Remember When #13 –'80s technology
Post #13 in the Remember When blog series
Welcome back to the Remember When serial blog for late Baby Boomers and Early Gen-Xers. I hope you’ve been reading along from the beginning. If not, I recommend you start here and catch up first.
In the last post, we talked awesome ‘80s pop culture.
In this post, we’re talking about the many great inventions that took place in the ‘80s. They may seem old-fashioned now, but at the time they were “off the hook.”
Feel free to chime in with your memories!
TECHNOLOGY (College and Post College)
During the ‘80s, an influx of technology changed the way we lived at the time, from VCRs and Walkmans to microwaves and computers. The whirlwind of change and innovation laid the foundation for the ultra-digital world we live in today.
Remember when…
…you got a Walkman?
In 1983, the first ultra-compact cassette size Walkman, small enough to fit in a pocket, was introduced, inspiring a lot of people to take up fitness during the ‘80s. Well, that and Jane Fonda’s aerobic videos.
Most of our parents had gotten their exercise through playing sports and engaging in normal daily activities. Our generation started using treadmills, stationary bikes and exercise classes at gyms, having learned by then the benefits of physical activity.
Whether running outside or on a treadmill, the Walkman portable cassette player enabled us to listen to music on the go for the first time.
Remember when…
…you replaced your albums and cassettes with CDs?
In 1983, Sony launched the first CD player in the U.S. The audio quality of a CD was much better than a cassette, though the jury was still out with consumers regarding whether it was better than an LP. What we all did like, however, was the small size of the disc, that you could skip easily from track to track and that you didn’t need to flip the disc over like you did an album or cassette.
Once the cost of the player came down, we all started abandoning our albums and cassettes for CDs. To help with the cost of replacing them, many of us joined one of the music clubs, such as Columbia House, where we got eight CDs for a penny if we bought a certain number of CDs after that at full price.
Trivia Q&A
Q: What was the first-ever commercial CD to be released?
A: Billy Joel’s 52nd Street.
Remember when…
…you were finally able to bid the TV schedule farewell?
Another technology that became widespread during the ‘80s was the VCR. When it first came out, it cost around $500 and the remote had a cord. (The one without a cord cost $100 more.)
Remember how novel it was at the time to be able to watch a movie at your convenience instead of watching at a specific time? Looking back, it’s amazing how tied to the TV schedule we once were.
Not having any commercials was also a novelty at the time as was being able to rewind if we missed something and to pause on a whim.
Best of all, we could buy blank VHS tapes and tape our own TV shows and movies and record over them after we watched them. We no longer had to miss your favorite show! The world of watching TV was never the same again.
Trivia Q&A
Q: What is the best-selling VHS of all time?
A: The Lion King
Remember when…
…we didn’t know what a computer mouse was?
I was in college in 1984 when Apple Inc. launched the Apple Macintosh, the first mass-produced personal computer with user-friendly icons. A year later, in November of 1985, Microsoft released Windows 1 (which of course was not referred to as “1” at the time!) to compete with the Macintosh.
Being able to do homework on a computer instead of using a typewriter and Correcto tape or white out was like a mini miracle. If we made a mistake or had a change in thought, we could just backspace over our words and retype them. No having to put a fresh piece of paper into the typewriter!
The problem was that both the Macintosh and Microsoft software relied heavily on using this newfangled thing called a “mouse” that few had ever heard of or had any idea how to use. Though we’re all accustomed to using a mouse now, at the time Apple and Microsoft had to educate users through manuals and ads that explained the purpose of the mouse and how it worked.
It had only been three years since Times magazine had described the personal computer as 1982’s “greatest influence for good or evil.” Little did we all know then just how true that would turn out to be or how quickly the computer would evolve and change the world as we knew it.
Remember when…
…you first used a cordless phone?
During the ‘80s, there was a wave of technology improvements to phones. By then, rotary-dial phones were being phased out by push-button phones. But what was really life-changing was when cordless phones came out and we could walk from room to room and even a short distance from the house with a phone in our hand!
Remember when…
…you used speed dial and 411?
Having someone’s number programmed into a phone is something we take for granted today. Back then, however, we had to have everyone’s number memorized, look it up in our address book or the yellow pages, or call 411 or the operator for information.
Remember when…
…you used to have an answering machine?
It was so great when they came out with a device where someone could leave a message for you if you missed their call. The problem, unlike voicemails left on a cell phone today, is that anyone standing around when you pushed the button on that separate device could also hear your messages. This led to a lot of funny bits in sit-coms.
Remember when
…you used a microwave for the first time?
It was during the ‘80s that using a microwave started becoming more common, though it hadn’t fully caught on yet. Less than a quarter of American households had a microwave in the ‘80s. By 1990, 80 percent would, changing forever the way society prepared food and ate on the go.
A study in 1997 found that “Americans ranked the microwave oven as the No. 1 technology that made their lives easier, right ahead of the telephone answering machine.”
🗨 What do you remember about using these “new” ‘80s technologies for the first time?
We’ve come to the end of our ‘80s nostalgia, from high school through post college, but don’t worry. “I’ll be back.”
In post #14: ‘90s Current Events and Finding the “One,” we’ll move on to our next stage of life: Young Adulthood. From now on, we’ll include marriage, parenting and working into the mix.
Catch you on the flipside!