What did you older people do before the internet ?

[Emilia]

Hi,I'm 13,I have always had the internet,Im trying to imagine if there was no internet.What did you older people do before the internet ? I do stuff other than using the internet,but i cant imagine what it was like,when there was no internet.

 

[shattered dreams]

I am 43, and I did not start using the internet until 2004. If you did not have an active social life, it was very boring. Now, since I have no life at all, I sit on the internet all night and sleep all day. If there was no more internet, I would ctb immediately since all I could do is stare at the ceiling.

 

[Luke]

I'm 37. No internet till I was 15. But that was different than your concept of "the internet". It wasn't till about 2004-2005 then it became similar to what it is today.

So the answer is lots of booze and sex basically. If not that then singleplayer games, later meeting up in person and playing on local network. Not much else really.

It was not boring because we didn't know any better. It was normal to meet up.

We started drinking and fucking around the age of 14. Mind you I'm talking about Eastern Europe 20+ years ago. So there was no age limit to drinking, the unofficial lower thresold in pubs was around 13-14 IIRC. Generally life was more lax. I couldn't imagine being a kid in today's America for example with all that laws and regulations.

Also i'm just as puzzled as you about what did people now in their 50s do when they were my age.

 

[agreement]

I'm 50, we used to ride dinosaurs...

Yabba Dabba Doo!!!

 

[Emilia]

I'm 50, we used to ride dinosaurs...

Yabba Dabba Doo!!!

You made me laugh tx

 

[typx]

I'm 34 now and for the internet in the very early 2000s. I read a lot and played a lot of single player video games. I spent a lot of time at a cabin that had no electricity and I read A LOT out there. Mostly King and Star Wars. They didn't call it escapist literature for nothing!

 

[typx]

What are the odds of being born during the advent of the biggest game changer in human history?

 

[Volatile]

Social media is a scourge

 

[typx]

Social media is a scourge

Yeah, the internet was a lot more reasonable before it. That, and the virulent comment section. I miss waiting 30 minutes to download a Star Wars sound effect .wav file.

 

[ScaredOfLife]

I'm 40, in the United States. I started using the Internet in the 90s when we had dial-up Internet, and had to use the phone line to access the web. Before that, I did a lot of reading or playing video games. (Atari and Nintendo were the video game consoles during that time that I heavily used.) I was a girl who loved her video games!

 

[Volatile]

Laid in the fetal position

 

[El Topo]

We went outside and hung out with friends in the real world. lol

 

[Volatile]

We went outside and hung out with friends in the real world. lol

What are friends?

 

[Justanotherconsumer]

As youngsters we would stay outside or at anothers house untill it got dark. Ride bikes,bigwheels, go rafting in the river, walk to grandmas house. Kids had alot of freedom, was in a smaller town in oregon, crime was virtually non existant, even if we went for a weekend the parents wouldent lock the door. Tv always had new movies to watch every week, boxing ect. Anything that is now pay per view was on regular tv. People were more innocent and nieve, people went to church and actually believed it,and you were going to heaven when you died. Dads worked, moms stayed home, everything was easier, background checks dident exist for most jobs.

 

[Life sucks]

It was very ugly for me. Internet was a life changer for me. I loved technology, anime and games and without internet the access was limited.

Also I love to read and get information, before it was hard to find information and reading was boring and less accessible. People will say lies and rumors and nobody can confront it, now one can search and expose lies.

Without internet, people previously were more deluded with life and many misleading ideas within it. Now when we search we can find info and if someone thinks he will not be deluded by the misleading ideas.


As for how it is, if someone isn't social, it was very boring and limited. Basically, the flow of information and communication is harder and limited so what one can do quickly now is much slower (and boring) before

 

[thetwilightzone]

The thing is though, I sort of envy you guys. Although the advent of social media has improved my generation, you guys had much less stringest laws/regulations when it came to air travel, buying drugs etc and more importantly, easier to get any job along with credit...

If you see my post on this subforum about things that have gotten worse for the youth, it seems that all started after 9/11 when draconian laws pervaded every aspect of our lives.

I wouldn't have minded being my age in 1998, 20 years ago in Ireland. Although this place is a restrictive shit-hole, you could have bought opiods OTC, doctors were open with prescribing benzos like candy, air travel was as much of a hassle as going to the museum with security. Now things have changed. The world is fucked up.

 

[Sternum]

Life felt more real to me before the internet. I remember when I first started using a computer, windows 95, I would mess around with the settings and sometimes spend a few hours trying to get a word program do format how I wanted or playing the stock solitaire game or trying to get the dial-up connected then waiting 5 minutes for a picture of a tree to download then being amazed once it did. But, after a few hours, I would feel antsy, and angsty, and a little crazy, like I had all this pent up energy that was stuck inside me that I had to get out. I sort of felt like I had been in a trance like a prisoner, unable to move for the last few hours and I needed to escape. I would go outside or talk to someone and feel better, but I wouldn't feel really refreshed until I slept that feeling off for the night, then I would feel back to normal in the morning. This sounds weird, I suspect, but it really was how I felt. Now I have become such a permanent prisoner to using forums for communication and distractions in 5-minute pieces (games, forum threads, reddit gifs and clever contests, YouTube videos, etc.) that I don't even think about about getting a 'reset' by sleeping it off or going outside anymore. I just want the next 5-minute attention fix. It's a drug, and I think it's going to only get worse with social media for the next few decades. Who knows where it will lead, but I'll be long gone by then so I don't care.

 

[Luke]

Now I suddenly remember all my fuckups in the 90s.

 

[Emilia]

Laid in the fetal position

 

[Vvcv]

Videogames and real life friends. That was way back then when I socialized, I still remember not having a decent PC to play because everything was still in development, that's part of the past. Nowadays I wish I was born in 2050 or something like that, I would have many games to play and I wouldn't be bored.

 

[Life sucks]

Videogames and real life friends. That was way back then when I socialized, I still remember not having a decent PC to play because everything was still in development, that's part of the past. Nowadays I wish I was born in 2050 or something like that, I would have many games to play and I wouldn't be bored.

I think if you are open to genres and/or older games, you'll find many.
I have a big list of anime and games and I'm sure it will not end and I play some online games so it absorbs time. But I barely do anything anymore because of anxiety, pain and other countless problems. Now I want to ctb.
If I lived in other circumstances, maybe I'll play until I die.

I'm sure you can find more and more currently, I personally the opposite and think there are many for me and maybe I can't play them all in this finite life.

 

[Mizule]

For phones we used tin cans and string.

 

[Justanotherconsumer]

Sat around in caves grunting and groaning till the person next to you understood what you wanted, no cities or towns or roads or dams, fish were so plentiful you could just reach in and pull out a handful, there were fruit and nut trees growing everywhere, grapes, blackberry's. Marijuana was as common as trees. There were a lot of bats and dragonflies and birds everywhere, which kept pests like mosquito and flies at Bay. Deer far outnumbered people, grizzly bears and wolves would come and lay down by your side at night. The whole of nature was like your pets and had no fear of man. Most of your time was spent in nature by boat or horse, people would often wander for months at a time in small groups exploring nature they had never seen before. It wasn't necessary to hunt, a cougar or bear would always leave a half eaten carcass, you merely looked up for the turkey vultures. Now we have this, and people ask why do you want to die.

 

[Volatile]

Sat around in caves grunting and groaning till the person next to you understood what you wanted, no cities or towns or roads or dams, fish were so plentiful you could just reach in and pull out a handful, there were fruit and nut trees growing everywhere, grapes, blackberry's. Marijuana was as common as trees. There were a lot of bats and dragonflies and birds everywhere, which kept pests like mosquito and flies at Bay. Deer far outnumbered people, grizzly bears and wolves would come and lay down by your side at night. The whole of nature was like your pets and had no fear of man. Most of your time was spent in nature by boat or horse, people would often wander for months at a time in small groups exploring nature they had never seen before. It wasn't necessary to hunt, a cougar or bear would always leave a half eaten carcass, you merely looked up for the turkey vultures. Now we have this, and people ask why do you want to die.

That really puts things in perspective.

 

[sadak_the_wanderer]

I read quite a bit during that time, only it was books instead of screens. I was fairly into computers before the Internet really started to take off (which is really when web browsers that supported the image tag came to be). You had to learn to entertain yourself as a kid, whether that meant going to the library or exploring the woods. The pre-social-media internet was nicer, because you spent time developing relationships online, rather than acquiring likes or trying to go "viral" or whatever.

Extraversion has changed the character of the Internet in a way for which I do not care. Now it seems a mechanism for distraction and popularity.

 

[millefeui]

I got my first computer in 2014, when I was 13. Before that I would mostly watch TV, play video games (Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Play Station/2) and play more games on arcades. After I got my first computer, my life was basically play MMORPGs all day when I wasn't on school. I played Ragnarok Online so much.

 

[Sternum]

Sat around in caves grunting and groaning till the person next to you understood what you wanted, no cities or towns or roads or dams, fish were so plentiful you could just reach in and pull out a handful, there were fruit and nut trees growing everywhere, grapes, blackberry's. Marijuana was as common as trees. There were a lot of bats and dragonflies and birds everywhere, which kept pests like mosquito and flies at Bay. Deer far outnumbered people, grizzly bears and wolves would come and lay down by your side at night. The whole of nature was like your pets and had no fear of man. Most of your time was spent in nature by boat or horse, people would often wander for months at a time in small groups exploring nature they had never seen before. It wasn't necessary to hunt, a cougar or bear would always leave a half eaten carcass, you merely looked up for the turkey vultures. Now we have this, and people ask why do you want to die.

This so funny, I love it

 

[KCN]

I used to be blissfully unaware about how much people are willing to lie to themselves in order to believe any kind of stupidity.

I miss the early era of the Internet, where websites were mostly well-thought, the contents more serious and pranks were treated as such. Now it's a f'n mess. Social media ruined almost everything.

I wish there was a people-free zone on the Internet.

This aside, I used to enjoy electronic games, reading, watching movie and stuff. Which is pretty much the same I do today.

 

[Deleted_9cKnXB34QG]

I got my laptop and access to the internet in 2007, I was like 15 y/o.
Before that I was just watching TV, listening to the radio and music on cassettes/CDs, reading books and newspapers but most importantly - playing outside. Alone or with my friends, going for long walks almost every day, doing some work in the garden and taking care of our farm animals. Also hanging out with my grandparents and their friends.

I kinda miss that, everything was so simple. And my grandpa was still alive. Eh... ;x

 

[stellabelle]

Read the newspaper, live in the moment, interact with their families, learn hobbies, maintain the household, work, shop, cook, and a variety of other activities.