8. The cars:
Cars. They’re so quiet. They’re all fast as f*ck too. 200hp was a big deal 15 years ago. Now they can squeeze that out of a tin can. Took me a while to figure out why everyone was shutting their engines off at stoplights too. And screens. Screens everywhere. They stop by themselves too and some of them are all electric. Seeing a Tesla drive by for the first time was crazy.
7. And the phones:
I could go on and on, but in general, people talk to each other much less now. Everyone is obsessed with their phones. They’re cool, I know, but you have the freedom to do whatever the f*ck you want and y’all are choosing to look at a screen all day instead.
No one is bored anymore either. I’m so used to thinking of things to do when I’m bored. I’d imagine the things I’d do if I was back home. Walk my dog, go to my garage and dick around on my guitar that I didn’t know how to play, but I’d for sure figure it out eventually. Anything.
Never imagined sitting on a couch swiping through bullsh*t. I get weird looks now for starting conversations with strangers half the time. Other times, people look surprised, then I can tell they haven’t done it in so long they forgot they really enjoyed it.
6. The TVs:
My mom was locked up for 10 years starting in the early 2000’s. The first time I paused live TV, she lost her mind.
5. Social media:
An old buddy of mine got out of prison after 8 years, he was 15 when he entered the system for drug dealing and attempted murder charges (he beat his piece of sh*t father in law, who beat his mom, to a pulp).
I saw him about a month ago, he just can’t believe that everyone is so into social media. He just got a Facebook and hates it, he couldn’t imagine having a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (he actually just learned about twitter in a real sense about 8 days ago and said ‘wait, you can just like write out your dumb thoughts and people are cool with it?’) and not feeling overwhelmed. I think these people give an amazing insight into our current culture.
4. Aaaaand phones.
My father was released in Oct of 2017. Had been locked up since ’96. He said what surprised him the most is how glued people are to their phones. He said he thinks people are less friendly and less sociable now because they’re always looking down. Also social media for him was a rocky start, he’s still learning.
Also, internet porn. Loves the internet porn.
3. The computers:
About 10 years ago I was unemployed and went to one of these employment centers looking for a job for the first time in a long time, which ended up basically being a sort of internet cafe where you use the computers to job search, create resumes, etc.
I sat down by an older gentleman who just stared into the screen with his hands in his lap. An employee came by and asked him if he needed help, which he agreed and stated he had been incarcerated for like 30 years and had never used a computer.
She sat down and told him to use the mouse to move the cursor to an icon etc, etc. This dude gave the mouse a sharp jab with his finger like he was pushing an elevator button, that slid the mouse across the mouse pad and onto the table.
The look on the lady’s face was priceless when she realized she had to teach this guy to how to use a computer from ground fucking zero. She was puzzled where to even begin.
2. Fast food prices:
I remember working at McDonald’s and having an ex convict come in and being outraged at the prices. A Big Mac was twice the price he was used to.
1. Energy drinks:
Was at the corner store and some guy walks in with his buddy, who was acting a little weird. He points to some red bull and asked “What are those?” His buddy tells him “they get you jacked…. like amped up. Gets you going” his buddy left with like 5 of them. I’m assuming he just got out of lock up. Gave me a chuckle.
