I recently started watching “Stranger Things” on Netflix again. Season 5 is available and I still had to watch season 4. Beginning the season, immersing myself in a world that feels so reminiscent of my childhood, a few things stuck out. Namely, I can’t stop focusing on how the kids interact with each other. The lunchroom scenes, the classroom dynamics, hallway excitement, and kids making out next to lockers. Even the bullying scenes all look and feel so different from today’s landscapes.
I think mostly I’m hyper aware that there are no devices. It’s rare to see a computer. Most of the phones are either rotary dial or big, chunky cordless phones. The kids have headphones for their walkmans to play cassette tapes. In some ways, watching some of the kids disengage (e.g., Max) by constantly listening to headphones, feels like a pre-cursor to today’s situation. However, cassette tapes could only hold a limited number of songs. Also, they were heavy and clunky to transport. Chances are, somebody listening to cassette tapes only had one with them at any given time. This is in stark contrast with today’s world. Now we can carry around thousands of songs in a device slightly larger than one cassette tape.
One episode takes place in a roller rink. This is for the old fashioned skates with 4 wheels. It’s the kind I grew up with. I felt excited watching the episode because it reminded me of all the fun times I had at the skating rink. Parties, being with friends, loud music, bright lights, and lots of skating. Watching the scenes, the kids are all interacting with each other. Nobody is huddled off with a device. Nobody is roller skating while also holding their phone to snap selfies or pics of others.
A particularly graphic bullying scene happens here that I found hard to watch. I also thought it was weird one of the kids had one of the ancient camcorders propped on his shoulder recording everything. This to me felt like a weird mix of something that would definitely happen in today’s world, but with dated technology. Growing up, I never saw any kid carrying around camcorders. They were super expensive and heavy. Mostly people reserved them for really special occasions, certainly not an afternoon outing at a skating rink. But other than that, it felt pretty authentic.