This Viral AI Video of What Everyday Life Was Like 40 Years Ago is Breaking Hearts. Mine Included.

Mirrorpix. Getty Images.

As someone who was born at the tail end of the Baby Boom - a small sliver of that generation I've heard called Baby Bunchers because we know every episode of The Brady Bunch by heart, which describes me and all my friends - I honestly try not to live in the past. To not be Debbie from Bowling for Soup's song who still preoccupied with 1985:

After all, my life is better than it was then. I have my dream job that simply could not have existed then. I'm no longer driving shitty cars that need 10 minutes of explanation on how to operate them, like my Dodge Dart that would stall out at red lights if it was raining, so you had to pop it into neutral and keep feathering the gas. I've got access to virtually any movie or Brady Bunch episode at my fingertips. I GPS everywhere and haven't read a map in decades. When I'm picking up my sons at the airport, I merely have to drive to the Cell Phone Lot and wait to tell me exactly where to find them, instead of going on an airport-wide manhunt. I've got NFL Red Zone. And someday, should the need arise, ED medicine is readily available. 

As the late, great PJ O'Rourke put it, "If you think that, in the past, there was some golden age of pleasure and plenty to which you would, if you were able, transport yourself, let me say one single word: Dentistry.”

And yet. There are moments when I can't help but think things were better when everything I just described was the stuff of science fiction. Thanks to this video, I'm having one such moment:

You're not crying, I'M crying. And given this thing is well over 3 million views and fast approaching 60K likes, I guess everybody's crying.

Look, I get the irony. I'm on the internet weeping over an AI-generated video on X, none of which existed during the time I'm feeling all gooey and sentimental about. For all the maudlin nostalgia on display here, there's a blatant hypocrisy to it. I raise my hand to that. 

But still there's no denying this is a taste of how things used to be. In the year in question of 1985, I was give or take the age of these people. And it very much had the feel these bot actors are describing. It was an analog, tactile word where you experienced everything with your five senses, not apps like the one you're currently on. You looked your friends in the eye and talked to each other. You called someone's house phone to get hold of them. Not to talk so much as to make plans. To decide who was picking up whom, and where you were headed for the day. 

To meet a girl, you had to be in some social situation and have the guts to walk up to her and start conversation. If you pulled her digits, you had to face your worst fears, call her house, and have no idea who might pick up. Her rotten little brother. Her hard of hearing grandma. Her father, God forbid. Yes, it was million times harder than texting or swiping right. But it turned you from a boy into a man of courage and action. One who saw what he wanted and went after it. Dating was a meritocracy, then. And fortune favored the bold. 

I like something Adam Carolla said a while back. That with the invention of the backup camera, we've lost that communal thing where someone's backing out of a tricky spot and guys would gather around to help him out. "Cut your wheel all the way to left. OK, stop. Turn it right and pull forward a little. Good. You got it. …" It was a group effort that brought strangers together. Now you see someone pulling out of a space, put your head down and just go back to the text you were sending. 

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That Goonies reference should get everyone in the feels too. In no way to I claim to be objective here. But the mid-80s were the peak of pop entertainment. 1985 alone gave us not only that, but perhaps the quintessential '80s move, The Breakfast Club. Also Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Weird Science. Commando. And one of the few films I consider to be a perfect movie in that everyone from every demographic group should love it, Back to the Future. 

In TV, there was Cheers. The Cosby Show. (Pause for a cringe here since modern life ruined that too.) Family Ties. The Golden Girls. Dallas. Miami Vice. Moonlighting. The A-Team. The WWE just coming into its own and taking over the sports/entertainment landscape. All were of varying qualities. But all were popular entertainment, aimed at the widest possible audience, and watched by everyone because we were part of a monoculture. When was the last time you got the sense that more than about 10% of the people you know were watching the same TV show as you on a given night, unless it was a sporting event? The last episode of Game of Thrones, maybe? In 1985, you could go into work or school, bring up what you were watching the night before, and know at least half of the people you're talking to saw it as well.

Musically, there was Live Aid. Queen. Madonna. Prince. Lionel Richie. Phil Collins.Whitney Houston. U2. Springsteen at the peak of his career. Yes, there were different genres of radio stations, Billboard charts, and so on. But in the broad sense, American music was American music. Everyone was familiar with the hit songs, whether or not they appealed to you. We weren't siloed like we are now. 

So yes, this video, as AI-generated as it is, plays my heartstrings like the synth riffs and sax melodies of Wham!'s "Careless Whisper," the No. 1 song of 1985. If you were blessed enough to live through those times, no explanation is necessary. If you weren't, none will suffice. But this viral video is a good start. 

And here's another that I've posted before. Because no amount of viewings could be too much. If you want to know what the inside of my brain would look like if it could be downloaded, this is exactly it:

Enjoy. I pity you Millennials, Gen Zers, and the Mizennials in between. I wish you had it as good as I did.