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What skills did almost everybody have 50 years ago, but few people have today? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 month ago by SolarBoy@slrpnk.net to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I suppose it would be mostly practical skills, cooking, fixing things. Usually had to be done by people themselves.

Maybe also mental things like navigating (with or without paper map) and remembering their daily and weekly agendas.

What other things would be a big difference with the people today?

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[-] AshMan85@lemmy.world 52 points 1 month ago

Writing in cursive

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 16 points 1 month ago

This is such a good thing. Whenever I look at cursive writing it's indecipherable. It being included in school curriculums really feels like someone went "no I'm good at writing! Cursive writing is good! Children need to learn it, in fact."

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 month ago

Do you mean that you can't read it at all? It's really close to lettering, it's just got swoopies attached to most letters. There are only around 4 that you have to know how they're different, but the rest are super similar.

[-] SolarBoy@slrpnk.net 17 points 1 month ago

This is definitely dependent on the person writing. Some cursive is illegible, others is totally fine.

[-] klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 16 points 1 month ago

I mean, some non-cursive is totally illegible. My print is pretty bad, but my cursive is fine

[-] SolarBoy@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 month ago

That's true. I learned cursive first, but never really properly. Then learned print instead. Now my writing is a mashup of cursive and print, with the same letter in a single sentence sometimes using different writing styles. Great!

[-] foofiepie@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Swoopies. ❤️

[-] noodles@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago

There's a bunch of different systems that vary how close they are to standard print

[-] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 weeks ago

F, R, and z

[-] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 month ago

I've tried to read 19 century cursive journals and other historical documents. It's impossible, and I'm old enough to have learned it at school.

There's a reason engineers and technical disciplines used block/print letters.

[-] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 weeks ago

Capital letters:

[-] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago

At this point it's actually kind of useful as a mild coded writing that excludes idiots.

[-] homes@piefed.world 2 points 1 month ago

My cursive is still excellent

this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026

152 points (98.1% liked)

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