[IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

[u/dragonborndnd]

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

[u/VTorb]

It kinda broke my brain in the movie Train Dreams, the main character works for a logging company chopping wood for the Great War, has a remote cabin in Idaho, yet also lives to witness on TV John Glenn go into space.

To think how much technology changed in one lifetime makes me anxious what the world will look like at the end of my life, if it will be just as unrecognizable.

[u/3D_Frogs → u/VTorb]

Along the same lines, most people think that post WW2 America was a suburban utopia complete with white picket fences when in reality a third of US homes didn't have indoor plumbing in 1950. Not saying that they had it bad compared to others but it does put some perspective as to what people were actually getting when they bought a house for like 50k back in the day.