Irritations - then and now

[Mart 'n' Al]

Whether it is down to my wisdom or my increasing grumpiness with age, there are certain things about life in 2018 that annoy me. I wonder what things annoyed our relatives 150 years ago,  say in 1868.

These days I get annoyed by newspapers writing articles about Z list celebrities without saying who they are, as though everybody knows who they are. Another one is made up words like staycation instead of having a holiday at home, and of course the expression "Z list celebrities"... I also wonder which new technology from 150 years ago our ancestors said would never catch on.  My  Victorian ancestor who got fined 10 shillings for riding a bicycle on the pavement probably cursed the day the bicycle was ever invented.  You can tell I've eaten all my Easter eggs, can't you?

What do you think annoyed our 19th century forebears?  They couldn't take out their stress on flat pack furniture.

Martin

[Blue70]

The Victorians were big drinkers they had a lot to moan about but like the Romans appeased by "bread and circuses" the drink kept them occupied.


Blue 

[coombs]

I got irritated today at the "high volume of traffic" error message on FamilySearch, a message I have never seen before on that site. Our ancestors probably got annoyed by the delays in the delivery of the newspapers to local village shops or delivered.

[smudwhisk]

I got irritated today at the "high volume of traffic" error message on FamilySearch, a message I have never seen before on that site.

I was at a local FHC this morning and got that constantly around lunchtime just before they closed when I was trying to view a few last images.   I've never seen it before either and you'd think a Saturday wouldn't be as busy as, at least in this country, not that many of the centres open Saturdays.  It was frustrating as its the first time in 3 weeks I've been able to get there and only usually go on Saturdays.

[Greensleeves]

I frequently hear people of my age announce grandly "Oh, I NEVER use social media", which they seem to regard as something which increases their social standing in some way.

Around one hundred years ago, I suspect we would have similar individuals complaining loudly about the electric light bulb (What on earth is wrong with gas lighting?), the telephone (Why not send the boy with a note?) or the hand-held camera (There need to be laws against people wandering around with cameras taking photos indiscriminately).

With the invention of gas lighting, it would have been "Nothing wrong with candles"; when the boy with a note arrived the recipient would complain "When I was young, we could remember messages, we didn't have to have them written down!".  And when the first Niepce made it known that he had created the first photographic image, surely there were people declaring it to be witchcraft.

And so on and so on back in time.....

[jim1]

Dirty, noisy, smelly contraptions that would never replace the horse.
I think that the one constant complaint throughout the ages has to be the Government.

[susieroe]

My Dad and his brother asked the commissionaire at the local picture house when they would be getting the talkies. "Pah!" he replied, "Flash in the pan, that'll never catch on"...

[eadaoin]

"Flash in the pan, that'll never catch on"...

We were told that about digital currency when it first came to be used in Ireland. A little shop in a country village, an old shopkeeper who announced "I'm not going to bother with that new money, I'm going to use the old money"

[jfchaly]

The tiny print on newspapers must have annoyed everyone, especially with no artifical light.
I have a photograph of my grandfather taken c. 1940 reading newspaper in his doorway.
Electricity came in 1952 to his home.

Jfch