this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
150 points (98.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

37175 readers
1450 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I suppose it would be mostly practical skills, cooking, fixing things. Usually had to be done by people themselves.

Maybe also mental things like navigating (with or without paper map) and remembering their daily and weekly agendas.

What other things would be a big difference with the people today?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] UnityDevice@startrek.website 38 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Apparently recognizing and handling fascists.

[–] CanadaPlus 6 points 18 hours ago

1975 is a weird place for that, actually. During and right after WWII motivations for fighting it were mixed. Obviously most white Southerners shipping off to Europe weren't anti-racist. Obviously Einstein was. The sanitised, mythologised version that people think back to today really got going in the 80's.

I remember last rememberance day in Canada, our public broadcaster did a live interview with a veteran. He was an actor involved in recruiting, and just casually mentioned it was a blackface act.

[–] Mangoholic@lemmy.ml 17 points 23 hours ago (2 children)
[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

I grew up reading analog clocks and it only clicked in the last year what top (the hour) and bottom (half hour) of the hour meant.

[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 20 hours ago

i read that as reloading analog clocks and i think that fits too.

[–] BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Want to say general automotive competency. As in you had to deal with carburetors on cold days so you had to adjust intake, spray starting fluid into it, know about oil pressure and warming it up, etc. Some people are barely able to conceptualize putting gas into the thing now.

Knowing the prices of typical appliances and such. Example, modern The Price is Right compared to the 80s and before. 50 years ago, people were more likely to know the prices for a multitude of reasons, one being there were more home owners in those generations who might be looking at replacements or upgrades. Now, home ownership is less and I couldn't begin to tell you the price of a washing machine being a renter.

[–] daq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 17 hours ago

Also, there were like 3 washing machines on sale. Now you have 50/manufacturer.

[–] DavidDoesLemmy@aussie.zone 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Navigation. You used to remember the way to all these places. Now it's just on the phone.

[–] Paper_Phrog@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

Worst fear is phone dying while driving.

[–] rockandsock@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

Mending clothing, basic auto repair and woodworking.

[–] scala@lemmy.ml 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Social Skills. Navigation. Do it yourself. Touching Grass.

[–] CanadaPlus 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

If you consider them to be inversely proportional to social disorder, social skills would be at a nadir in 1975. But, there's other ways to look at it, of course.

[–] baka@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Uhh.. not that I'm any good at it, but tying knots.

[–] presoak@lazysoci.al 3 points 20 hours ago

Bowline is a very cool and useful knot

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›