Weird Cultural Changes That Only You Seem To Have Noticed?

[Outcast9428]

In my lifetime, I've seen two major cultural shifts in how people seem to think and behave, but they've happened so rapidly that its almost like nobody even notices that it happened.

1. Is public displays of affection. 15 or 20 years ago, I remember that you saw teenage couples making out all the time in public places. Nobody acted like it was strange or inappropriate to kiss in public. Nowadays, I rarely even see anybody give their girlfriend or wife a peck on the mouth. My girlfriend and I will definitely kiss for a little bit while out in public, not a makeout session but a kiss that goes on longer then just a 1 second peck, but even that seems to draw attention. Sometimes in a kidding/joking way, especially at Mexican/Italian restaurants I'll hear "muy romantico!" But I'm still stunned by the fact that it even draws attention at all because I remember back in the 2000s, it wasn't uncommon to see a young couple having a full blown makeout session on a bench somewhere, in movie theaters or swimming pools. Around 2012 or 2013, however, its almost like the culture changed overnight and it suddenly became unacceptable to make out in public. My ex-girlfriend was okay with making out in public, but my girlfriend now says she feels self-conscious about it. I noticed that everywhere in Europe, people are much more okay with making out in public but it definitely varies. The Spanish and the Italians are the most okay with it, its like the 2000s in Spain/Italy where you frequently encounter couples making out on public benches or just standing in the streets. In France it seemed pretty acceptable, and I did see one couple doing it, but it didn't seem quite as common as in Spain and Italy. In Hungary, I didn't see anybody having make out sessions but kissing was still very common. A lot more common then it is in America.

@gsjackson is the only person I've ever met, online or in person, who seems to have noticed this change.

2. Is when it comes to the age stuff... This happened very recently. But I remember during the 2010s, that the idea of teenage girls being a sexual partner was extremely taboo. Probably the most taboo topic you could discuss. If there was anything that would motivate people to try and ruin your life over disagreement on a social issue it was this one. You couldn't even acknowledge that a girl under the age of 18 was attractive or that it was normal for adult men to find them attractive without people absolutely dogpiling you. And it wasn't a real life vs internet sort of thing. No matter where you went, people treated you like you were absolutely evil if you thought teenage girls were attractive or it was normal to find them attractive. Some people were so extreme about it they even acted as if guys who dated legal age women of 18/19 years old were pedophiles. At the very least, a lot of people treated it like it was inappropriate. When I was 17 years old, a bunch of people I knew called me a pedophile for dating a girl who was 15 years old. It was absolutely ridiculous, I was ostracized and lost a lot of friends over it. The girl herself basically decided that I had taken advantage of her and left me. Over a two year age gap!

In the last two years though, I've noticed a major shift on this issue. Nowadays, I'm 25 years old and dating a 19 year old, a 19 year old who just turned 19 on top of that, and nobody has even made an offhand comment about it. Her entire extended family acts like its perfectly normal. None of my friends or family act like its strange. And none of my co-workers act like its weird either. No one even makes a joking/kidding comment about it. On the internet, I've also noticed that people don't immediately dogpile you if you say that teenage girls are attractive.

Any other cultural shifts you've seen that nobody else seems to have noticed happened?

[Kalinago]

I remember that in real life,in 2013-2014,being a white guy of average or below looks could get you really far with attractive colored women still,especially and oddly liberal colored women.

I would see averga ewhite guys,with harems of indian hotties,dating really attractive east asian girls that fawned over them,latinas worshipping them,even caribbean black women had the same mentality in the west.I even heard a moroccan group of girls talk about this half dutch moroccan guy that was blonded and blue eyed,and they said 'he has BLONDE hair and BLUE eyes'and they intentionally looked at me like got you bitch.

it was all over the incel forums,so called JBW.

now,this is not a thing in real life anymore.

but oddly,it's not a thing for ANYONE.

Women really today only want solid chads for relationships,and Gigachads for Hookups.

A High tier Normie or Chadlite used to be very good at getting attractive women,now 40% of guy in some incel spaces are in this category.

with the rise of instagram and tiktok,standards have risen,to the point women only want gigachads,as hyperbolic as that may sound,and what level of beauty DEFINES a Chad is contantly going UP.

[MrMan]

In my lifetime, I've seen two major cultural shifts in how people seem to think and behave, but they've happened so rapidly that its almost like nobody even notices that it happened.

1. Is public displays of affection. 15 or 20 years ago, I remember that you saw teenage couples making out all the time in public places. Nobody acted like it was strange or inappropriate to kiss in public. Nowadays, I rarely even see anybody give their girlfriend or wife a peck on the mouth. My girlfriend and I will definitely kiss for a little bit while out in public, not a makeout session but a kiss that goes on longer then just a 1 second peck, but even that seems to draw attention. Sometimes in a kidding/joking way, especially at Mexican/Italian restaurants I'll hear "muy romantico!" But I'm still stunned by the fact that it even draws attention at all because I remember back in the 2000s, it wasn't uncommon to see a young couple having a full blown makeout session on a bench somewhere, in movie theaters or swimming pools. Around 2012 or 2013, however, its almost like the culture changed overnight and it suddenly became unacceptable to make out in public. My ex-girlfriend was okay with making out in public, but my girlfriend now says she feels self-conscious about it. I noticed that everywhere in Europe, people are much more okay with making out in public but it definitely varies. The Spanish and the Italians are the most okay with it, its like the 2000s in Spain/Italy where you frequently encounter couples making out on public benches or just standing in the streets. In France it seemed pretty acceptable, and I did see one couple doing it, but it didn't seem quite as common as in Spain and Italy. In Hungary, I didn't see anybody having make out sessions but kissing was still very common. A lot more common then it is in America.

@gsjackson is the only person I've ever met, online or in person, who seems to have noticed this change.

Did you move from one place to another? I hear that happens in some of the Hispanic cultures, or maybe Spain. I don't remember seeing teens make out in public since I was in high school in the 1980's. I don't remember seeing that in public in the 1990's or 2000's during times I was in the US,

2. Is when it comes to the age stuff... This happened very recently. But I remember during the 2010s, that the idea of teenage girls being a sexual partner was extremely taboo. Probably the most taboo topic you could discuss. If there was anything that would motivate people to try and ruin your life over disagreement on a social issue it was this one. You couldn't even acknowledge that a girl under the age of 18 was attractive or that it was normal for adult men to find them attractive without people absolutely dogpiling you. And it wasn't a real life vs internet sort of thing. No matter where you went, people treated you like you were absolutely evil if you thought teenage girls were attractive or it was normal to find them attractive. Some people were so extreme about it they even acted as if guys who dated legal age women of 18/19 years old were pedophiles. At the very least, a lot of people treated it like it was inappropriate. When I was 17 years old, a bunch of people I knew called me a pedophile for dating a girl who was 15 years old. It was absolutely ridiculous, I was ostracized and lost a lot of friends over it. The girl herself basically decided that I had taken advantage of her and left me. Over a two year age gap!

In the last two years though, I've noticed a major shift on this issue. Nowadays, I'm 25 years old and dating a 19 year old, a 19 year old who just turned 19 on top of that, and nobody has even made an offhand comment about it. Her entire extended family acts like its perfectly normal. None of my friends or family act like its strange. And none of my co-workers act like its weird either. No one even makes a joking/kidding comment about it. On the internet, I've also noticed that people don't immediately dogpile you if you say that teenage girls are attractive.

I don't know if that shifted because I wasn't dating teenagers at the time. Was that around the time that Alabama judge was in the news for, year earlier around age 30, allegedly dating a teenager? Or if could be that because your now-19 girlfriend is over 18, she instantly became an adult at 18 so no one cares.

Personally, if a girl is physically developed enough to bear children without health risks, even 16 or whatever, and she and her father agree to it, I don't see why it should be illegal to marry her. I'd rather see a 90-year-old honorably married to a 17-year-old for life than two people in their 20's shacking up for a year then changing partners.

Any other cultural shifts you've seen that nobody else seems to have noticed happened?

Well, with language I have. When I was young, single meant unmarried. It didn't have to do with whether you were dating anyone. If you had a girlfriend you hadn't married you were single. If you divorced you weren't single. You were divorced. And 'couple' means two. If I say I want a couple of hamburgers, that means 'two'. I wonder if some people think a married couple having sex can be a three or foursome. 'A minute' can now mean a week or a month.

[Outcast9428]

@MrMan

Huh, that's interesting that you said you haven't seen anybody making out in public since you were in high school. I don't know why but I saw a lot of that back in the 2000s.

Being over 18 might have something to do with it, but I remember 5 years ago, that people were becoming really extreme about the age stuff. I even saw people saying they thought a guy in his 20s who dated an 18/19 year old girl was a "borderline pedophile." I also remember that with girls, you could not mention anything about girls under 18 being attractive or sexual beings in anyway or you risked them treating you like the devil incarnate. I lost a close friend of mine back in college for saying that I don't see why its wrong to let a 16 year old girl get married. My ex-girlfriend on the other hand criticized people for being judgmental about that and even said she thought it was morally acceptable for a 17 year old girl to date a guy in his 30s. She basically had the same view I do which is that its impractical, but not immoral. My girlfriend now is also strangely okay with it. Said that if a 16 year old has a relationship with a guy who's 21 or 22 that its not immoral or weird at all and she thinks its okay for teenagers to get married. With my ex-girlfriend, I feel like a lot of it can be explained by her having Filipino parents but my girlfriend now, even though she's Chinese, she was adopted by a White American family so she's been raised by White culture.

[MrMan]

@MrMan

Huh, that's interesting that you said you haven't seen anybody making out in public since you were in high school. I don't know why but I saw a lot of that back in the 2000s.

Being over 18 might have something to do with it, but I remember 5 years ago, that people were becoming really extreme about the age stuff. I even saw people saying they thought a guy in his 20s who dated an 18/19 year old girl was a "borderline pedophile." I also remember that with girls, you could not mention anything about girls under 18 being attractive or sexual beings in anyway or you risked them treating you like the devil incarnate. I lost a close friend of mine back in college for saying that I don't see why its wrong to let a 16 year old girl get married. My ex-girlfriend on the other hand criticized people for being judgmental about that and even said she thought it was morally acceptable for a 17 year old girl to date a guy in his 30s. She basically had the same view I do which is that its impractical, but not immoral. My girlfriend now is also strangely okay with it. Said that if a 16 year old has a relationship with a guy who's 21 or 22 that its not immoral or weird at all and she thinks its okay for teenagers to get married. With my ex-girlfriend, I feel like a lot of it can be explained by her having Filipino parents but my girlfriend now, even though she's Chinese, she was adopted by a White American family so she's been raised by White culture.

I wonder if it had to do with the media trying to make a big deal of a judicial appointment having dated a teenager when he was 30. I've heard that attitude several years back, but I don't know if it was that timeframe. I occasionally have heard that idea on TV, as if it is immoral for an old man to date or marry an old man. If that's the only issue, I don't see it as a moral issue. If he left his wife or she left her husband... that's something else. But just an age gap? That's not a moral issue, especially for adults. I don't get why someone young would want to date someone old and wrinkly, but that's taste and lifestyle decisions not ethics. And when a woman becomes old enough to marry is a fuzzy issue, and 18 is just an arbitrary number we settled on in our legal history. Age of majority used to be 17 in Indonesia, and some of the European countries may have age of consent in the teens.

[Outcast9428]

@MrMan

Huh, that's interesting that you said you haven't seen anybody making out in public since you were in high school. I don't know why but I saw a lot of that back in the 2000s.

Being over 18 might have something to do with it, but I remember 5 years ago, that people were becoming really extreme about the age stuff. I even saw people saying they thought a guy in his 20s who dated an 18/19 year old girl was a "borderline pedophile." I also remember that with girls, you could not mention anything about girls under 18 being attractive or sexual beings in anyway or you risked them treating you like the devil incarnate. I lost a close friend of mine back in college for saying that I don't see why its wrong to let a 16 year old girl get married. My ex-girlfriend on the other hand criticized people for being judgmental about that and even said she thought it was morally acceptable for a 17 year old girl to date a guy in his 30s. She basically had the same view I do which is that its impractical, but not immoral. My girlfriend now is also strangely okay with it. Said that if a 16 year old has a relationship with a guy who's 21 or 22 that its not immoral or weird at all and she thinks its okay for teenagers to get married. With my ex-girlfriend, I feel like a lot of it can be explained by her having Filipino parents but my girlfriend now, even though she's Chinese, she was adopted by a White American family so she's been raised by White culture.

I wonder if it had to do with the media trying to make a big deal of a judicial appointment having dated a teenager when he was 30. I've heard that attitude several years back, but I don't know if it was that timeframe. I occasionally have heard that idea on TV, as if it is immoral for an old man to date or marry an old man. If that's the only issue, I don't see it as a moral issue. If he left his wife or she left her husband... that's something else. But just an age gap? That's not a moral issue, especially for adults. I don't get why someone young would want to date someone old and wrinkly, but that's taste and lifestyle decisions not ethics. And when a woman becomes old enough to marry is a fuzzy issue, and 18 is just an arbitrary number we settled on in our legal history. Age of majority used to be 17 in Indonesia, and some of the European countries may have age of consent in the teens.

Yeah I agree with that. 18 years old is an arbitrary limit that isn't even the law of most states. Most states at least allow people aged 16+ to get married. I don't see any benefit to encouraging young people to delay/stunt their own maturity anymore then they already do nowadays.