That sounds like a loaded question: tell why this is white so I can tell you why you are wrong. Also 90' is an arbitrary number. A lot of us have been around in technology before that.

But to fall in your trap and answer your question: yes modern technology has improve my lifestyle a lot. Same as 90s improved it too. No questions. I like to watch Netflix in my tablet and having a smartwatch on my wrist. I like that my car can connect to my phone so I can listen to my favorite music on the way to work. Things like Pandora, Apple Music and Spotify give me effectively all the music of the world. I also like browsing Wikipedia with all the knowledge it can give me. It helps me at my job too.

vladstamate wrote:

That sounds like a loaded question: tell why this is white so I can tell you why you are wrong. Also 90' is an arbitrary number. A lot of us have been around in technology before that.

But to fall in your trap and answer your question: yes modern technology has improve my lifestyle a lot. Same as 90s improved it too. No questions. I like to watch Netflix in my tablet and having a smartwatch on my wrist. I like that my car can connect to my phone so I can listen to my favorite music on the way to work. Things like Pandora, Apple Music and Spotify give me effectively all the music of the world. I also like browsing Wikipedia with all the knowledge it can give me. It helps me at my job too.

I imagine everyone has different lifestyle and expectations from technology so I couldn't say anyone to have wrong or right answers. 😀 😉
Considering here most users surely are interested in old technology I imagine it's interesting to hear each experiences from people that started in the 286 or older computer era compared to nowdays.
I was saying 90's tech cause that's when I started with computer technology. 😉

For example in the modern tech I agree things like Wikipedia are an incredible source for study and work, and that compared to the 90's improved every lifestyles probably. But for example smartwatches are one of the things I'd feel like something duplicating what already existed.
Could we say that technology improves lifestyle until it would not decrease from your free time the time you need to actually use it?

Improved? yes, Interested? no.
Slight worried? yes, enough to do anything? no

Smartphone itself has completely changed the way we live. We can now find, order, book, etc, just about anything from wherever we are.
But I just cant feel attached to newer tech, maybe because it is truly disposable these days, Sure my 486 was obsolete within 2 years where as my 5+ year old PC is still holding on, but that 486 cost twice as much at the time!

What worries me is the over reliance of technology.
As a simple example, I do a lot of restaurant IT. wifi goes down, it happens, These days that means they cant take your order using that hand held device. Newer managers panic, old ones simply shout out notepad and pens people!
That said, If I ever lost Satnav while driving, I'd have no clue outside a very small radius from home and 0 backup plan

I like '60s-'70s design & aesthetics (post-modernism, futurism, street art, etc.)
I like '80s music (synthpop, italo disco, new wave), fashion & cars.
I like '90s video games & demos and technology.

In no way in hell would I remotely want to "go back" and live in any of those times. We tend to have fond memories of previous eras but only because we ignore the real problems and hardships that existed then and focus on the good bits that made us feel happy, while looking at the parts of our lives *right now* that we don't particularly like. That is a mistake. It does disservice to the years of progress that occurred in all kinds of areas and snubs the people who made that happen.

By most measurable datums, people living now are better off than they were 20 or even 10 years ago. Yes, there are outlier cases where disaster or war have caused social collapse - but even that is something I see getting less and less frequent as time goes on and people finally adapt to the ridiculously rapid societal changes we've gone through. The thing about living in "the future" is that you can freely take things from the past and incorporate them into your lifestyle while still enjoying the advantages that modern life has to offer.

Maybe this post was more philosophical than you wanted.

chinny22 wrote:

Improved? yes, Interested? no. Slight worried? yes, enough to do anything? no […]
Show full quote

Improved? yes, Interested? no.
Slight worried? yes, enough to do anything? no

Smartphone itself has completely changed the way we live. We can now find, order, book, etc, just about anything from wherever we are.
But I just cant feel attached to newer tech, maybe because it is truly disposable these days, Sure my 486 was obsolete within 2 years where as my 5+ year old PC is still holding on, but that 486 cost twice as much at the time!

What worries me is the over reliance of technology.
As a simple example, I do a lot of restaurant IT. wifi goes down, it happens, These days that means they cant take your order using that hand held device. Newer managers panic, old ones simply shout out notepad and pens people!
That said, If I ever lost Satnav while driving, I'd have no clue outside a very small radius from home and 0 backup plan

I understand your point! I think technology was expensive but still something that should have last for long time, just like having a TV in the 70's and 80's. For example i had only one (1) crt television from something like '84 to '98 and it was repaired some times and mostly perfectly worked. I imagine one difference could be back then there was less technology but each one with some specific and innovative purpose. Television didn't replace the radio and it improved "slowly" (colors, stereo audio, case size) in many years.

xjas wrote:

I like '60s-'70s design & aesthetics (post-modernism, futurism, street art, etc.) I like '80s music (synthpop, italo disco, new […]
Show full quote

I like '60s-'70s design & aesthetics (post-modernism, futurism, street art, etc.)
I like '80s music (synthpop, italo disco, new wave), fashion & cars.
I like '90s video games & demos and technology.

In no way in hell would I remotely want to "go back" and live in any of those times. We tend to have fond memories of previous eras but only because we ignore the real problems and hardships that existed then and focus on the good bits that made us feel happy, while looking at the parts of our lives *right now* that we don't particularly like. That is a mistake. It does disservice to the years of progress that occurred in all kinds of areas and snubs the people who made that happen.

By most measurable datums, people living now are better off than they were 20 or even 10 years ago. Yes, there are outlier cases where disaster or war have caused social collapse - but even that is something I see getting less and less frequent as time goes on and people finally adapt to the ridiculously rapid societal changes we've gone through. The thing about living in "the future" is that you can freely take things from the past and incorporate them into your lifestyle while still enjoying the advantages that modern life has to offer.

Maybe this post was more philosophical than you wanted.

I also sometime think that we usually have better memories of older tech years than they really were, but I'd think modern commercial tech actually grew much more we actually needed.
Probably when we get older and older it's usual to end like many that preferred forever analog technology compared to the digital one (audio LP vs audio cassette vs audio CD for example). 😀
But on the philosophical side, I ask myself if they were right thinking analog technology was "better" than digital one cause it was a more natural and limited technology.

Modem technology has definitely improved my lifestyle. In the wallet aspect.
Modern technology is far too prone to failure and tends to be to hard for the average person to not brake or have an id10t error.

Interested? No. The newest tech I ever owned was a 3rd gen opron and a skulltrial system. I drive an 80s car, have a land line and crt tv with rabbit ears and laserdisc player.
I do use the internet, but not in the way most people do today.

I'd rather go back to the way things were, every time I see someone with there head in their phone I get sick/mad. Take away the Internet and smart phones alone and most people would not know how to do even simple things.

I have always been curious about new stuff and old things, too. ^^
But to be honest, I was very happy with and -thankful for- the technology of the 90s already.
I had a pager, a cell phone, and a desktop computer (286 w/ scanner, printer, HiFi sound, etc) and other stuff.

And I remember how I surfed the Web in '96 with Netscape. Via dial-up, of coure. But that didn't matter,
because websites of the day were more light-weigt, too. All in all, it was the same as it is today.
Now we have super fast internet access, but the modern sites are bloated with scripts and and sneaky ads (whereas back then we only had flashing GIF pictures).

What once was communicated via ICQ is now on Whatsapp. And before this, there was e-mail.
And before e-mail, people could have sent "messages" via online serices like Minitel (since 1982).
All without the need for an expensive PC and the risk of malware, A telephone/terminal device or a TV box was all it needs.

If I had to name a difference, I would say that older pages had a certain charme and wheren't as cold and sterile as they are now (aka App/Win10 look).
Even the 2000s were more feelingly and brimful of life, I would say. Of course that's just my opinion, so please forgive me.

I'm not an old guy, though, nor do I belong to the "back then everything was better" fraction.
I'm very thankful about the improvements flash technology makes, for example.
It's also fascinating to see that Virtual Reality is finally on the rise (-again- ;) ).
Arduinos and Raspberry Pi's are also great. Just like 3D printers and USB programmers are.

But on the other hand I can't help, but have to smile about other trends.
For example we now have Full HD movies that look awesome on modern LCDs..
Just like DVDs and Laserdiscs did look awesome on CRT monitors the years before.

Of course higher resolutions or frame rate are better, nevertheless.
But what happens if you -say- record something in 1080p at 60Hz (instead of 30Hz) and upload it ?
Right, video hosters use the same bit rate for it, thus degrading overall image quality by 50% (worst case).
The same is happening with UHD content. Because of lossy compression you endup with something less detailed than a
1080p video. The only return you'll get is a high CPU usage for decoding a highly complex pixel sludge.

Okay, Blu-ray media is perhaps not so much affected by this, but you get the point.
Anytime technology evolves, quality is going down somwhere else.
Just think of video cameras. Amateur cameras of the 80s/90s may have been bulky and low-res (NTSC/PAL) by todays standards.
But even the cheapest models had proper optics and microphones.

My family had an old b/w tube camera (orthicon or vidicon) since before I was born.
It was an amteurish camera (but well built; full metal casing) with an UHF modulator/power box.

Someone could think it must have been really crappy compared to todays cameras. But it wasn't. Not at all.
In fact, it produced beautiful pictures. Clear and soft, clean edges and no noise. Plus, the optics was great.
All done by +40 years old technology. And with a little bit of tinkering, we could have even get a pure VBS signal (the RGB of the b/w world).

Now in stark contrast, we have 4K camcorders with plastic cases, glued batteries and plastic optics.
So while the digital stuff is surely briliant now, the "analogue", physical parts became rather poor.
Not even an external Mic-In jack do have most models now.

Anyway, that was just for the technology part. The lifstyle of today is also inspired by ideas of the people which surround us. Stories, music only beeing a few of them to name.
I hope that we, as a society, will somewhen improve to at least just a fraction to what our technology already has improved to..
To overcome the growing halfheartedness and arrogance coulde be one step in the right direction.

Jade Falcon wrote:

Modem technology has definitely improved my lifestyle. In the wallet aspect. Modern technology is far too prone to failure and […]
Show full quote

Modem technology has definitely improved my lifestyle. In the wallet aspect.
Modern technology is far too prone to failure and tends to be to hard for the average person to not brake or have an id10t error.

Interested? No. The newest tech I ever owned was a 3rd gen opron and a skulltrial system. I drive an 80s car, have a land line and crt tv with rabbit ears and laserdisc player.
I do use the internet, but not in the way most people do today.

I'd rather go back to the way things were, every time I see someone with there head in their phone I get sick/mad. Take away the Internet and smart phones alone and most people would not know how to do even simple things.

Some time ago I was discussing that many "innovations" seems to not give you more free time, instead give you the comfort to not apply anymore into any task you already was able to do. One example was the car navigators. A friend was saying that since he was using it, he understood that without it he couldn't go anywhere anymore. Just like he someway "forgot" all the drive experiences needed to go around a new city just looking the direction panels and your own good drive sense.
I perfectly understand that point. In the past I didn't remember many times a paper map was needed to drive around a new city, ok sometime it'd be a good help having one but often you only needed slow drive and a good eye looking directions.

Smartphone are also another big discussion point. One sad example is when you see people together at a restaurant table, none talking, everyone with the head on their displays in silence, eating, each reading what other alone people are writing. And the feeling many don't like or don't know what to talk in real life anymore. So the comfort to not mantain a social life, emulated with empty short text messages.

That's a very interesting discussion ! For me I try to keep the best from each age... For my opinion Ages must not change each other, but accumulate in one Great Present, that combines all the Past Ages Alive as well as Present)... For example I use film cameras for general purpose (but mostly scan films, also print black&white). I like and use mechanical watches (now wear 1947 Onsa ), read printed books (althouhg I read computer related books, even vintage in PDF or DJVU from a laptop modern or 486/p1). I like modern mp3 and flac players (I use Sony, not Ipod, which I sold as the itunes seemed not to be comfortable to use), but sometimes I like to use good old music tapes - not only as I used to have them in 1988-2002, but because I like how they sound, in general)...
Although I see that people, who much obey the rules of modern technologies style or fashion, are being changed, their way of thinking and living s being changed... For example, the thing, making me very worried, that people around, most my friends don't call anymore, but discuss everything only electronically in Facebook or it's local analogues - and for me that's a pity as it's very important to me to hear the voice of a companion. )

And I think it's vital to "filter" life - not to become a slave of modern (or not modern) stile, fashion or technology - they need to be used wisely as well as everything else - there's expression in Russian "beZ fanatizma ili beS fanatizma" - "the demon of fanaticism or without the fanaticism at al"). ))...

ScoutPilot19 wrote:

That's a very interesting discussion ! For me I try to keep the best from each age... For my opinion Ages must not change each other, but accumulate in one Great Present, that combines all the Past Ages Alive as well as Present)... For example I use film cameras for general purpose (but mostly scan films, also print black&white). I like and use mechanical watches (now wear 1947 Onsa ), read printed books (althouhg I read computer related books, even vintage in PDF or DJVU from a laptop modern or 486/p1). I like modern mp3 and flac players (I use Sony, not Ipod, which I sold as the itunes seemed not to be comfortable to use), but sometimes I like to use good old music tapes - not only as I used to have them in 1988-2002, but because I like how they sound, in general)...
Although I see that people, who much obey the rules of modern technologies style or fashion, are being changed, their way of thinking and living s being changed... For example, the thing, making me very worried, that people around, most my friends don't call anymore, but discuss everything only electronically in Facebook or it's local analogues - and for me that's a pity as it's very important to me to hear the voice of a companion. )

And I think it's vital to "filter" life - not to become a slave of modern (or not modern) stile, fashion or technology - they need to be used wisely as well as everything else - there's expression in Russian "beZ fanatizma ili beS fanatizma" - "the demon of fanaticism or without the fanaticism at al"). ))...

Books for example are a good point. I didn't read many books but when ebooks were out I never like the concept at first. The natural analogic material of the book, something existing since ever and the print of its letters it's a world that already existed and perfected through centuries. Where's the innovations? Books are still sold nowdays cause they are perfect in their own purpose and their perfection probably came from continue but very minimal changes.

Anyway I don't say it's better to live retro lifestyle or modern lifestyle, everyone choice is the right for ourself. But I see the modern tech being a different commercial product of the old one. The modern tech feels like it need to be replaced as soon as possible and when not replaced, integrated with another tech, all in a sort of infinite loop. The same feels for the software itself. Like they don't need to be optimized until a perfection point, they are replaced.

About the social/friends point that's interesting too. I also think that not only the vocal aspect of a dialog but also the eye-contact and the aspect to be -really- there in front of someone durign a conversation is impossible to replaces and should not, even with any never ending virtual reality solutions.

Latest technologies have aided in some respects like communication & entertainment. Lifestyle improvement, nope. Today's certain technologies seem hell bent on making life 'easy' and if you don't realize it enough, it may mostly make you 'lazy'. Some may like them, but, to each their own.

Compared to the technological advancements in the 90's and many other fundamental/ground-breaking stuff long before that, today's technologies seem to be more like refinements & oriented towards miniaturization, atleast on some fronts. Hoping that these technologies do keep entertaining as well as gear up for the greater good.

The only thing I like about smartphones is the ability to use Google Contacts, so you don't have to manually re-renter your contacts after changing your phone. Not that I frequently change phones; in fact, I only do that when the old phone is damaged or such. Nonetheless, device-independent contact management is always nice.

I found Whatsapp useful too, but it's mostly for business.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

The only thing I like about smartphones is the ability to use Google Contacts, so you don't have to manually re-renter your contacts after changing your phone.

I don't even use that, I just export the contacts database, save it to my harddrive and when I get a new phone I transfer the file and import the database.

I store contacts on the SIM card.

I honestly wish I never had a cellphone but now a ton of things depend on it for 2-factor authentication that I can't stop using a cellphone now...

Modern technology has definitely improved certain things, fast Internet access and HD TVs among other things are great. I do have a modern smartphone, but barely use any apps other than the basic phone/mail/WhatsApp... I just think all this mobile app craze has filled the world with lots of useless software.

Also, what makes older technology more appealing to me is that it seems to be more tinkerer-friendly. While new gadgets may be easier to use now, they are kind of boring if you like to take things apart 😁. Nowadays you even have companies that would sue their clients for modding their products if they could.

I don't understand hd TVs. I mean I understand wanting a 50" screen that's 2" thick.
But a good crt with a good SD video like laserdisc,DVD or over air tv looks just as good if not very close. It's not until you hit 2K that it's worth wile.

Oh try playing a SD video on a modern HD tv, yeah it will look like junk on HD but look grate on the good crt.
Basically to properly use HD you need far more then just the TV. Like most modern tech you get roped into buying more then you'd think you'd needed.

The only modern tech that I find truly worth wile on a daily basis is satnav, but don't ever rely on it because the second it's gone your screwed.

Jade Falcon wrote:

I don't understand hd TVs. I mean I understand wanting a 50" screen that's 2" thick. But a good crt with a good SD video like l […]
Show full quote

I don't understand hd TVs. I mean I understand wanting a 50" screen that's 2" thick.
But a good crt with a good SD video like laserdisc,DVD or over air tv looks just as good if not very close. It's not until you hit 2K that it's worth wile.

Oh try playing a SD video on a modern HD tv, yeah it will look like junk on HD but look grate on the good crt.
Basically to properly use HD you need far more then just the TV. Like most modern tech you get roped into buying more then you'd think you'd needed.

The only modern tech that I find truly worth wile on a daily basis is satnav, but don't ever rely on it because the second it's gone your screwed.

Just like cars, the more the tv is bigger/higher resolution the more you'll need to set it far from the viewer point. So basically you could have sort of "similar result" moving your table closer to the old/smaller tv. In many things like technology there's never a "stop" point where it would be better to optimize a concept without adding things you should not care, or creating new concepts that don't add anything on the lifestyle side.

TheMobRules wrote:

Modern technology has definitely improved certain things, fast Internet access and HD TVs among other things are great. I do have a modern smartphone, but barely use any apps other than the basic phone/mail/WhatsApp... I just think all this mobile app craze has filled the world with lots of useless software.

Also, what makes older technology more appealing to me is that it seems to be more tinkerer-friendly. While new gadgets may be easier to use now, they are kind of boring if you like to take things apart 😁. Nowadays you even have companies that would sue their clients for modding their products if they could.

Interesting point too. Another thing of the past was that you was theoretically owner of the product once paid. Newer products seems more like services than objects.