Then & Now: Kids In 1982 vs. Kids In 2012 [Infographic]

Yesterday I wrote about a retro Atari commercial that’s at least 30 years old (Atari turns 40 this year). I watched that and laughed at how different things were back then. Even in that video clip, which is only a little over a minute long, you can get a feel for how different our lifetstyle was back in the early ’80s.

However, according to this infographic called Those Kids Today… by Best Education Degrees, teenagers in 1982 weren’t THAT different than teenagers in 2012. The biggest difference that comes to my mind is of course technology. Forget smartphones… We didn’t even have cell phones in 1982. They existed, but they definitely weren’t mainstream.

In 1982, students did their school work by going to the library and checking out books to read (remember the card catalog?). These days, of course, it’s all about the Internet. Libraries around the world are closing their doors and becoming yesterday’s memory. It’s interesting to see that smoking and marijuana use are down and safe sex is up. Overall though, the teenagers of 1982 and 2012 are both interested in music, movies, video games and sports. The names may have changed, but the core of who we are remains the same. Maybe it wasn’t quite as different back in the ’80s as I thought. Nah, it was. After all, we would never ever wear that much hairspray now ladies, right? If you want to read another “then and now” style article, check out 1962 vs. 2011: The Price Tag On Living Life.