There was a connection between deindustrialization in American cities (and the crappy property market in the 80s) and the music and arts scenes in the 80s and 90s. It was relatively cheap and easy to set up studios, galleries, music venues, or just squat in empty industrial buildings. Property owners were happy to have someone to keep the lights on and keep the bums out. Stages and makeshift bars were built out of scraps, and bands were booked, and people came. Music scenes used to require physical spaces (and arguably still do) to breathe and take shape.
I've watched interviews in which veteran musicians from one city in Texas describe how things developed in the 80s - it was all made possible by rock bottom rents and tons of empty warehouse space. I think the situation was similar across much of the US. Space was cheap enough to allow for low-profit activities and businesses to take root. The stakes were very low compared to today.
An analogous situation emerged in other places (in part for different reasons) such as the former East Berlin. I would guess similar circumstances also emerged in the UK around the same time - perhaps someone here can confirm.
Absolutely. The internet stopped being something you accessed and became something you were connected to 24/7, and that you have a persistent, high-speed connection. That was a huge shift.
30 years ago, the internet was a novelty, nothing more, and it remained so easily for another ten years after that. It wasn't until the widespread adoption of smartphones that permanent connectivity came to be taken for granted.
It was actually very easy to get by without any of it until quite recently, when legacy options for all kinds of things began being phased out.
You are absolutely correct. Living abroad for any length of time comes with tremendous costs. It changes you permanently.
In the end you can never really go home, because home as you knew it isn't there anymore, and you yourself have changed.
It can be very detrimental in more practical ways too - things few people pause to consider.
Edit:
Beware of the dreaded Ds such as death, divorce, debt, disability, etc. It's easy if you are young and consider a short stay abroad - but growing old abroad is another thing entirely.
People seem to believe me when I say I don't carry a phone, but they look at me like they're talking to a member of some 'uncontacted tribe'. I don't think it computes.
The good ones at least have a machine where you can pay cash. I found myself having to park in such an area recently, and did some recon the day before, just to make sure there were machines on site - and there were. What I found funny was that the lot was attended by a live human being, too, which made me wonder why the owner of the lot in question had opted for an automated system at all.
It bothers me that they insist on collecting license plate numbers. Why not just number the parking spots so they are classed as 'paid' or 'not paid' and dispense with the unnecessary surveillance?
Is it even illegal to use a fake plate in a situation like that? Certainly if you are driving, but what about parking?
I've read that they have to be reachable in order to get any kind of state benefits, and being unreachable leads to automatic disqualification - which is a big problem as homeless people often lose their phones or have them stolen.
As far as smartphones being a necessity goes, I have never owned a smartphone myself, and do not carry any phone at all most of the time. I have just gone on living like I did before smartphones, though I am aware that I am locked out of more and more things. I am beginning to resent things like parking that requires a smartphone. I don't understand the lack of back up options.
Rather than insisting on 'smartphones as a human right', I'd rather see 'opting out' as a human right.
There was (and is) so much to do. People used to talk to each other and interact with other and with their environment more though. It's vastly harder now.
Yes but it's all squishy. Bread is not supposed to have that texture, ever. I can only guess that most Americans object to actually having to chew their food.
They exist in some cities, sure, but across wide swathes of the country, they are nowhere to be found. The craft is dead, and in its place we have industry and logistics.
Where I see 'real' bread for sale in the US, it is marketed as a luxury good for the affluent, and the price reflects this. I see this as scandalous - charging a premium for what I would consider ordinary 'natural' food.
What really pains me is that an ordinary loaf of industrial spongebread at Walmart costs the same as a very high quality (and heavier/denser) loaf of proper bread (such as a standard Mischbrot) at a bake shop in Germany. It's obscene given that labor and especially energy costs are considerably higher in Germany, so it isn't like comparing a US price to a dirt cheap low-wage country.
I have noticed that since the pandemic there seems to be a lot more interest in quality home baking in the US, but it seems that people are rediscovering fire in a vacuum without any real training or knowledge - because the traditional craft is dead.
I am growing a little spelt in the garden this year from organic seed sourced in Germany. If it works, I will save my new seed and try it on a larger scale next year.
I've encountered the WhatsApp issue too. It's the communication tool in some parts of the world, but not others. In some circles people cannot imagine that you are a living breathing person who does not have it.
I use a bottom tier flip phone in the US, and a 13 year old Nokia with a pay-as-you go SIM in Europe.
I've noticed that there has been a generational shift towards smartphone-only communications, but I haven't really had to deal with it. I'd like to hear more about that. Oddly I use some of the same communication tools that young kids use, namely Discord, as it doesn't require a phone number. Linking online accounts and communications to a phone number has always put me off.
Banks tend to have some back up, such as a TAN generator. I have used those for Euro bank accounts that require 2FA. US bank accounts are usually fine with a phone number, which can be a dumb phone. There were no real covid restrictions where I live, and no app, so that was not a problem (but that is definitely something people should push back against, as it's horrifying). I would never, ever eat in a restaurant that required you to use a QR code. They can simply go to hell. It's mostly trendy places that do that, anyway, and I prefer hole-in- the-wall restaurants anyway. I understand this stuff is a lot more advanced in some countries, but even in the US it's pretty easy to get by without any of it.
I do. I am beginning to feel the costs though. Even telling people that I don't have one is getting a bit awkward. Imagine the look of incomprehension.
A lot of people talk about 'needing' a smartphone for services/stuff I have never used, and probably would never use. I suppose I just kept living my life as I did before the 2010s, while everyone else changed. I was already in my 30s at that time, so not subject to the same social pressures a younger person would have felt, so perhaps it was easier.
We're increasingly like animals that become dependent on a single source of food or a single watering hole. It's really risky. You could hardly design more fragile systems (or business models) that depend in these very narrow bottlenecks.
It should definitely be illegal. There are so many other options for charging these kinds of fees, all of which were used by public bodies in the US in the past, from dropping envelopes of money in a box to paying a person at a kiosk or using a vending machine to buy passes. Many of these payment methods are still in use at some parks/facilities.
The noose is tightening around the necks of those few of us who do not use smartphones. I hope a future wave of 'tech minimalism' gains enough traction to ensure that there are alternatives, but for now, as we ride the wave of tech-optimism and the mass adoption of intrusive technologies in the name of convenience or cost cutting, most people seem to see asking for alternatives as unreasonable.
There is an element of innate freedom in anonymous, analogue processes, even if they are not entirely 'anonymous' - such as writing a car license plate number on an envelope of cash for a drop box - it might as well be if the information is never entered into a searchable digital database where it will presumably be stored for eternity.
I few years ago I went camping at a state park in a system that had recently introduced usage fees (having always been free in the past). The state apparently partnered with some obscure parking app company to collect the fees. The use of the state park required submitting a considerable amount of information to a third party, with little or no information on how that data might be used, stored, or sold - in essence you had no choice but to submit to a third party's TOS in order to use public facilities at all. I did not like this at all, and having no smartphone, I paid cash at the manned office - only to have them collect my information and enter it into the parking app database.
A few months ago someone here made a comment in another discussion about having a pervasive sense that things are not quite as they should be. That stuck with me.
I've watched interviews in which veteran musicians from one city in Texas describe how things developed in the 80s - it was all made possible by rock bottom rents and tons of empty warehouse space. I think the situation was similar across much of the US. Space was cheap enough to allow for low-profit activities and businesses to take root. The stakes were very low compared to today.
An analogous situation emerged in other places (in part for different reasons) such as the former East Berlin. I would guess similar circumstances also emerged in the UK around the same time - perhaps someone here can confirm.