What is the Most Profound Change [you've seen] in Your Lifetime?

[righteousdude2]

I am interested in seeing what your answers may be in regard to what one thing do you consider to be a profound change from when you were growing up, to the present day.

For me, it's a tie between the lack of morality and the growing support for same gender marriage. and the manifestation of cyber space and the computer.

A close second is the country's first black president [and I would have made this number one had Obama not been such a huge disappointment and impassioned socialist].

Another profound change is the growth in tattoo's and body piercing. It amazes me that people are so willing to make what God created, look so freakish [this is just MHO - so don't get mad at me].

Now, if there is more than one thing, feel free to list it.​

 

[preachinjesus]

An intriguing discussion. I'd say the most profound change in my lifetime:

Technology - we can do more with less than ever before. This extends into so many areas it is kind of crazy to think of where we were in the 1970s versus today.

When I sit back and consider the massive ramifications that technology has brought into our society through social media, communication, transportation, etc.

While technology has been a massive motivator for good change it has also brought many negatives. Of course this is the nature of a tool like this, it often exacerbates underyling immorality or social struggles. We've always had a deep seated immorality, its just now out in front primarily because the media loves telling the story of a quirky minority.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

The Economy.....the meltdown & its significant effects on the world stage.

 

[saturneptune]

I agree with the above posted changes, but one of the most profound changes I have seen in my lifetime is the coldness and rudeness between people in everyday life. I mean in driving habits, things like holding the door open, etc. It shows in things like not hitchhiking because one thinks a weirdo is going to pick them up or picking one up because you think he or she is a weirdo. It especially shows up in retail stores. Fifty years ago, one walked into a store, asked for help if they needed it, bought the product and left. Today, everyone thinks they are the Queen or King of England, and the red carpet should be rolled out as they enter the store. Then, while walking the aisles, they want to be entertained. They are generally rude, and ask dozens of questions that have nothing to do with the product. That is why I do not work with the public, because I would stuff the red carpet up their nose.

It can be seen in driving habits and non verbal communication. Sometimes one holds open a door and someone will walk through without a thank you. Yes, we the people are different than fifty years ago, and that is indeed profound.

 

[Scarlett O.]

For me, I'd have to say the changes in how the family functions on daily and basic levels.

When I was a small child in the 1960's in the Deep South, my grandmother made every dress I wore. I stood in that kitchen chair for fittings a million times saying, "Memaw don't poke me with that pin!!" And she would always say, "I won't if you will just stop wiggling!!" I don't think I had an actual store-bought dress until I was 10 or 11 years old. That's just how everyone lived. She made my dresses, shirts, and all my doll clothes!! We played under the house (which was on piers) with the chickens and because she had a small hole in her kitchen floor, we would drop chicken feed on their heads from inside.

We played with her empty spools of thread when she finished. She kept them in a old grocery sack.

Our food was grown and canned. My grandfather raised a few hogs and if you wanted fried chicken, you went out and wrung a hen's neck and started plucking feathers. If you wanted fish, you grabbed a fishing pole first.

Those days have long since been over for my family. The children and grandchildren now have no understanding of it.

 

[Benjamin]

Going from using a hammer to drive nails to pneumatic nail guns was quite an awakening for me. I convinced several old timers, that might be able to beat in a challenge to drive 5 16D nails in less than 5 seconds, that nail guns where still the way to go. Just talked to an old holdout the other day who has recently had some carpal bones removed from his wrist.

Going from records to 8-tracks to cassettes to CDs to simply downloading from wherever onto to whatever and utilizing Bluetooth and such - which I’m still trying to figure out.

Going from phones that use rotary dial (When little I had an aunt that used a wooden crank phone out on her farm) to touch tone to big bag cell phones to hand held cell phones to flip phones to touch screen that are now also like computers, cameras, GPS and heck just speak into the thing to do whatever. Also the amount of numbers to someone’s phone going from 5 to 7 to 10.

I decided to give computers a try in about 2001-2002, but reluctantly, because I saw so many people wasting all their time on it and first used the internet in 2003. Now that I’ve been incurably infected I’m trying to find more balance, set limitations and manage my time on it more productively like for looking up and learning important things – or having important discussions with people on the BB.
:tonofbricks:

Recently gone from cranking my head around and checking three mirrors to back up or hook up a trailer to a vehicle with backup camera where the image suddenly shows up in my rearview mirror. I come to find out that apparently many people obviously don’t realize I’m using it because they’ve been getting all excited and even blowing their horns when they see me I getting close without turning my head in a parking lot or if standing nearby are giving me looks (which I see by the way) as if I’m being careless or something. I’ve even begun using the OK sign to let those who are technologically challenged in this area know I’m watching.

 

[Berean]

Excluding cultural changes, 90% of the changes that have come about in my lifetime have been for the better. How many of you want to go back to pay telephones vs smart phones, oscilating fans vs air conditioners and the list could go on and on. 80% of the technology that has come about since Adam has come about in my lifetime.

 

[RLBosley]

80% of the technology that has come about since Adam has come about in my lifetime.

How old are you???

J/k I get your point.

I'm only 25 so I haven't seen (don't remember?) much of what others have mentioned here. But i think that for me the biggest change is in computer/information technology. I've had computers pretty much my entire life, but the IBM I first typed on is a wholly other beast compared to the gateway I bought last week...

 

[Iconoclast]

Seeing the world as an unsaved person with an existential philosophy, to seeing the world as a believer through the lens of scripture is the biggest thing....two different lives,alive from the realm of death.

 

[exscentric]

Uh, starting cars with a push down pedal on the floor board to pushing a button on a keychain.

Room size computers to two or three in a cig. pack size.

But the biggest be the body I have been given, once kinda buff and tough now soft and saggy, once full of energy now seeking only naps and bed time, once ten years to the doctor now monthly to keep things together, once quick of wit now kinda half but still in my head - 18 or so.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I agree with the above posted changes, but one of the most profound changes I have seen in my lifetime is the coldness and rudeness between people in everyday life. I mean in driving habits, things like holding the door open, etc. It shows in things like not hitchhiking because one thinks a weirdo is going to pick them up or picking one up because you think he or she is a weirdo. It especially shows up in retail stores. Fifty years ago, one walked into a store, asked for help if they needed it, bought the product and left. Today, everyone thinks they are the Queen or King of England, and the red carpet should be rolled out as they enter the store. Then, while walking the aisles, they want to be entertained. They are generally rude, and ask dozens of questions that have nothing to do with the product. That is why I do not work with the public, because I would stuff the red carpet up their nose.

It can be seen in driving habits and non verbal communication. Sometimes one holds open a door and someone will walk through without a thank you. Yes, we the people are different than fifty years ago, and that is indeed profound.

Maybe Luke has a point that many of the older generation....Whoa, Whoa, Whoa....wait a minute. We taught our kids respect & manors, so its up to them to exercise them. Today if someone does not acknowledged a courtesy like opening a door I tell them out REAL LOUD, "HEY, YOU ARE VERY WELCOME!" A little in your face goes a long way...."Sometimes"

 

[saturneptune]

The posts made about technology changes in our lives over say 50 or 60 years are good points from a day to day living standpoint. The changes have come rapidly, and sometimes we do not realize how much has happened unless one thinks back to say being in school. We used to use slide rules, compasses, proctractors and the like to solve math problems. It would not surprise me if some here have never seen a slide rule, or having to figure out square and cube roots long hand.

I can remember watching the Jetsons on cartoons growing up, and the telephone calls where one could see a picture of the person calling were a thing of science fiction, as was traveling to the moon. Lap tops today are more powerful than the computer that propelled the Apollo 11 craft to the moon. The idea of a cell phone smaller than the palm of a hand to call anywhere one wishes is a radical change, not to speak of being able to get on the internet on the same machine and have anything one wants to know at the tip of your fingers.

The medical field has greatly advanced. Fifty years ago, a six way heart bypass would have been next to impossible. We have mad progress on diseases that were unknown in the 50s and 60s, such as HIV.

One thing remains constant, though, is our sinful nature. The wages of sin is still the same, death. Our pastor once said about all the huge medical buildings that line every community that they are "monuments to the delay of the inevitable."

For all we have advanced, our hearts are no more Christ like. There are certain things we will never do, like create eternal life through science or understand the mysteries of God in this life.

I also wonder at times, with all those you see with the phone super glued to their ears 24/7, what on earth are they talking about that we did not talk about fifty years ago?

 

[nodak]

Probably two huge changes: various technologies, and the crudifying of the world.

Tide commercials now use a word that would have gotten you kicked out of my high school.

The old Irish song that had the line "never has the name been attached to a shame" or words to that effect is passe. Now the more shameful something is the more it is sought out.

Sexual morality is toast. Not just the acceptance of gays, but also the rampant acceptance of divorce (and the actions of many kinds that can cause it), the rampant acceptance in society of promiscuity and how common shacking up is.

I never thought I would live to see the day churches would be castigated if they failed to throw a big whoop to doo for unwed moms, or see churches doing gay marriages, blessing ceremonies, and ordinations.

Never thought I would know public school teachers openly shacking up.

Never thought I would hear preachers dropping the f-bomb, or using vile language.

Never thought it would ever be ok to kill your baby in the womb but get you thrown in jail if you killed a dog that was attacking you. Happens in our state.

I truly think like in the book of Romans, God has given our society over to reprobate minds.

 

[exscentric]

"How many of you want to go back to pay telephones vs smart phones"

Me for one, we don't own cell phones and can never find a pay phone

 

[Winman]

Well, technology is a good thing, it's good to know your wife has a cell phone in the car in case she breaks down. You used to take notice of phone booths wherever you went in case you had an emergency. You can make quick meals with a microwave. These are good.

It used to be that you could go to bed at night and leave your doors unlocked. No one would dream of that now. When I was a kid it was not unusual to be left alone, even when we were 7-8 years old. Nobody considered that abuse, and it was safe to do. Now nobody would ever dare leave their kids alone unsupervised.

We could ride bikes and skateboards without a helmet, and somehow we all survived. If you called somebody a nerd or fatso it was not considered a hate crime. Sometimes you would have a fight over name calling, and that would be the end of it, you would be friends afterward.

I had a shotgun and never dreamed of taking it to school and killing people. It simply didn't occur to me. My friends had guns too. We could walk through the neighborhood with our 22s on the way to the woods and nobody called the cops.

You could sit on the tailgate of a stationwagon or in the back of a pickup and folks were fine with it.

They actually talked about God in a good way on TV back then. Now, when they talk about God or Jesus it is always ridicule.

Most businesses were closed on Sunday, everybody knew it was the day to go to church. Sunday was a good day.

 

[Zaac]

The systematic dismantling of the Biblical nuclear family and Biblical morals right along with it.

The love of many, because of wickedness, has grown cold. It has also infected the Church.

 

[InTheLight]

Definitely the change in technology.

I carry around in my pocket a device which can access the totality of human knowledge in a matter of seconds.


[Sent via my Droid Razr Maxx HD]

 

[Don]

Definitely the change in technology.

I carry around in my pocket a device which can access the totality of human knowledge in a matter of seconds.


[Sent via my Droid Razr Maxx HD]

Funny, because I was sitting at dinner with a relative a couple of nights ago who said the same thing...but finished with "and I use it to look at funny pictures of cats and argue with people I don't know and will never meet"....

 

[righteousdude2]

Well Said PIJ...

An intriguing discussion. I'd say the most profound change in my lifetime:

Technology - we can do more with less than ever before. This extends into so many areas it is kind of crazy to think of where we were in the 1970s versus today.

When I sit back and consider the massive ramifications that technology has brought into our society through social media, communication, transportation, etc.

While technology has been a massive motivator for good change it has also brought many negatives. Of course this is the nature of a tool like this, it often exacerbates underyling immorality or social struggles. We've always had a deep seated immorality, its just now out in front primarily because the media loves telling the story of a quirky minority.

....my philosphy/theology professor once said that every invention has a good and bad side. Unfortunately, with ALL the good that cyber space brings undoubtedly comes the bad. We have to take the good with the bad, and I know we can both rejoice for the good cyber space brought to us.

 

[righteousdude2]

It is my Hope with this Thread...

....that we can pass on to those joining the board years from now, a legacy of thoughts and how change has affected each of our lives.

Thanks for the great contributions so far, let's not stop...there are many on the board who can share changes and how they've been effected.

Can you imagine how this thread; twenty years henceforth may look like something [at least technologically speaking] from the days of Davy Crockett and Edison?

I can remember asking my grandparents what changes they saw, ands it amazed me. However, the changes are coming so fast, and they are so huge, that they'd make my grandparents heads swirl