My hometown (in the NYC suburbs) has been going downhill for 50 years! No really. But that is what everyone says... We actully have hispanic gangs and drive-by shootings that make it into the Daily News.

But on another level, I think things are better. Much less break-ins and burglary. Less open drug dealing and prostitution. Much better policing. The drinking in parking lots and general hell raising is less these days. Dime store tough guys were pervasive in my youth, you never see (or notice) one today..

The factor I don't see mentioned is the density of population.

I agree that instant communication, access to each other via technology (wanted or unwanted) have been huge influences in change.

Too many people magnify problems that were always there. . .

The "no photographs" thing was funny. . . Reminds me of when I was in Colorado a few years ago - think it was near Steamboat Springs. I stopped to take a picture at a really cool bridge crossing over a gorge and noticed a sign near where I was standing that read "no throwing of objects from bridge" (about 200 feet down). Looking over the edge I saw about a dozen of those signs down at the bottom. . . :D :D :D

Compared to when I grew up as a kid in the early '50s, and comparing things to today, the world in general has gone way down hill. I admit there were bad things that happened, but not many people worshiped the perpetrators.
Does anybody remember when you had to put your car registration on your steering column with all of your information in plain sight? What would happen if people did that today???

I don't remember the "old days" being so good...particularly the '70s which were the dark ages of American culture. Between the moon landing and the end of the Iranian hostage crisis, the way I remember it things kinda sucked. Took a few years to get better after that.

You had hippie freaks burning their draft cars and spitting on Marines who had just come back from the fight.

Watergate, Agnew...etc.

Lime green leisure suits. Platform shoes, polyester and disco. Polka Dots and stripes. I find photos from the 70's very disturbing.

Stagflation, unemployment, TMI, Iran Hostage Crisis

Finally, I remember walking through Time Square in the early '80s and being offered cocaine and in broad daylight. One walk through Time Square today would tell you how things have improved.

Take a look at the violent crime statistics. down, down, down every year. Plus regardless of the baggy jeans and stuff, no matter how hard people try today, they can't look as scruffy as they did during the 70's. No...I think things are better today.

I suppose there's always nostalgia and naivete clouding our recollections, but I still can't fathom a family I met in Orange County recently. 12 y/o girl arguing with mother about if the girl could have a Louis Vuitton handbag vs mom buying the latest pair of Gucci sunglasses. Obvious consumption is king and the leading reason why americans are considered boorish by others.

but twilight golf doesnt start till 530pm in june. 130pm in january:)

Man, the 50s were just miserable.

AFAIK, the same level of molestation, abuse, rape, murder and theft existed.

We just didn't obsess over it.

People were routinely killed or horribly maimed in moderate car accidents. Kids on bikes were getting run over. Drunks killed motorists & pedestrians alike. In my small home town, a 12-year-old girl was abducted raped, tortured and cut up by adult(s) unknown.

The news back then was focused on larger issues. Fear mongering wasn't even a glimmer of a thought to news directors and editors.

Some time in the 70s, they all began to wake up and apply the "when it bleeds it leads" philosophy to news. Then, people would think to lock their cars against that 1:200,000 chance of theft.

The big change I think we've seen has come through TV creating the notion that something is acceptable by virtue of displaying it: things like the promiscuity shown on Jerry Springer. The lifestyle displayed in 'gangsta rap' videos. These popular entertainments have a corrosive effect on peoples' behavior -- giving them "permission" to push the limits of propriety.

So, has society changed? In some ways, no, in some ways yes. But it's undeniable that attitudes have changed.

Reading a few of the comments, no doubt there has been a media explosion with cable TV and the internet. Everything under a microscope nowadays with 24 hr news and sports channels. Politics has become too expensive--to pay for all that TV advertising. The major sports are pretty much controlled by TV,where much of the revenue comes from to pay the big salaries to the players.

Some of the other issues regarding a decline in the quality of living have to do, I think, mainly with population growth. Technology advances ease this some, but overcrowding is now a bigger factor than 20-30 years ago.

I'm a firm believer that MTV ruined the world.

"video killed the radio star"