A picture of Atlanta, Georgia. 1889 compared to today.
Was Life Harder 200 Years Ago Than Life Now?
It’s difficult to compare two completely different periods; there were different trends, and people saw the world differently. To answer this question you first have to define ‘harder.’ Because if we look at the past from the 21st century's point of view, life would be harder. But kids 200 years ago probably didn’t define their ways of life to be hard. It was normal to work from sunrise to sunset, it was normal to wash your clothes by hand and then hang them to dry. If we look at life 200 years ago; there was no internet, the life expectancy rate was 40-50 years, and people's way of life was completely unalike. If COVID-19 had hit 200 years ago it might have wiped out a good chunk of the population because medicine was very underdeveloped.
200 years ago, people had to work for themselves from morning to night to survive. Child labor laws were not invented yet, and the use of technology to make life easier was just starting to appear. But how would people 200 years ago look at the 21st century, most would call modern people lazy. If we compare people born in the 1800s to people born in 2020, life is probably easier for 2020 babies. Death during childbirth and the death of infants was very common in the 1800’s. So life was a survival game. Simple technologies like candles or even dyed fabrics were not common because it was too expensive for the average family. Now you can go buy a pack of 100 unscented candles for 10 bucks.
So was life harder 200 years ago? Yes, most people would agree that it was harder for the average person to grow up in the 1800’s. As time goes on, hundreds of people invent new things to make life easier. In the past, there were no cell phones, and no way of documenting your life unless you were dedicated enough to write in a diary. People couldn’t capture a memory with the tap of a button or shoot an “I can’t come into work today.” text to their boss. Every day can be labeled as a struggle, but if you define the entire 1800s as a struggle then that would completely strip all the happiness people felt. So how do we know that they thought of their lives as hard? We probably will never know.
Citations:
Munk, Karen Pallesgaard, 'Transitions in Later Life', in Nancy A. Pachana, and Ken Laidlaw (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Geropsychology, Oxford Library of Psychology (2014; online edn, Oxford Academic, 6 Jan. 2015), https://doi-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199663170.013.006, accessed 2 Feb. 2024.
Steinbach, Susie. "Victorian era". Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Jan. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/event/Victorian-era. Accessed 2 February 2024.
Picture from:
https://www.vacationsmadeeasy.com/TheBLT/ThenandNowYouWontBelieveWhattheseCitiesUsedtoLookLike.html
I really like how you bring attention to this because I've honestly never thought about how life was different so many years ago on this level. With the usage of technology everyone's lives have become so much easier compared to back then, but then again people don't have the same attributes than they did back then. The difference between 200 years ago and today are so large that it's hard to believe that what was going on there was only 200 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the ease of life increasing as we come up with shortcuts to life and new technology. With that being said, I also think it's fair to note that child labor is still prominent along with lacking in technology (even if we have it, not everyone gets it). I also agree with the final point you make about not labeling life in the 1800s as a struggle, because even though it was for many (especially due to lack of scientific advancements), life still is a struggle for millions of individuals; there are still sweatshops(eg. shein & fast fashion issues), there are still unlivable wages, there are still outbreaks we cannot control (eg. covid 19), life is still hard. It is not that we do not have the means to make life easier for a majority of people now, but that we simply do not. In the 1800s, people did not always have the means to solve their struggles, but now we can solve so many problems- but we don't. Not for millions of people dying to wars, and lack of healthcare, or starvation, or poverty as a general subject. Overall, we are improving as a society and as people, but our economy is still shit (along with the government- don't sue me).
ReplyDeleteI agree with your points on how technology has most likely made us in the 21st century "lazier." I also appreciate how you compare buying things then and now. The candle example really puts into perspective how different our world was then.
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