"Kids these days" by Extra Fabulous Comics

I do lament some old things while at the same time being happy things have changed.

I do miss not being expected to have my phone with me all the time - but I'm also happy that I can contact my teenage daughter wherever she is.

I do miss the era of physical media, especially video stores - but I also like being able to download any media I like (arr!) and have a lot of it streaming too, and fitting all of it into a tiny amount of space.

I do miss my old tiny 1980s manual Toyota Corrola - but I also like only spending a fraction of my paycheck on gas because I drive a Prius now. And I certainly don't miss leaded gasoline.

I do miss the internet of the 1990s when it was more like the Wild West - but I also like things like adblockers and anti-tracking extensions and not having to clean your cookies regularly.

I'm sure I could think of others, but these are off the top of my head.

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One of the things I deeply miss is sleeping under the stars. I grew up in a tiny rural town, and we used to have long power cuts during summer. I am talking like more than 9 hrs every day. During nights, we used to sleep on terrace to stay cool. I don’t miss the power cuts, but I also miss those uncomplicated days.

Now a days, I feel like we are living in a unholy mix of Cyberpunk, Orwellian and Kafkaesque dystopia.

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- I don't know where you live, but this is very much still doable now. It all depends on your location. If you'd actually like to live somewhere like that, try looking for towns with 10k or less people. It might take a while, but eventually you'll find one you like
  
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to be fair, there wasn't much that needed blocking back then either. Mass tracking came about later.

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- There were a ton of ads though. And you couldn't block them.
  
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Having a few hours of the day where you went offline because you wanted to because either you couldn't find anything interesting, your downloads were going to take hours, your PC was down, the internet was down or someone else wanted to use the computer.

So you had no choice but to go spend time going something else ... go for a walk, play a sport, hang out with your friends, read a book or just walk downtown for no reason. And in all that time you were out, you had no phone and no connection to the internet which meant your mind was free to not really think of much for a few hours.

I like the internet and I like social media but I dislike the ability of everyone having, wanting, needing a perpetual connection to everyone and everything all the time.

I feel like a junky sometimes ... I want to go offline but I'm so addicted to it that I never leave.

6
- I'm glad I don't have to be alone with my thoughts anymore. My thoughts are dangerous.
  
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I do miss not being expected to have my phone with me all the time

I didn't have a cell phone for long after they became mainstream. I still remember a friend hitting me up on Facebook with a message saying he had been calling me all day and kept getting VM, asking why I don't answer my phone. I thoroughly enjoyed saying "I wasn't home and don't take my landline with me when I go out". I do have a cellphone now, and I dislike how people freak out if you don't respond within 10 minutes. Like, chill the fuck out dude, I'm doing things.

I do miss the era of physical media

I still buy vinyl records, and love listening to them. Thankfully they're hipster now, so you can get high quality, deep cut records for just about any album. I buy CDs at the thrift store for $0.25-$1.00. I've managed to buy every CD I lost throughout my life, plus everything else I always wanted, but couldn't afford. I even found the Pink Floyd Pulse album in perfect condition for $2.

6
- Thankfully they’re hipster now, so you can get high quality, deep cut records for just about any album
  
  Yeah, but super expensive. My daughter loves vinyl, but we never buy anything new because you're going to spend at least $30 for anything decent.
  
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I still buy all my switch games as second hand cartridges. I just like owning the fully. Was the same with my 3DS. Fuck digital Downloads from companies that obviously plan to shut down their online shops...

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To your last point, I like that as the internet has become more "civilized," no matter how risky a click may seem, it's been over 10 years since I've accidentally been exposed to CSAM or videos of something or someone being killed or maimed. I know it's still out there, but I don't see it anymore.

2

Schrodinger's nostalgia - life was worse and better depending on the current goals of the speaker.

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Had to walk to school, uphill both ways in -40C everyday, all year. Things were better back then.

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Current goals? In my experience, it depends on the speaker's mood. If the person feel sad, they think of a cherrypicked happy moment in the past. Or, having a superiority complex and looking down on younger folks. I have read that the former response provides a natural antidepressant effect when one is feeling sad.

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I had to read it three times, because I didn't find it funny at all in any sense and I was trying to find a funny twist, but I didn't succeed. It's too real for me

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It's just funny-sad. We both have it the easiest and the hardest.

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I didn't laugh either. Though I think the contradiction of "life fucking sucked back then" followed by "life was fucking awesome back then" was supposed to be funny.

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- Oooh, I think you're right. I was so carried by the reality of all the statements that I missed that the 2nd and 4th panels feature statements which are diametrically opposite.
  
  Thanks!!!
  
  I'm still not laughing, but I get the twist and why it's funny!
  
  Edit: fixed grammar
  
  1
Eh, low hanging, pandering humor. Perfect for syndication

0
- Yeah, because if there's one thing everyone knows about Extra Fabulous it's that it's perfect for syndication! Why, there's only TWO instances of the world's most versatile word in this one and literally no ejaculate!
  
  Kidding aside, it's fine if you didn't like the comic, but that was one of the worst takes I've seen in all of 2023 🤦😄
  
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I lived in Southern California in the early nineties on very little money. The only real "hardship" was that I needed a co-signer to rent an apartment until I was about twenty five.

Other than that, it's not like I was living in luxury, and I certainly could not have bought a house, but it was comfortably doable on slightly more than minimum wage. (And several of my classmates did buy houses in southern California on starting salaries while still in their twenties)

I make roughly seven times more money now, and feel like I wouldn't be able to afford a two bedroom apartment anywhere in California.

It wasn't harder then. At least not for me.

But we did have a way better music environment. Like a lot better. I can say this because I spent the 2010s taking my daughter to hundreds of shows at every size and style of venue imaginable. It was a lot of fun. It was our thing. But it didn't compare to the vibe back in my time. Everything got gentrified. Even the "dive" venues felt suburban.

Entertainment in general has gotten a whole lot greedier while providing a whole lot less.

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I have a fuckin' dolt of an uncle who was trying to tell me that points ignition is better than electronically controlled ignition. Like??? Yeah dude I love adjusting my spark timing by hand it's so much fun 🙄

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And more moving parts that wear out, yay!

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I'm guessing here, but it could be the feel of direct control and accomplishment. If it goes out, you can fix it. If you adjust it, you control it.

Manual transmission gives you that feeling of complete control of the vehicle. If you keep it in 2nd, it stays in 2nd. Whereas drifting around in an automatic is possible, the feeling isn't the same. If you exceed the limited rpm, the system kicks in and shifts to 3rd.

It's more of a pride/accomplishment/feeling than a fact. The fact is, automatic vehicles are more efficient in most cases. But people (myself included) prefer manuals for the feeling of control.

Maybe that's the same with your uncle and his knowledge and skill.

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- So I actually prefer manual transmission myself, but there is no reason to prefer points. They're super frustrating. It would be like going backwards from fuel injection to carburetors. Like I'm a tinkerer don't get me wrong but some stuff is just... worse
  
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- Ignition, not transmission. In old cars, there'd be a contact that span round and touched other contacts to trigger the spark plugs at the right time. In a modern car, that's done electronically, and so doesn't start out and need replacing, and can vary the spark timings based on things like speed and temperature while the engine's running instead of just when you have the bonnet open.
  
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- automatic vehicles are more efficient
  
  I find that very hard to believe when I can keep my car from unnecessarily downshifting when going up a slight incline. Or putting it in neutral while coasting.
  
  Hell when I first got my car the avg mpg was 21mpg and after driving it for a few months I've gotten it up to 30.
  
  This is obviously anecdotal evidence so if anyone has more info on it that'd be great
  
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Tv's ending up not being supported anymore after 2 years, leading to needing to buy a new one or rent a device to still get tv from your isp is absolute shit.

I haven't been able to buy decent work pants and or shoes for the past 5 years, i remember my first work boots lasting me 11 years and costing €40. My most recent ones were similar in material make up and cost €170, but they looked worn after 2 weeks. I used to buy work pants for €60 and they would last literal years upon years. My last pairs of pants (3 combined) were €80 a piece on discount and were worn beyond repair within a year...all 3 pairs.

To think i pay more than double the rent, income is up only €60 a month compared to then.

There is a lot that has gone backwards.

Having to look 3 times to cross the street on a green because the world is filled by people in cars not paying attention anymore and i get into near collisions 4/5 times a week is also absolutely insane. It feels like i'm the only person that understands traffic lights xD

Tbh i find it hard to think of positives about everything that has changed...

My energy bill is going up significantly because our government has decided we now (as a result of ev's) are using too much electricity. I don't own a car, any car for that matter as i can't afford one...but now i'm punished for my neighbours big fat fancy ev.

Our energy usage (2 people) is far below the 1 person average and we are now being punished for it?

Health insurance (legally required over here) is also going up significantly, we can't even find a doctor as they are all at their limit and don't take on new patients.

This really needs to stop.

So eh..good things...good things..hmm, can someone help me out a little?

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Western Europe, 1950s era. Capitalism had to make compromises. The soviet union was right next door - if people realized that seizing the means of production would improve their quality of life, they'd have a communist revolution on their hands. So concessions were made. "See, you don't need communism to have a good life, we're giving you all those things too!"

And finally, the capitalists won and the soviet union was no more, parceled up and sold to the capital owners in the west. Now they don't feel the need to make concessions without a major communist power in their backyard. So they roll back the progress slowly, hoping no one notices.

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- Yes, but what about insert whatever culture war topic of the hour?
  
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Don't forget that the best music ever was the one that came out when I was in my late adolescence, everything since then went downhill fast.

Men At Work, Rick Springfield, REO Speedwagon... now that was REAL music!

"I was into Star Wars. You were into that Empire Strikes Back shit."

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I mean, the 80s were an objectively awesome time for music.

(I wasn't alive yet)

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- I think the big reason people think that music from another time was better is because you only get to hear the good songs; they stopped playing the shitty ones long ago.
  
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- 90s too. 00s were pretty good. Some real bangers in the 10s as well.
  
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I like today's music but it seems derivative. Maybe I'm full of shit, and feel free to tell me why, but it seems like music from my dad's youth (which I also like) was way different than mine, but nothing has changed that much since then.

You could take today's music and put it on a radio station in the 90s and it wouldn't seem out of place if you didn't know any better. I don't think the same is true for 90s music on a 60s or 70s station.

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- A good chunk of that is going to be because the 90's was around the time when digital tools became accessible, good, industry wide things, and we haven't had a kind of big musical innovation since that point, as far as the technology itself goes. That transition probably happened more noticeably in the 2000's, but you could tell it was happening over the course of the 90's for sure. The music industry has also not changed that much, we're still very much living in that reagan kind of neoliberal huge music label era, but that's kind of been around forever, so I kind of doubt that's been a major change from the 60's up to now. You could maybe say that streaming and the internet has changed music, and it certainly has, because now there are no gatekeepers, everyone listens to everything, and lots of artists put out like, a 10 minute single that changes styles six times so it might be propagated better online, instead of like a 90 minute experimental album. But then, there are more room for both of them, because people are more easily able to find what they want, and the latter was never gonna be mainstream anyways.
  
  If I had to point out a larger genre shift, there has definitely been a large mainstreaming of rap and this kind of "pop country" more recently. You had those in the 90's, kind of infamously, but hootie and the blowfish does not really sound like modern country through some cultural progression that I don't really understand because I'm not brushed up on it. NWA and Tupac do not sound the same as modern rap, which has been getting a lot more of a "soft" kind of vibe, which I'd probably attribute to the influence of like, kanye, and maybe some lo-fi stuff like nujabes, and maybe just a mainstreaming of the genre at large. The subject matter has shifted, the tone has shifted, and the music itself has changed. Those genres would not sound the same, relative to their 90's counterparts.
  
  The biggest thing I can think of that probably makes 60's and 70's music sound out of place next to 90's music is probably how hair metal got killed by grunge, which I couldn't really attribute to any one reason in particular. There's a pretty clear line between your rock acts, which have been going forever, and your later metal acts, and that line still exists with grunge, but grunge marks a kind of tonal shift. You'd also have to ignore the whole of disco and club music, that motown shit from the 70's and 80's, which died out pretty hard, but most everyone does that anyways, so who cares. I don't know if I've heard many 70's or 80's stations that actually play disco, certainly, not in proportion to how popular it was, usually they just play like. Stevie wonder, from what I've heard, shit like that. Or MJ. The thing you could probably derive from disco, from the 70's and 80's into the 90's, would probably be like, drum and bass, and eurobeat, stuff like that, and then you'd get stuff like daft punk later on which has a pretty clear connection to disco generally.
  
  I dunno, this is all to say, shit has substantially changed in almost every mainstream genre I can think of in the last like, 60 years, from the 60's. Some stuff has remained pretty similar, and some stuff has had an almost cyclical nature, but that's just kind of the nature of music, I think.
  
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- The best radio stations to me today, the ones that keep me compelled, are ones that mix freely from all eras (including this one) and genres. Try BBC Radio 6 Music, or WPRB (from Princeton University), Soho Radio.
  
  From what I hear on these stations, where DJs are expected to fearlessly put on whatever they like, it seems, the music of today sounds just as good as from any other era, but for me it's always been about discovery, and sometimes that includes being a little uncomfortable, I like to teach my mind a new groove every once in a while and it has been known to resist. It happens to all of us, I'm afraid, more and more as we get older.
  
  That said, I can comfortably be against some music industry tendencies, there is no "pop utopia" in the past.
  Last decade it's been software tools like autotune; in the 90s the "volume wars" began and frankly, most USA rock sounds too similar, all trying to channel Led Zep and Black Sabbath through a punkish filter; in the 80s many bands were overproduced half to death, submerged in sonic synthetic fluff, all the new studio toys abused, layer upon layer upon layer.
  
  In the proper hands, these technologies can help a piece of music shine brighter, but in the hands of producers following the bandwagon - and that's always been the majority of 'em - everything ends up sounding the same, like neon ads all around you.
  
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- I think if you take today's pop music and do a side by side comparison with 90s pop you'd be surprised by how different they are. Not to mention, there are many many electronic genres and subgenres around today that have arisen in recent years.
  
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- Autotune, more explicit woman pop artists, mumble rap, whatever the fuck "thrift shop" is, country rap, k-pop.
  
  Also noticed much older genres being modernized a bit with the likes of Tyler Childers (a little bluegrass-like) and All Them Witches (psychedelic).
  
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- here's an album from 2020.
  
  https://igorrr.bandcamp.com/album/spirituality-and-distortion
  
  You think this will fit in next to nirvana?
  
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—Every. Single. YouTube comment section. For videos of vintage media

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"back when good music was made" ad nauseum

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- Oh, not just music. I’ve seen people comment about the ‘80s, when they made… [heavy, plaintive sigh]… REAL cartoons. For christ’s sake…
  
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- ad nauseAm
  
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Porn is definitely easier today, kids can just go on Twitch

But at the same time when kids want go have fun they go on Twitch but we had Pogs

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We had pogs, they have pogchamp. That's called progress.

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- *pogress
  
  10

The two of these things aren't mutually exclusive to be honest. It's possible to

I very much miss places and experiences which don't exist any more, or have changed as society has changed.

An example is the way music is consumed. When purchasing physical media it took much more effort, thus you were more invested. You would typically visit a music shop, purchase the album, take it home and listen to it. There would usually be an album liner where you could read the lyrics, see photos of the band (which you'd only otherwise be able to see in magazines) and you felt like you had a direct connection with them.

The purchase of the physical asset connected you in some way to the artist and made for a type of relationship with the music which is much harder to emulate with streaming services, where the music is free and available immediately.

As a result, the way I like to discover music is at odds to the way Spotify wants to provide me music. It wants to provide me more of the same, I want to discover things I haven't heard before.

That being said, Spotify has given me access to music I didn't know existed by artists I love but had never heard of till I found them on someone's random playlist. And it's perpetually there when I'm driving, exercising and working. It plays for it doesn't require rhe effort or thought of dubbing tapes or recording from the radio.

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As someone who grew up poor, I never got the record store experience, because if I wanted music, it would either be on the radio, or I'd need to play it myself.

The limited childhood budget would be like $20, which means, you could buy one CD with eight or ten tracks to listen on repeat, or.. buy something like SimCity 2000, for possibly hundreds of hours of fun (I had a family friend neighbor who threw out an old PC/donated it to us because they got outdated real fast in the 90s).

Accounting for inflation, that $20 is probably closer to $40-80 now, and a Spotify subscription is definitely a lot less costly than even that, for not one disk, but an endless amount of music.

The value proposition, the cost of entertainment has dropped precipitously, and now as a rich adult and technocrat, artificial intelligence can autonomously create new music, much in the way Spotify can discover tracks that "you like".

Every night, I've got 138-357 MB of brand new music, that no one's ever heard of, courtesy of my algorithm, recombining chunks of music from everything I've ever heard, to create brand new bangers.

If these tracks were released to Spotify, people wouldn't be able to tell they weren't made by people. AI is after all, a plagarism machine, built on the hard work of real people and artists.

But between plagiarism and piracy, I feel this new streaming world answers a great need:

The desire for culture, to be free, for any and all, to enjoy.

9
But it's also improved music in general. It used to be possible for an artist to make one or two good tracks for radio play and then create subpar filler for the rest of the album, but now all of the tracks of the album are sold separately so every track has to be of equal quality. Additionally you aren't bound to just the one song played on the radio when looking for new artists.

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Friendly suggestion to anyone reading this that many of your favorite artists are on SoundCloud and other platforms: it costs nothing to send them a message to say you love their music.

Direct platforms like bandcamp also make it feel so good to know most of every dollar is heading their way.

4
I still go to record stores and purchase music.

1

(ಠ _ ) ಠ

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As usual, it's actually somewhere in-between the two.

9

When I was a kid, things were pretty much the same! Y'all are doing roughly what I would do! Life was pretty OK back then! You kids have similar things to deal with! And everything nowadays looks to be about as challenging as what we used to have! Life was quite OK back then! But you kids have experienced a similar quality of life!

3

Dude came full circle.

Edit: I now realise it's actually a half circle, but hey.

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I'm glad you came to some conclusion, I'm still trying to find a pattern in it. everything he said is true in a biased generalizing fallacy type of way. Even though he contradicted himself at least twice.

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- Maybe there's no pattern; maybe this is just a disgruntled old fart who wants to be angry at everyone and everything.
  
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