(from Workchic.com)
Happy New Year to ALL my friends! Since today, we start a brand new year, 2010, I thought this topic would be appropriate to chat about.
I get some great blog post ideas from my local newspaper and I was reading yet another article in the paper recently, this one by Jocelyn Noveck from The Associated Press. It was a recap of 50 things that changed our lives since the beginning of the millennium. You can read the full article here.  You’ll need to click over and read the list so they will all make sense to you! There are reprints of it all over the internet and you may have already seen this, but I thought it was purely fascinating.
When you think about it, things have changed tremendously in the last 10 years. Heck, I’ve lived long enough to see MAJOR changes in lifestyle during my 50+ years on this planet and I know many of you have too. You younger girls don’t know what you’ve missed. 🙂 To name a few:
- TV in everyone’s homes was not the absolute norm when I was a child. We got our first black and white console TV (complete with rabbit ears) back around 1963, when I was in the 2nd grade and I still remember the cartoon that was on when my Dad plugged in that bad boy and there in front of our little eyes, in our own livingroom, in living “black and white” 🙂 the rooster cartoon, Foghorn Leghorn was on. It was a momentous day for me and my sister. Our family life was changed forever, when we watched Bonanza and Gunsmoke all together every single week.
- From 45 records and vinyl LP’s to 8-track players to CD’s and DVD’s. Do I feel old now?! I totally remember stacking up those 45 records of the Top hits back in the day. The Monkees, Bobby Sherman, Herman’s Hermits, Jackson 5, oh my, the memories of all that. You haven’t experienced music until you hear the scratch of the needle on vinyl. 🙂 Every teenager had one of these old record players for their rooms.
(those precious IBM Selectric typewriters we all loved)
- I do believe we had electric typewriters in high school when I learned to type, but they weren’t that sophisticated back then. My first job was using an electric typewriter and I remember being thrilled when the Selectric III’s came out with auto-erase. Remember that, you old people like me? 🙂 Remember carbon paper (ewwww!).  I vividly remember one of my first real jobs in a commercial real estate office in Atlanta, back in the mid-80’s. I was perfectly happy with my sleek and stylish Selectric III and could do anything on that machine (I typed 90+ wpm). They brought me in my own PC using Displaywrite (word processing software). I had to learn it or else and for about 3 months, I just wanted to cry, it was so hard. After the learning curve though, I fell in love with my new computer and did not look back. I couldn’t have lived without it. All of my computer knowledge back then was learned ON THE JOB. Those of you who got to learn it in school are SO fortunate.
- Cellphones for all! I was a holdout and didn’t get my own cellphone til 2002, not all that long ago really. Now, of course, I love it and couldn’t live without it.  It’s funny to watch old reruns of Miami Vice and see them on their carphones. Those big old clunky phones of the mid-80’s are really funny now, but I sure do remember those days.
OK, enough of my memories!  Let’s get on with the 50 things that have changed our lives this decade, in alphabetical order.
- Airports
- Alternative medicine
- Apps
- AARP cards for boomers
- Aging
- Blog (I blog, you blog, he blogs, how did we spend our time before blogging?)Â Good question!
- BlackBerrys
- Book clubs
- Cable
- Cameras
- Celebrity culture
- Cell phones
- Chefs
- Connectivity
- Cougars (not the 4 legged kind)
- Crocs
- Dancing
- Dating
- DVRs
- Embarrassment entertainment
- Fat
- Foodie
- Going green
- GPS
- Helicopter parenting
- Information overload (I’ll amen that one)
- Instant gratification
- iPods
- Life coaches
- Musicals
- Netflix
- Organic
- Pregnancy chic
- Reality TV
- Recession chic
- Retro chic
- Sexting (oh my, I’ve heard about this!)
- Starbucks
- Tattoos
- Texting
- TV screens
- Tween culture
- Uggs
- Wii
- Wikipedia
- Yoga
- YouTube
So, how about that list? To get the full recap on all of them, click over and read the article and they will all make sense when you read the explanations. The writer elaborates on all 50 items and it’s very interesting to see where we are after 10 years and makes you wonder what the next 10 years will bring. Feel free to comment on any or all of these.
I can see the good things and the bad things about technology and how far we’ve come, can’t you? I’m looking forward to a fresh and new year in 2010. How about you?
Don’t forget next Wednesday, January 6th, we are having a BIG party, Top Projects of 2009, complete with Before and After pics. Click here for all the details. All you need to do is write up a post with YOUR favorite projects that you completed in 2009 and share them on your blog. Come over on the 6th and link up to the party (please link back to the party post, once it is live). You can use the button or not. Last year we had 100 participate and it was so much fun to see what everyone had completed for the year. I have picked my Top 10 Faves to recap and share again. It’s gonna be fun, so don’t miss out! I do not want to party alone! 🙂
It truly is amazing to see what a mere 10 years has brought us. When I think of how technology that has progressed, I am taken aback. I was one of those who thought that Y2K might come in with a major computer glitch of some kind. I actually went out and bought a manual can opener in case I had no electricity for a couple of days! What a hoot! Then there is the way computer technology has progressed- whew I get a headache. My son learned so much and so fast on our PC; he would show me something and I’d ask how he had learned it. How do kids pick things up so fast and without formal training, anyway? Things change and we have to change right along with them or get left behind. And there is no way I want to be an old fogie, EVER!! I want to be “with it” for as long as my senses hold out- LOL!!!
Happy New Year, Rhoda!
~ Sue
Wow! What an interesting list. I read the article and I thought it was interesting that it said Alabama put a tax on state workers that are overweight! WOW!
I am glad that chefs made the top 50. I love watching the food network and getting new cooking ideas. It is inspirational to me.
Happy New YEAR!
I’m right there with you in those memories – how the world has changed since we were in second grade! Good post!
I am 55, so I am right there with you in regard to all those memories! It is so amazing at all the changes, especially in the world of technology. I am still learning so many things and if it weren’t for my older daughters, I would totally be out in left field. They have helped me so much with technological things and I still have trouble. I can’t imagine my life without a computer. Hope 2010 brings lots of joy to your life! Love & blessings from NC!
I’m right there with you on the tv,recorder player,typewriter and
cell phone. BUt what is contectivity and helicopter parenting?
Those are new to me.
Happy New Year, Dear Rhoda! Oh, Dear One, I remember those things! I think we’re rather blessed to have seen so much of the world change before our tiny eyes! Well, our most beautiful tiny eyes! 🙂 I wish you all the best in 2010! My husband has just retired and we’re treated ourselves to some wonderful trips! I’m so glad I’ve gotten to know you and have been so inspired by all of your wonderfulness!
Be a sweetie,
Shelia 🙂
Great list, Rhoda! 🙂 I’m a child of the 80s, but even I didn’t learn computer stuff in school. We didn’t get a home computer until 1995, and everything I’ve learned has been self-taught. It’s amazing the leaps and bounds we’ve come. I remember watching Tom Cruise check an “email” in the first Mission Impossible and just thinking that was crazy! 😉
Oh Yes – Do I remember!!! All that and then some. 🙂
Happy New Year!
Hi Rhoda,
Happy New Year to you, your family and all your blog friends. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I remember rabbit ears and the Selectric typewriter I worked on for many years. Can you imagine, we never had a Spell Check to use after we finished typing. Your reminder about carbon paper made me think of the onion skin paper we used for file copies. Wow! I guess I’ve tracked quite a few years behind me also. Here’s to a happy & healthy 2010! TFS! Sheila
Oh Rhoda, you and I must have been born in the same year, how I remember those things. I remember as a child seeing the Jetsons and thinking that some day our world might be like that and look how close we are coming into that age of technology. My dad was boggled by the VCR, he would lose his mind today with everything. I’m pretty sure we had a black and white TV with 3 channels but I remember the first color TV we got and Mannix was what came on with the car going over the cliff as soon as we turned it on. Funny the things that stick in your head.
Thanks for the recap.
I Really enjoyed reading this list. We really have seen a lot of change in the last 10 years. Amazing really when you think about it! Looking forward to the Top Projects party on January 6th! Happy New Year!
Thanks for that little trek down memory lane! I am a bit younger but I remember having my own record player, complete with those little plastic inserts so I could play my 45s (ooh… I was a huge Monkees fan!!). I think we always had a tv but I remember the first coloured one.. a 26″ floor model Zenith which I think cost $700.. a huge chunk of change back in the early 70s!! I also held out on a cellphone, till 2001! Wishing you a fabulous 2010!
Greeeaat post, Rhoda. You will continue to be an inspiration to me in 2010. Thanks for your visit by my blog. I feel honored!
WendyBee
Great Post. I had one of those electric typewriters back in the 80’s when I was highschool. I love the auto erase. I never took “computers” course in highschool, I don’t think it was offered, only “typing class”. My 9 yrd old put together a Power Point presentation for me for my birthday the other day. She had pictures and my favourtie music playing in back ground. Technology has come along way and kids are learning from a really young age. Oh yeah… I grew up in Portugal on a farm… we didn’t have a TV (black & white) until 1979 with 2 channels on it. Now we have 3 t.v.s, 4 computers and I don’t know how many electronic thingys I never had back in the day.
Oh I loved this trip down memory lane!
Hi Rhoda! I am your age so that certainly brought back a lot of memories. Of all the the things listed from the last decade, I am amazed at how Facebook is a tool to connect with those who were seemingly “long-lost”. I predict its social impact will be big. Happy New Year and all the best to everyone here!
Good heavens! Makes your head spin just think about all the changes, doesn’t it?
Makes me even more grateful for Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, Rhoda! Sending you many, many good wishes for the best year ever. May 2010 just blow your socks off with blessings abounding.
XO,
Sheila 🙂
Hi Rhoda-
Your post made me smile – big time. I, too am a child of that era and fondly remember watching a b/w tv with the rabbit ears. I also remember when my brother, sister and I were watching and the reception went out, we would fight over who’s turn it was to have to get up and play with the rabbit ears to get the picture back. We have come a long way. I am looking forward to visiting you in 2010.
Happy New Year.