Everyday life has changed in small but meaningful ways in the few years since I was born. Here are some examples that come to mind:

  1. Microwave ovens. I remember the first ones as very boxy. They took the place of the toaster oven.
  2. Automatic teller machines. I have trouble imagining life without them. I remember checks as more common, and the practice (in the USA) of customers rounding up checks at the supermarket, which would hand over a few dollars in change.
  3. Telephones. When I was a child, customers leased telephones from the monopoly operator. (You could not buy a telephone.) The phones were beige; they had rotary dials and actual bells. Outside of the home, people placed calls from public phone booths. I also remember answering machines that recorded messages on cassettes. I have witnessed: touch-tone keyboards; the end of telephone monopolies; the development of voicemail (to such a point of complexity that I'm loathe to use it today); and the flourishing of mobile phones. Having a phone that looks like a Star Trek communicator is neat, but even the idea of the iPhone is, I suspect, too outlandish to have been imagined 50 years ago.
  4. Typewriters. Mine is the last generation that learned to type. I typed on manual typewriters, and on electric flywheel or ball typewriters. I have actually handled carbon paper and made carbon copies. Typewriters used to be everywhere, but they seem to have become extinct. In my daily life, they've been replaced by ink-jet printers that generate documents, graphics, and photographs. My ink-jet printer also doubles as a scanner and copier (black-and-white or color). My printer cost me under $100. Again, I suspect the leap from typewriter to ink-jet printer would be hard to explain to a visitor from 1960.
  5. Digital cameras. I grew up in a world where you could run out of film. Film came in different kinds: black-and-white or color; transparency or print; ASA 100, 200, 400; exotic films such as infrared. Once exposed, film needed to be developed, at home or commercially. I lived in the world of 35-mm, but there were also instamatic or polaroid films, or mid-size cameras (such as the Hasselblad) for professionals. I was partial to transparencies (slides) that were stored in carousels and projected on a screen.
  6. Multiplex cinemas. I remember large, boxy movie theaters. Many were subsequently subdivided into two or three smaller theaters. I remember the first real multiplex in the neighborhood: I think that there were, initially, six theaters; it was subsequently expanded. Today, I frequent theaters with three or six or eighteen theaters. When you go to the movies, you have to choose what you see, among offerings on several screens. (I can also remember cinemas that closed, so am not sure whether the total number of screens has grown; I suspect that it has not.)
  7. VCRs/DVDs. I remember, as a child, feeling distress at the prospect of "missing my program". Television was broadcast on four networks. I remember the first tape recorders, that used a sort of reel-to-reel tape. Then came the VCR, followed by the DVD. Today, set-top boxes offer storage or time-shifting options.
  8. Remote controls. Changing the television channel once involved standing up and turning a dial; the same was true for changing a radio frequency. Like most families, we today have three or four remote controls.
  9. CDs/MP3s. As for typewriters, I'm probably part of the last generation to understand what a "broken record" is. Vinyl disks still exist today. But I saw the rise and fall of magnetic tape. And the displacement of the CD by the MP3 and other digital formats.
  10. Power windows. Most automobiles today come with automatic, powered windows. In the United States, it's nearly impossible to find a car that doesn't have air conditioning. I grew up in a world of windows that passengers lowered by hand, in order to have fresh air and a breeze.
  11. Card catalogs. Here's something that you don't buy or use in your home. When I learned to use the library, the collections were cataloguedon cardboard cards (usually written with a typewriter). I continued to use card catalogs throughout my university studies. Starting when I was still a child, computerized catalogs entered the libraries. Over time, they displaced or replaced catalogs on cards. On this point more than any other, I'm a Luddite: I have always preferred card catalogs over computer catalogs, and I suspect that I always will.

As a bonus, I'd add GPS positioning devices, that I suspect have not yet entered into their prime.

I've deliberately left off my list:

  • Medicine (IRMs, for example);
  • Computing (I used punch cards to program in BASIC); and
  • Environmental issues (I remember smog and asbestos insulation and pull caps on soda cans).