So let’s take a quick turn from fashion trends and look at 3 gadgets that radically changed life in the 80s thru now.

1

Sure we can have a whole argument about the VCR vs betamax thing but at the end of the day, this gadget changed the way we watched TV and movies.  I remember long before there were mp4s, blu-ray and DVD disks and VHS tapes, the only way you would see a movie you liked was to well..GO TO THE MOVIES!!  I remember seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark more than 5 times in the theaters before it ever came out on tape but of course the invention of the VCR changed all of that.  We could enjoy the movie experience right  in our own home, pause it, rewind it and if you didn’t want to own it rent it from Blockbuster, Erol’s (you remember them right?) or Hollywood video.  Then we found out we could record our favorite programs and not miss them as long as you had enough tape to record the program.  And let’s be honest, how many of us are still sitting on some VHS tapes somewhere?

2

And of course before there were iPods that could carry entire libraries of music, there was the Walkman. Although technically it was invented in the 70s, it didn’t go mainstream until the 80s and of course Sony wasn’t the only company create one.  Every electronics company had many differing versions in every color and size possible. The Walkman was probably one of the first devices that encouraged ‘social alienation’  where if you wanted to block out what was going on around you and enjoy your own listening experience, you could do so at the push of a button. At the same time, you could also do so without really disturbing those around you, unless you had some really loud headphones that bled sound into the crowd. But all in all, it was the device that set the stage for mp3 players, iPods and the like.

3

One of the first devices that truly ‘cut the cords’ was the cordless phone. Now it was possible to take your conversation everywhere (including the bathroom) with no fear of stretching or tangling the cord or worry about it popping out of the wall. of course many of us were quick to realize that all the same your phone had a finite distance until it disconnected or sometimes how if the signals crossed you got radio stations, CB transmissions or even other people’s calls.  These phones back then were the teenager’s friend and the bane of parents all before there were these