'The experience of boredom': Gen X and older reveal 20 things about the 80s that pop culture forgets

Author image for Ally Perry
Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Apr 6, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

Living through a period of time and looking back at it are two very different things. History is often told by unreliable narrators, even when those who experienced it are still alive. This is especially true when things become glamorized for Hollywood or the mainstream media. Most of the time, entertainment is going to triumph over information.

Some may argue that the 80s were the first decade of the 20th century to set the scene for whatever mess we find ourselves in today. As a result, it's a popular decade for TV and movies to draw inspiration from. 

However, they aren't always the most accurate, as has been proven by a recent AskReddit thread. Requesting that those who were adults in the 80s talked about all the things about that time that have been left behind in pop culture, there were a variety of answers. We certainly live differently now.

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  • 01
    r/AskReddit u/Jerswar • 23h People who were adults in the 1980's: What does pop culture tend to leave out?
    via Jerswar

    Header image by Daniel Schludi

  • 02
    kh730 18h The insane amounts of smoking inside. Especially restaurants.
    via kh730
  • 03
    PersonMcNugget 23h Anything we wore that wasn't neon. Pop culture acts like the 80s were just a sea of nothing but neon for ten years.
    via PersonMcNugget
  • 04
    MaximusDecimis 23h This isn't specific to the 80s but the experience of boredom. There were many periods of time during the week when you simply had to sit there with your thoughts and be bored. This has been almost completely eliminated by phones, and I think it explains why attention spans are so
    via MaximusDecimis
  • 05
    OHIO VOTED Obi1 NotWan 21h Reading everything, literally everything I could get my hands on. Cereal boxes, newspapers, magazines. Luckily my library was a bike ride away but carrying those back on my bike was fun.
    via Obi1NotWan
  • 06
    Headoutdaplane 20h Cruising......before social media, we would drive up and down North Avenue, see and be seen. Stop at different businesses, the hicks hung out at the four wheel drive store, the cool kids at the Walgreens parking lot, the jocks at the McDonald's. But it was a small town so we would stop at all of them during the evening. That was our social world along with keggers in the desert all through high school and for folks that stayed in town for years after high school.
    via Headoutdaplane
  • 07
    GuitarGeezer 20h How long the 70s and 60s lingered in spaces in houses and offices and other people's minds.
    via GuitarGeezer
  • 08
    Born-Cheek4686 20h What a mess it was to get cleaned up! That sparkle blue eye shadow didn't come off easily and if it got in you eyes it was Spanish Inquisition! That red lip gloss ran all over. And shampooing your hair 3 times to get out the spray and the mousse...... I loved the 80s and I had a marvelous time, we could actually afford concert tickets! But it was messy ... but way worth it!
    via Born-Cheek4686
  • 09
    Careless-Two2215 21h Lots of non-mainstream cliques and subcultures were left out: Filipino DJ battles, break dance crews, and their home made pleated pants. Goth and industrial dance clubs and their imported leather platform boots. Mexican chola hairstyles, makeup, and attitude.
    via Careless-Two2215
  • 10
    whiskeyknitting 18h Columbia House Record Deals. 00 AmyInCO 17h I think I still owe them money. Reply 56
    via whiskeyknitting
  • 11
    Stained_concrete 21h The obsession people/media had about the '50s and '60s. Part of it was stuff like Back to the Future and '50s themed diners and baseball jackets being popular, then there was the 20th anniversary of various Beatles albums, Sgt. Pepper obviously. I think the Boomers at that point were in positions of influence and were looking back on their teens and twenties with rose tinted glasses, so the rest of us had to suffer these cultural echoes from the generation before.
    via Stained_concrete
  • 12
    sleepybeek 17h A lot of weird fashion stuff. OP clothing. Ocean Pacific. Those cutoff half shirts. Those half tshirts have never come back. Well for girls. But def not guys lol. Painter hats were a thing for a bit. Swatch watches. Zips shoes. Polo rugbys. Rat tail haircut. Wanted one so bad but mom said no. Thanks mom for helping me dodge that one! You can't convey/show just how great Sat morning cartoons were. They do show this. Being gone all day with your friends and my parents not even knowi
    via sleepybeek
  • 13
    Brell4Evar 21h The sheer sense of doom and pervasive low-key terror of nuclear war. The Soviets' nuclear arsenal pointing at us, and their nihilistic posturing in some ways remind me of the climate change dread we now have. Living with an existantial threat is not something new.
    via Brell4Evar
  • 14
    LaximumEffort 21h The cheap gas in the late 80s. There was a time when I had $2 and I rolled my truck into the gas station on empty. I pumped in $2 and had a quarter tank. $0.52 a gallon, courtesy of the Iran/Iraq War.
    via LaximumEffort
  • 15
    TheMuetz 18h Being a latch key kid. No frequent communication with your parents. I can't tell you how many times I stayed out all night as an 18 year old and no one but who I was with knew where I was or what I was doing. Life360 is a parenting game changer. They didn't know what I was doing all day as a 12-17 year old, either! You only called your parents at work if it was an emergency.
    via TheMuetz
  • 16
    Mysterious-Tackle-79 22h That interest rates on mortgages was 15-20% Women needed their husband's signature to have a credit card
    via Mysterious-Tackle-79
  • 17
    ZanyDelaney 23h The homophobia
    via ZanyDelaney
  • 18
    CalendarSpecific 1088 21h The poverty. I mean, I know things are hard now, but we had it pretty damned hard back then, too. The judgement, as someone said earlier, was pretty hard, and it was VERY hard on folks who couldn't make their own way.
    via CalendarSpecific1088
  • 19
    ActualJohnFKennedy 19h I would say that pop culture gives people a distorted view of the 1980s. Those of you who watch Stranger Things: The 1980s weren't like that. Plus, modern representations of the 1980s are shaped by people who probably lived on the coasts. You don't see much representation of 1980s country music, line dancing, that sort of stuff. Let me tell you - if you lived in Texas, or really anywhere in the American South, that everywhere. was
    via ActualJohnFKennedy
  • 20
    latchkey_adult 22h That disco was still going strong until the middle of the decade.
    via latchkey_adult
  • 21
    LakesideOrion 23h Pop culture sort of covers the 80's pretty well - but kids today don't fully appreciate how incredibly different the world was before the internet and cell phones. Absolutely transformative.
    via LakesideOrion

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Tags

80s throwback history nostalgia askreddit pop culture gen x Reddit
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