Why friendships from the ’70s were simply the best

The 1970s and 1980s evoke a sense of nos­tal­gia for a time when life was sim­pler, friend­ships were more per­son­al, and face-to-face inter­ac­tions were the norm. Days were spent out­doors, rid­ing bikes and mak­ing mem­o­ries with friends, while evenings were filled with live music, dri­ve-in the­aters, and mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tions over land­line phones.

The decade had its quirks—like avo­ca­do green kitchen appli­ances and banana bikes—but it also fos­tered a sense of com­mu­ni­ty and con­nec­tion that feels increas­ing­ly rare today. The era’s charm lies in its slow­er pace, where rela­tion­ships thrived with­out the con­stant dis­trac­tions of tech­nol­o­gy.

Over the years, the way peo­ple com­mu­ni­cate has dras­ti­cal­ly changed, par­tic­u­lar­ly in rela­tion­ships. In the ’70s, cou­ples expressed their feel­ings through hand­writ­ten let­ters or phone calls, often lim­it­ed by expen­sive day­time rates. Touch-tone phones were a mod­ern lux­u­ry, slow­ly replac­ing rotary dials.

Fast-for­ward to today, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion is instant, with tex­ting, social media, and video calls bridg­ing any dis­tance. While this has made stay­ing in touch eas­i­er, it has also intro­duced new chal­lenges, such as mis­com­mu­ni­ca­tion due to the absence of tone and body lan­guage. As tech­nol­o­gy advances, the nos­tal­gia for the past reminds us of the deep, undis­tract­ed con­nec­tions that once defined rela­tion­ships.