalgia makes us view the past through rose coloured glasses. There are many things that were better then than now such as freedom for children, being able to play out, disciplining of children, respect for others, families eating and playing games together, conversation, high street shopping, neighbours who support each other. However the downsides were freezing and damp housing from no central heating, lack of choice in food, inequality and discrimination. Overall I would pick life now as I have gotten used to comfort, foreign travel and technology

In the past families were free from state interference and could bring up their children as they saw fit.
Communities were much safer, you knew most people, kids were safe out alone.
Food was fresher and there was far less pre packed manufactured, mucked-about-with food for sale.
Our friends were flesh and blood and we played real games together, not in a virtual world.
We took risks in play, got dirty, and survived
Terrorism was unheard of.
Families on the whole stayed together more than now.
Abortion was illegal.
There was far more respect for those in authority.
Less pollution through less traffic on the roads.

On the other hand....

We now have better insulated homes
The Internet
Highly skilled nhs and emergency services
Showers and indoor loos
Greater knowledge of the world

I dare say some of these will be controversial, but after all, it's just my opinion.

Everywhere was much safer for children, I was able to ride my bicycle, even on main roads and always felt safe, which is far from the case today.

Yes, life in the past was better in that it was a more gentle pace and kids could play out etc but just the communications available today is fantastic - at least if the child is out and can't get home they can ring whereas when I was a child if I was out and got into any scrapes I prayed for a phone box nearby and then prayed again I had the right money so better today.

Life now is far more materialistic. Everything appears to be rushed, and nobody has time to relax. E mails ,phones and social media have taken over peoples lives.

Today is much better-better...food, TV, communications, transport, appliances-life is much easier now. I remember getting the bus everywhere. The food in cafes was terrible. The only good thing was life seemed a lot less hectic

I think it is a mistake to look back. I prefer to look forward and enjoy the present and plan for an exciting future. Sometimes I think technology is a curse as people spend too much time on their phones or computers and not enough time face to face with people, however on balance, without technology it would be so much harder to keep in touch with my family who are all over the world.