This seems so weird, but I keep forgetting that these kids were born mostly after 9/11.
Even though I was born in the 70s, I was keenly aware of what all sorts of devices were that were from the early 20th century to the 60s. That just shows how little changed in that period compared to the years since. I suppose that many of the movies and cartoons that were still widely shown at the time were easily made in the 40s and 30s, so there is that too.
“Even though I was born in the 70s, I was keenly aware of what all sorts of devices were that were from the early 20th century to the 60s.”
The twenty-something’s are not nearly as widely read or informed as we were. Many have never seen a black and white movie and seem proud of the fact. They aren’t interested. Another possibility is their parents are not as informative. I was dragged to antique shows and gun shows and given constant input on the importance of this or that item at the time. I think later parents use video as a way off keeping the kids entertained while they go off and do things not involving the kids. I was fascinated by the fact my mom road a horse to school and the neighbor boys brought their rifles to school so they could hunt on the way home. (If they shot something the family had meat. If not, then no.) The past is fascinating. I wonder how they’d respond to the 45 rpm record player you could buy as an under-dash option.
When I was growing up in the 1970s, I was still able to play 78 rpm records in my home even for decades, 45 and 33 1/3 (LPs) had become the norm. I also had a 1950s era Royal typewriter on my desk that I used for homework and my parents had this old Zenith black and white TV set from the mid 1960s - they didn't replace it until 1982! Back then, everything was expected to last.
During the 1980s and 1990s, I invested thousands of dollars in building an compact audio disc library as well as a VHS video library. At the time, I thought CDs and videocassettes were going to last for a hundred years and I'd be handing them down to my children. Now my kids laugh at them and I'm lucky if I can sell them for pennies on the dollar on Ebay.
Now even MP3s and DVDs seem outdated. For a few dollars a month, you can stream just about any song ever recorded and very quickly video content is going the same way.
I think that’s a key point. In the 70s, after getting home from school, I’d turn on the tv and see old films of Abbott and Costello, Charlie Chan, etc., along with shorts of Three Stooges, Our Gang, etc. Made us relatively familiar (visually) with a lot of dated, ‘before-our-time’ artifacts.
I don’t think this kind of thing has been happening as much with the more recent generations.