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Paige: You're listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I’m Paige Sutherland.
Ian: I'm Ian Kennedy.
Paige: Today we are going to talk about something sad and nostalgic but something that we also benefit from as well. It's both things at once but it's things that we've lost to the internet. So, the internet has been amazing. We can download all these free movies and we can stay connected to people around the world. We can do everything from check our bank accounts to buy flights to listen to music to literally everything. So, the internet's great, but we've also lost some things in that trade-off that we want to talk about that are a little sad. Internet age these things have died out a little bit. So, we're going to just talk about a few today. As always, if you get lost, check out that audio guide and transcript online at www.dynamicenglish.cl. Okay, things we've lost to the internet. Do you want to kick us off, Ian?
Ian: Sure. First of all, I think even more than talking about being nostalgic or reflecting on the internet, it's going to be like a revelation of how old we are. It's making me realize as I look at these, I just feel like the old person now talking. Young people are going to be like, what's this little guy talking about? Anyway, let's kick it off with the first one that we can think of here. It's, just in general, what we would call benign neglect. So, I feel like when I was a kid, it was so easy just to run around all day unsupervised. No one was worried and you just made sure to be home at the time that your parents told you to be home and every everything was gravy. So, I remember my brother and I, it'd be a Saturday morning, we'd hop on our bikes and say to our parents, “Hey, we're going over to such and such’s house. We're going to go ride bikes or do whatever.” And they just said, “Okay, be home by sundown or be home for dinner” or whatever right? And there weren't these tracking your phone or constantly calling or checking in on where your kids are. I don't know. Maybe it was just a safer time back then and it just seems like nowadays, that doesn't quite exist as much in the world of internet where you can just be inside all day if you want, on your phone or kids or on the computer. And back in the day, sometimes my mom would just want us to get out of the house, get out of her hair, and so, it was alright, go have fun, go get rid of your energy because there wasn't much else to do. We didn't have the digital world that we have now. Did you have the same kind of thing? You just sometimes ran around and everything was fine?
Paige: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I didn't get a flip phone until I was 17 and then I didn't get a smartphone until almost end of college. So, it was impossible to really stay in touch with your parents that frequently. I think if you look at crime statistics, it probably isn't more dangerous now. I think sadly, it's just we have access to news 24/7 and the internet allows us to look up every crime and everything that's happened where before it was like ignorance is bliss. You didn't really know about the crime and so, you didn't really think about it. So, you let your kids play wherever and what were you going to do? Technology wasn't around so you can't watch them 24/7. So, I missed those times because I think the internet has created these “helicopter parents” that just worry themselves when kids need to be free and independent and grow on their own. I think sometimes it's hard because you can survey your kids now. Okay, next one that's a little lighter that I actually miss a lot, especially because I don't have the best memory. So, all of high school and probably all of college, I would make these huge photo albums and they would just be all these photos and I would write these funny captions of what was going on just as a momentum of my life with my friends and things that I did. And the photos were just so candid. They were so fun and you were just living in the moment and you just had the bad photos were the best photos because it told you what you were doing and the scene of the night. Where today, every photo is photoshopped and it's posed and it's portrait mode, and it's just these fake photos and it's a little sad. If you go back probably in kids feeds today, 20 years from now they're going to look at their childhood and it's really not going to be their childhood because it's fake, happy portraits.
Ian: Yeah, so altered. And back in the day, we just had the world of disposable cameras. So, you'd take a picture, you'd wind it back to the to the next opportunity to take the next picture and then you'd have to wait until they got developed. You didn't know if it was good or not. You can’t just review it like you can on your phone and add filters and cut it and do all these kinds of things. You just had to wait and see and there was some fun in there. You'd be like, “Oh, you just had a funny face. This one might come out hilarious after we go to get it developed.” So, I think there is—again, sound like the old people here—but it's true. There was something nostalgic about having that physical photo and also having to wait for it as well.
Paige: Hey, Ian. Did you know besides the podcast, Dynamic English offers one-on-one classes with native teachers from all over the world?
Ian: Really? But isn't it just a bunch of grammar lessons?
Paige: Nope, it's completely discussion-based and focuses on topics the student is interested in.
Ian: That's amazing. But what if I'm not living in Chile?
Paige: No problem. Dynamic does online classes. You can be living anywhere.
Ian: Great, but I'm a little intimidated to take the class alone. Can I join with a friend?
Paige: Of course. Dynamic offers group classes of up to four. Plus, for the next month, Coffee with Gringos listeners get 10% off individual or group classes. So go online to www.dynamicenglish.cl and mention that you are a listener and get your discount.
Ian: Well, I'm sold. Sign me up.
Ian: Another one on this list that I really can think of and relate to is the feeling of opening up a brand-new CD ROM for a music album. Some of my best memories are when I was a young kid and bought some of my first CDs. I had to save up my money to buy them. That was the deal with my parents and anything I wanted to bu. So, I would save up enough money, pocket change, and then would find a CD and go and buy it. And there's something fun about pulling off the plastic and it was fresh and you had the little information book that had their artwork and had the lyrics to the songs if you wanted to know what they were saying any song. The only thing that besides it being fun besides that experience was it ended up being a pain in the ass having so many CDs. You would just fill up a room with CDs there were so many and a lot of times to you would find that you'd save money, you’d buy the CD and maybe there were two good songs and the rest are not that good. So, you just paid $10 to $15, which back then was a lot of money for a CD. Maybe you only liked a few songs. It was like dang. So, it was good and bad. I think for me personally, I'm glad it's moved to the streaming. It's a lot easier for people, obviously, now to listen than to carry all those CDs in your car or just have them in your house and taking up space. But there's something special, a place in my heart for those first CD ROMs that I got.
Paige: I can definitely relate with having so many CDs and one-hit-wonders that really were one- hit -wonders like the “Mambo Number Five” and that band that was, “If was blue, dabba -doo.”
Ian: Eiffel 65?
Paige: Yeah, so I have so many of those CDs where they really only had a song, but you couldn't back then. You just had to buy it but the thing I miss the most is the mixtapes. My friends and my exes would make me CDs and they would be all the songs that you like. That was nice to do.
Ian: Burning CDs. That was another activity of the past?
Paige: The internet has also allowed us to not be good at ignoring people because there's ways to get in touch with someone. I mean, you can physically call them you can text them you can reach out on social contract them on your phone, so you know where they are and I find that a little hard when you don't know sometimes. You just don't want to pick up or want to talk to your friend, your mom or you just don't want to go out on a Friday night and you want to lie about it but then the internet makes it really hard because everyone can fact check you. “Oh, you said you had a work thing but I saw this photo that you were out at this other bar.” It's hard to ignore people. It's hard to lie. It's hard to be off the grid.
Ian: Yeah, it's hard. It's a lot harder to cover your tracks nowadays because of all these apps that we have, you can use and maybe you're on at the same time as someone they see that you're online when you've said you're doing something else or perhaps if you're somebody who has you get left on read as they say—the read receipt—so somebody has read your message and doesn't respond to it.
Paige: Double check in WhatsApp.
Ian: Yeah, or it actually says in an iMessage, “it's been read by this person” but they haven't responded kind of a thing. And so, it is just one of those things where if you want to get away, if you want to ignore everybody, you’ve got to try extra hard. You have to really disconnect in that way harder today than it was back in the day when we just weren't digitally connected through everything. So definitely changing of times in that way.
Paige: Yeah, it's good and bad. It's nice to be able to get in touch with people easily but then there’s that downside of maybe too much.
Ian: So, another one, in general, that I think of is people just living in the moment. It's it seems like it's happening less than less nowadays because, for instance, people are more worried about getting a video or a snap or putting something on their Instagram instead of just enjoying the moment for themselves and for the person they're with. So, something that drives me crazy is nowadays to when I go to a concert, and I just want to enjoy the show, I just want to listen to music, take it all in, and there are a thousand people with their phones sticking up in the air, and they're blocking the view and they're just getting videos of the concert and being more focused on their phone than what's actually happening in front of them. And we see this for a lot of different things for people going to certain places just so that they can put it on their Instagram or make an impression to somebody and instead of doing it because that's a place they really want to see and take in the moment. I don't know, it just seems, like I said, people just don't enjoy the present moment as much and they're more worried about how they are being perceived by people that aren't with them. They're going to be seeing them on social media than just living the moment. It's almost like, if you don't post it, then you didn't actually experience it and we need to get out of that mindset and just enjoy something for yourself and in the moment.
Paige: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. That concert thing is a big pet peeve of mine. It's like why would you spend $80 to watch the concert on your phone? You could have done that at home. Yeah, it does affect but it is sad. You hear the phrase, “do it for the gram.” It’s a bummer because I see it so much when I go hiking or when you're traveling and you're just seeing such beautiful things. you want people to just enjoy it more than just getting that that photo. I hate too, I don't know if it's probably more of a girl thing but I've definitely traveled for bachelorette parties or any big group things where you're out and I think it's totally fine to take a photo to be like “Yeah, we did this cool thing. Let's document that we were in Austin.” But I hate when people are like, “Let's take 30 photos of this one day.” And I'm like, “Why do we need 30 photos of the same thing? Let's just be here.”
Ian: Exactly. You mean, do a one and done to document and then soak it all in. That's the way it should be. I think we're the old dinosaurs. Things like that.
Paige: But yeah, so as we said, these are just a few things that me and Ian over here. I certainly miss because the internet has robbed us of these things. But now the internet's great. We're using it right now to do this podcast. We love it. But there are some things that definitely have been lost to it. So as always, if you get lost, check out that guide and transcript online at www. dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.
Ian: We'll see you next time.
Paige: Coffee with Gringos was brought to you by Dynamic English, where you can learn English simply by using it. If you're interested in taking classes or just want to learn more, go to our website at dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.
Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:
1. revelation (noun): making something known that was secret or unknown.
a. This is a revelation of how old we are.
2. gravy (adjective, informal): cool; non-problematic; positive.
a. As long as you make it back home on time, everything’s gravy.
3. to get out of one’s hair (idiom): to leave someone alone or stop bothering them.
a. She wants to get the kids out of her hair so she can relax.
4. helicopter parent (noun): overly-protective and supervising parent.
a. There seems to be many more helicopter parents today compared to before.
5. altered (adjective): changed.
a. The photos today can be easily altered with filters and other things.
6. one-hit-wonder (noun): a music band that only has one popular song.
a. She has many CDs that are one-hit-numbers from the 90s.
7. to burn (verb): to create a custom music mixtape using a blank CD ROM.
a. I used to burn so many CDs to listen to when I was young.
8. downside (noun): something negative.
a. There are certain downsides to having the Internet.
9. pet peeve (noun): something that bothers or annoys someone.
a. One of biggest pet peeves is people not enjoying the moment.
10. bummer (noun): something negative or disappointing.
a. It is a bummer that we can’t be off the grid nowadays.