The Cost of Todays Tech Necessities in the 80s
The 1980s often evoke a sense of nostalgia, remembered as a golden era. Back then, Transformers were hand-drawn, films were fresh rather than merely remakes, and we organized our vital documents in Trapper Keepers, as fate intended.
However, before you become wistful for the days defined by hair metal, spandex, and She-Ra, it’s worth pondering the conveniences we enjoy today that would have been nearly unattainable during that decade. It turns out, modern life has a plethora of advantages.
On-Demand Music
With a smartphone like a 32GB iPhone, you can have over 8,000 songs at your fingertips, depending on its app storage. Apps like Spotify and Apple Music allow streaming, and they enable the saving of playlists and favorite albums. Additionally, these devices are exceptionally portable, making them a constant companion.
For a modern music setup, you would invest about $450 for the phone and around $10 monthly for streaming services, leading to a total of approximately $570 in the first year to access your favorite music wherever you go in 2018.
Creating a similar portable music collection in the 1980s would have been challenging. Starting out, you would require a portable CD player. The Sony Discman launched in 1985 at a price of $300—equivalent to roughly $700 today. To amass 8,000 songs, you would need about 570 CDs, based on an average of 14 tracks per album. With CDs priced around $15 each back then (approximately $35 now), the total cost for those CDs would be nearly $19,950—an impractical amount for the average listener. Furthermore, carrying around 570 CDs would have been far from feasible.
Ultimately, in 1985, you’d need around $20,650 (in today’s currency) to match the portable music library we take for granted now. (See also: Selecting the Ideal Streaming Music Service for Your Needs)
Mobile Phones
Having a smartphone has become so common that we’ve even redefined the term landline to refer to wall-mounted phones. Society has adjusted its etiquette to incorporate mobile phone usage, creating unspoken guidelines around texting and calling.
If you’re using a cutting-edge iPhone X, your investment is about $1,000, and monthly service averages around $60, resulting in a total expected expenditure of about $1,720 per year, inclusive of the phone purchase.
In stark contrast, when the first cellphone was released in 1983, it cost $4,000—equivalent to roughly $10,062 today. Early adopters of the Motorola model (commonly known as “the brick”) didn’t have any calling plans, and they could only enjoy about 30 minutes to talk before needing a recharge.
Video Streaming
Netflix has completely transformed entertainment, to the point where “Netflix and chill” has evolved from a fun weekend activity into a popular cultural reference. Subscribing to Netflix’s standard plan costs $10.99 monthly, equating to about $132 annually, granting access to more than 5,500 different titles across movies and shows.
Unless you’re a professional movie critic, watching all 5,500 titles in a single year is impractical. However, if you were to watch two different shows daily, this would equate to 730 titles viewed in a year. In 1988, renting a movie would typically set you back about $2.50 at a local rental shop (anyone remember those?). Adjusted for today’s economy, that rental would cost approximately $5.29, leading to an estimated annual expenditure of around $3,862 in today’s dollars for watching 730 movies—excluding potential late fees for overdue rentals of classics like The Breakfast Club or Die Hard. (See also: 3 Essential Must-Haves for Cord Cutters)
E-Readers
While physical books will always hold a place in our hearts, e-readers have revolutionized the reading experience, allowing bibliophiles to carry extensive libraries on the go, whether heading to the beach or waiting in a long line at the DMV. The Kindle Fire can accommodate around 6,000 books, enabling readers to seamlessly transition from one story to another without needing to visit a bookstore.
A Kindle Fire HD 8 retails for around $80, and adding a Kindle Unlimited subscription at $9.99 per month leads to an approximate total of $200 in the first year for book lovers. If one manages to read a book each week, tallying 52 books in a year, that breaks down to about $3.85 per book.
Conversely, in the 1980s, purchasing 52 books would have incurred significant costs. In 1985, newly released books ranged from $8.95 to $19.95 ($20.84 to $46.45 today). Assuming a reader opts for the lower price point, their spending would accumulate to over $1,083.68 (adjusted for 2018) in a year, a far cry from the $200 expense for a Kindle user today. (See also: 5 Simple Ways to Obtain Free eBooks)
Embracing Modernity
While there are certainly elements of 1980s culture we miss—such as the joy of music videos on MTV—it’s worthwhile to appreciate the myriad advancements we enjoy today that were simply out of reach during the time of Max Headroom and jelly shoes.
