“We didn’t have those back in the day…”

Dial radio

We’ve all heard our parents or grandparents saying to us, “we didn’t have those back in the day…” they could have been talking about the technology or everyday things we see and use. I vividly remember my parents telling me that televisions simply didn’t exist. When they were kids and people would have gone to restaurants to listen to the radio for news and entertainment as they sipped their tea and enjoyed their meals. I thought that was strange and couldn’t really imagine a world without my daily dose of TV (cartoons, ABC for Kids in the morning and afternoons) at the convenience of my own lounge room – simply enjoying a radio program with sound, music and comedy seem as though it wasn’t enough for me lacking the colour and visual aspect of TV entertainment.

TV from the 90s

It seemed like a foreign idea to me at the time but now? I guess I’m old enough to remember the days when mobile phones simply didn't exist and we all used landline phones and pagers (use landline to call to a number when you leave a message for the person you’re trying to reach) and yes, the public telephone boxes were still very much in use every day. Back in the day, our TVs had colour but they were also very heavy, chunky and small curved screens (about 20”s) were popular. Now we have bigger and thinner TVs with LCD/LED screens and even have Wifi connection.

Pager 

Imagine if you told the kids today, “we didn’t have those back in the day…” – no mobile phones, flat screen TVs or the internet, it may sound like a foreign idea to children these days too. It might already be hard for us to imagine a world without the technology we use nowadays but another decade maybe it’ll be even feel like a distant memory.