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History is happening faster now. With the growth of universal high speed communication and cheap world travel, culture and technology move at unprecedented speeds. Because of these factors the rate of change is different to what it was at any time in the past. This is an objective and verifiable truth rather than subjective perception: the current speed and quality of global communication has never been possible before and that has ramifications for how the world changes.
This topic was inspired by Banes's newspost last week about how a huge stoush on American late night TV only a little over ten years ago is now unrelatable history; something that was so important then is largely meaningless now. A fight over TV time-slots lacks meaning for us now because time-slots are irrelevant, not to mention most people would rather stream than watch TV. And yet at the time it was vitally important, as it would have been in the 60 years or more before that.
My cover image references phones and how they've changed at an ever increasing rate over the years. They've changed so fast and so universally that you can date when something was made to a granular degree just by seeing a phone, to the year. In the past you could read an old comic or see an old TV show and there weren't that many differences to the present day because things changed slower. You could see that fashions and the styles of things had changed but mostly it was still all very relatable and you could not easily pinpoint the date of something to the year it was made from only a single item of tech.
The pace of change means that many stories happen in ways today they couldn't in the past, but it also means much more things from the past are harder to relate to for people who've had no direct experience of them in the historical contexts they came from…
What are some of the things you recall that have no meaning today?
This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to FrayFall - In the words of the maestro: “Still in a soundscape sort of mood. Calmness, but demons lurking is what I was going for”… And this is what we get with a seemingly serene landscape of slightly pulsing tones, fading in and out and overlaying one another like the calls of distant whales in the green-deep open ocean… But the thing about depths is that you never really know what’s lurking down there, just out of sight.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Banes' Newspost about modern period pieces - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/jul/11/you-call-that-a-period-piece/
Featured comic:
Book in Hat - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/jul/12/featured-comic-book-in-hat/
Featured music:
FrayFall - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/FrayFall/ - by Frae, rated E.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
PitFace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
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Quackcast 592 - Back in MY day!
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, July 19, 2022
Back in MY day!?,
Banes,
Book in Hat,
Drunk duck,
Featured comic,
Featured music,
FrayFall,
Gunwallace,
Kawaiidaigakusei,
Ozoneocean,
Pitface,
QUACKCAST 592,
Tantz Aerine,
Webcomics hosting
8 likes!
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Ironscarf at 8:20AM, July 19, 2022
I can actually remember things like, clothes, furniture, cars and electrical goods being built to last and be repaired if they went wrong. Now they are made to last a short time and repair is either impossible or actively discouraged. The world ends not with a bang, but with planned obsolescence.
Ozoneocean at 3:47AM, July 19, 2022
I don't really agree @Marcorossi- I know what you're getting at- Stuff like the internal combustion engine underwent revolutionary changes back in the late 19th century and that gave us cars and aeroplanes, we got the electrical grid, the light-bulb and machine guns at that time too... penicillin, missiles, TV etc were all made in the early 20th century, digital computing in the mid 20th century and so on. BUT those were all big changes that took decades to change society and for us to get used to and be a part of every day life. The difference now is that change is centered around universal, global, instantaneous communication (which they didn't have at any other time). Cultural change happens so much faster, technologies can develop faster too (as we've seen with phones, battery technology, solar power and so on), but the main point is that the pace of cultural change has accelerated.
marcorossi at 2:56AM, July 19, 2022
As a partial retraction: the bic technological inventions IMHO happened earlier, but what is happening now is that those invention are more and more perfected and diffused, so that the impact on everyday life is showing now. A bit like cars were created in the 19th century, but become common in the second half of the 20th century, so the big jump in customs became evident in the second half of the 20th century.
marcorossi at 2:37AM, July 19, 2022
In my opinion, the big technological jump happened between the 19th and the first half of the 20th century; we have still technological change but it is more the diffusion of older technologies (this includes internet and smartphones).
kawaiidaigakusei at 12:08AM, July 19, 2022
So funny.