Things that were UNTHINKABLE in your youth, you can do now

[Pedrito]

Inspired by Malthus' thread, what things were impossible to think/do during your youth, and are now pretty easily accomplished?

Some of them come easily to mind:
free and real-time communications with everyone who has access to the internet
visiting the Eastern Bloc countries

L.

[The Larch]

Instant communication with almost anyone you know.
Accessible long distance traveling.
Access to almost any cultural product ever produced.

[Martinus]

I think it is rather pointless to answer this in a way you guys are answering - i.e. by reference to technological development - because the answers will be pretty much the same for everybody.

Malthus's thread was interesting because it illustrated changing societal norms. The kind of "when I was a kid we didn't have TEH INTRANETS" is rather boring.

[Pedrito]

Well, 25 years ago, before Solidarnosc, a polish boy wouldn't ever think it was possible for him to take a law degree and find a job in England, or France, or wherever else this side of the Wall.

L.

[The Larch]

I think it is rather pointless to answer this in a way you guys are answering - i.e. by reference to technological development - because the answers will be pretty much the same for everybody.

Malthus's thread was interesting because it illustrated changing societal norms. The kind of "when I was a kid we didn't have TEH INTRANETS" is rather boring.

But you also have to take into account that the new possibilities of technology and communications have radically changed the way lots of things work on our society. For instance, my father is always waxing nostalgic about the pre-internet times regarding office routine, and how everything nowadays is to be done always ASAP. He says that back in the day tasks involved lots of waiting for replys and cumbersome searches for information that now are almost instantaneous, so deadlines are now way tighter and so on.

[Richard Hakluyt]

It was an enormous thrill for me when I visited Poland and all the formalities were so simple and straightforward. I was in my 30s when the communist regimes collapsed, so my knee-jerk reaction is still to assume that these places are greyer and more full of statist bullshit than they actually are.

[Brazen]

The sheer wealth available to the average citizen compared to my youth is staggering. Drinking booze or eating out on anything but the most special of occasions. Owning rather than renting TVs and telephones. Chicken used to be for holidays, now it's an everyday meat and you can just buy and eat eat the breast meat.

[The Larch]

It was an enormous thrill for me when I visited Poland and all the formalities were so simple and straightforward. I was in my 30s when the communist regimes collapsed, so my knee-jerk reaction is still to assume that these places are greyer and more full of statist bullshit than they actually are.

When I visited Serbia in 2006 I had to go to a police office with the buddy I was visiting and his father as owner of the house to register myself as their guest. Talk about useless bureaucracy. I still have my Serbian guest pass, in Serbian, Russian and French, somewhere at home.

[DisturbedPervert]

It was an enormous thrill for me when I visited Poland and all the formalities were so simple and straightforward. I was in my 30s when the communist regimes collapsed, so my knee-jerk reaction is still to assume that these places are greyer and more full of statist bullshit than they actually are.

I forget exactly which country in Eastern Europe, but once on a train they didn't even look inside my passport.  The border guards just saw USA and waved at me to put it away.

Then they got on to the serious business of harassing the two Russians near by.   

[saskganesh]

as per Brazen. air travel is very cheap. for a lot of people, it's replaced the bus/train/drive. and vacations: people fan out over the globe, rather than settle for a week at the lake.

on balance, post 9-11, air travel is now also a pain in the ass.

[dps]

The sheer wealth available to the average citizen compared to my youth is staggering. Drinking booze or eating out on anything but the most special of occasions. Owning rather than renting TVs and telephones. Chicken used to be for holidays, now it's an everyday meat and you can just buy and eat eat the breast meat.

There's a huge difference here between the UK of Brazen's youth and the US of my youth.  Eating out is a lot more common today, so that's similar (though I think that it was always more common in the US), and we used to have to lease our phones, but renting a TV would have seemed very weird when I was growing up--the rent-to-own ripoff was mostly a later development--and chicken was usually about the cheapest meat you could get.

[crazy canuck]

Brazen makes a good point.  Standards of living in general are much better then when I was a kid.

As another example, we can eat fresh fruit and vegetables all year long.  When I was a kid we ate canned fruits and vegetables in the off seasons.

[Syt]

There's a huge difference here between the UK of Brazen's youth and the US of my youth.

Similar for me. In the early 80s, when I was a kid, the U.S. were the land of wonder, looking at the consumerist standard of living as compared to Germany. I remember being awed when my sis and her husband took me along to Bremerhaven to shop at PX and Commissary. Not to mention all the toys, comic books and more. Back when we had three tv channels they already had music tv, and the American kids I hung with had so many more cartoons to choose from (albeit on video).

Speaking of which, having original language media readily available (as now with DVDs which in 99% of cases offer the original version plus the German one) was a dream for me in the 80s and most of the 90s. I had a multisystem VCR and asked my sisters to copy U.S. movies for me. Imported tapes (from UK) were ridiculously expensive.

Similar when ordering English (or any other) books. You went to your local bookstore, and they checked their microfilm(!) catalogue - which was hopefully up to date - to order from the main depot in Hamburg. My preferred shop changed their catalogue to DOS CD-ROM in the early 90s. Myself, I actually got me the free catalogues of the main German novel publishers at the shop to see what they've got. Of course I'd also hang more around the library at the time.

[Savonarola]

I forget exactly which country in Eastern Europe, but once on a train they didn't even look inside my passport.  The border guards just saw USA and waved at me to put it away.

Then they got on to the serious business of harassing the two Russians near by.   

That happened to me once flying into Italy; there were a number of Arab men standing behind me and the passport agent was eyeing them too closely to care about me.

[crazy canuck]

but renting a TV would have seemed very weird when I was growing up

We had a TV.  It got two (and when the weather was just right) three channels.  You also had to be very good at adjusting the antenna just right.