# Anyone else wish they could live in another time?



## mic gooflander95 (Mar 16, 2011)

I don't necessarily mean to re-live an earlier part of your life, but do you ever wish that you'd been born at a different time?

As much as people tell me "the internet is the be-all and end-all of human life and therefore you're part of the luckiest generation ever to have lived" (somewhat paraphrased and amalgamated), I constantly find myself yearning for more colourful and innocent times. I devour any kind of archived material depicting life in the past and watch a lot of movies produced up until the mid-80s and am constantly on the lookout from TV shows from a similar period. Designs, lifestyles and the way people were all seemed much different then. Life seemed rich and bounteous.

I feel that humankind's present state of advancement has made life rather bland. The internet has many advantages, but it has also made the world seem a less diverse place, with adventure and mystery nowhere to be found.

Does anyone feel the same way as I do?


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## gomenne (Oct 3, 2009)

Yes
I wish I could have been born hundreds of years ago, less people, no internet, no technology, etc etc ...


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## WTFnooooo (Mar 27, 2010)

Born in a different time? Perhaps further forward, not backwards. Like 500 years from now 2011.
Previous generations were far more superstitious, ignorant and violent.


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## MojoCrunch (Mar 25, 2011)

:agree

I would probably be enslaved or treated like total dog sh*t by someone if I were to go in the past anywhere. Plus people didn't seem to like women a whole lot in the olden days so I'm screwed either way. If I were to go back in time I would go to the beginning of time when there was barely any people on Earth. Before the land was completely distorted by human presence. If not I would go back to the 70's, 80's, and yeah...even the 90's. I'd go to listen to some great music and hang out with random weird people if I could. Or maybe I'd like to be an Eskimo back thousands of years ago who had no contact with anyone outside their own...


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## Haydsmom2007 (Oct 16, 2009)

yeah.. I hate all the technology... facebook, text messaging, etc.

but I'd be going back to when women didn't have rights. But I guess chivalry was at least still alive.


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## TheDaffodil (Jun 20, 2009)

Do I wish I were born with African blood as a female in a another time? No. I don't. Sure, different time periods are fascinating. History is an amazing subject to study. But I wouldn't wanna go as far as living in the past. Besides, there have been so many advances with medicine that I would be afraid of going back and suddenly catching something that I would live through now but can't live through then or something. :b And we know more about nutrition and how things affect the environment...and we know more about the appropriate treatment of mental health issues...yeah, I wouldn't bother. I think it'd be better to try to make the future better than now than to go backwards.


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## Metus (Dec 6, 2010)

There are different times I wish I could experience. They weren't better; just different. They all had their own challenges and problems.


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## angus (Dec 18, 2010)

Freezing said:


> 20's


Good call the 1920's was probably the best time to be alive.

But I would like to have been in England during the Medievil period.:duel


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## angus (Dec 18, 2010)

Haydsmom2007 said:


> yeah.. I hate all the technology... facebook, text messaging, etc.
> 
> but I'd be going back to when women didn't have rights. But I guess chivalry was at least still alive.


There's plenty of places now were woman don't have rights, and through out history there have been places were historians believe they may have had matriarchal society's like Pagan England, ancient Egypt and Sparta.


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## Metus (Dec 6, 2010)

angus said:


> Good call the 1920's was probably the best time to be alive.
> 
> But I would like to have been in England during the Medievil period.:duel


The turn of the century(19th to 20th) interests me the most. 1870s-1920s.


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## TheDaffodil (Jun 20, 2009)

angus said:


> There's plenty of places now were woman don't have rights, and through out history there have been places were historians believe they may have had matriarchal society's like Pagan England, ancient Egypt and Sparta.


There isn't any evidence of matriarchal society. There are societies that gave some room for equality but a truly matriarchal society would require women to be dominant over men (I remember a professor of mine briefly mentioning something she heard about gender roles being reversed but there wasn't an implication of dominance...and she wasn't a history professor). In the places where women had more equality, there were limits to their rights and a lot of times a woman's ability to take advantage of their legal rights depended on their social class. So even if you take care of the legal part, you still have the socioeconomic barriers to worry about. I think we can all see that what is said "in theory" isn't necessarily true "in practice" as well. Ancient Egypt is a good example though. From what I've seen not only were women allowed to do more but on a social level they were respected and that's important. :yes


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## Akane (Jan 2, 2008)

I'd rather have a combination of times. I'd hate to go back to cable tv. It's far more efficient to watch my shows when I have time with no commercials through streaming sites. I have no desire to see dialup again now that I have fiber. I'd also hate to have to get my news by word of mouth (very crappy way to get news) or a newspaper. I like being able to use better quality sources or even international sites for their news instead of relying on the local news putting their, usually narrow minded alarmist, spin on things. I'd also hate to have to cook things from scratch since I suck at cooking and it takes so long. I love playing video games with people.

However I would prefer times when there were fewer people and more space. When farming animals for your family was more common and it was normal to ride a horse in to town. There's no where to hitch my horses and lots of complaints about manure if I try that now even though it is still legal. :b Before gmo and high efficiency crops starting ruining the soil and requiring tons of damaging fertilizer, the addition of high fructose corn syrup to every food product in the US, fake sweeteners, etc... Before gas prices got insane and everyone had no choice because they rely on that gas to get to work making my friends work 2 jobs so we never have time to ride horses or anything.


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## ValiantThor (Dec 6, 2010)

I belong in the 60's, man.


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## Giraffe (Sep 7, 2010)

I would have loved to have taken part in the Enlightenment!

That said, if I had been born any earlier than I was, I probably wouldn't have survived infancy.


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## shadowmask (Jun 22, 2009)

No, not really. People romanticize the past way too much.


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## Fantas Eyes (Mar 23, 2011)

I wanna live in the '60's, the music was so much better.


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## aussiegal (Mar 18, 2011)

Probably the 1950's and be a teenager of the 60's.


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## Charizard (Feb 16, 2011)

Slightly. 

I wish I had been highschool-aged in the early/mid 90s.


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## diamondheart89 (Mar 21, 2011)

LaRibbon said:


> Regency period in England because the dresses were gorgeous and the men were so roguish.


This. But probably not as my current ethnicity. ^_^


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## Kennnie (Oct 21, 2010)

2289


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## Hot Chocolate (Sep 29, 2008)

Nah, the present is fine.


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## Nameless Someone (Oct 21, 2010)

shadowmask said:


> No, not really. People romanticize the past way too much.


This.


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## Jnmcda0 (Nov 28, 2003)

Freezing said:


> 20's


I wouldn't want to go to the '20s, knowing that the Great Depression would follow. Although, if you retained knowledge of the what was going to happen, it would be awesome, as you could take your money out of the stock market in September of 1929 and then buy back after the market tanks and become super rich.

I'd like to go back to the late '60s, so I could see the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc. in their prime.


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## half jaw (Mar 25, 2011)

I'd love to go back in time to the middle ages armed with a shotgun(and a ****load of ammo) and raise hell...Army of Darkness-style










What could possibly be more fun than that?


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## xTKsaucex (Jun 23, 2010)

Yup I do, strongly. Born in Rome in 100BC would be epic or 12th Century as a Knight of all things. I have a somewhat obsessive fascination with knights - especially the good ones


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## mic gooflander95 (Mar 16, 2011)

TheDaffodil said:


> Do I wish I were born with African blood as a female in a another time? No. I don't. Sure, different time periods are fascinating. History is an amazing subject to study. But I wouldn't wanna go as far as living in the past. Besides, there have been so many advances with medicine that I would be afraid of going back and suddenly catching something that I would live through now but can't live through then or something. :b And we know more about nutrition and how things affect the environment...and we know more about the appropriate treatment of mental health issues...yeah, I wouldn't bother. I think it'd be better to try to make the future better than now than to go backwards.


That's fair comment I suppose. Although things are blander now, they are also fairer. As a white male, I wouldn't hesitate to travel back to any time between the 1950s and 1970s, if given the option. I'd even travel back earlier than that, but the 1950s-1970s would be ideal.


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## mic gooflander95 (Mar 16, 2011)

Jnmcda0 said:


> I wouldn't want to go to the '20s, knowing that the Great Depression would follow. Although, if you retained knowledge of the what was going to happen, it would be awesome, as you could take your money out of the stock market in September of 1929 and then buy back after the market tanks and become super rich.
> 
> I'd like to go back to the late '60s, so I could see the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc. in their prime.


Late 60s would be wonderful. But if there was a rift in time and the only destination available was the 1920s, I'd have no hesitation in stepping through the portal and staying on the 1920s side of it.


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## caflme (Jun 7, 2009)

Honestly... no. I mean theoretically I would say yes... but I can't imagine a life without central heat and air conditioning, dishwashers, and all the modern conveniences that we have. I'm spoiled to it... to a serious fault.

If I knew I go into the past and not be poor... to be of a privileged class... maybe... except then there would be too many things to have to appear to be... to fake... to live up to... too many social norms to adhere to... and as a woman... loss of rights.

At times I can imagine myself in the old west... running a saloon... being proficient with a gun and being an Annie Oakley type who can handle herself well with the baddest cowboys... like Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead. That would be kool.

Or I could imagine being a mountainwoman... in a log cabin up north and be able to chop my own firewood, raise my own food, and have a skill to be able to trade for other supplies and be able to hunt my own food and know how to skin and process it for drying and storage for the winter.

Not knowing what the future would hold I doubt I would want to go there... it wouldn't be worth the uncertainty.


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## mic gooflander95 (Mar 16, 2011)

caflme said:


> Honestly... no. I mean theoretically I would say yes... but I can't imagine a life without central heat and air conditioning, dishwashers, and all the modern conveniences that we have. I'm spoiled to it... to a serious fault.


Would you go back a relatively short distance - say the 1960s or 70s, when most of this stuff existed?


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## Anemone (Apr 12, 2011)

I'd like to go back to the beginning of human history when the earth was all fresh and new. Or into the future, to see if/when we blow ourselves up.


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## SAgirl (Nov 15, 2003)

Yes, I would want to live in the Victorian era. 19th century 1801-1900.


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## Perfectionist (Mar 19, 2004)

Yes! I have big boobs and big hair. I was made for the 80s man. MADE FOR THEM.


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## au Lait (Sep 8, 2010)

I wish I lived in the 1920s so that I could be a saucy flapper and abuse the phrase "the bee's knees" at every possible chance.

Also I'd hope that I would meet a 20s style gangster who perhaps would call me dollface. Just because.


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## Melinda (Feb 5, 2009)

I wouldn't want to live in any society before the invention of antibiotics, but I think I could live without the internet.

I'd probably fit best in the 1980's. I have to admit I've always been fascinated by the idea that my big hair could actually be a positive trait. I used to watch 80's movies and feel sad because I missed all those awesome fashion trends--but no, I had to grow up in the era of crocs and sweatpants with words on the *ss. :no


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## CabecitaSilenciosa (Jun 8, 2010)

^I'm always telling my sister I would be 'in' if I lived in the 80s because of my hair. :lol I have a thick head of poofy, slightly wavy hair. I wouldn't have to worry so much about styling if I lived back then.

OP, I completely agree, although I'm not entirely sure I would choose to be born during a different time because I LOVED being a kid in the 90s. BUT at the time I would have loved to be the age I am now or a teenager as well. I also would have loved to be apart of the 60s, 70s and 80s. I'm very big on the late 70s and early 80s. To be the age I am now and be around during those times would be SO AWESOME. But you know, I think I'd actually be up for visiting every period-- even the ancient ones, even the beginning of time. I suppose it's a lot safer and convenient sticking to the more modern periods, though.



Perfectionist said:


> Yes! I have big boobs and big hair. I was made for the 80s man. MADE FOR THEM.


 LOL!



au Lait said:


> I wish I lived in the 1920s so that I could be a saucy flapper and abuse the phrase "the bee's knees" at every possible chance.
> 
> Also I'd hope that I would meet a 20s style gangster who perhaps would call me dollface. Just because.


 I would love to visit the 20s. I'd be in another place, though. Same goes for the 30s, 40s and 50s.
Well, that pretty much goes for every period. I wouldn't like to/wouldn't be able to live where I live now if I were living in another time.



WTFnooooo said:


> Born in a different time? Perhaps further forward, not backwards. Like 500 years from now 2011.
> Previous generations were far more superstitious, ignorant and violent.


 Yeah.



Metus said:


> There are different times I wish I could experience. They weren't better; just different. They all had their own challenges and problems.


Yeah, although I usually refer to the past as better, this is the way I see it.


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## Deathinmusic (Jun 5, 2009)

Yes, another time AND place. 60's would be good. In Francisco.

Edit: Actually, **** that. I wouldn't want that. The present is good, I would just need to be someone who isn't me.


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## Mr Blues (Apr 1, 2011)

Yes, the 1960's. I don't fit in this modern age, for reasons other than just my musical taste.

I wish I was my age now, but living in the mid to late 60's. I could also grow my hair long again, without worrying about standing out or it being an instant turn off to women.


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## Rocklee96 (Mar 31, 2011)

I would either want to live in 1700s England or Feudal Japan (As a ninja, of course!).


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## heroin (Dec 10, 2010)

I don't know, it'd be cool, provided I were guaranteed a few things. Future seems more appealing, but it'd have been cool to be in more prosperous times of the roman republic (provided I was a free roman, not a slave), or maybe in ancient pre-Buddhist India, or ooh, back when Neanderthals or other hominid species were still around (provided I do not devolve). I love reading and learning about antiquity and prehistory.

Yes, I'm a nerd. I want to know everything about everything.


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## MojoCrunch (Mar 25, 2011)

gregoryonline said:


> I think the 30's or 40's Back when Narnia was written. LOL I just get the impression that back then or even before then, people socially treated others kinder.


I beg to differ. I think what you meant was people had better manners back then. That I can agree with. But people being nicer and treating others more kindly, yeah right. That is the furthest thing from the truth.


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## low (Sep 27, 2009)

I was thinking similar to this the other day. My grandfather's father and at least 2 generation's before him were farmer's from Carlisle. When ww2 broke out my granda joined the navy and became an engineer and they sold the land, or couldn't keep it up. I don't know. I wandered a few times how I might have turned out living in a countryside area living a relatively simple life. Now I don't know the first thing about gardening.


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## moxosis (Aug 26, 2009)

yes in 2321 the best year in the future when human kind will start traveling to another galaxy, the journey will take 7323 earth years, then when finally there in 9644 the humans have evolved into alien-like humans.

They will live on a new planet but have difficult living there because the gravity is too much. So they live in space stations around the planet.

In the earth year 15751 they will make a time machine, but when going back in time things go wrong, they can't go back to the year 15751, the year is 1947 and the planet they arrived to in 9644 has no people. 

But the alien time travelers who evolved from humans remember where they came from, earth! So the only thing they can do is to go back to what they evolved from.

They start the warp drive to reach earth, then in July of 1947 they reach earth but something went wrong, they crash in to earth, in Roswell, New Mexico.

:teeth


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## copper (Nov 10, 2003)

Melinda said:


> I'd probably fit best in the 1980's. I have to admit I've always been fascinated by the idea that my big hair could actually be a positive trait.


Majority of the ozone layer was destroyed in the 1980's due to all that ozone depleting aerosal hair spray being sprayed to create that big hair. :lol


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## crystaltears (Mar 10, 2011)

Nay I like the year I was born


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