There are a lot of things that are making a comeback from the 70s and 80s right now, but there are some things that we will never get to experience – like when our parents were in college. We may be back to wearing high-waisted everything and hippie headbands, but some trends will never make a reappearance. If we listen to our parents’ stories from college there are some really big differences between normal daily activities then and now.
The first obvious difference is that our parents did not have computers when they were in college, or had very limited access to one. And if the Internet existed when your parents were in college, there was not nearly as much information on it. I cannot imagine sitting through a power hour without my house computer and phone providing at least a few minutes worth of distraction. They would have had to take all their notes, write all their papers and do all their homework by hand. We go to the library to study because it is a (usually) quiet place where we can get stuff done, but our parents would have gone there because they actually had to find books to look up information for whatever they were working on. There was no Google to give them instant answers to questions.
Much like us, our parents also loved to party in college. If they went to Purdue, like mine did, or another big state school they may have even been in Greek life. The party scene was generally the same, but there were a few big differences. It is shocking for parents to hear that people take shots at parties because they just drank beer. The police were also not as strict as they are now. If a party was ever busted, the cops would just tell everyone to go home.
Probably the biggest difference between then and now is how much technology has affected relationships. Our parents didn’t have Facebook to stalk the cute people they met in class or at a party. They also didn’t have cell phones or texting so they had to call a person’s house phone and hope they were there to answer or leave a message. My dad has told me stories about calling my mom’s sorority house when she was mad at him and all her sisters would just tell him she wasn’t home, even though she usually was. Back then, it was so much easier to avoid people. It was also so much more exciting to see people because you hadn't been constantly texting or liking each other’s Instagrams. When you ran into people you truly had to catch up because you really didn’t know what was going on in their lives.
It seems like everything now is so much easier than when our parents went to college, but I think the simplicity of their lives sounds pretty awesome. We are lucky in a lot of ways, especially in academics, but we also are at a disadvantage with so much information always at our fingertips. There are not as many surprises and we know so much about people we aren’t even friends with.
It is cool to hear stories from our parents about how different our lives are now and I can’t even imagine how different our kids’ experience will be.