Diary of a Gen Z Student: I can't get my head around the archaic circumstances of college in the 80s

Jane Cowan: I thank God every day that I was born in 2004, not 1964. Picture: Barry Cronin

I recently saw this photo of my mother when she was in college. It had been taken on a disposable film camera. She’s walking through a forest in some foreign country. It has a bit of a reddish tint. No phone in her hand. She probably only called home once or twice to let people know that she was alive. It seems so far from today. 

Looking at this photo made me laugh a little. I use a disposable film camera now and again. Because they’re ‘vintage’ and kind of cool. There’s something exciting about taking a picture, and not knowing how it will turn out, until you get it developed a few weeks later. My phone takes higher quality photos, but for some reason these disposable cameras have become trendy again. They feel a bit like a historical artefact. It’s fun, trying to emulate the past.

When I contrast my parent’s experience of college in the 80s, with my own experience now, I can hardly get my head around the archaic circumstances, if I’m honest. I don’t like to give into the whole ‘young people are all snowflakes’ thing. But on this, I admit, it might have some truth to it. No technology? No student night in Dicey’s every Tuesday? No flat whites with oat milk? I don’t know if I’d have gotten through college in the Stone Age (the 80s).

For one thing, they had to physically attend college. No recorded lectures posted online. No option to panic-watch 12 weeks’ worth of lectures the day before your exam, in that module that you’ve still not figured out the full name of. And then, while they were actually attending their lectures, they had to make all of their own notes? No online flashcards to use. No chat gpt to tempt them. They didn’t even have YouTube, to explain what their degree was about. 

There wasn’t much to be said for central heating, either. So, while they were writing their own notes, like eejits, they had to be half-frozen. It was all honest to goodness, back breaking, hard work. Something I’m not sure I’d be totally capable of. 

Sure, I sit the exams. And I write the essays. But ask me to do that without Google? I’d crumble.

The fact that they didn’t have phones is practically incomprehensible to me. These are people who hadn’t destroyed their attention span through TikTok. I never really lived in that world, but sometimes I kind of wish that I did. I’m so reliant on the thing. I never walk into a lecture theatre without knowing exactly who of my friends will be there. Without my phone, how would I arrange to get a sweet treat with someone after the lecture, to reward ourselves for turning up in the first place? Sounds like total anarchy to me. Chocolate chip cookie free, anarchy.

And then there’s the critical detail that there was no contraception back then. Sex outside of marriage was a sin. So, unadulterated fear of God was all the contraception they needed? Apparently. Christ alive - that would put a spanner in the works for today’s student cohort. Dire straits, for sure. But then again, people could at least pray to God to save them for their sins back then. Which is a lot more than can be said for the modern college goer. Sure, all we’ve got is the morning after pill. But at least it’s free. And we’ll take what we can get.

And after a long hard day of attending lectures, they’d get on the bus, where people would smoke the whole way home. Then they’d get in just in time to say the rosary with the family. What’s that saying, ‘families that pray together stay together’? That must be why there was no divorce back then. 

There are some aspects of their lives that I really struggle to picture, and the family prayer service is one of them. It seems like a totally different world. And in lots of ways, it was.

But here I am, with my disposable film camera. Taking pictures like they did back in the day. I’ll never get to recreate the full college experience of the 80s. And if my lecturers stopped posting their resources online, I would be in for a rude awakening: my 9am starts would no longer be optional. And for that alone, I thank God every day. That I was born in 2004, not 1964.