The 21st Century Show

I found these videos of Walter Cronkite telling stories in 1967 about what the American home will look like in 2001, 34 years later. These aired on CBS on a show called “The 21st Century”. These type of predictions are always funny, because the predictions are usually way off. They’re either too far out there, or they aren’t at all. But I think these are pretty close to life to today. What do you think? Click images for links to videos.

I think this one is pretty darn accurate. While we may not have a big console to control all these parts in our living room, we have the capabilities to do so from our universal remotes, i-whatevers, and other electronic gadgets. I see this becoming the way to control our homes more over the years to come.

To me it seems the life in the kitchen within the last 30 years hasn’t changed much. Frozen meals began to be widely used in the 1950s and has been since. However, maybe people do eat frozen meals today more than they did. The other part of this video doesn’t seem as pertainable. Hopefully we all use washable glass or plastic plates. However, I have known people who always use disposable paper/plastic plates and throw them away each time. Even though the plates in this video are being recycled and remolded on the spot, don’t we kind of do the same thing when we recycle packaging that food comes in?

I think a dishware remolding machine would probably be pretty inefficient. One thing funny about these videos is how big everything is. The console, the speakers, the microwave. Last summer my mom got rid of the microwave she had since I was born (27 years). It was almost as big as the one in the video!