Do people really have trouble imagining what life was like in the 1980s? Wasn’t it basically like now?
Society was very different in many ways:
Personal computers were only just starting to become common. The Apple Macintosh launched in 1984, the IBM PC a few years before. There was no Microsoft Windows, no Linux. If you didn’t type your paperwork yourself, most large workplaces had a typing pool to do it for you
There was no Internet. If you wanted to send a message to someone, you could write a letter and post it, or phone them, or send a telegram
mobile phones were uncommon, and usually only in cars
the Sony Walkman had only just come out in 1979, and you listened to your music on cassettes
cancer, AIDS, heart conditions were almost always untreatable and terminal within years, if not months
US involvement in the Middle East and Afghanistan hadn’t happened yet. Britain had a war with Argentina in the Falkland Islands. Ireland was still fighting with Britain
Personal computers were only just starting to become common. The Apple Macintosh launched in 1984, the IBM PC a few years before. There was no Microsoft Windows, no Linux. If you didn’t type your paperwork yourself, most large workplaces had a typing pool to do it for you
I was given a failing grade in school because I used a computer to type an essay and print it. Dot matrix gave me away. It was considered cheating back then. My Dad was so pissed he went and bought a letter quality printer so that the teacher couldn’t tell that it wasn’t typed.
Society was very different in many ways:
I was given a failing grade in school because I used a computer to type an essay and print it. Dot matrix gave me away. It was considered cheating back then. My Dad was so pissed he went and bought a letter quality printer so that the teacher couldn’t tell that it wasn’t typed.
And now typing on a computer keyboard is a more useful skill than typing on a typewriter.