Read more actual books. Watched TV (and used TV Guide to plan such as they listed what episodes would be shown on what day/time), and went to more feature films.
Also read A LOT of 'behind the scenes' genre magazines on Science Fiction and Fantasy, as well as argue over elements of various shows FROM MEMORY!
(And believe it or not, fans were still able to argue with each other, but they just did it via articles and 'Letters to the Editor' in various mainstream magazines and widely distributed Fanzines - YES - fans still argued and discussed the topics we still discuss today...it just took more time and effort, and the response wasn't as fast.
)
Ah, yes. Debating the dubious merits of Saavik #2 in
Interstat. Most people weren't impressed with her. And if you wanted to disagree with someone, you had to fire off a snailmail letter to the editor, who would hopefully be able to include it in the next month's issue.
I'd get the weekly issue of TV Guide and plan my viewing and taping (VHS) for the following week. It was very handy to have two VCRs and two TVs, so I could get most of what I wanted in.
For part of the '90s, I had an afternoon routine. I had a home typing business, so hours were flexible enough to allow for my afternoon soap operas... and
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?
I know. I used to do a few articles here and there for a local Star Trek magazine back in the late 80s. It was a lot of fun
I ran a local Star Trek club, and co-wrote, edited, and published the club newsletter. Some of us also collaborated on a short book of filksongs.
We had other interests as well. There tends to be a considerable overlap between SCA people and SF/F fans and gamers. So the ST club was mostly made up of people from the local SCA, and we also had a weekly Dungeons & Dragons game. Every August we'd have an annual barbecue and I'd run a "Star Trek Jeopardy!" contest (prizes were whatever inexpensive goodies I could find at Con-Version, the annual SF/F convention in Calgary in July; one year I scored an autographed copy of a Peter David novel; he was happy to sign an extra copy for me after I explained why I wanted it). So I'd assume the persona of "Alexius Trebekius" (some of us were also into Roman history; I lured them in by showing them
I, Claudius - "wanna see a historical miniseries where Patrick Stewart plays a villain, wears a Roman miniskirt, and has hair?") and the game was on.
So who needed the internet when I had so much SCA, Star Trek club activities, and fan writing?
Faint crying in "cupboard full of old Starlog magazines"
That was several houses ago
I still have most of my old Starlog magazines.
As with a lot of respondents here, I read more books. That habit hasn't gone away, as I keep a book or two beside me in bed (current one is a Tudor-era historical fiction that's a bit different from most; the protagonist is male). But most of my reading these days consists of fanfiction for various shows and books. I'm currently following stories for Harry Potter, BBC Merlin, Downton Abbey, and Bonanza, as well as doing a lot of writing on my own projects.
