The 60s Were Very Different
The Sixties were without doubt an interesting time to be alive. But there’s a reason “May you live in interesting times” is considered a curse. The era saw everything from the first moon landing to the assassination of JFK, and many people lived hard lives in between all the historical events. Would today’s kids have even survived it?
Living without smartphones, social media, or modern comforts might push them over the edge before the week is out.
Higher Rates of Smoking
Smoking is decidedly out of fashion today, but back in the 60s everyone smoked… even pregnant women. Now, of course, we know that smoking causes cancer, but they didn’t then. Many lives were ended or ruined because of addiction to smoking. It was glamorized in movies, encouraged socially, and even marketed as healthy in some ads.
You couldn’t escape the haze—smoke filled restaurants, airplanes, offices, and even hospitals. Questioning it made you the odd one out, not the voice of reason.
Traveling Was Dangerous
Cars for the 60s were very different to the ones of today. Not only did they not have airbags, some of them didn’t even have seatbelts. Yep, seatbelts weren’t even a requirement, despite the amount of lives they’ve saved. And the rates of drunk driving were higher. Roads were rougher, accidents more common, and vehicle safety just wasn’t a big priority.
If modern kids took a road trip back then, they'd probably demand a helmet—and a whole lot of bubble wrap.
Medical Care Was Poorer
People these days take it for granted just how good medical care is. In the 60s there weren’t anywhere near as many vaccines and antibiotics, and diseases like polio could easily cripple a person. Also, the vast majority of doctors were male, and many didn’t understand female healthcare. Misinformation, trial-and-error treatments, and risky surgeries were all too common.
Modern kids raised on urgent care, health apps, and instant diagnoses would likely panic at the sight of 60s-era medical tools.
Not as Many Holidays
These days, air travel is actually quite cheap. Not so for families in the 60s. To go abroad for a holiday meant years of saving up, and then it required hours in an uncomfortable airplane. And people would be smoking there too! Most families opted for local holidays—or none at all—because travel was expensive, inconvenient, and far less accessible.
Today’s youth, used to budget airlines and weekend getaways, might just revolt if asked to endure a 12-hour flight in a smoke-filled cabin.
No Quick Communication
Today there are all sorts of ways to get in touch with someone. Text message, email, you name it. But back in the day, there was none of that. If you wanted to communicate with someone who lived far away, a phone call was your best option. But of course you couldn’t guarantee they’d be in—and long-distance calls were expensive.
You might wait days or even weeks for a letter in return. Imagine explaining that to someone born with a smartphone in hand.
Lots of Sexism
One of the worst things about the 60s was the treatment of women. They were expected to wear skirts, look flawless, and do all the housework. Female doctors or bankers were almost unheard of. And a married woman couldn’t even open a bank account without her husband’s signature. Career ambitions were often dismissed, and gender roles were rigidly enforced.
For younger generations raised on equality and empowerment, the blatant sexism of the era would feel like stepping into a dystopian nightmare.
Endless Pollution
Although climate change is still an issue, at least pollution isn’t as bad as it was in the 60s. Care for the environment was very low on the priority list for governments, and air pollution was so bad sometimes that people would have breathing difficulties. Rivers were toxic, litter was everywhere, and industrial waste poured out unchecked into nature.
Kids today would be horrified to live in a world where smog blocked the sun and nobody bothered to recycle anything.
Information Was Hard to Find
These days, if you want to know any obscure bit of trivia, you can simply look it up on the internet. But in the 60s, information was much harder to come by. You had to go to the library, but if the information in the books was out of date, you simply would have no way of knowing the difference.
Research meant flipping through dusty encyclopedias for hours. Today’s Google-happy generation wouldn’t last ten minutes without search bars and real-time updates.
No Streaming Services
Most people nowadays have one or two streaming services so they can watch their favorite TV shows whenever they like. If they want to watch a whole show in one go, no-one’s stopping them. But such a thing would have been unimaginable back in the 60s. You had to wait a whole week for the next episode—and don’t even think about rewinding.
Miss an episode? Too bad. Unless it aired again in reruns, you might never see it again in your life.
Homophobia Everywhere
It was very hard indeed to be gay in the 60s. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness until 1973, believe it or not. “Coming out” meant you risked job loss, violence, or imprisonment. And the idea of same-sex marriage was a distant dream. Queer people often lived double lives, hiding their true selves just to stay safe and employed.
For today’s more open-minded generations, the intolerance of the 60s would feel suffocating, isolating, and dangerously regressive in every way.
Little Job Mobility
When you got a job in the 60s, you pretty much had it for life. This was good in its own way, but it meant you were pretty much stuck. If you didn’t get promoted, you just languished, and if you hated your job you had little option but to tough it out. Switching careers was rare, and freelancing? Unheard of.
Younger generations who value flexibility and purpose would feel trapped in a system where job security came at the cost of freedom.
Limited Global Awareness
These days, it’s easy to find out what’s happening in different countries and how that affects your own country. But in the past, you only had newspapers to go on and chances are you didn’t know anyone at all who lived overseas. News traveled slowly, and international perspectives were limited to brief headlines or grainy TV reports.
Younger people used to livestreams and global conversations would struggle to imagine a world where borders meant true isolation—not just physical, but informational.
No Online Shopping
Online shopping is second nature to most people now. If they want something, anything at all, they just have to find it online and put it in their shopping cart. There was no such convenience in the 1960s. If you wanted something, you had to go to a physical store—often more than one—and hope they had it in stock.
Price comparisons meant flipping through catalogs, and returns were a hassle. Today’s one-click shoppers would not survive the hunt-and-hope retail grind.
Lots of Racism
The 1960s was the civil rights era, and it was a painful time to be any color other than white. Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in parts of America up until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and interracial relationships were very difficult indeed. Discrimination was widespread, from schools and housing to jobs and basic public services.
Today’s younger generations, raised on diversity and inclusion efforts, would be stunned by how openly hateful and institutionalized racism was back then.
There Was so Little Free Time
Women in the 60s were expected to spend all their free time maintaining the household, and that was a lot harder than it is now. Dishwashers hadn’t been invented yet, so dishes needed to be washed by hand. Laundry could sometimes take an entire day. It was rough. Housework was constant, time-consuming, and rarely appreciated by anyone.
Modern conveniences like microwaves, robot vacuums, and laundry machines would feel like sci-fi luxuries to a tired 60s housewife juggling endless chores.