question for the older folks- life before internet

[mouseteeth]

What was the general quality of life like, back before the internet?
I was born in 1990. I have very vivid memories of life before my family had a computer in our home, but I can also say in a way that I grew up with the internet, having used it since around 1999, when I was 9 years old. However, the internet was also a very different environment back then and is ever changing today.
I feel like the internet is a double edged sword. You can meet and connect with people you otherwise never would, but at the same time, you miss out on the real world.
I'm finding myself very nostalgic lately for the past, and I don't know if it's because times were truly better, or if they just seemed that way because I was young and carefree.
Either way ctb asap seems more appealing every day. Honestly, I am deeply afraid of growing old.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

I was born in 71. Life was different. We had to use maps. We used travel agencies or mailed off for travel brochures. We had telephone books. We had encyclopedias, and every year we could buy updated volumes to add to them. We had to go to the library to research things and to borrow books. We went to video rental stores. We had cookbooks. Television shows ran for a season, then TV was reruns and other shit for the summer until the next season started in the fall, and we had to wait all summer to find out the resolution to the cliffhanger at the end of the previous season. We sent letters. In school, we passed notes. We talked on the phone. We looked for jobs in the classified section of the newspaper. We had the newspaper delivered, some folks daily, some twice a day, some only on Sundays, especially for the coupons and the classifieds. We had to physically go to a store to buy anything, and go from store to store to compare items and prices. We listened to records and then 8-tracks and then cassettes and then CDs. We played board games and card games. We had to go to the bank to deposit paychecks. We paid for most things with cash or checks. We had typewriters. Instead of Nigerian prince email scams people sent creepy chain letters. If we got stranded somewhere in our cars, we had to walk to a gas station if it was possible, and if not, to wave someone down and hope they weren't creepy. We carried bus and train schedules. Our information about the world came from watching TV local TV news at 6 am, 5 pm and 10 pm, and national news at 7 am and 6 pm, as well as newspapers and magazines. Yes, this stuff could all be tedious and inconvenient, but we weren't bored like people are now. Our days were full of shit we had to physically do. We had to interact with other people. There wasn't an obesity epidemic that started with video games but really kicked into gear with PlayStation and the Internet.

 

[Belit667]

It was ok. No Internet, no cell-phones. Life was simpler.

 

[Good4Nothing]

Life was better then. We had privacy and freedom. I feel like I'm living in Orwell's 1984 now.
I was born in '72.

 

[Throwawaysoul]

Before the internet we spontaneously did stuff to do stuff and not for internet cred and photo ops. We also committed crimes without dry snitching on ourselves for internet cred. When we found a way to get free stuff or sneak into someplace we kept that shit a secret and didn't make videos teaching the world how to do it. It was awesome.

I love that brief time when the internet was young not every idiot had it.

 

[so tired or manic]

I can relate to just about everything here. born in 89, but I can remember using encyclopedias and phone books and walking everywhere. I remember when social media was more like how here functions and less like Facebook. I was outside a lot as a kid. I don't have any solid memories, just fractions, so it's hard to say just how different things were.

 

[Funkymonks]

I was born in 71. Life was different. We had to use maps. We used travel agencies or mailed off for travel brochures. We had telephone books. We had encyclopedias, and every year we could buy updated volumes to add to them. We had to go to the library to research things and to borrow books. We went to video rental stores. We had cookbooks. Television shows ran for a season, then TV was reruns and other shit for the summer until the next season started in the fall, and we had to wait all summer to find out the resolution to the cliffhanger at the end of the previous season. We sent letters. In school, we passed notes. We talked on the phone. We looked for jobs in the classified section of the newspaper. We had the newspaper delivered, some folks daily, some twice a day, some only on Sundays, especially for the coupons and the classifieds. We had to physically go to a store to buy anything, and go from store to store to compare items and prices. We listened to records and then 8-tracks and then cassettes and then CDs. We played board games and card games. We had to go to the bank to deposit paychecks. We paid for most things with cash or checks. We had typewriters. Instead of Nigerian prince email scams people sent creepy chain letters. If we got stranded somewhere in our cars, we had to walk to a gas station if it was possible, and if not, to wave someone down and hope they weren't creepy. We carried bus and train schedules. Our information about the world came from watching TV local TV news at 6 am, 5 pm and 10 pm, and national news at 7 am and 6 pm, as well as newspapers and magazines. Yes, this stuff could all be tedious and inconvenient, but we weren't bored like people are now. Our days were full of shit we had to physically do. We had to interact with other people. There wasn't an obesity epidemic that started with video games but really kicked into gear with PlayStation and the Internet.

All of the above!!
We had to be home when the street lights came on and we were out all day everyday.

 

[Deleted member 25174]

Going to the library in the little village where I grew up, having to travel miles to endlessly be searching the microfilms day in day out to get info for my degree. Phone boxes, waiting for hours on end outside the cinema because you just had to trust that whoever you were meeting would turn up and having public transport that was so bad you had to wait hours because that's when the bus home was due..........

 

[Deleted member 18655]

I was born in the early 70s too. This thread makes me feel old haha!

I used to run home after primary school to watch videos. They were new then and I did nothing but listen music and watch videos. That was my spare time. I spent my years of high school in the Library. I was a nerd and loved being surrounded by books and information.

I think we were a lot more patient and more human then. We couldn't Google for answers and nothing was really instant. We didn't need things "right away." We used our brains and instinct and memory to do things like travel with maps, remember dates or gain knowledge.

It was stressful - I don't think any generation has been without stress and struggle - but I don't think our stress compares with threats like cyber bullying. I don't think I would survive being a Millenial. There's too much, too fast and too vile.

 

[DocNo]

being born in the early 70ies i also lived in the pre internet time.

like everything in life - dualism sucks. ^^ seems you can't have anything good with also getting some shit.
but sometimes i think it's in the human nature to turn everything to shit. maybe no surprise on a forum like this ^^

 

[Weary Soul]

Ha - I think I may be one of the oldest here - I was born in the mid to late 60's.

Life was very, very different. It was like living in very small fishpond at the mercy of all of the sharks around me. My mother was a puritan/princess wannabe and my father was a preacher wannabe - ironic in both cases because both were extremely abusive.

Drugs were legal and could be purchased in a store without a prescription (what now comprises the FDA/DEA, etc.. was in its infancy).

Back then, there was no such thing as child protective services, everyone went to church, and bullying was done as much by adults as kids.

You ate what was put on the table and wore what was given to you (at least in my home). There were no cell phones/computers/electronic games - there were land lines (without caller ID O.O), typewriters and calculators, and board games.

We spent a lot more time outdoors than kids do today.

I really wish I had been born in a later era - I think that while the internet can be a curse, it can also be a blessing - there is so much knowledge at your fingertips.

I do think school is much more difficult today, and it is much more difficult for those starting out in life today.