It seems like the world is changing so quickly. A few years ago, we didn’t have iPads or iPhones, Facebook statuses or Tweets, constant connectivity and speed-of-light news. We are rushing and rushing to get life moving faster and faster, but really where is that getting us?
Some technological advances happen so quickly that if you forget to update for a few years, your old cell phone or computer looks like some kind of relic. Big celebrities change so quickly, it’s impossible to know which food stuff-named rapper the kids are listening to these days. But some things never change. Here are some great things that will be cool no matter what technology and the information superhighway bring our way:
Converse tennis shoes. I see young people, elderly hippies, babies and teenagers wearing various colors of this ubiquitous shoe. Starting off as a basketball shoe, it now has legions of fans, and seems to be nowhere near old-fashioned. This shoe stands for the shoe of the counterculturalists, those interested in comfort, teenaged hipsters, artists—you name it, and this shoe is representative of everyone.
Good books. We might read them on paper or online or on Kindles or projected onto our eyelids, but the medium isn’t going to ruin an art that’s been around since the beginning of time. As long as new books are still being published and people are still reading in one form or another, the medium is kind of irrelevant (although paper books certainly feel the best to me). Innovations like the television set were supposed to kill books, too, but looks like they’re still kickin’.
Monopoly. I don’t care how many computer games or Wii consuls a family has because Monopoly is still better. Invented in 1904, the game helps you think about strategy and business, plus it keeps families around the dinner table much longer than a single, delivered pizza. Best of all, your kids will have to talk to you, at least to negotiate a sale of Park Place.
The Great Outdoors. The Great Outdoors may be shrinking because of our reliance on Wal-Marts, but she isn’t going anywhere yet. There’s no replica in a synthetic world of mountain, trees and oceans, and I bet that there never will be (although I’m sure plenty will try).
Restaurants. Most restaurants rely on nostalgia to hock whatever food they are cooking, so even the most modern and revolutionary joints need to look to the past to sell their present.
What else do you think is still old-school cool in the modern world?