[Albion] When did modern life ‘defeat’ you?

[El Presidente]

When they reduced the number of Jaffa Cakes per packet from 12 to 10.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Sounds like a nice set-up, but doesn’t it concern you that your friends will go through your stuff and discover all your sex toys and outfits?

I’d prefer to just set the alarm and not advertise the house being empty.

What you do in your private life is your affair (pun intended).

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Social media - really don't GET Snapchat. I've tried. I've got one friend who insists on using it. Lucky I value their friendship more than my overwhelming urge to bin Snapchat forever. So. They send you a photo or a something and then it self-destructs 10 seconds after you open it. REALLY?

It’s mainly used by teenagers for sending photos of themselves undressed.

Herr Tubthumper (aged 15)

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

I’m declaring - mid forties for me!

Music - I haven’t got a clue about most acts in today’s top 40 and have decided to go backwards instead I.e. life’s short and there’s loads, simply loads of stuff from 80s, 70s and 60s that’s great/ I hadn’t discovered. And there’s this instrumental stuff called Classical that I’m increasingly enjoying. Chopin anyone?

Books - paper for me, I get advantages of Kindle etc but frankly, I’m happy to both wait and pay extra to potter round my local bookshop. It’s one of life’s pleasures and I feel lucky to still have one.

Television - I’m still watching it....which by its nature makes me a Luddite given online and streaming is where it’s at.

Cinema - I love going still but frankly, they’ve run out of ideas haven’t they? Unless you like Superhero’s.

Social media - I don’t use. But the pressure to is unrelenting I.e. Unless you’re recording your life, you don’t exist. It’s all so self promoting too, what we once called showing off. Which, we were taught, no one liked.

Sport - I watch football live, as in, go to. On a Monday morning, this makes me a massive minority and, strangely, less knowledgable than the armchairs who toss statistics around like confetti in answer to everything. Including the game I went to!

Communication - I’m still calling friends and family and actually speaking to. Again, this is highly unusual behaviour apparently. No one uses their smart phones to actually talk with. Quaint is how one person recently described my continued use of a landline.

Games - It’s been a while since I learnt I was too slow to press so many buttons in coordination. I don’t just long for the days of Manic Miner, I quite like the idea of playing Board games again! Chess, Draughts or Ker Plunk anyone?

Technology - yes it’s great in so many ways, but increasingly I just can’t fathom much of it.

That old hippy slogan “stop the world, I wanna get off” feels more relevant than ever, modern life is going so fast seemingly that you’re eventually forced to, well, quit! Now, where can I get some nice slippers and do they still make Ovaltine?

You do use social media. This IS a form of social media. I imagine you're also on a form of technology to communicate on here...

 

[Taybha]

When they changed Opal Fruits to bloody Starburst , never purchased them after that , just in case , you know .

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Why should I be defeated by modern life?

There's great music out there - and so many ways to listen to it now. I still have vinyl, CDs and tapes ... but also an MP3 player and a Spotify account. I watch TV still but the availability of catch-up provides so many more options.

I have a Facebook, What'sApp, LInkedIn and Twitter accounts for keeping in touch with people - they're all really useful.

I watch live sports but enjoy matches on TV too. At nearly 62, I'm too old to play football and rugby but I still play cricket.

It's true that I don't play computer games but I wasn't into them when I was young so I don't think that's a sign of growing old. But I do like playing bridge and chess and with the advent of online gaming, they're much more accessible. The NSC chess club does take a lot of my time.

Life's far too short to keep hankering for what's gone: embrace the present and learn to appreciate the changes. Modern life is great ... or, at least, better than the alternative.

Have you tried walking football? I've met guys your age that still play that regularly and thoroughly enjoy it.

 

[The Clamp]

One thing I don't like is gyms insisting you join their app and track all your activity and progress in the gym, having to sync in everytime you step on the treadmill or a weights rack. I can see the benefits I suppose but I've been going to a gym in one form or another for 27 years and I manage perfectly well. Luckily I belong to a gym that does not go on for any of that but some absolutely insist on it.

 

[sydney]

when i made a claim to my income protection insurers last week for time off for prostate cancer surgery only to be told that my cover is accident only ....after 30 years of paying the twatts the premium......really not in a good place right now , just about ready to garott some *******.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Genuinely wondering what you think NSC is? Not just aimed at you obviously, but there are a lot of voices on this thread with thousands of posts bemoaning social networking/media seemingly unaware of the irony of posting said complaint on a social network.

And yes, they still make Ovaltine.

I've been travelling and used social media to regularly update my FB account with photos and stories a) as a record for myself, b) for my friends and family who actively requested them and c) to help my parents know I was safe at the time.

I personally struggle with every person under the sun posting photos of their latest meal or of them in the gym doing a squat with 10kgs on their back pretending to be a don, and in that sense I agree at 32 years of age that trying to make mundane daily activities into a social media post just seems ridiculous. But if you're using it to record a once in a lifetime experience, then I think that's fair enough. Which probably makes me a hypocrite.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

One thing I don't like is gyms insisting you join their app and track all your activity and progress in the gym, having to sync in everytime you step on the treadmill or a weights rack. I can see the benefits I suppose but I've been going to a gym in one form or another for 27 years and I manage perfectly well. Luckily I belong to a gym that does not go on for any of that but some absolutely insist on it.

I get that. Although I think there are a lot of people that benefit from this. One of the biggest issue many gym users have is that they just don't track their progress which, incidentally, leaves them making little progress. So whilst the process itself is arduous, I think the reasoning behind it is totally logical and I imagine it helps many people get better.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I'm still trying to page the Oracle. And that closed down 25/30 years ago.

 

[zefarelly]

Vinyl
Wind up watch
Fountain pen
Proper clothes and shoes
A petrol car with a gear stick
R6M or 4
Read papers and books.

Use an I pad and i phone, fb, Spotify, here, and online news services

Never been a big cinema goer and have always hated computer games, watch sport on TV and attend, likewise still playing and gigging regularly as well as going to gigs. Still hoon around Europe occasionally with the scooter boys (all middle aged)

47, still an angry young man, especially politically. Don't really watch tv sport aside, but did have a bloody good laugh to a few episodes of the young ones on DVD the other day with my lad.

Don't feel like I've given up, but I never felt like the average Joe!

 

[Perfidious Albion]

I do so much agree with the opening post . More and more I feel an alien in today's world.
I would add one thing - metric meeasurements... David Attenborough says that " "this sea creature can grow to 18 metres" or this place is 35 kilometres from that one, and I am none the wiser .
Why not give it in both metric and imperial terms?

 

[father_and_son]

modern life is going so fast seemingly that you’re eventually forced to, well, quit!

Late forties for me... disagree with this line but match much of the rest of the sentiment.

Music - Teen in 80s, loved 80s, stuck in 80s. Listen to bits and pieces from outside that decade but not much... I just keep discovering new music from that decade I have so far missed.

Books - I commute therefore I read. Paperback. And at least one a week, if not more. A kindle would probably be easier but it wouldn't be as satisfying.

Television - I have found the modern phenomenon of binge watching. I watch almost nothing live, but record and watch 3-4 episodes of something back-to-back at the weekend.

Cinema - I love going still but frankly, they’ve run out of ideas haven’t they? Unless you like Superhero’s. THIS

Social media - I don’t use. No twitterbook at all. Nothing in my life is so interesting I feel the need to tell everyone! My concession is I have a group of friends who use Discord, so I use that but just with that group of friends.

Sport - I watch football live, as in, go to. On a Monday morning, this makes me a massive minority and, strangely, less knowledgable than the armchairs who toss statistics around like confetti in answer to everything. Including the game I went to! THIS

Communication - Whatsapp/NSC/Discord. Have a landline, never use it. Never get vaguely close to using my minutes on my mobile.

Games - Grew up with computer games, wrote computer games as a teen. Moved to consoles about 10years ago. Play the immersive RPG games... Skyrim, Fallout, State of Decay and the occasional FPS. I love board games, we still play as a family and I play some obscure ones. Exploding Kittens or Unstable Unicorns anyone?

Technology - Pretty much still riding the wave. Write code in a number of languages, try to learn a new one every few years. I would be classed as a "power user" as I do tend to push the offices PCs to the limit of what they can do.


Sometime around the millenium we seem to have stopped rushing forward and fell into a rut. It's like progress is a tea bag and rather than get a new one, we have just re-used this one over and over until nothing meaningful is coming out anymore... but the current generation seem content with the bland, tasteless cr*p being produced.

 

[boik]

I do so much agree with the opening post . More and more I feel an alien in today's world.
I would add one thing - metric meeasurements... David Attenborough says that " "this sea creature can grow to 18 metres" or this place is 35 kilometres from that one, and I am none the wiser .
Why not give it in both metric and imperial terms?

Because we've converted to the metric system. Or do you still want prices posted as pounds, shillings and pence? I presumed you bothered learning the decimal system so why not just learn the metric system?

 

[Gwylan]

Because we've converted to the metric system. Or do you still want prices posted as pounds, shillings and pence? I presumed you bothered learning the decimal system so why not just learn the metric system?

The metric system is scarcely new to the modern world. We were taught in metric exclusively from 1968 - the government having agreed a ten year bedding-in period in 1965. In 1975, the Metrication Act was passed so, while people over 70 may struggle with metrication, the rest of us should be able to handle it with ease.

 

[Brovion]

Because we've converted to the metric system. Or do you still want prices posted as pounds, shillings and pence? I presumed you bothered learning the decimal system so why not just learn the metric system?

I think it's one thing 'knowing' the metric system as a series of abstract facts (how many centimetres in a metre for example, or knowing that liquid is measured in litres) and another thing relating to it. I sympathise with Perfidious . I know roughly how long a foot is, how far a mile is and what a pound of sausages looks like. I could measure them out without recourse to scales, tape measures, etc. I wouldn't get them spot on but I'd be in the ballpark. Ask me to do the same thing with metres, kilometres and kilograms and I wouldn't be able to estimate nearly so accurately. Could probably make a good guess at a litre of water though.

 

[zeemeeuw]

I think it's one thing 'knowing' the metric system as a series of abstract facts (how many centimetres in a metre for example, or knowing that liquid is measured in litres) and another thing relating to it. I sympathise with Perfidious . I know roughly how long a foot is, how far a mile is and what a pound of sausages looks like. I could measure them out without recourse to scales, tape measures, etc. I wouldn't get them spot on but I'd be in the ballpark. Ask me to do the same thing with metres, kilometres and kilograms and I wouldn't be able to estimate nearly so accurately. Could probably make a good guess at a litre of water though.

... but surely you know that a Penalty gives the Striker a great chance to score from 10.9728 Meters, with only the keeper to beat?

 

[dingodan]

My missus and I are both 40 something and regularly ********** together over FaceTime when one of us is working away.

Modern life ain’t so bad.

Same here.

Say hi for me btw.

 

[Norman Potting]

When Spotify appeared and music became playlists rather than cds. Must check it out at some point.

Spotify in my view is the greatest thing since sliced bread.