What will be socially acceptable 100 years from now?
Thanks to Sociological Images for an eye-opening display of vintage ads for cocaine and opium products.
This is normal today
That was normal back then
They note that what is considered socially “acceptable” changes over time:
..it’s no secret that products with cocaine, marijuana, opium, and other now-banned substances were at one time sold openly, often as medicines. The changes in attitudes toward these products, from entirely acceptable and even beneficial to inherently harmful and addicting, is a great example of social construction. While certainly opium and cocaine have negative effects on some people, so do other substances that remained legal (or were re-legalized, in the case of alcohol).
I found one of the most enjoyable things about watching Mad Men was seeing the outrageous behavior of “normal” people in the early 1960’s – women who were 7 months pregnant sipping martini’s and smoking to “calm their nerves”; driving without seat belts; the treatment of women and minorities in the workplace.
What will our grandchildren find shocking about everyday aspects of our world, when they look back 100 years from now?
Will they be wondering why we drove private automobiles that ran on fossil fuels and killed 1.2 million a year worldwide in traffic accidents; or ate meat which sucks up plant food that could feed five times the number of people; or tolerated a world where the richest 1% of the globe own 40% of all wealth; or watched TV for an average of 151 hours a month; or allowed commercial TV stations to show 3 hours of advertising for every 10 hours of programming; or lived in a world with a stockpile over 23,000 nuclear weapons.
I wonder what, apart from all of that, will our grandchildren find surprising or shocking about the way we live now?
What do you think?
2 Comments so far
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I think this is a great blog and great topic. I think 100 years from now people will be surprised we had zoos, where we kept animals caged up, alone and confined. My husband thinks some of the drugs that were sold over-the-counter and are now illegal might be sold over-the-counter again! I hope not. Good post.
By Cynthia J. Starks on 02.24.10 5:59 pm
This idea yields a lot more questions about what social interaction will be like in the future.
Some old-style cultural nuances are dictated by science/discovery. For example, we know now that we greatly damage the environment with our fossil-fueled private cars. We know now that children can suffocate in dry cleaner bags. Mad Men’s Betty Draper doesn’t know that yet, so she let’s her kids play in them.
In another Mad Men episode, one adult slaps another character’s son across the face in an attempt to punish him for misbehaving. Hitting someone else’s kid? That’s not socially acceptable today!
These kind of changes are the most interesting to me because they alter the way we interact, not what we know from experience or science or discovery.
By Eric Leist on 02.28.10 12:55 pm
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