Alolan_Apples
“Assorted” Collector
Three days ago, I went over five nitpicks of todays society and their older counterparts. The reason why the old ones win were mostly because of nostalgia, but there are deeper reasons than just nostalgia.
The five I picked were cars, computers, phones, music, and tv. The first two, there is no doubt that the newer versions are always better than the older versions as technology improvements make them better. But the second one of the two, the older forms beat their current forms because of design. As much as the iOS 6- design of icons, pop-ups, and apps were better than their iOS 7+ counterparts and Windows 98 was a better theme than XP, Vista/7, and 8/10's themes, the newer versions just seem easier to work with, especially by today's standards. Phones, I have an ambivalent feeling on. The newer models are better, but the design, durability, and battery life keeps getting worse. Music has declined in quality (Elvis is not going to like today's music), and classic television was better despite quality being a generation bias. Today's nitpicks are on five other things, and it's all technology.
The five I picked were cars, computers, phones, music, and tv. The first two, there is no doubt that the newer versions are always better than the older versions as technology improvements make them better. But the second one of the two, the older forms beat their current forms because of design. As much as the iOS 6- design of icons, pop-ups, and apps were better than their iOS 7+ counterparts and Windows 98 was a better theme than XP, Vista/7, and 8/10's themes, the newer versions just seem easier to work with, especially by today's standards. Phones, I have an ambivalent feeling on. The newer models are better, but the design, durability, and battery life keeps getting worse. Music has declined in quality (Elvis is not going to like today's music), and classic television was better despite quality being a generation bias. Today's nitpicks are on five other things, and it's all technology.
- Film - This is definitely one thing that was better in the old days than today's. Even some of the black and white films were trustworthy classics. But if there's a specific timeframe film was a lot better in, I would say the 70's to the 90's, even if we include the animation branch. The 30's had films like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wizard of Oz, Snow White, King Kong, Scarface, and Mutiny on the Bounty, but even those don't compare to what we seen in the 70's to 90's. There, we had a reasonable amount of special effects, colored films, less remakes, less reboots, fewer film adaptations of books per 10 films, and less rip-offs. There were bad movies in these three decades as well, and they're really bad films. But the fact is, we were more creative and original during these times, and the film industry was not dominated by franchises, a few studios, and a certain genre. Now the successes in the industry changed from a pure competition to an oligopoly. The industry has been plagued by sequels, prequels, remakes, spin-offs, rip-offs, film adaptations of books, and more recently, reboots. The part that bothers me is the lack of creativity and originality in films, as we're watching the same stuff over again. Also, the successes have been dominated by franchise films, film adaptations of overhyped book franchises (like the Hunger Games), superhero films (more particularly Marvel), zombie films, and Disney. Not only creativity and originality are fading, but the newer movies themselves just don't seem to be as good. Even the animation branch has beem lacking quality in recent times. CGI 3D animation is all too mainstream as this part was dominated by Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, and Blue Sky. And let's throw in Illumination Studios for making the most overrated movie of all time (Minions). How did the same industry that made The Godfather and The Lion King change into something that made The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Minions? You can make a more original film that wasn't adapted from a book and not follow the trends, but chances are, it's gonna fail or be a limited release.
So yes, the old is going to beat the new big time, but the older modern films (70's to 90's) is better than the even older ones. - Video Games - just like what I said about film, there is a timeframe where games were at their best. It doesn't mean older is much better and newer is much worse, but I prefer the older ones more than the newer ones. Yes, games have gone downhill in a much worse way than film has. The 8-bit era games were simply built, but were a lot harder. There wasn't much to do in each game, but they did have a lot of fun in them. A generation after the NES, gaming has gotten better. One generation later, it is even better. And I'm talking, the Nintendo 64/Playstation 1 generation. Back then, games were a lot harder and more puzzling. And they don't visually tell you how to play the game or put very much description in reading. It's also worth mentioning that multiplayer was a lot better back then. Generations later, we see more improvements to the gaming industry. And there's a huge ambivalence to that. Gameplay has gotten a lot worse. The industry scaled down on difficulty of video games, puzzles are watered down, enemies and bosses have gotten a lot easier, there are fewer obstacles (or slower obstacles), bottomless pits aren't as deadly, racing games became some "everybody's-a-winner", and they put in visual directions, telling you how to play throughout the entire game. Not only that, but the gaming industry rushes a lot more recently. And they don't care because we're in an age where they can update games after their release. We also see a rise in DLC, online trolling in games, online-exclusive features, and game updates. Basically, gaming has gotten a lot worse in overall quality. Even Nintendo is guilty of making their games ridiculously easier. But if there's anything that has gotten better, it would have to be graphics and sound quality. Back in the PS1/N64 era, graphics looked really bad. They seem very blocky, unrealistic, and choppy opposed to the more realistic and smooth ones we have today. I liked looking at Mario in SM3D World, but not SM64.
So graphics and sound gotten better, but gameplay and overall quality has gotten worse. It's a shame to see that happen, especially in a time of hardware advances, as it shows a lot of potential is being wasted. - Music Players - the good thing about going all digital is that we don't have to waste a lot of space. Your phones can store as many music albums as you like (as long as you still have a lot of memory). And your shelves are cleaner from music casettes and CDs. Not only that, but without a radio or music player, the sockets have one less plug going in. But this isn't any better either. I prefer using less space in the real world, but I miss the old music players. Casette players not only played music, but also audio recordings. Sometimes, it even plays a narrator's recording when reading a book. That has been replaced with digital podcasts you can subscribe to. The overall debate, I am iffy about, but I'm leaning towards the modern side and steering clear of the classics. Tapes are better than records, CDs are better than tapes, and digital is better than CDs.
- Television Screens - Once again, the new ones win. Flat-screen TVs are more space efficient, and they have better resolution than before. You can also get a brighter screen, and they can be hung on the wall better than CRTs. Plus, they don't heat up as quickly. But the few things they lose to: older games don't work as well, it takes a while to load a screen when you turn on, buttons were replaced with touch sensors, and you were forced to rely on a remote more.
- Video Players - on the film and TV part, it started with VHS and VCRs, then we went to DVDs and DVD players, and their blu-ray players. This is another thing with ambivalence. Video tapes do not have as much memory as newer ones. All they could do is play movies. And when you're done, you have to re-wind the tapes. DVDs were a lot better because you can choose any chapter to start with, skip sections easily, and even have setup and special features. Plus, they store more memory, are cheaper to mass produce, and use less shelf space than VHS. Blu-Rays have even more memory. I'm not even gonna get started on the digital copies since they are like Blu-rays except stored digitally. But if there's a few things going downhill, it has to be durability and strength in the video copies. To read more data, you have to use more power. When you use more power, the players wear down faster. Not only that, but disc players tend to stop working after a few years, especially Blu-Ray players. Plus, they overheat very easily. So VCRs and VHS win this part. But the advantages of new technology outweigh the advantages of old technology, especially since the disadvantages of old technology is painful. This is not just limited to video players, but video game players. We like more features on our video game handhelds and consoles, but durability has been going downhill there too.
