How did people spend their time pre-internet?

[Scepticalscribe]

What a fun trip down memory lane.
Pre internet certain things just took longer. If you wanted to get an album (after you had saved up of course!) you had to go to the record shop.
Then you might make a mix tape with that and some other songs. Always trying to make sure the song didn’t cut out at the end of course!
I always had extra jobs when I was at school. Paper rounds or car washing when I was younger. Working in a shop or whatever when I was older.

You’d meet up with friends (I was an extrovert back then). Sometimes you’d arrange stuff, but often you’d just turn up at the same place after school and hang out.
Go to clubs. Youth clubs or whatever. I started going to the pub when I was 14 or 15.

The worst part for me was talking to girls on the phone. You’d not want to use the landline at home so you’d go use a pay phone. Then the girl’s parents would answer and you’d have to ask to speak to their daughter!

Also if parents went away or friends parents were out for the evening you’d head to their home and listen to music and raid the alcohol cupboard. I mean who’s going to know we topped the vodka up with water?

Then if you watched a certain show you’d have to be home that evening or set the VCR (that was later really). My family were hopeless with tech (still are) so I’d have to sort all that out for them.

Reading the daily paper. That’s how you read up on football but also other things.

Hanging out on bikes as others have said. Getting a bus ride somewhere. Playing role playing games or other games when we were younger.

We were not lonely. I’d say the internet has not made society less lonely or better. The opposite. I’m glad I grew up without a mobile phone or social media (although this site is about as close to social media as I get).
I pity the kids of today.

Excellent post.

Saving up for albums (LPs) meant a different relationship to time, and - once adolescence had kicked in - music played a very large part in of lives.

For music, and for interests, for hobbies, you didn't have instant gratification. Instead, you waited, you saved, - saving up for albums (LPs) meant a different relationship to time.

You waited, you saved, (chores at home, and other sources of income - I remember my brother and I sharing the costs of the first few albums we bought together, much discussion and negotiation preceding each purchase, as, while our tastes were similar, they weren't identical), and visited the record shop endlessly (when visiting a major city my brothers and I spent ages and ages in record shops, traipsing around from one to another, browsing and inspecting and critically commenting on their selections, and I would also head to book shops) before buying. Anticipation was half the fun.

Some people (friends, schoolmates, neighbours, people you knew) had different albums (nobody could afford to get everything they wanted at first, everyone saved up - and we were all from middle-class backgrounds), and that meant arranging to visit friends - at home - who had albums that you didn't have in order to listen to them.

Coffee (or tea) were the usual drinks when you visited someone, or they dropped in to you; I always served the real stuff - most of my friends didn't. Raiding alcohol cupboards came a lot later (university years) and my father somehow always knew and - most unusually for him - made it clear that this was not on, and that he was really miffed. He said - qute firmly - that if we wanted to raid the booze cupboard, we were free to drink the disgusting local beverages/stuff he and my mother invariably brought back from their foreign holidays - places such as Greece, Italy, Turkey - but to leave the whisky and vodka (his and hers respectively, although she also sipped whisky on occasion) strictly alone, or else, - and this threat worked - or else, replenish it.

 

[eyoungren]

If you are old enough and remember I would like to hear your memories. I remember as far back as the early 1990s. I was thinking all forms of entertainment today is connected to the internet. I would imagine it would be very horrific to be lonely at that time period.

I know people who would go to work have something to be busy with but those who are retired, between jobs, what did they do all day long? What I remember was people almost never stayed home. Every day for them was go out and socialise day.

For me: I was born in 1970. First computer was 1980. Dungeons & Dragons was 1983. Commodore 64 was 1984 and BBS (Bulletin Board System) was 1985.

These are all key points in my life, although I mention the year I was born so you know where I started.

Computers became an interest. I messed with those, still do. RPGs came around in 1983. To this day it remains my favorite thing to do. 8-9 hours of gaming on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a few hours of gaming during the week? Yes please!

The Commodore 64 gave me a better computer and 1985 meant I could reach out to other people beyond my rural area by dialing up and logging in - on my C64.

Fantasy novels and sci-fi (movies, novels, etc) didn't come along until around 1986. Then I became a heavy reader. Japanese animation came in during the summer of 1985 when Robotech aired on KCOP-13 Los Angeles. I was hooked.

All that stuff I did pre-internet.

PS. By the end of 1986 I had my driver's license and access to the family cars. 10th, 11th and 12th grade I drove myself to school and back. After school was spent at comic book shops and getting something to eat. By my senior year I had enough credits to be out at noon. I could go wherever I wanted for the rest of the day.

Spent a lot of time at the mall. Computer stores, bookstores, music stores, etc. I didn't have to worry about bills, gas, insurance or much else. And I had spending money.

By 1988 I was running my own BBS - nights and weekends were spent chatting with users. By 1990 I was hanging out with 6 of them playing AD&D.

 

[eyoungren]

…you did not want to fall in that water it was very questionable and thinking back I can't believe I did that).

Starting in 1981 until I moved out I lived rural, so I get all this.

Once, when I was 12-13 my friends and I were out messing around and we came upon a hatch in the ground. We opened it up and found this giant (to us) room that had block walls. We figured we'd clean it out and make it a fort!

Only we had to haul out all the dirt and oil that was in there. Yeah, oil. By my late teen years I'd figured out that we'd uncovered someone's oil pit, where all the oil they drained when they changed the oil in their cars went. The house that existed on the property was long gone by that point and we'd stumbled into that pit.

It took a LOT of scrubbing to get that oil off us!

 

[eyoungren]

Yeah, it makes me sad to see my son sitting with YouTube on his iPad next to a huge sack of unused Lego.

What I would have been willing to do for all that at his age!

My son attended highschool at a tech-oriented school that has been expanding since (he graduated in 2021). This place is connected out the wazoo and uses a lot of tech. The Mayo clinic has an agreement to use their labs as backup.

I would have KILLED to go to a school like that in the 1980s!

 

[eyoungren]

I still wonder how we were able to make plans with with 8+ people and no cell phones, texts or emails.

I college every year we planned a ski trip over Christmas break with people from at least 3 different colleges, leaving messages on answering machines at both their home and dorm and then getting payment without Paypal or Venmo.

Not sure how we did it.

The phone.

I once got eight people out to see a Star Trek movie (forget which one) by making one call home (payphone) to my family and one call to my friend's family. Gave the address, next movie time and in about 30 minutes to an hour we all had popcorn, drinks, candy and seats.

 

[Ruggy]

lI was a kid in the 60s so at that time it was Airfix kits, reading, Lego, Meccano and music, bike rides for fun (and fixing bikes) making crossbows, go-carts and catapults, making dens, climbing trees, daming the river.... Then in the 70s it was model aeroplanes- with motors- soldering circuits, fixing cars, lots and lots of sport, listening to music with friends, cinema- reading and a lot of studying.

We only had 2TV channels in the 60s and programs were only on for a few hours
But if you tell that to the kids of t'day, they don't believe yer. (At least we had Python).

 

[Herdfan]

Pre internet certain things just took longer. If you wanted to get an album (after you had saved up of course!) you had to go to the record shop.

I have tried to explain to my daughter just how lucky she is. We used to pay $12-15 (1980's and 90's dollars) for an album that might have 3 good songs. Now you can pay Spotify $15/mo and have almost unlimited music on your phone.

Then you might make a mix tape with that and some other songs. Always trying to make sure the song didn’t cut out at the end of course!

I do not miss the mix tape. At least not when you were trying to make one for someone you had a crush on. Talk about bearing your soul.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I do not miss the mix tape. At least not when you were trying to make one for someone you had a crush on. Talk about bearing your soul.

Actually, I loved receiving (and, for that matter, planning and preparing and making and mixing such tapes myself, to give to friends) mix tapes; they tended to have had a lot of thought - serious thought - put into them, - and sometimes involved heading home for week-ends and ransacking stuff that might have been in a parent's extensive music collection, a widely travelled parent with eclectic musical tastes - which meant you got to hear - and were introduced to - new and interesting stuff.

Later, I, myself, also used to prepare (and I have always loved to receive) mix CDs, something colleagues with whom I have worked abroad still exchange with me, or give to me (and I, to them), this was something I have done (and been on the receiving end of) as recently as last autumn.

Mix tapes (as a gift) showed thought: Something you wished to share with others, but also something you had given thought to re the recipient's musical tastes; let's put it this way: Anyone who ever prepared a mix tape tended to have been a thoughtful, interesting, intelligent individual; fearing that one has been bearing their soul is something that adolescents cringe about, in the self-absorbed way of the teens of the world: Nevertheless, I can confidently assert that the recipient tended to be much more concerned with their own soul, and whether it had become inadvertently visible, than with glimpses of someone else's soul.

The challenges of creating (and curating) those mixed tape (or CD) playlists are something today's kids will never know; a (Spotify) playlist isn't the same.

You had to be aware of time, and of ambience, mood, tone - and of how the music worked as a series of songs, or works, and also as an actual sequence.

I still remember fondly the friend (who was then a post grad, as was I) who turned up for a long, lingering dinner in my house (my parents were away, on a foreign holiday, and I always hosted serious dinner parties that lasted through the evening and well into the night when they were away) with - in addition to a bottle of wine - Carl Orff's Carmina Burana on a cassette tape for me. After he left, I spent until the dawn of daylight playing it (on a low volume despite temptation and having imbibed copious quantities of pretty good wine) on the tape/radio/CD player in the kitchen.

 

[eyoungren]

I do not miss the mix tape.

I do not miss the DJs talking over the beginning of songs. I still do not miss that. Back then I'm sure it was partly a copyright thing and they deliberately did that to mess you up. Now, IDK.

But if they messed you up back then, the waiting for the next time was awful.

 

[macsound1]

People also used to smoke a lot more.


But honestly, I think this is a proven cause of stress. People used to truly unplug.
If they sat in the yard listening to music, mowing the lawn, or just on a walk around the mall, they didn’t have to worry about people constantly pestering them.
Think about your family and friends calling and texting now. Now think of Seinfeld.
If you weren’t home, it didn’t matter who wanted to say what to. They had to wait.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

People also used to smoke a lot more.


But honestly, I think this is a proven cause of stress. People used to truly unplug.
If they sat in the yard listening to music, mowing the lawn, or just on a walk around the mall, they didn’t have to worry about people constantly pestering them.
Think about your family and friends calling and texting now. Now think of Seinfeld.
If you weren’t home, it didn’t matter who wanted to say what to. They had to wait.

And that was one of the biggest advantages of those days; you could legitimately 'switch off', or, "unplug" as you so rightly say, which was wonderful.

Personally, I think that it is something we would do well to try to regain, waiting and having others wait. As I observed earlier in this thread, people had a different (and I would argue, better, in some ways) relationship to time.

In my own case, increasingly, these days, when heading out, I leave my phone at home, which means that I cannot be reached, until after my return, which is sheer bliss.

 

[eyoungren]

And that was one of the biggest advantages of those days; you could legitimately 'switch off', or, "unplug" as you so rightly say, which was wonderful.

Personally, I think that it is something we would do well to try to regain, waiting and having others wait. As I observed earlier in this thread, people had a different (and I would argue, better, in some ways) relationship to time.

In my own case, increasingly, these days, when heading out, I leave my phone at home, which means that I cannot be reached, until after my return, which is sheer bliss.

I hear a lot about this, as well as 'distraction-free' environments, etc. It just isn't me.

From 1985, when I discovered the world out there at my keyboard, I've always made efforts to be plugged in. I grew up rural, my friends were 30 minutes away and the neighbor kids I didn't go to school with. So I didn't know them.

My dad was an eternal homebody so getting him to go anywhere (or take us anywhere) was almost impossible. Want to hang out with friends on the weekend? A 30 minute drive and rural has nothing to offer city kids. I want to be at the mall, where my friends are. Not happening.

I'm a loner (so is my wife) and I value my solitude. But I stay plugged in. I just pick and choose what I will or will not respond to.

 

[laptech]

Biggest advantage of pre-internet in my opinion was the ability to switch off at the end of the day. There was none of this 24/7 being reachable, if someone wanted something or needed to discuss something, it was always done the next day, very very rarely was calls made to the home landline. It taught people how to man-manage their time which resulted in people learning how to structure their lives. There was never 24hr shop openings, they all closed around 8pm. Off licenses (shops that sold alcohol) and video rental shops were the only ones that stayed open until 10pm which where you would find EVERY shop/retail store had closed. There was no shop openings on Sundays. The only shop that was open was the local newsagents so people could purchase their Sunday paper and even these shops closed at 11am. If you wanted to see friends/family/schoolmates, you either walked to their house or you caught the bus/train. Curfews was always around 10pm, meaning no cars on the road or people out and about, it would be dead silent. I don't mean obligatory curfews, it was just something that was done. Parent's would tell their children to be back home before 10pm, parents working 9-5 jobs went to bed around 10pm-11pm so they be refreshed for the next working day, hence why everything was quiet around 10pm. Shift work was the purview of very very few industries as nearly everything was 9 to 5. This allowed for good quality of family life because everyday the family was together in the evening, doing family things. No children stayed in their rooms to do their own thing, they mixed in with the family. Parents would engage with their children, helping them with homework, craft studies, playing board games or watching TV programs together.

In my opinion, only those who wanted to bored were bored because there was just too much that children and parents could do pre-internet days BUT you had to want to do it. Pre-internet life was a great life.

Edit: I forgot to add, going to the cinema was a huge social thing pre-internet, for adults, teenagers and children and it was always done on a Saturday because get this, cinema's rarely opened midweek because they knew the importance of children needing to be refreshed for school the next day and for adults to be refreshed for work the next day, yes cinema bosses having a conscience about affecting the lives of children and adults lol.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

@eyoungren: I love the fact that the world is at my finger-tips, as well; when I was a student and post grad, if you wished to research, you spent days, weeks, years (as I did) in libraries, or archives, and I loved that. You had to travel - plan ahead - to spend time with the material that you wished to consult, or study, and the libraries and archives had hours when they were open, and hours when they were closed.

However, during lockdown, I developed a fresh - and fervent - appreciation for the fact that so much information, written material, and other stuff was and is available as a result of requests that I type on my computer's keyboard; this is not just wonderful, but transformational. It is amazing and I love it.

The connectivity of the modern age is a marvel.

Nevertheless, when working, - seriously working, the sort of writing that requires serious thought - as I have written in another thread, - I prefer both silence and solitude.

However, - and here I am entirely in agreement with @laptech - the fact that (now) you can be contacted 24/7 doesn't mean that you should be contacted 24/7.

People (boss class, friends and families) need to learn that it is perfectly alright that those with whom they work, live, or are friendly with, can feel free to draw boundaries, in both their personal and professional lives, and that it is acceptable to insist on privacy, personal space, and the right to switch off, to unplug, and to be uncontactable at times.

Personally, I think that the French have the right idea, and that the private space is the private space and personal sphere; work - and professional commitments - should not intrude - ever - unless it is a genuine emergency.

 

[macsound1]

Biggest advantage of pre-internet in my opinion was the ability to switch off at the end of the day. There was none of this 24/7 being reachable, if someone wanted something or needed to discuss something, it was always done the next day, very very rarely was calls made to the home landline. It taught people how to man-manage their time which resulted in people learning how to structure their lives. There was never 24hr shop openings, they all closed around 8pm. Off licenses (shops that sold alcohol) and video rental shops were the only ones that stayed open until 10pm which where you would find EVERY shop/retail store had closed. There was no shop openings on Sundays. The only shop that was open was the local newsagents so people could purchase their Sunday paper and even these shops closed at 11am. If you wanted to see friends/family/schoolmates, you either walked to their house or you caught the bus/train. Curfews was always around 10pm, meaning no cars on the road or people out and about, it would be dead silent. I don't mean obligatory curfews, it was just something that was done. Parent's would tell their children to be back home before 10pm, parents working 9-5 jobs went to bed around 10pm-11pm so they be refreshed for the next working day, hence why everything was quiet around 10pm. Shift work was the purview of very very few industries as nearly everything was 9 to 5. This allowed for good quality of family life because everyday the family was together in the evening, doing family things. No children stayed in their rooms to do their own thing, they mixed in with the family. Parents would engage with their children, helping them with homework, craft studies, playing board games or watching TV programs together.

In my opinion, only those who wanted to bored were bored because there was just too much that children and parents could do pre-internet days BUT you had to want to do it. Pre-internet life was a great life.

Edit: I forgot to add, going to the cinema was a huge social thing pre-internet, for adults, teenagers and children and it was always done on a Saturday because get this, cinema's rarely opened midweek because they knew the importance of children needing to be refreshed for school the next day and for adults to be refreshed for work the next day, yes cinema bosses having a conscience about affecting the lives of children and adults lol.

To be fair, I went to Target last Friday night around 8:30. It was very obviously where teenagers hang out. Just aimlessly wandering around in groups of 6 or so. Doing absolutely nothing.

 

[laptech]

.......

However, - and here I am entirely in agreement with @laptech - the fact that (now) you can be contacted 24/7 doesn't mean that you should be contacted 24/7.

People (boss class, friends and families) need to learn that it is perfectly alright that those with whom they work, live, or are friendly with, can feel free to draw boundaries, in both their personal and professional lives, and that it is acceptable to insist on privacy, personal space, and the right to switch off, to unplug, and to be uncontactable at times.

Personally, I think that the French have the right idea, and that the private space is the private space and personal sphere; work - and professional commitments - should not intrude - ever - unless it is a genuine emergency.

You get to know today's post-internet society is screwed up when you have governments planning to introduce a 'right to switch off' law to prevent employers from contacting their employee's when ever they want due to todays technology that allows employers to do that. How messed up is that? Even the notion that employers think and feel they have the right to contact their employee 24/7 is messed up. Never in a million years pre-internet day would that have happened unless it was an absolute mega dire emergency.

This thread has had me thinking of those pre-internet days and I can tell you another one of the big things that was way way better than today is people's attitudes and behavior, especially around language and communication. Foul language was never a thing. Parents did not tolerate it, schools, colleges and universities did not tolerate and neither did employers. If people wanted to communicate wit others, they either sat down and wrote letters or spoken to them on the phone. There was none of this tap tap tap of instant messaging or email where people have appeared to have lost the art of how to talk to others. Also, people were never scared, frightened, depressed, nervous or anxious as much as they are today brought on by all the amount of rubbish information that is available to them at the touch of a button. Anyone can write anything they want be it good or bad and is out there for all to see which does affect and poison the minds of others. People start to think that they are better than others, they start thinking rules no longer apply to them, they start thinking that they have the right to do as they wish all because of things they have read on the internet. Too much information and influence the minds of others and it has done so. We had none of this pre-internet because the only information flows we had was wat was written in the tabloid papers and what we saw on news broadcasts on the TV. Which brings me to another point, the quality of journalism has dropped immensely since pre-internet because back then journalists/reports had to put a lot of effort and time into find good quality news. They had to go out and find the news. Now with the internet all they have to do is sit at home or in their office and wait for the news to come to them (Twitter, Facebook,Tiktok and Instagram) and it's not good quality news either.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

You get to know today's post-internet society is screwed up when you have governments planning to introduce a 'right to switch off' law to prevent employers from contacting their employee's when ever they want due to todays technology that allows employers to do that. How messed up is that? Even the notion that employers think and feel they have the right to contact their employee 24/7 is messed up. Never in a million years pre-internet day would that have happened unless it was an absolute mega dire emergency.

This thread has had me thinking of those pre-internet days and I can tell you another one of the big things that was way way better than today is people's attitudes and behavior, especially around language and communication. Foul language was never a thing. Parents did not tolerate it, schools, colleges and universities did not tolerate and neither did employers. If people wanted to communicate wit others, they either sat down and wrote letters or spoken to them on the phone. There was none of this tap tap tap of instant messaging or email where people have appeared to have lost the art of how to talk to others. Also, people were never scared, frightened, depressed, nervous or anxious as much as they are today brought on by all the amount of rubbish information that is available to them at the touch of a button. Anyone can write anything they want be it good or bad and is out there for all to see which does affect and poison the minds of others. People start to think that they are better than others, they start thinking rules no longer apply to them, they start thinking that they have the right to do as they wish all because of things they have read on the internet. Too much information and influence the minds of others and it has done so. We had none of this pre-internet because the only information flows we had was wat was written in the tabloid papers and what we saw on news broadcasts on the TV. Which brings me to another point, the quality of journalism has dropped immensely since pre-internet because back then journalists/reports had to put a lot of effort and time into find good quality news. They had to go out and find the news. Now with the internet all they have to do is sit at home or in their office and wait for the news to come to them (Twitter, Facebook,Tiktok and Instagram) and it's not good quality news either.

Agree with what you have written to a large extent.

However, re papers, (pre-internet), two thoughts occur: Not everyone bought tabloids; my family - my mother insisted on it - always bought the 'serious' broadsheets, on a daily basis.

More to the point re the "drop in quality", or, decline in standards in newsrooms (even in the quality broadsheets).

To my mind, this is less due to laziness (news at a click, which you mention, sitting at home or your office) - or, rather, it is due to costs (serious newspapers shedding the foreign correspondents and actual reporters who researched stories, or, were in place when something happened, and knew the country sufficiently well to be able to provide context when filing stories) and desire for profits every bit as much as laziness or complacency.

Most newspapers (including the quality broadsheets) have slashed newsroom staff, and their associated costs, and - instead - boosted 'opinion' pieces, and specialist sections.

Agree, also, about the (loss, or decline in) art of communication and conversation, both spoken or written.

 

[eyoungren]

Nevertheless, when working, - seriously working, the sort of writing that requires serious thought - as I have written in another thread, - I prefer both silence and solitude.

However, - and here I am entirely in agreement with @laptech - the fact that (now) you can be contacted 24/7 doesn't mean that you should be contacted 24/7.

People (boss class, friends and families) need to learn that it is perfectly alright that those with whom they work, live, or are friendly with, can feel free to draw boundaries, in both their personal and professional lives, and that it is acceptable to insist on privacy, personal space, and the right to switch off, to unplug, and to be uncontactable at times.

Personally, I think that the French have the right idea, and that the private space is the private space and personal sphere; work - and professional commitments - should not intrude - ever - unless it is a genuine emergency.

Everybody is different. I need to know that life is going on around me, at least at a subconscious level. If I don't have that my brain starts going to places of loneliness and despair because I'm not 'connected'.

I get my best work done 'feeding off' the energy that is life happening around me. But I do hate interruptions, which is why I simply just ignore my tech devices. For me, knowing, but choosing whether I will respond or not allows me to remain connected but distant.

Again, everybody is different. This is just how I function.

 

[JamesMay82]

what a great post!

I was born in 82 but weirdly only have core memories of the 90's.

My Childhood was a mix of video games & playing outside with either going fishing with friends on our local lakes or building mini ramps to jump bikes from.

In the early 2000's in my 20's it was just all about going out to bars meeting friends/future wives and I think that's where things have changed. We didn't have social media so we didn't know what each other had been doing in the week or since we last saw each other. So when we met up at the bar it was to catch up where as now I don't think people have anything to say to each other because they've been following them all week on social media and don't have anything new to talk about.

Flash forward to now as a family man and its just sad as I find we are all just buried in our gadgets. I recently went out to a restaurant and a family of 4 sat down and they were all just sat on their phones not even speaking to each other for the first 5 mins. We aren't that bad but we probably aren't that far behind them :-(

 

[Scepticalscribe]

what a great post!

I was born in 82 but weirdly only have core memories of the 90's.

My Childhood was a mix of video games & playing outside with either going fishing with friends on our local lakes or building mini ramps to jump bikes from.

In the early 2000's in my 20's it was just all about going out to bars meeting friends/future wives and I think that's where things have changed. We didn't have social media so we didn't know what each other had been doing in the week or since we last saw each other. So when we met up at the bar it was to catch up where as now I don't think people have anything to say to each other because they've been following them all week on social media and don't have anything new to talk about.

Flash forward to now as a family man and its just sad as I find we are all just buried in our gadgets. I recently went out to a restaurant and a family of 4 sat down and they were all just sat on their phones not even speaking to each other for the first 5 mins. We aren't that bad but we probably aren't that far behind them :-(

When I was a child, my mother had a strict rule (which I subsequently followed) that no TV was allowed in the kitchen, - she refused to have one installed in the kitchen - and nobody was allowed to leave the table to watch TV, they had to first finish their meal, and then politely excuse themselves if they wished to watch TV in the living room; dinner was family time, a space for exchanging news and discussing stuff, (books, politics, sport, school, work, music, food, travel, history, etc) and for thrashing things out.

Personally, when dining, I would insist on mobiles/cell phones not being consulted (or answered) during meals; let people leave the room should they wish to take, or make, a call. Otherwise, it is incredibly rude, and defeats the point of face to face communication.

While many people are of the opinion that they can multi-task, in truth, not many can manage to do so as easily or as effortlessly as they may think.

 

[trebor53c]

Feeling very old now! Lol. Okay well I grew up in the 80s here in the UK. During the 80s I remember reading a lot, sitting watching TV with my family in the evenings in the living room (we only had one TV and only 4 TV channels but there always seemed enough to watch!). We also spent a lot of time outdoors, in all weathers, and as a result there was no overweight kids in those days because we were always active and our mothers made good food from natural ingredients! School of course took up a lot of our time.

I left school in 1990 and I started work. Usually I was too tired after work to do much except watch a couple of things on TV. Things became a little more exciting in 1992 when because I was working I could afford cable TV, that was something very new and it was actually quality TV not the mostly trash you find on all these stations these days. I also bought a shortwave radio which let me listen to news stations from all over the world, something we didn't have in the UK at that time. It was actually through the radio that I started to hear about this new thing called the internet. So I saved up and bought my very first computer in 1996 and connected it to the internet. Because here we were charged by the minute to use the phone line usage was limited at the beginning but I was hooked instantly and the rest was history but pre-internet times I remember as an innocent and far from boring time, in fact I really miss those days but probably wouldn't go back knowing what we have in today's world.

 

[Mousse]

When I was a child, my mother had a strict rule (which I subsequently followed) that no TV was allowed in the kitchen, - she refused to have one installed in the kitchen - and nobody was allowed to leave the table to watch TV, they had to first finish their meal, and then politely excuse themselves if they wished to watch TV in the living room;

TV time wasn't all that great when I was growing up. We only had a only 5 channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and Fox), unlike the hundreds of OTA channels and streaming channels we have today.

While many people are of the opinion that they can multi-task, in truth, not many can manage to do so as easily or as effortlessly as they may think.

Not me. I'm a one task guy. This is why I blow up on people if they interrupt me in the middle of doing something. The Missus knows how I work, so anything she want me to do gets written on my to-do list. If I need to get a buttload of stuff done, queue 'em up and I tackled them one at a time.

Other than walk and chew gum at the same time, I cannot multi-task. I'm DOS 3.3, classic MacOS 4.😓

 

[Scepticalscribe]

TV time wasn't all that great when I was growing up. We only had a only 5 channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and Fox), unlike the hundreds of OTA channels and streaming channels we have today.

Not me. I'm a one task guy. This is why I blow up on people if they interrupt me in the middle of doing something. The Missus knows how I work, so anything she want me to do gets written on my to-do list. If I need to get a buttload of stuff done, queue 'em up and I tackled them one at a time.

Other than walk and chew gum at the same time, I cannot multi-task. I'm DOS 3.3, classic MacOS 4.😓

Brilliant, bravo, and well said.

 

[padams35]

Guess I'm one of the young guys here. First half of my childhood was dial-up internet. So the internet was a thing, but it wasn't yet a time sink.

Kids:
> Read (Remember library card catalogs?)
> Epic lego projects.
> Played outside (neighborhood wide games of flashlight tag, hide-and-seak, acorn wars, etc)
> Console games
> Offline computer games (Mathblaster, Oregon Trail, Civ-II, etc)
> TV (VHS mostly.)

Adults:
> Read (Magazines were popular. They seemed to have less time than kids for library novels)
> TV (sports mostly)
> Craft hobby (eg Model rocketry)
> Gardening

Family activities:
> Card games
> Pre-euro boardgames (Life, Parcheesi, Pente, Risk, etc)


Oh, and adults who needed to be contacted 24/7 had pagers.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Guess I'm one of the young guys here. First half of my childhood was dial-up internet. So the internet was a thing, but it wasn't yet a time sink.

Kids:
> Read (Remember library card catalogs?)
> Epic lego projects.
> Played outside (neighborhood wide games of flashlight tag, hide-and-seak, acorn wars, etc)
> Console games
> Offline computer games (Mathblaster, Oregon Trail, Civ-II, etc)
> TV (VHS mostly.)

Adults:
> Read (Magazines were popular. They seemed to have less time than kids for library novels)
> TV (sports mostly)
> Craft hobby (eg Model rocketry)
> Gardening

Family activities:
> Card games
> Pre-euro boardgames (Life, Parcheesi, Pente, Risk, etc)


Oh, and adults who needed to be contacted 24/7 had pagers.

Pagers?

Wow.

Now, that brings back memories - I had forgotten all about that form of technology - (yes, my father used them on occasion).