The World Has Changed

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I've been reading (and in some cases re-reading) some books by Mary Stewart. In this instance, her gothic(ish) romance and mystery novels. There were many of these in the mid 20th Century, by writers like Georgette Heyer, Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney and a lot of other writers. If you aren't familiar with the genre, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier is probably THE book that kick-started the whole thing commercially. Some of the older cover art is a category of it's own - "women in long-dresses running away from a big house" sums up most of them. The Mary Stewart books I'm reading are set in the 1950s and 1960s and I'm finding the lack of technology available to the characters quite refreshing. You can't look up anything or anyone by taking the 'phone out of your pocket, maps are on paper, photographs are on film - if you have a camera. There's also no 24/7 culture, shops close in the evening and on Sundays, choices are limited and nobody delivers anything to your door! This really does help with the mystery element because if someone wants to know something they have to do some old-fashioned boots-on-the-ground sleuthing. Do you think we know too much, too quickly about everything now? Do you think we're impatient when we want something because we're used to clicking a button or making a call and having it brought to us? Are we a bit spoiled that many things are available around the clock that we used to have to go and fetch ourselves during limited opening times?