Would You Want to Live in the Old Days/ Modern World?

I have thought about living in the old days, but then again, I would hate to weaar all the clothes women wore back then. I dont mind doing hard work but scrubbing clothes by hand and churning butter all day doesnt sound appealing. So guess I will stay with the modern world.

well I think the old days is much better than today. The modern world makes people somehow lazy to think and to work, because they have all the gadgets and modern stuffs that they can use with just one push of the buttonÜ

I don't think about this in these terms. I think it's absurd to think that i would like to live in the middle ages..or in the year 3000. We live in the period that luck, God or whatever you believe in meant us to live at, and we have to accept it. Obviously when i read about historical events, there are some of them that i would have loved to see personally, but also i know that life conditions were awful in general in the past. And about the future, we don't know what it'll bring...maybe something great, maybe the earth's destruction, so i don't really worry about it.

I would choose to live in the old days, perhaps during the Renaissance Era or even before that, where people have all the time to hone their craft. If you would notice, in the modern world, you would not see artists nor musicians who can create masterpieces which are as good as those made in the past. Today's world has so many distractions. There are so many options that oftentimes, people get confused as to what directions they would take. And yes, you got it right. Nothing can compare to the simple and less complicated.

I was born in 1933. I can remember the day WW2 started, and the day it ended. I've seen it all, and wouldn't want to go back to salt pork and wood fires. Walking to school in the cold and snow. no refrigeration, no electric lights, sure things were simpler, but life was more complicated and much harder. Its lovely to dream about, but, trust me, it was a really Bad Dream!

I'm 49, one year less than your friend. That was still relatively modern. When you said old days, I thought you meant 1800s or earlier. We had lots of conveniences in our old days, some of which aren't here now. Like record players instead of CDs and so on. We had radios, just fewer stations, TVs just fewer stations. I think the biggest differences are respect, speed and variety of conviences; seems like less respect, more speed and more variety. Life was slower and you had more time for your friends. Things weren't all that hard, we had running water, fuel oil heat, etc. Now if your friend was 80, 90, or 100 years old, that would be a seriously different lifestyle, probably no running water, wood heat only, etc.

I like the old values - respect for elders, teachers, senior citizens, courtesies and manners which are totally conspicuous by its absence in the present modern world. I like the technological revolution that has taken place. So I need all the amenities of the modern and would like to live in a old style w.p.t. to human relationships.

Hi there. I wouldnt mind living in the old days, with a few mod cons lol...

I do love modern conveniences and often wonder what I and others would do if they were suddenly taken away. There are many olden days I wouldn't mind going back to. I'd love to be here when the country was new to us immigrants. Although my ancestry wasn't among those first settlers. I would've respected the original Americans thought. It would've been hard but an exciting adventure too. Also to be around when some of the discoveries and inventions/technology we take for granted today were first invented - like the Television - even radio, when man first walked the moon. Maybe we wouldn't take things and time for granted as much if we had been around when we washing and drying clothes and cleaning the house was so much more time consuming. And you're right it was less complicated and more tangible - we had more hands on things to do. Things we touched. Life was more real somehow. This is a great topic, one of our fellow mylotters thought so too and posted it here: http://morachat.com/forum/would-you-want-to-live-in-the-old-days-modern-world-t3822.html

I'm not that old, either. My present age is still in the calendar. And, I don't know exactly how life was in the old days; but I guess I would love to have been born a bit earlier. You're absolutely right about the part that the current world we live in is full of convenience and it's a plus for the modern age. But I'm quite certain that the world was a better place to live in, back in the olden days. People were more disciplined and had respect for everyone. They had more personal and intimate conversations then. I believe they understand one another then because of this. Honestly speaking, when I feel sad or lonely, I often catch myself dreaming of a picture of the world when I was younger. A place where farmers abound tilling the land in the middle of the day; with the gentle breeze caressing the bamboo trees to give it the chance to sway. They sing and share jokes while doing the tiresome task. I know it was more difficult because technology was still under development. But I really believe life was simpler, with lesser crimes, and lesser bills to pay.

I prefer to live in the modern world. It is hard to imagine to cook without electricity or gas. In fact it is not so difficult to experience the old days life. In our country there are still some very poor areas, and life is actually not easy there.

I rather live in the modern world. I wouldn't be too happy living in the old days. There aren't computers with internet in the old days.

i would love it, so amazingly peaceful and charming and the one thing i like about the past eras is "the lost in one's own thoughts and world look', unlike todays "what is on the other's mind look". amazing. smiles, apple.

I am also in my 50s. I often miss the times when I was younger too. There was an innocence than about some things. Some things were easier and better. Of course, as evidenced by my heavy use of the computer :-) I would not have this convenience or things such as microwave ovens, cable tv, etc. But our water was clean and FREE, our air was relatively clean. The only real threat was of a nuclear war with Ruussia. But realistically in all times there were hardships many of which we do not face today. We tend to think of past times in history in unrealisitic ways tinged by nostalgia. The world you see in the movies is not real, so many things are left out that were dealt with daily. In even my grandmother's youth time (1910s-20s), disease took some 20-30% of children before they reached adulthood. Medical care was not readily available because many towns had no doctors. She had to take her children 60 miles by horse drawn cart to a doctor and pay in cash or produce. No social security for the edlerly. If you had no family or money to care for you you ended up living on the streets begging for food aand medicine was out of the question. Water was fresh and clean IF you had a well and it had to be drawn up by the bucketfuls. In westerns we see the idea that people took baths only on Saturday. First, think of how people must have smelled. The french invented perfumes not to be pretty but to cover the stink of their bodies. saturday baths were true partly because you had to have a tub to wash in, you had to draw and carry the water in 5 gallon buckets at the time (5 gallons of water without the bucket weighs 40 pounds, a fact of science), then unless you like really cold baths, you must first heat the water, which meant you must have a stove, wood to fuel it, light the darn thing, etc. Imagine warming wnough water for a bath on your grill 5 gallons at the time. And remember, you warm the first one, pour it into the tub, and while you ware warming the seacond, the first one is cooling to room temperature. Hot baths as we know them were almost impossible except for the very wealthy. Very few store bought clothes, and those were very costly. So can you spin, weave, sew? Can you go out into the yard and kill and skin or pluck your hen or hog to eat? Stores carried only staples such as flour, sugar, maybe eggs if you were lucky. When I was very young my family lived in many of these conditions, being poor farmers. I remember the bathing in a tub after 4-5 hours of getting water ready. And of course you couldn't pour it out and start over for each person. So if you were a younger kid it was cold water from the well out in the yard or into a previously used tub. Winter is coming, do you have enough firewood? There are no furnaces, no central air. In the summer the is no air conditioning, no fans. farmers woke before sunrise, worked until it was too hot, then went in to have lunch and sleep until it was cool enough to work until it was too dark to see. No refrigeration of any kind except perhaps a big old wooden box into which you put a block of ice, also expensive. I spent a summer with an elderly greataunt who lived in rustic condition in the mountains. We had fun, but some 8-9 hours a day were spent doing the work needed for basic lliving. We kept food tied with a rope in a running creek to keep it cooled. No plastic packaging, everything had to be put into gllass jars and tied. Cows had to be milked, chicken eggs gathered, pigs slaughtered for meat, then cleaned and salt cured. And you don't see on the movies that the animals must be fed EVERY day in any weather, that their stalls and pens must be cleaned (again with cold water carried from the well or creek). Soap was made by you, an all day process, hot and stinky. So no I will take today, where I can dash to the store in a car, not walking, to get food that is relatively clean, then come home and put it into the fridge. That today, it is not the 98 degrees it is outside inside where I am sitting. That I just came from a hot shower without spendind 3 or 4 hours getting and warming water, with soap I did not have to make. If I were to go back in time I would not want to go much further than perhaps the 1940s. Some anemities were available. But I would not want to do the work needed to have a decent clean home, person and food. And as a woman, remember that until recently in history women could not work a job for money, own property, be protected by laws, vote or all those things we take for granted. Stores were few and far between, only open restricted hours, and unless you could afford a car or horse, you walked, in my case here, it would be 4 miles each way and carrying anything I bought on the return trip. Although. like your friend, I am often nostalgic for the days of my own youth because it was indeed a simpler time, I would not be willing to go back to the difficulties we lived with every day. So when you watch those lovely old movies remember that what you see is only the relavent things to the story, that those actors have eaten and bathed and are dressed in clothing manufactured for the movie. That you barely see the masses who lived in abject poverty and hunger. I will take today, with all its turmoil and trouble, because a realistic look at other times yields a not-so-pretty picture. Not to say this time is so much better, but it is not so much worse either, only different. And someday our descendents will watch movies of our times and think 'those were the good old days'.

I have many friends who are in their 50s and even in 60s now..!!Who tells me how was the life in their time..!! You know in my country in older days the country was rich but very very orthodox..!! Women in my country had no rights at all...just take care of family and nothing else..!! So I would just to hate go back their I am just loving the way I ma in my present..!! A free independent GIRL...!! :)

As a child I used to imagine living in medieval times or the renaissance period. then as I grew older and realized the gowns I so adored weighed upwards of 30 lbs., there was no t.v., women had no rights, they were for child bearing, knitting and gardening lol. I realized that todays society would be more suitable to my needs. I am of mixed race so my living in the past would not go well for me. I would not be a person of substance, but a servant or even worse. LOL, so I think I like the values of yester year, but the rights and freedoms of today!

Hello wondericequeen, I think I prefer to live in the modern world. Life is simple during the old days but definitely it is harder than modern days. I don't think I will suit in perfectly if I were to be born during that time. I don't really have hard times in my life till now. The problem that I think is hard for me now, is not that hard at all when I compare it with my mom's life when she was at the same age like mine.

no... no grandma used to tell me stories about thier life before, and i dont like it, coz when they get touched by boys they get married already and thier parents was sooooooo strict that they cant even go on a party... i dont think i can live with it

DUn think that old dayswer better than these newer days all is abt Every era has its own fantasies thie own techs n all the era in we r living is modern we been granted so many facilities no dout in this era respect has no value all is abt money but think a lil bit abt the facilities the latest techs in older days people use to establish such a modern world n we r havin it so inspite of thinking that older dayz wer better think that newer dayz has so many things .

I'm 38 and gotta say I think on the whole society was better even when I was a kid.The world these days has gone mad!!!!Bring back the old values but keep the mod cons!