Was life in the past preferable to today?
According to a new study half of adults over the age of 50 agree that life in the past was preferable to today, compared to just 19 per cent who think the present day is best.
Seven in 10 people think that the past was better as there was not so much traffic on the roads, while 68 per cent say things used to be built to last.
Having the freedom to go out to play at an early age and the fact people had more respect for each other also feature highly on the list of things that were better years ago.
Geoffrey Dennis, Chief Executive of SPANA who carried out the research, said: ‘It’s clear that many people in the UK are nostalgic about the past – and, whether it’s for proper music stars like Bowie or a lost sense of community spirit, some people wish they could turn back the clock.
The study shows many over-50s consider the old days to be better because people were more patient and there was a slower pace of life.
People also fondly remember the time when the whole family ate around the dinner table and everyone enjoyed face-to-face conversations.
But one in five people over the age of 50 believe that modern day living should be celebrated.
What are your views? Is it easy to recall the past with rose tinted glasses, or was life in the past preferable than today?
Was life in the past preferable to today?
190 people have already voted, what's your opinion? Life in the past was preferable Present day is bestWhat are your views?
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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.
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 agree with comments below.
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.
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.
I think the question should be "Where we happier then, or now."
This should be given much thought and not answered off the cuff, because one should think back to specific periods in ones life.....say, later school years, teenage years,
20-30. and so on. And of course it all depends on your age now. I was born in 1934 so WW2 and the subsequent years of austerity is a factor in my life....but not in many others.
Even so, I don't like the world as it is now in fact I hate it, and whilst life was harder I was generally much happier then.
I was born in 1951 and raised by my mother and grand parents until aged eight. Father was a merchant seaman during the war and afterwards. My grand parents had few home comforts beyond a 'Westminster,' radio. Water was drawn from a well in the yard, food cooked on a range and in winter we sat around an open fire drinking cocoa before bed.
Yet, we were content, without greed for ever more sophisticated devices and exotic foods. For us they just didn't exist.
I think among the most difficult of changes to assimilate is just that; the sheer volume and scale of change in our lifetime at every level leading to, today, Her Majesty's Opposition inciting insurrection and riots to defeat a lawful ballot result.
There are now no certainties, only empty promises and massive insecurity among Britons. I can see these as changes for the better.
I was able to stop on at school until I was 16 in order to gain my "CSE's". I got good grades but my parents couldn't afford for me to go onto the private girls school in order to get my "A" levels. Without my "A" levels I had no choice but to go to work and contribute to the family pot.
Further education has always carried a premium and no doubt the cost was just as high back in the 50's as it is today.
Today you can get a student loan which is exactly what my eldest did. She's paid hers off now but had she not been earning what she is earning then it would have been deferred. I actually think that students have a much better chance nowadays then back in the day but it isn't free and they have to accept that. Education is only free up until the age of 18 in the UK.
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 🙂
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
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.