What was life like for you before the Internet?

[C.E. Evans]

I watched actual TV, something I really don't do anymore since I stream everything.

A lot of entertainment and personal interest articles I used to read in weekly or monthly magazines and now I read on a daily basis online.

I used to pay bills and order stuff from catalogs through snail mail, which required me to physically send a check or money order in envelopes with postage stamps. With a few stokes of a button, I can now do the same things instantaneously.

Other than those, not much else has changed. i don't go out nowhere near as much as I used to, but that has less to do with the internet and more to do with getting older and not really feeling the burning need to be out on the streets continuously. One could say, however, that having the internet enables me more time to stay home at chill as I can do many things online now.

 

[HIjol]

Read
Wrote with an actual pencil and paper
TV, of course
Spoke (like, with lips and words and voice and stuff) with friends and family
Took drives out there in the actual world

 

[Alexander Corrino]

I watched a lot of TV and read a lot of magazines to keep up with what was going on in the world of boy bands and music in general. (I was way more interested in music because things just seemed more special somehow when something new appeared.) I hung out with friends and no phones interrupted anything unless it was the landline but we always ignored that one, especially after having seen Scream

 

[Kraig]

Watched antenna TV until the 1980's, then got a C-band (large) satellite dish in the mid 1980s, followed by Dish Network in 2001 (that I still use). I'm in a rural area with fixed wireless internet. Max speeds are less than 1Mb/sec download. I can't do a lot of streaming.
I have always read a lot of physical books, currently reading the James S.A. Corey Expanse books. In short, it hasn't changed a lot because there isn't real high speed internet in my area.

 

[publiusr]

I think I was happier in some ways.
I wish I could take today’s tech back in time.

What I missed most was 3 months of summer vacation—and letting my mind wander.

More things seemed possible then.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I think I was happier in some ways.
I wish I could take today’s tech back in time.

What I missed most was 3 months of summer vacation—and letting my mind wander.

More things seemed possible then.

I am much happier.


I still have a 4G phone but its a modern flip phone

I still have my smartphone but that stays in my bag used like a tablet with wifi only.

Happy without all the app distractions unless I want them

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There was life before the Internet?

I still have a 4G phone but its a modern flip phone

I still have my smartphone but that stays in my bag used like a tablet with wifi only.

I used to have one of those really old "brick" cellphones.

My parents were hosting a party and my dad strongly hinted that I should seek other entertainment options for the evening. So he gave me the phone, and I decided to go to a movie.

I'm sitting in the theater lobby and the phone goes off. And EVERYBODY in that lobby just stopped cold, like in those old E.F. Hutton commercials. They were like "What...the....FUCK?"

Hey, it was 1986.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

There was life before the Internet?



I used to have one of those really old "brick" cellphones.

My parents were hosting a party and my dad strongly hinted that I should seek other entertainment options for the evening. So he gave me the phone, and I decided to go to a movie.

I'm sitting in the theater lobby and the phone goes off. And EVERYBODY in that lobby just stopped cold, like in those old E.F. Hutton commercials. They were like "What...the....FUCK?"

Hey, it was 1986.

But honestly without all the apps on the phone all the time it's less distracting, If I want apps they are on my regular phone but I have to open a bag to get that phone so in a way I don't miss that at all, so to speak.

 

[Kraig]

From 1970 through 1982 I used to listen to a lot of Shortwave radio broadcasts (2.5 to 30 MHz). Countries had their own stations, most had an english or special english program. Now there is mostly static. In 1974 I bought my first CB (27MHz) transceiver. I still have them in my vehicles. Most of the highway traffic is no longer using them. There is radio traffic now, thanks to the increased solar activity. You can talk to people all over the country, but only for about 4 years, then the sun will quiet down for about 11 years.

 

[Avro Arrow]

There was life before the Internet?

Long ago, in the Before Times™.

It was a dark age. We do not speak of it.

(Well, except in this thread, I guess.)

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I have heard people call the time before covid "the before times"

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I admit I'm nostalgic for the times I spent on CompuServe back in the day.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I admit I'm nostalgic for the times I spent on CompuServe back in the day.

text based newsgroups in the 90s early 2000s.. Was so much fun for a while

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I have heard people call the time before covid "the before times"

I fathom that.

text based newsgroups in the 90s early 2000s.. Was so much fun for a while

I absolutely miss Usenet. Now THOSE were some good times.

alt.tv.law-and-order...
rec.arts.sf.tv.star-trek.voyager...
alt.fan.red.green...

Those are some remarkable memories that unfortunately cannot be recaptured.

Hell, I'm even nostaglic for GOPHER. Pathetic, isn't it?

 

[Commander Troi]

I listened to a lot more music. I mean I *just* listened. Put an LP on and sang along or just listened deeply.

 

[HIjol]

I listened to a lot more music. I mean I *just* listened. Put an LP on and sang along or just listened deeply.

Love the singing part!!!

 

[Velocity]

I used to get clotheslined by a 9 ft long phone cord when my daughters monopolized the telephone. The one telephone we all had to share....theoretically. Ah, the teenage years...

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

in the 80s you could buy a payphone, our parents threatened us with that if we didn't stop monopolizing the phone

 

[Noname Given]

I admit I'm nostalgic for the times I spent on CompuServe back in the day.

I lived on Usenet in the mid 80s through around 2000. (Was getting my Programming degree at CSUN in the 80s, so yeah, it was mostly IT people on the net, but the interests duliscussed ran the gamut.)

 

[Pondwater]

A lot less emails.