How did people spend their time pre-internet?

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I disagree. While different things that occurred pre-and-post things, the internet must be one of the things that have majorly changed the way people live in every manner. I was there I know. It wasn't as much at first when it was slow and you had to have a dedicate internet service and a dedicate expensive computer and you were online for about 1 hr a day but now that even your fridge is connected to Wifi and its manufacturer probably has a data sheet on when you open the door and when you close it is something completely different.

No we have no reached the pinnacle. There is still cancer to cure, clean energy, world hunger, poverty, space travel, Air conditioners can get smaller, air planes can get a lot more pleasant, and much more...but the internet must be one of the biggest things that affected human lives.

You are of course free to think whatever you wish. However, this is exactly how it always is: the people of any time feel that their "thing" (whatever feels like a big advancement of their day) "majorly change the way people live in every manner." If you ask those still alive about the "biggies" from well before the internet, they'll confidently respond with "I was there, I know" about their "biggie(s)."

It is how it is. It is how it will probably always be. There is some sort of collective longing to feel "special"... to have thoughts like "how can it ever get any better than this?" and "what a time to be alive!" Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's quite great to have such feelings, as positive feelings contribute to happy lives. But those same phrases apply at almost all times in history.

The internet is just a current thing... a "biggie" within current lifetimes. Your own grandchildren probably won't think much of it at all because their "biggie" will be so much (seemingly) better than ours. If you are still alive, you'll be hitting them with "I was there, I know" like perhaps your grandfather might say about seeing the first television... on a "gigantic 13-inch black & white screen"... and it being the envy of the entire town.

I share your enthusiasm for the many wonders- not only the internet part of it- of life in 2023... but look forward to 2043 and 2063 knowing that 2023 wonders won't shine nearly as brightly then... because whatever is "next" will be THE "majorly changing lives in every manner" then. In 2123, people might refer to the Internet like we refer to the horse & buggy.

 

[Apple fanboy]

You are of course free to think whatever you wish. However, this is exactly how it always is: the people of any time feel that their "thing" (whatever feels like a big advancement of their day) "majorly change the way people live in every manner." If you ask those still alive about the "biggies" from well before the internet, they'll confidently respond with "I was there, I know" about their "biggie(s)."

It is how it is. It is how it will probably always be. There is some sort of collective longing to feel "special"... to have thoughts like "how can it ever get any better than this?" and "what a time to be alive!" Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's quite great to have such feelings, as positive feelings contribute to happy lives. But those same phrases apply at almost all times in history.

The internet is just a current thing... a "biggie" within current lifetimes. Your own grandchildren probably won't think much of it at all because their "biggie" will be so much (seemingly) better than ours. If you are still alive, you'll be hitting them with "I was there, I know" like perhaps your grandfather might say about seeing the first television... on a "gigantic 13-inch black & white screen"... and it being the envy of the entire town.

I share your enthusiasm for the many wonders- not just the internets part of it- of life in 2023... but look forward to 2043 and 2063 knowing that 2023 wonders won't shine nearly as brightly then... because whatever is "next" will be THE "majorly changing lives in every manner" then. In 2123, people might refer to the Internet like we refer to the horse & buggy.

By 2123 most of us will be living underwater. The rest will use screens implanted in their eye sockets rather than screens on devices.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Haha... but if so, THAT generation will be saying "how did you ever stand living on dry land?" and "wait! you mean you had dedicated spaces where you had to go somewhere to see a screen? OMG! How could you stand such antiquated living? Were dinosaurs still around then too?"

Those who believe NOW is some kind of pinnacle probably catch themselves pitying or internally ridiculing the tales of their elders when they talk about the "good old days" innovations that were "biggies" to them. It's simply an ongoing cycle of "my own time is the very best time in all of human history because..." which will apply just as fully to the generations to come as it did to countless generations that have already been.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Haha... but if so, THAT generation will be saying "how did you ever stand living on dry land?" and "wait! you mean you had dedicated spaces where you had to go somewhere to see a screen? OMG! How could you stand such antiquated living? Were dinosaurs still around then too?"

Those who believe NOW is some kind of pinnacle probably catch themselves pitying or internally ridiculing the tales of their elders when they talk about the "good old days" innovations that were "biggies" to them. It's simply an ongoing cycle of "my own time is the very best time in all of human history because..." which will apply just as fully to the generations to come as it did to countless generations that have already been.

I definitely don’t think that ‘now’ is the pinnacle. Quite the opposite.

 

[macos9rules]

I used to read comics and novels, borrow books at the library, play with my friends outside, draw, listen to music on tape and vinyl, learn to play guitar and jam with my friends in their garage, record music with a 4-track Tascam and sync it with a sequencer, play Atari 2600 games, play King's Quest and Space Quest on my dad's PC, learn to program in BASIC, go on long bicycle rides, go to the movies, play Dungeons and Dragons in my basement, rent sci-fi movies at the video club, speak on the phone with my friends for hours... man I miss the 80s so much.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I used to read comics and novels, borrow books at the library, play with my friends outside, draw, listen to music on tape and vinyl, learn to play guitar and jam with my friends in their garage, record music with a 4-track Tascam and sync it with a sequencer, play Atari 2600 games, play King's Quest and Space Quest on my dad's PC, learn to program in BASIC, go on long bicycle rides, go to the movies, play Dungeons and Dragons in my basement, rent sci-fi movies at the video club, speak on the phone with my friends for hours... man I miss the 80s so much.

Reads like you were incredibly board without the internet. How did you ever fill the time?

I was there too and- presumably by those who think NOW is the be all, end all- we just sat around sad and bored because the life-enriching internet was not yet available. And yet, I have memories of getting an Atari 5200 with much better 8 (or was it 16) color graphics and thinking how could it ever get better than this... the 5200 had to be the pinnacle of home arcade game consoles for all time... and was the envy of all of my friends at the time.

OP is right: the Internet is far reaching, highly impactful on all who can use it... but I'm not sure it is any more (relatively) impactful than that Atari 2600 (or maybe even Pong before it) or the home computer or airplane travel or the transister or tv or radio or automobiles or the lightbulb or the printing press or ... or... or the wheel or fire. In their time, all big innovations are viewed as major impact... and then the next big thing comes along.

Each generation or so can well up with pride that they are living at a time where <whatever it is> exists, proclaiming their time as THE end all, be all time to be alive. And then it becomes the next generations turn, and the one after that, and the one after that... each looking back at what a prior generation(s) thought was unbelievably HUGE as we look back at what our parents & grandparents thought was unbelievably HUGE in theirs.

That Atari 5200 seemed unbelievably superior in its day. But try firing up a retro machine and showing them to today's video game players. They'll laugh at the inferior everything relative to their own experiences. Try sharing the incredible random access to upwards of 8 songs on 8-track tapes (huge at the time) or the implementation of mass production... or consumer credit... or metal ships... or electricity... or the "new world" discovery... and on and on and on.

 

[MrCheeto]

speak on the phone with my friends for hours

Sounds simple but also consider the value that the length of phone cord had. Having a phone in your room. Not having people bug you to get off the line so they could call somebody. Before call waiting, if you were expecting an important call, you were paralyzed by the phone and would blitz anybody that either got in your way or the poor guy on the other end that happened to call in without knowing you were trying to keep the line clear. You haven't seen the lizard-brain showing in somebody until you happen to call them and start talking when they interject with "HEY, I'm waiting for something very important, I'll call back!" *click*. Of course you'd hear the receiver SLAM before it disconnected and everything was delivered faster than legal copy at the end of a radio ad.

Oh boy, who remembers Time and Temperature? When was the last time you even heard the phrase "Time and Temperature"? If I found that any of my watches were not on-time or if there was a power-outage that reset everything, I'd have to call in and listen to about a thirty-second weather report recording. Afterward, it would say "at the tone, the time is five forty-two....*doot*" then it would carry on with more information but I would set my watch to that time as quickly as I could to make sure I had some accurate point of reference.

Example

 

[Apple fanboy]

Sounds simple but also consider the value that the length of phone cord had. Having a phone in your room. Not having people bug you to get off the line so they could call somebody. Before call waiting, if you were expecting an important call, you were paralyzed by the phone and would blitz anybody that either got in your way or the poor guy on the other end that happened to call in without knowing you were trying to keep the line clear. You haven't seen the lizard-brain showing in somebody until you happen to call them and start talking when they interject with "HEY, I'm waiting for something very important, I'll call back!" *click*. Of course you'd hear the receiver SLAM before it disconnected and everything was delivered faster than legal copy at the end of a radio ad.

Oh boy, who remembers Time and Temperature? When was the last time you even heard the phrase "Time and Temperature"? If I found that any of my watches were not on-time or if there was a power-outage that reset everything, I'd have to call in and listen to about a thirty-second weather report recording. Afterward, it would say "at the tone, the time is five forty-two....*doot*" then it would carry on with more information but I would set my watch to that time as quickly as I could to make sure I had some accurate point of reference.

Example

Never heard the expression at all. Here we used to call a similar service called the speaking clock.
Where a very posh sounding recording would tell you on the third stroke it will be 3:22 precisely. Not thought about that for a while.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I used to read comics and novels, borrow books at the library, play with my friends outside, draw, listen to music on tape and vinyl, learn to play guitar and jam with my friends in their garage, record music with a 4-track Tascam and sync it with a sequencer, play Atari 2600 games, play King's Quest and Space Quest on my dad's PC, learn to program in BASIC, go on long bicycle rides, go to the movies, play Dungeons and Dragons in my basement, rent sci-fi movies at the video club, speak on the phone with my friends for hours... man I miss the 80s so much.

Back in the dim and distant past when people had landlines as their phone rather than mobiles. I haven’t had a home phone since 2007 and don’t miss the nuisance calls we used to get.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Back in the dim and distant past when people had landlines as their phone rather than mobiles. I haven’t had a home phone since 2007 and don’t miss the nuisance calls we used to get.

We still have a landline, but don’t receive nuisance calls. I also don’t receive them on my mobile. Opt out of everything and I am very selective who gets it.

In terms of technology leaps I actually think the smart phone was a bigger game changer than the internet.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

We still have a landline, but don’t receive nuisance calls. I also don’t receive them on my mobile. Opt out of everything and I am very selective who gets it.

In terms of technology leaps I actually think the smart phone was a bigger game changer than the internet.

We have a landline number, just don’t have a phone plugged into it and haven’t for more than 15 years. I don’t have a need for one as we all have mobiles. One less appliance using electricity. We used to get a call every couple of days from India trying to scam us so it was easier just to get rid of it. My parents got rid of theirs a few years ago too and I don’t think I’ve got many landline numbers saved in my contacts anymore. I assumed it was a sign of the times.

 

[Mousse]

Reads like you were incredibly board without the internet. How did you ever fill the time?

I was incredibly bored with my early days of Internet. Website took forever to load at 14.4K.😅

At least MUD* didn't require fast network connection. Still, lag from 14.4K got me killed on numerous occasions. I could only play reliably at the Uni's computer lab.

*Multi User Dungeons/Dimensions. Precursors to MMORPG and today's on-line multiplayer gaming.

 

[Apple fanboy]

We have a landline number, just don’t have a phone plugged into it and haven’t for more than 15 years. I don’t have a need for one as we all have mobiles. One less appliance using electricity. We used to get a call every couple of days from India trying to scam us so it was easier just to get rid of it. My parents got rid of theirs a few years ago too and I don’t think I’ve got many landline numbers saved in my contacts anymore. I assumed it was a sign of the times.

Mrs AFB doesn’t have her mobile switched on 99% of the time. So I call her on it everyday. But yes outside of that not too many.

 

[brucewayne]

I think problems with COD may have arisen from the number of bust delivery attempts adding cost to the parcel service. Add to that another point of interaction with customers, which is such a burden to business that you literally can NOT contact a human at some companies.

On a similar topic, I remember the first time a delivery guy handed me a writing pad that was like a huge clipboard-sized Newton to sign for a package. I had a moment of hesitation figuring out WTF am I doing with this thing. Long story short: I got through the ordeal with little incident and by around 2012 I had this digital writing pad business down.

Partially that. Also credit card ownership and use was nowhere near as common back then. I worked retail in the late 80's/early 90's and checks and cash were far more likely to be used for a purchase. This was at a time where you would run the credit card on a manual slider and call the number on the back of the card for an approval.

One of the places I worked for wasn't doing so well and didn't pay their bills on time - their vendors switched them from net 30 billing to COD. Which basically turned the UPS guy into a bill collector.

 

[compwiz1202]

I was incredibly bored with my early days of Internet. Website took forever to load at 14.4K.😅

At least MUD* didn't require fast network connection. Still, lag from 14.4K got me killed on numerous occasions. I could only play reliably at the Uni's computer lab.

*Multi User Dungeons/Dimensions. Precursors to MMORPG and today's on-line multiplayer gaming.

Loved MUDs. And that was a common occurence at a time whether MUD or more modern MMOS:

Soandso chats "LAGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

[compwiz1202]

Partially that. Also credit card ownership and use was nowhere near as common back then. I worked retail in the late 80's/early 90's and checks and cash were far more likely to be used for a purchase. This was at a time where you would run the credit card on a manual slider and call the number on the back of the card for an approval.

One of the places I worked for wasn't doing so well and didn't pay their bills on time - their vendors switched them from net 30 billing to COD. Which basically turned the UPS guy into a bill collector.

Yes it's changed so much. Back then with those sliders, and some businesses calling for CC approval, it was by far faster to use cash and possibly even a check. Today with the better POS systems, unless you know the exact amount in advance and have it ready, CC speed easily beats cash.

 

[Aves]

Yes it's changed so much. Back then with those sliders, and some businesses calling for CC approval, it was by far faster to use cash and possibly even a check. Today with the better POS systems, unless you know the exact amount in advance and have it ready, CC speed easily beats cash.

I mainly only use CC, except when I visit Amish County 😂

 

[compwiz1202]

I mainly only use CC, except when I visit Amish County 😂

Yea used to have cash for fairs and carnivals, but even most of those take CC now.

 

[pdoherty]

You can put me down in any time period you want - past, present or future. The one thing you will find occupying the majority of my time is avoiding work.

I put a lot of energy into avoiding work, always have and always will. If there is time to do nothing I will find it. If not, I will MAKE the time to do nothing.

Famously, Henry Ford was inquiring of one of his foreman about a slow section of the production line. The foreman, apologetic, said he’d put his hardest-working people on it to rectify it. To which Ford replied, “No, put your laziest workers in that area; they’ll find a way to get the work done and still be able to have time to be lazy”.

One man’s lazy is another man’s ‘efficient’.

 

[pdoherty]

Yes, I did have the pleasure of using 56.6kbps modem!

Spoiled much? My first modem was 1200 bps (1.2k). When I moved up to 2400 bps I thought I was a high roller!

 

[eyoungren]

One man’s lazy is another man’s ‘efficient’.

This is the way…

If I can find a way to optimize what I have to do so I spend less time doing it then I will. I'm not into creating work for myself or doing things the hard way. Sometimes there are no shortcuts and you just have to do it the way it needs to be done, but a lot of the time you can short-circuit the process and just speed to the end.

 

[eyoungren]

Spoiled much? My first modem was 1200 bps (1.2k). When I moved up to 2400 bps I thought I was a high roller!

Psh!!!

Pot meet kettle!!!

My first modem was 300 baud - with a pulse phone I had to dial manually! Once you heard the tone, you flipped the switch on the modem, put the phone down in a hurry and hoped you made the connection before the BBS timed out.

And next, @Clix Pix will tell us how they used an accoustic coupler and a rotary phone!

 

[splifingate]

In the 70's, we would invariably (and un-reluctantly) be released from dinner to go outside, and play . . .

. . . this usually involved a lot of running-around with other small people, tossing/kicking/avoiding spherical objects with inherent, and varying mass-densities. We had no real goals.

On regular occasion (usually in the late afternoon), an obnoxiously-loud mechanical device would slowly trundle down our street; a frost-laden, carillon-emitting monstrosity which--upon request, and a few stored chore-empowered exchange tokens--gifted its willing patrons with semi-frozen gifts of Joy . . . each of which would ultimately end our quest as to the proper valency, and propriety, of said spherical objects.

In the late evening, my father often used his mouth to emit a whistle, and there were two Primaries: a 'whee-to-wheet' to get my attention; and, a 'whoo-eee-too' to call-upon my Sister.

"crickets" meant exactly that; and we would fall-asleep to these, by the thousands.

I would not trade my interwebs for such a thing; nor would I exchange these experiences for teh internets . . . these experiences are each to their own, and personally priceless

 

[eyoungren]

Sounds simple but also consider the value that the length of phone cord had. Having a phone in your room. Not having people bug you to get off the line so they could call somebody. Before call waiting, if you were expecting an important call, you were paralyzed by the phone and would blitz anybody that either got in your way or the poor guy on the other end that happened to call in without knowing you were trying to keep the line clear. You haven't seen the lizard-brain showing in somebody until you happen to call them and start talking when they interject with "HEY, I'm waiting for something very important, I'll call back!" *click*. Of course you'd hear the receiver SLAM before it disconnected and everything was delivered faster than legal copy at the end of a radio ad.

Oh boy, who remembers Time and Temperature? When was the last time you even heard the phrase "Time and Temperature"? If I found that any of my watches were not on-time or if there was a power-outage that reset everything, I'd have to call in and listen to about a thirty-second weather report recording. Afterward, it would say "at the tone, the time is five forty-two....*doot*" then it would carry on with more information but I would set my watch to that time as quickly as I could to make sure I had some accurate point of reference.

Example

This became an issue some time in 1988 when I was trying to run a nightly/weekend BBS. My sister had the bad habit of picking up the phone to call someone and of course that dropped the caller off the BBS. My dad would get angry hearing the warble.

So, I begged for a second phone line and they finally agreed to get me one.

Until I ran up $300 in charges one month (long distance) and then it was back to the one line.

 

[eyoungren]

"crickets" meant exactly that; and we would fall-asleep to these, by the thousands.

As much as I hate rural, there were some summer nights I recall quite fondly. Some time around 1am or 2am the train would go rumbling through to the southeast of our home, about 3 miles away. The sound of the train horns would carry and if you listened you could hear it. At the time I had my bed close to the window (we did not have A/C, so the window was open at night). That also meant seeing the moon at the same time I was hearing the trains.

For me, it was the perfect soundscape combined with visuals. Always lulled me off to sleep.