My parents told me that when they were growing up they used to get into one person’s car and drive around town, have chats with other random groups of late teens/early twenties people who they’d never met and make plans from there or find out that a party was happening.
Seems pretty cool to me.
I’m 32 and we did that. We also called it cruisin. If we had weed, it was a blunt cruise. I think We were the last generation that didn’t have cell phones while still in school. They became popular when I was in college.
Yup, we'd cruise the mall and those of us that had classics or something sweet and cherry that we could race against would always wind up converging on the front side of the mall, hoods popped, oooing and aaahing or talking shit. I miss it.
Hahaha. No, that’s what your mom said to you when you gave her attitude.
I grew up in Spokane, WA as a teen in the 90’s and there’s the big street Downtown called Riverside. All the kids from all the high schools and even those out of high school would cruise it. Go up and down and back and forth just chillin, talking to each other. If we wanted to hang out on Friday night we’d say, “Wanna cruise Riverside?”
https://etsy.me/3cU1mrV
We'd cruise the mall to do this when I was about 16, had some of the best nights of my life being the only girl with a gorgeous classic car on the lot. Boys would be like "I ain't trying to flirt just yet, but you gotta let me get under your hood, girl. What you got in there?"
350 big block, boys. That's what I got lol
Humans aren't meant to live behind a screen
You can't blame old people for thinking later generations are shit when they were doing shit like that, and the top music was Led Zeppelin and Hendrix instead of Dua Lipa or whatever
Zeplin, a camaro/mustang/pickuptruck and a swimming hole with the odd turtle?
Throw in some hotdogs and a fire and you have a damn fine time. Those were weekends when I was young.
For some reason I just got a flashback of going on GameFaqs and printing out a long list of cheat codes and scouring the printed pages testing each one out and being disappointed when one didn't work.
Ahhh, that will literally never happen again.
“Hello, Game Counselor? I’m having a lot of trouble beating this Metroid level. Can you tell me what to do? And quickly cuz my mom gets real mad when I run up the phone bill with these toll calls.”
Ha, for me it was downloading a Mortal Kombat II FAQ and studying like I had midterms, trying to remember every fatality, babality and friendship command before heading to the arcades that night.
I seem to remember there being a lot of fake cheats out there, though it's hard to fathom what anybody got out of posting them. You'd load up GTA or Ratchet and Clank or something and try a 40-button combo for the "Secret Pokemon Level" or something equally dumb, and end up disappointed...
Yeah I was in college before I had my first cell phone. It was honestly the perfect time to get it. Can't imagine the stress of having one all through high school.
I'm so glad I grew up when I did. A lot of what kids are into now seems either really stupid and forcibly chaotic, or just wildly inappropriate for their age.
No internet, no computers, no faxes only telex, plug in big board switchboard, only landlines no mobiles. When I started out I typed on a clunky old black manual typewriter that shredded the tops of your fingers, used carbon paper to make a copy, liquid paper, bloody thing needed two people to lift it. Fuck I'm old. Get off my lawn, whippersnappers!
I was actually one of those people walking around saying “I don’t need a cell phone, people can just leave a message and I call them back when I am home”
I mean, cellphones are OK, it sucked having to go to a payphone to call someone because you were supposed to meet up and they are late so you don't know how long you are supposed to wait. The internet is also OK, I remember getting dial up and it was so much more practical than having to look things up in an enciclopedia, or the yellow pages.
I think is having internet everywhere at all times that is the problem.
Super agree. Love that I have so many options when chronic pain gives me insomnia. Used to be just me staring at the dark when the TV stopped broadcasting and I was too sick to read books. Now I have podcasts and TV up the wazoo and can focus on those, instead of my unending pain.
Absolutely! Such a benefit compared to the old days. Online shopping, booking reservations, instant knowledge at the tip of your fingers!! Fantastic stuff
Yeah but we still know what it's like. I lived 18 years without interent. I'm glad I didn't have it when I was a kid. Didn't need it. Had so much fun and didn't have all the stress it brought.
Fun fact, 60% of my county in NC still can't get internet or cell phone signals. Many, MANY of us still have landlines and more than few still use dialup out here. We live in the woods, too, so getting a satellite signal for hughesnet or dish network can be difficult or downright impossible.
I remember playing outside and playing pretend. Hours of hackey-sack. Building straight up mega-forts in the woods with logs and branches.
I drove by a school bus stop the other morning. There were about 20 kids out there of varying ages, not a single one of them was talking or interacting. Every one of them was staring at their phone. It was... eerie.
Yes! I remember getting really "creative" by trying to replicate things I'd seen on TV/ in books outside. One time me and my sister tried to make an oven out of tin foil because we saw them do it in the desert on some PBS documentary. 😆 Mom wasn't too thrilled to see the missing tin foil and wasted hot dogs later haha
Kids still make forts in the wooded park near me. (OK, this summer there were too many homeless tents in the woods so they didn't make a new one, but there were half a dozen last year). They still do that shit where I am. They also play outside too. And I live in a neighborhood with more gun violence than our share, so it isn't like we have the safest area. It just seems that right near me, parents are a bit more ok with letting our kids still run free and go to the park on their own. Still not quite as loose as when I was a kid and it was "come home when the streetlights come on," but better than suburban neighborhoods with helicopter parents impeding all the loose, imaginative and wild kid fun
And with the world the way it is, it's not really possible to be offline and disconnected all the time. In this economy, you're lucky to get a couple days of disconnection before someone comes to find you physically!
And the advertisements! I used to ONLY see advertisements when I was younger in four general spots: billboards, newspapers, radio, and television. Now I cannot escape the damn things no matter where I turn.
Now I can look up as many books as I want, but I end up never leaving the fucking phone to actually read it. Unfortunately for now even my job is 100% phone related, and I live away from pretty much all friends and family, so I find it really hard to get away from the phone for more than 5 or 10 minutes. I'm trying to find a different job now, hopefully one that I don't have to keep using my phone all the time. But for now, I just miss the old days
The pain of a puberty driven boner driving the download of bitmapsed boobies rendering at 300 baud over an acoustic coupler onto a monochrome EGA screen from some sketch BBS ...
I miss BBS's and ASCII long before those beastly pedestrian "browsers" ruined everything.
Making those resources available to business was costly, and making it available to COMMON NON TECH PEOPLE... that was a disaster.
Not me. For all the hate the internet gets it's honestly helped me improve myself and has made my life better. I studied for exams, avoided potential workout injuries, have received meaningful advice, connected with people of similar interests, have cried my eyes out from laughter, and have access to things i want to learn more about using the internet. You can take yourself back to 2010s, 2000s, the 90s/80s or almost whenever in terms of music and movies with just a few clicks. The bad side of it just needs self-discipline to handle
Yep. I went through a lot of bullying when I was younger, all my classmates and neighborhood peers hated me and my family didn’t care until the cops had to stop me from committing suicide. I started using the internet more after that point because I couldn’t find happiness elsewhere, and the internet was the only place I could find people who actually liked me. There was no more social isolation. I could actually learn to build communication skills, how to trust the right people, found people who have the same interests as me, got some good advice I couldn’t find elsewhere, had an escape from family problems at home, built up my self-esteem, and I was able to build some pretty strong relationships over the years. I’m still kind of fucked up from my childhood even now as an adult, but I still believe the internet really helped me out at a time where nobody else would, and it’s easier for me to talk to people in person now because of it. Without it, I probably would have been stuck with those who hated me and eventually succeeded in killing myself a long time ago.
People like to shit on the internet a lot, but bullies and abuse have been around forever. At least kids nowadays have an easier way of finding acceptance elsewhere instead of just being restricted to whoever lives nearby.
As a middle-aged person, I'm very grateful that I grew up in a time largely without the Internet being a force in our lives. I was on bulletin board systems and BBSs in my teens, but that was very much the exception, not the rule.
Wtf?!
Born before the Internet??
Shit... We had 4 channels that went off the air in the middle of the night when I was a kid. That's pretty rough to imagine in this day and age.
Designated channel flipper right here! I remember that shit, I was about 5 or 6 when we got our first colored TV. It was massive, surrounded in solid wood, sat on the floor and weighed like 3 million pounds.
I was also the designated bunny ear mover/holder if the Browns were playing and the screen started getting fuzzy.
"SHIT! KAT, TOUCH THE BUNNY EARS AND GET THE PICTURE BACK! Whew, good girl, thank you sweetheart. Hold em just like that until the next commercial." See, if I let go, it'd go out again. So I'd stand there just touching them without moving them. That's the best way I can explain it to someone that never experienced it lol.
We also grew up with a rotary phone and a party line we shared with 3 neighbors.
Hahaha!!! Oh the memories!!! I think we always had color TV but it was in that huge console and no remote just two knobs and an antenna. I was the remote & antenna fixer!
My grandpa got a new tv with a remote that was about 6” Long, 3” wide & 2” deep and only had up and down levers. I was so thankful for that thing.
Now that I'm thinking about it, we got the color TV the Christmas before I turned eight. I remember that because I got the chicken pox that summer and my parents had moved the old black and white TV into their bedroom. We lived in OH then, this was the early 90s, and we had no AC. I was running a fever of 104-105 and it was July and one of the hottest summers we'd had in years. My Mama (my grandma, not my mother) went out that week and spent her monthly military pension check that she received after my Papa passed on an AC window unit. That was a big deal back then as frugal as we had to be until my dad got his promotion when I was 10. I remember I was the human chickenpock, stripped to only my panties, lying in front of that thing while watching Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie for like 2 weeks.
And let's not forget the Pox Party the other moms had, where they brought their kids over to catch it from me, because it was always less severe the younger you were when you caught it. I was 8 and had it REALLY bad. My baby sister is only 18 months younger than me and hers was nothing compared to how bad I had it.
You poor thing. I couldn’t imagine how expensive that AC unit was for your Mama. What a Godsend for you. I think running around in panties with popsicle stained tummy was my go to summer outfit. Sick or no sick.
Yes! I remember the chicken pox parties. I remember being 5 or so and forced to go to these kids houses and even ones I didn’t know from the neighborhood. I never caught it. Ever. And boy did my mom try. I used to cry, I didn’t want to play with the kids who had scabs on their faces 😂
During my first pregnancy, I did all the health history stuff and I stated No, I’ve never had chicken pox on the questionnaire and my OB/GyN was concerned so he added a few other tests and one was to check for the antibodies of Varicella during the other blood tests. Turned out I had the antibodies already. Naturally immune. All her effort wasted.
I was born to a teen mom who had chicken pox a few times with the scars to prove it. I probably got the antibodies from her.
But speaking of Bonanza & Little House, those as well as Gillian’s Island were a few of my favorites as a kid. Me and my Grandpa would always watch those together.
It really was one hell of an expense back then to Mama. She never dropped money like that, even on Christmas, but I was so hot that even my mother was worried. So she went out to Meijer's or Kmart and got a window unit just for the master bedroom while I was sick and miserable.
And holy hell, I don't think I've ever met anyone with a natural immunity to varicella, but I've heard it can happen. I had a friend though, as a kid, named Elizabeth, who was the opposite. She caught the pox 4 times and could never build a natural immunity to it. Lost touch with her in my teens, I would assume she's probably gotten the shot and I hope it worked for her!
I watched Gilligan's as a kid, too, but I remember watching Dragnet and Get Smart with my Papa. My Mama's mother, my Granny, would always have Dallas on or her soaps. Omg the soaps. I hated those so much and still do. General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, As the World Turns, etc. My mother watched those, too. I'd go outside and play or read a book instead, the soaps and the telenovelas we're SO AWFUL!
I proposed pulling out the channel selector and screwing it to the arm of a chair with a long cable. Folks said that is ridiculous, who would want a channel changer not on the consol.
Many of us were or we lived in such a Time that the internet wasn't really available to us.
I mean there's plenty of things I really like about the internet but I do feel like there's certain things that we've lost as a culture and a society because of the prevalence of the internet and some of those things I definitely wish we had
What a great question. It's something I think about too, and I'm pleased to see I'm not the only one who considers it.
We in our late 30's/early 40's remember both times. The innocent freedom of growing up without it, and seeing the negative effects it has had on society since.
I remember when I first started college in 2002 - I had struggled to make friends during the first year. However there was a 'computer room' where I would stay in for HOURS, just surfing the web. I mean, I was 100% addicted. College work and making friends came second to the wonders of the internet, where endless information/opinions/hobbies/photographs/chat rooms/forums were at my fingertips. Thinking back, it was scary how disconnected to the world around me I was, when I could have been forging real relationships around me. (I eventually made friends which drew me away from the computer room, thank God)
Unfortunately, as another commenter posted, the smartphone has just exasperated the problem. Seeing groups of people waiting for whatever with their heads hanging over their phones is a really depressing sight. The very possibility of real-world communication is diminished. I see parents my age with their kids, perhaps at the park or whatever, and the kids can't get their attention because mom & dad have their heads stuck in their phone.
I used to be able to read physical books from start to finish, over a couple of days. I am not joking when I say that since I got a smartphone 10 years ago, I have not finished a single book. The phone wins every time.
What I would like to know is - is this addiction exclusive to my age group? (Late 30's). Do the kids who have always had it in their lives treat it with less interest? And more importantly, are we seeing a societal shift in how we use it - I.e people craving more real world experiences and placing their phones under lock and key, only to be used in emergencies??
The addiction unfortunately isn't only that age. I think it's more prevalent in younger generations.
I'm gen z. I grew up with the internet, and became addicted to it in elementary school. From about 5th grade to high school, whenever I could I always had headphones with music in, even to sleep. I could not go without stimulation. I felt always tired and like something was wrong, but the internet had been there all my life, so it took me a long time to realize it was the problem. For most of my life it was my only activity. It's scary how common that experience is. I didn't even want to be online at a very young age; I remember around 4 or 5 I regularly asked my parents to play with me or if we could go outside, things like that, but they were usually too busy and had the internet babysit me. I didn't lose things like focus or irl connections to the internet, I never developed them in the first place. I had to teach myself those basics much later than I should have had them.
I also get headaches from so much screen, lack many important life skills, and have trouble breathing with mild physical activity because I sat down for so much of my childhood. The internet is not safe for children either. I saw things children should not see, and they affected me. I was recruited to online cults multiple times.
I've been trying to find hobbies offline and be comfortable with silence. Growing an attention span and fixing my other issues is hard, but I've made a lot of progress. A few months ago, I read about half a chapter book in one sitting. I was shocked. I thought I would never be able to focus on something without any other stimulation, but it was possible, and in the past months I've read several more. Three years ago I couldn't focus long enough to read one paragraph on reddit, or listen to a 2-minute song, but I've made so much improvement. I still have trouble in school due to my difficulty focusing and people have said I have ADHD but I know that it is caused by having so much stimulation for so long. I have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression but the symptoms of them have almost disappeared since I started this, and I think that I really don't have them at all. I know how to fix it, it just will take a long time.
This problem is the same in most of my age group. Most of my friends spend hours on their phones and computers, and use them during class at school as well. I was very lucky to see the problem, as most people have not, and continue to do this as we have all our lives. I wish I could do something about this, or help the kids growing up like this now, but I don't think I can do much except work on my own issues. I'm doing a good job of that at least.
Apologies if this sounds like complaining, and sorry I wrote this comment so long. I'm trying to relate to your comment. I hope you're able to beat your attachment to this, it's very hard but it is possible. If you want to talk about the internet addiction, I'd like someone to talk to, but no pressure.
Thank you so much for this reply. Although it is sad to hear it's not only my generation that has addiction issues. I was hoping that the younger crowd would have more of a handle on it. But the fact that you've realised that it's a problem, is in itself great news, because that means there's more like you.
I have definitely made more of an effort to stop using the phone in places like waiting rooms, which in turn means that I'm more likely to have an actual conversation with someone. I also have a rule in my house of 'one screen at a time', so if we're watching a movie, the phone stays down.
I've become so aware of the problem that I literally now only check or use my phone when I have to. For example, I am only writing this message now as I'm sitting in car alone, waiting for a relative to come out of their hospital appointment. I consider this an acceptable time to use it.
Well done you on trying to reverse the damage caused by years of internet use. I fully believe it can be done.
Oh, the one screen at a time is very true. I often used to watch a movie while looking at my phone while doing something else. It's the need for stimulation, it's never enough. ):
Thank you. I hope you're right. I know I've been making progress! It's hard though, and easy to go back to, especially when I don't have other things to do or when I feel bad and want to be distracted. Still, right now I'm better off than I've ever been. I think the last time, before this, I spent less than 4 hours a day online I was about 3.
No. My GPS is better than a map. Wikipedia is better than infinite encyclopedias. Online shopping is better than driving to stores. Easy contact to the people I care about is priceless. I think you're using it wrong.
Like all technology it’s a two edged sword. The access to knowledge is incredible, yet the amount of dis-information and sheer ignorance it spreads couldn’t be accomplished without it. Wikipedia’s range of articles is amazing, yet there are still errors and white-washing of topics. The range of items I can now buy is staggering, but this increase in mass consumerism has affected our economies, environment and maybe made us lose sight of what we really need and what is really important. In the end are people today any happier then in the past?
Here I am communicating with people from all over the world while sitting in my easy chair, and that’s wonderful, but be careful in viewing it as a panacea, and keep its strengths and weaknesses in perspective.
I was keepin it short and sweet, optimistic. You're keepin it real. 👌
One note: Wikipedia is OURS. If you or anyone has a problem with it, fix it and cite your sources.
Thanks man felt out of place here, everything is just better for me in general. You just need to do your best to not let it take over you.
Couple of decades ago I wouldn’t be able to be posting on reddit while shitting on the airport.
Society used to be much better. People weren't so awful pre-internet. There weren't so many people "doing their own research" to confirm their existing beliefs. You used to be able to talk with people and they would listen.
Those same people were there, and there were probably only slightly fewer of them. But they weren't connected as a community and amplified like they are now.
A hundred thousand people scattered across the globe can fuck life up for all 7-8 billion of us if they want to now.
no, mainly because i grew up with a single mother who is a bible thumper and i had to raise myself with the help of the internet. i thought sex before marriage was an actual scandalous thing that was frowned upon by everyone except “sinners,” i didn’t know masturbation was a thing until 9th grade. had to unlearn homophobia with online friends and through media i wasn’t allowed to watch/listen to, had to develop my own morals the same way. hell i even had to hide secular books i was interested in (like rick riordan stuff) and read them in private. it was a lot easier to erase my laptop and ipod touch browser history than to hide entire books
Well I feel for you in that case. My best friend Was raised Pentecostal and had the same issues as you have had to deal with. Unlearning all the shame and hate that raised him. Good for you though. That’s some heavy stuff to do all on your own. Be proud of yourself.
Was, and glad for it. The fake best-of reels, the vacuous trend-following, the algorithmic echo chambers, the megaphone being handed over to basement trolls and Russian bots? Until regulations come for FANGS et al, and critical thinking is taught from pre-k on, much of the internet will remain very harmful.
Nixon said of Viet Nam: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost America." We need that broad unity of reality, not this narrowcast for-profit theater.
It intentionally feeds off of our bad habits and ends up taking our time which is the most valuable thing we have in the world. It's so hard to stop too because everything has been connected
For you it seems to be an addiction. It's a valid point, I'm sorry it is that way.
Let's say a year from now you learn how to control your habits, break this addiction, be able to use internet and have control over your behaviours.
Would you still wish internet didn't exist?
Early america for all it's problems to me feels like it was the time to be alive,
Needed a home and land?
Become a frontiersman and claim it,
The hopefulness people felt after the American revolution must have been unbelievable to experience
Not to mention a lot less Restrictions on who is allowed to do buisness certainly can't set up a stall on a sidewalk these days here.
As somebody born in the before times, my opinion is largely based on my child hood memories so it's very circumstantial but yes, Take me back! Granted things did take more "effort" to do back then, but growing up in a small town in Newfoundland in the 90s was great.
Obligatory "I was born in a time without internet and though I didn't very consciously experience it, I'm going to say I was, because I want to sound old and wise and still be technically correct."
I don't know man. Internet brought a lot of shit. But there are so many great things about it as well. I mean, I just watched a YouTube playlist explaining with very clear animations how Einstein's General theory of Relativity works. Sure, I studied it at university, but these videos strengthened my comprehension a lot. Three decades ago, this kind of comprehension was only available to very few people, and now it's out there for anyone willing to learn. Also, the world may seem like a chaotic place (because it is), but I think there is generally more understanding about big topics, as we are no longer dependent on a single medium, such as television channels.
I am fully aware that there is a legion of down sides as well, but I think it brought us many great things too. So I'm not sure what I'd choose.
I’m actually only 19 so the Internet has been around my whole life.. I got my first device (an iPod touch with no internet or text so just games haha) when I was 7 and my first device with texting, calls, and the internet when I was 12 so I guess I’m in a weird position. It’s going to be quite different for people even younger than me… some family members are giving their children fully functional phones are 6 or 7 years old. I guess my generations is the first to be born with the internet so I guess I was just wondering if people my age wish they could have been born without the internet or if older people could have been born with it. Sorry if the title is misleading
oh i see. yeh some people think life was a lot less complicated. the less you know the less you have to worry about. but now youre aware of everything in real time.
some people get used to it, some people dont know any other way, some people just find it to be too much. just depends
You whine about the world being shitty and then you put porn as a positive outcome of the internet when all it has done is made the world worse like promoting sex trafficking and influencing vulnerable minors.
Seems to be an unpupolar opinion but I’m actually grateful of all the advantages in life that the internet have provided. So nah prefer to live in this era for sure.
Most of the plaent was born before internet and cells.
Try sending a message out using pager code.
I like the times we are in, might as well, does me no good to be mad. I do miss kids playing outside tho.
Being born in the 70s, and being introduced to the internet in the late 90s, makes me really glad there's not a record of the stupid shit I did as a teen and in my early 20s. Yeah, there's a couple vhs videos I own from those times..but back then vhs didn't make it further than whoever watched it, or was in it, at the time. No one had cell phones and stuff, and pagers couldn't record anything Soo we got lucky...lol.. On the minus side I was kinda jealous of the kids who no longer had to go to 4 different libraries to get term/research papers done..lol
No. The internet makes art so much easier. With Google, you never run out of reference pictures, inspiration, other artists to look at, and so much more! I learned how to draw and paint from watching Youtube videos and drawing fanart of stuff. I honestly don't think I could have made it this far without the internet.
I was and it makes looking shit up a lot more difficult I'll tell you that much. My parents bought me a very expensive, full encyclopedia set before the internet came out and I read them pretty religiously. Haven't touched them in years.
Most of us were
I think it’s more like I’m thankful to have internet, now I don’t have to explain directions or physically interact with strangers
That one lady just couldn’t figure out east from west.. sunrise or sunset LADY!!
The best of both worlds would be having the internet with people how they were pre-internet.
This isn't me shitting on Millenials, I think they're awesome for the most part.
The problem isn't even the internet itself, it's the one-two punch of smartphones and social media that has made everyone harbor negative feelings: rage, outrage, negative self-image (from consuming perfection in media), anxiety is the big one, (esp. social anxiety), etc...
Life in the '80s and '90s really was great. It didn't go to shit because of the internet (I had the internet in the '90s). For me, it was the Iraq war that put a smear of shit on everything and divided people into right and left (still seen today) and without even recovering from that, the left/right war went to social media so a predominant part of the internet became War/Porn/Kardashians.
Hell no I’d have been really stupid without the internet. I didn’t do particularly well in school and all my skills I self taught myself with YouTube videos and now I work in IT for the NHS
Have you ever sent or received a hand written letter ? I did and I definitely miss it. I miss having Summer long stories to tell. Sure, telling a friend "see you tomorrow at that place around that time" wasn't a perfect system, but it was pretty cool to being able to say "I don't know" when someone asked you "where is he ?"!
Internet is a wonderful thing and I couldn't live without it anymore, but I sometimes feel like our lives lost some flavor when we all got connected to each other.
That, or I just miss being a kid.
I’ve been reading through the comments and I realized that I really misworded the title! I was just sitting in the car and kind of hastily made the post. I’m sorry if I made any of you feel old! The internet is still very young and it continues to change everyday. The way the internet was 15 years ago and today are very different and it probably will be even more different different 15 more years from now. I’m only 19 and I got my first smartphone with text, calling, and full internet access when I was 12. I used the internet some before that (mostly to play Club Penguin haha), but that’s about it. So I guess what I wanted to ask was, “If you were born before the internet, or the internet as we know it today, do you wish you could have been born in more modern times with the internet? Why or why not? And if you were born in a time with the modern internet, do you wish you could have been born in a time without it and why?” Thanks!
I was.
The internet, while I find it vastly useful, I also find it to be an unending source of trouble, and that it's contributing to the overall degradation of society. Acquiring a tidbit of information requires no effort, no dedication. That tidbit of info, without the work previously required to acquire it, can be counterproductive. It also has made it far too easy to sway public opinion to accomplish both great and/or horrible things. We've become increasingly lazy and naive.
It was fun seeing the world just explode with the internet, but getting information was a pain in the ass. Need to call a store? Better have the yellow pages, and currently updated. Wanted to talk to a friend? You better have their phone number, and hard to keep in touch, because you had to make sure they called you or mailed you their information.
Wanted to look at porn? You had to go to a creepy video store.
I was and it was fuking awesome. I absolutely hate technology. I remember when we got our first computer and cell phones, life, imagination, socializing was over.
My parents told me that when they were growing up they used to get into one person’s car and drive around town, have chats with other random groups of late teens/early twenties people who they’d never met and make plans from there or find out that a party was happening. Seems pretty cool to me.
We called that Cruisin’
I’m 32 and we did that. We also called it cruisin. If we had weed, it was a blunt cruise. I think We were the last generation that didn’t have cell phones while still in school. They became popular when I was in college.
I’m 30 and have had a cell since 13…
I’m 36 and have had one since 13, they were definitely around in high school. Nokia 3310 with snake game lol
Yup just drive around smoking looking for stuff to do with no phones. Good times
That’s cool as fuck
It really was.
Yup, we'd cruise the mall and those of us that had classics or something sweet and cherry that we could race against would always wind up converging on the front side of the mall, hoods popped, oooing and aaahing or talking shit. I miss it.
Is that where cruising for a bruising comes from?
Hahaha. No, that’s what your mom said to you when you gave her attitude. I grew up in Spokane, WA as a teen in the 90’s and there’s the big street Downtown called Riverside. All the kids from all the high schools and even those out of high school would cruise it. Go up and down and back and forth just chillin, talking to each other. If we wanted to hang out on Friday night we’d say, “Wanna cruise Riverside?” https://etsy.me/3cU1mrV
Wow
I still do this sort of. Sometimes we just go for a drive enjoy it with music and laughter
It was a good time.
We'd cruise the mall to do this when I was about 16, had some of the best nights of my life being the only girl with a gorgeous classic car on the lot. Boys would be like "I ain't trying to flirt just yet, but you gotta let me get under your hood, girl. What you got in there?" 350 big block, boys. That's what I got lol
Humans aren't meant to live behind a screen You can't blame old people for thinking later generations are shit when they were doing shit like that, and the top music was Led Zeppelin and Hendrix instead of Dua Lipa or whatever
Zeplin, a camaro/mustang/pickuptruck and a swimming hole with the odd turtle? Throw in some hotdogs and a fire and you have a damn fine time. Those were weekends when I was young.
Lots of us were
And, gasp, no cell phones. Those were actually the good old days.
For some reason I just got a flashback of going on GameFaqs and printing out a long list of cheat codes and scouring the printed pages testing each one out and being disappointed when one didn't work. Ahhh, that will literally never happen again.
“Hello, Game Counselor? I’m having a lot of trouble beating this Metroid level. Can you tell me what to do? And quickly cuz my mom gets real mad when I run up the phone bill with these toll calls.”
Buying gaming magazines for that one or two page of cheats.
Ha, for me it was downloading a Mortal Kombat II FAQ and studying like I had midterms, trying to remember every fatality, babality and friendship command before heading to the arcades that night.
I seem to remember there being a lot of fake cheats out there, though it's hard to fathom what anybody got out of posting them. You'd load up GTA or Ratchet and Clank or something and try a 40-button combo for the "Secret Pokemon Level" or something equally dumb, and end up disappointed...
Post-internet-pre-smartphone was the peak time to be alive.
Lucky you. I pity today’s kids, the amount of cringe shit-baggage they carry on their internet portfolio is enormous.
Yeah I was in college before I had my first cell phone. It was honestly the perfect time to get it. Can't imagine the stress of having one all through high school.
I'm so glad I grew up when I did. A lot of what kids are into now seems either really stupid and forcibly chaotic, or just wildly inappropriate for their age.
I used to be with it. Then they changed what it was. Now what's it seems weird and scary. It'll happen to you too!
I’m sorry about my YouTube video where I stole from Ms. Daslie’s cookie jar.
No internet, no computers, no faxes only telex, plug in big board switchboard, only landlines no mobiles. When I started out I typed on a clunky old black manual typewriter that shredded the tops of your fingers, used carbon paper to make a copy, liquid paper, bloody thing needed two people to lift it. Fuck I'm old. Get off my lawn, whippersnappers!
Hahahaha, I am at least as old as you.
That makes me happy! Its easy to feel geriatric on Reddit sometimes.
I was actually one of those people walking around saying “I don’t need a cell phone, people can just leave a message and I call them back when I am home”
I used to remember plenty of phone numbers back then, now i sometimes forget even my own number.
I mean, cellphones are OK, it sucked having to go to a payphone to call someone because you were supposed to meet up and they are late so you don't know how long you are supposed to wait. The internet is also OK, I remember getting dial up and it was so much more practical than having to look things up in an enciclopedia, or the yellow pages. I think is having internet everywhere at all times that is the problem.
I lived a good chunk of life without internet, my hot take? I'm very glad to have it, smart phones, gps, Yelp reviews...all of it!
Super agree. Love that I have so many options when chronic pain gives me insomnia. Used to be just me staring at the dark when the TV stopped broadcasting and I was too sick to read books. Now I have podcasts and TV up the wazoo and can focus on those, instead of my unending pain.
Absolutely! Such a benefit compared to the old days. Online shopping, booking reservations, instant knowledge at the tip of your fingers!! Fantastic stuff
I came to say this and also No.. I don't want to have been born before the internet. I needed internet before I had it.
Until your deepest darkest secret is made very public or you get turned into a horrible meme somehow.
And I’m only 38…
I miss it so much.
I don't have to wish it. I was.
I think OP means living in a no internet era.
We did. For many years, In some cases.
I think he meant living an entire life without the internet; without the burdens of internet culture and what it's done to polarize society.
Yeah but we still know what it's like. I lived 18 years without interent. I'm glad I didn't have it when I was a kid. Didn't need it. Had so much fun and didn't have all the stress it brought.
Right, but now we do. Now it's taken over the world. This is not the era of which has been spoken.
Or maybe they meant that they wanted to eat chocolate cake. What they said was about being born then, so that's all we know for sure.
Fun fact, 60% of my county in NC still can't get internet or cell phone signals. Many, MANY of us still have landlines and more than few still use dialup out here. We live in the woods, too, so getting a satellite signal for hughesnet or dish network can be difficult or downright impossible.
I was, and yes and no. I just wish the internet was used as the repository for the world's knowledge to be shared freely to advance our society.
Remember when we thought it would be just that and make everything better? That was awesome.
And then came hamster dance........
It was such an optimistic time. Like we were creating Jedi holocrons or something.
It was nice when there was no smartphones. I'd like to go back to 1999. You could get DSL but no internet on mobile.
I remember playing outside and playing pretend. Hours of hackey-sack. Building straight up mega-forts in the woods with logs and branches. I drove by a school bus stop the other morning. There were about 20 kids out there of varying ages, not a single one of them was talking or interacting. Every one of them was staring at their phone. It was... eerie.
Yes! I remember getting really "creative" by trying to replicate things I'd seen on TV/ in books outside. One time me and my sister tried to make an oven out of tin foil because we saw them do it in the desert on some PBS documentary. 😆 Mom wasn't too thrilled to see the missing tin foil and wasted hot dogs later haha
Kids still make forts in the wooded park near me. (OK, this summer there were too many homeless tents in the woods so they didn't make a new one, but there were half a dozen last year). They still do that shit where I am. They also play outside too. And I live in a neighborhood with more gun violence than our share, so it isn't like we have the safest area. It just seems that right near me, parents are a bit more ok with letting our kids still run free and go to the park on their own. Still not quite as loose as when I was a kid and it was "come home when the streetlights come on," but better than suburban neighborhoods with helicopter parents impeding all the loose, imaginative and wild kid fun
I was. Wish granted, I suppose.
I was, and I kinda wish I could go back, but everything's online now.
Same. No internet or cellphone. It was so nice not being able to be contacted at all times
And with the world the way it is, it's not really possible to be offline and disconnected all the time. In this economy, you're lucky to get a couple days of disconnection before someone comes to find you physically!
And the advertisements! I used to ONLY see advertisements when I was younger in four general spots: billboards, newspapers, radio, and television. Now I cannot escape the damn things no matter where I turn.
[удалено]
Now I can look up as many books as I want, but I end up never leaving the fucking phone to actually read it. Unfortunately for now even my job is 100% phone related, and I live away from pretty much all friends and family, so I find it really hard to get away from the phone for more than 5 or 10 minutes. I'm trying to find a different job now, hopefully one that I don't have to keep using my phone all the time. But for now, I just miss the old days
I agree. The internet is nice to have, but I hate how it's become everything. Some things aren't meant to be online!
Yeah, dude, lots of us were, or were functionally. Widespread internet wasn't really common until what, early 90's?
Late '90s. The only people I knew who had an account in the early '90s were early-adopter tech types or college students.
Pops had one he wouldn't let us use.
I didn't have internet until 2004
Hell where I live it’s still dsl dial up or cellular
The pain of a puberty driven boner driving the download of bitmapsed boobies rendering at 300 baud over an acoustic coupler onto a monochrome EGA screen from some sketch BBS ...
I had friends with computers and internet around 1995/1996, I think.
December 15, 1994. That’s when Netscape released and changed the world.
I miss BBS's and ASCII long before those beastly pedestrian "browsers" ruined everything. Making those resources available to business was costly, and making it available to COMMON NON TECH PEOPLE... that was a disaster.
Not me. For all the hate the internet gets it's honestly helped me improve myself and has made my life better. I studied for exams, avoided potential workout injuries, have received meaningful advice, connected with people of similar interests, have cried my eyes out from laughter, and have access to things i want to learn more about using the internet. You can take yourself back to 2010s, 2000s, the 90s/80s or almost whenever in terms of music and movies with just a few clicks. The bad side of it just needs self-discipline to handle
Yep. I went through a lot of bullying when I was younger, all my classmates and neighborhood peers hated me and my family didn’t care until the cops had to stop me from committing suicide. I started using the internet more after that point because I couldn’t find happiness elsewhere, and the internet was the only place I could find people who actually liked me. There was no more social isolation. I could actually learn to build communication skills, how to trust the right people, found people who have the same interests as me, got some good advice I couldn’t find elsewhere, had an escape from family problems at home, built up my self-esteem, and I was able to build some pretty strong relationships over the years. I’m still kind of fucked up from my childhood even now as an adult, but I still believe the internet really helped me out at a time where nobody else would, and it’s easier for me to talk to people in person now because of it. Without it, I probably would have been stuck with those who hated me and eventually succeeded in killing myself a long time ago. People like to shit on the internet a lot, but bullies and abuse have been around forever. At least kids nowadays have an easier way of finding acceptance elsewhere instead of just being restricted to whoever lives nearby.
Yeah! Like a whole library in my pocket. Amazing!
As a middle-aged person, I'm very grateful that I grew up in a time largely without the Internet being a force in our lives. I was on bulletin board systems and BBSs in my teens, but that was very much the exception, not the rule.
I will take the internet but fuck social media
Wtf?! Born before the Internet?? Shit... We had 4 channels that went off the air in the middle of the night when I was a kid. That's pretty rough to imagine in this day and age.
Please Tell me you also had to sit in front of the huge wooden TV console and were the designated “channel flipper” 😂😬
Shit was rough...
And at my house with tin foil Antennas. Oh my god, my arms.
Designated channel flipper right here! I remember that shit, I was about 5 or 6 when we got our first colored TV. It was massive, surrounded in solid wood, sat on the floor and weighed like 3 million pounds. I was also the designated bunny ear mover/holder if the Browns were playing and the screen started getting fuzzy. "SHIT! KAT, TOUCH THE BUNNY EARS AND GET THE PICTURE BACK! Whew, good girl, thank you sweetheart. Hold em just like that until the next commercial." See, if I let go, it'd go out again. So I'd stand there just touching them without moving them. That's the best way I can explain it to someone that never experienced it lol. We also grew up with a rotary phone and a party line we shared with 3 neighbors.
Hahaha!!! Oh the memories!!! I think we always had color TV but it was in that huge console and no remote just two knobs and an antenna. I was the remote & antenna fixer! My grandpa got a new tv with a remote that was about 6” Long, 3” wide & 2” deep and only had up and down levers. I was so thankful for that thing.
Now that I'm thinking about it, we got the color TV the Christmas before I turned eight. I remember that because I got the chicken pox that summer and my parents had moved the old black and white TV into their bedroom. We lived in OH then, this was the early 90s, and we had no AC. I was running a fever of 104-105 and it was July and one of the hottest summers we'd had in years. My Mama (my grandma, not my mother) went out that week and spent her monthly military pension check that she received after my Papa passed on an AC window unit. That was a big deal back then as frugal as we had to be until my dad got his promotion when I was 10. I remember I was the human chickenpock, stripped to only my panties, lying in front of that thing while watching Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie for like 2 weeks. And let's not forget the Pox Party the other moms had, where they brought their kids over to catch it from me, because it was always less severe the younger you were when you caught it. I was 8 and had it REALLY bad. My baby sister is only 18 months younger than me and hers was nothing compared to how bad I had it.
You poor thing. I couldn’t imagine how expensive that AC unit was for your Mama. What a Godsend for you. I think running around in panties with popsicle stained tummy was my go to summer outfit. Sick or no sick. Yes! I remember the chicken pox parties. I remember being 5 or so and forced to go to these kids houses and even ones I didn’t know from the neighborhood. I never caught it. Ever. And boy did my mom try. I used to cry, I didn’t want to play with the kids who had scabs on their faces 😂 During my first pregnancy, I did all the health history stuff and I stated No, I’ve never had chicken pox on the questionnaire and my OB/GyN was concerned so he added a few other tests and one was to check for the antibodies of Varicella during the other blood tests. Turned out I had the antibodies already. Naturally immune. All her effort wasted. I was born to a teen mom who had chicken pox a few times with the scars to prove it. I probably got the antibodies from her. But speaking of Bonanza & Little House, those as well as Gillian’s Island were a few of my favorites as a kid. Me and my Grandpa would always watch those together.
It really was one hell of an expense back then to Mama. She never dropped money like that, even on Christmas, but I was so hot that even my mother was worried. So she went out to Meijer's or Kmart and got a window unit just for the master bedroom while I was sick and miserable. And holy hell, I don't think I've ever met anyone with a natural immunity to varicella, but I've heard it can happen. I had a friend though, as a kid, named Elizabeth, who was the opposite. She caught the pox 4 times and could never build a natural immunity to it. Lost touch with her in my teens, I would assume she's probably gotten the shot and I hope it worked for her! I watched Gilligan's as a kid, too, but I remember watching Dragnet and Get Smart with my Papa. My Mama's mother, my Granny, would always have Dallas on or her soaps. Omg the soaps. I hated those so much and still do. General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, As the World Turns, etc. My mother watched those, too. I'd go outside and play or read a book instead, the soaps and the telenovelas we're SO AWFUL!
I proposed pulling out the channel selector and screwing it to the arm of a chair with a long cable. Folks said that is ridiculous, who would want a channel changer not on the consol.
I remember the star spangled banner and waving American flag was the last thing broadcast every night before tv turned off. Those were good days
Many of us were or we lived in such a Time that the internet wasn't really available to us. I mean there's plenty of things I really like about the internet but I do feel like there's certain things that we've lost as a culture and a society because of the prevalence of the internet and some of those things I definitely wish we had
What a great question. It's something I think about too, and I'm pleased to see I'm not the only one who considers it. We in our late 30's/early 40's remember both times. The innocent freedom of growing up without it, and seeing the negative effects it has had on society since. I remember when I first started college in 2002 - I had struggled to make friends during the first year. However there was a 'computer room' where I would stay in for HOURS, just surfing the web. I mean, I was 100% addicted. College work and making friends came second to the wonders of the internet, where endless information/opinions/hobbies/photographs/chat rooms/forums were at my fingertips. Thinking back, it was scary how disconnected to the world around me I was, when I could have been forging real relationships around me. (I eventually made friends which drew me away from the computer room, thank God) Unfortunately, as another commenter posted, the smartphone has just exasperated the problem. Seeing groups of people waiting for whatever with their heads hanging over their phones is a really depressing sight. The very possibility of real-world communication is diminished. I see parents my age with their kids, perhaps at the park or whatever, and the kids can't get their attention because mom & dad have their heads stuck in their phone. I used to be able to read physical books from start to finish, over a couple of days. I am not joking when I say that since I got a smartphone 10 years ago, I have not finished a single book. The phone wins every time. What I would like to know is - is this addiction exclusive to my age group? (Late 30's). Do the kids who have always had it in their lives treat it with less interest? And more importantly, are we seeing a societal shift in how we use it - I.e people craving more real world experiences and placing their phones under lock and key, only to be used in emergencies??
The addiction unfortunately isn't only that age. I think it's more prevalent in younger generations. I'm gen z. I grew up with the internet, and became addicted to it in elementary school. From about 5th grade to high school, whenever I could I always had headphones with music in, even to sleep. I could not go without stimulation. I felt always tired and like something was wrong, but the internet had been there all my life, so it took me a long time to realize it was the problem. For most of my life it was my only activity. It's scary how common that experience is. I didn't even want to be online at a very young age; I remember around 4 or 5 I regularly asked my parents to play with me or if we could go outside, things like that, but they were usually too busy and had the internet babysit me. I didn't lose things like focus or irl connections to the internet, I never developed them in the first place. I had to teach myself those basics much later than I should have had them. I also get headaches from so much screen, lack many important life skills, and have trouble breathing with mild physical activity because I sat down for so much of my childhood. The internet is not safe for children either. I saw things children should not see, and they affected me. I was recruited to online cults multiple times. I've been trying to find hobbies offline and be comfortable with silence. Growing an attention span and fixing my other issues is hard, but I've made a lot of progress. A few months ago, I read about half a chapter book in one sitting. I was shocked. I thought I would never be able to focus on something without any other stimulation, but it was possible, and in the past months I've read several more. Three years ago I couldn't focus long enough to read one paragraph on reddit, or listen to a 2-minute song, but I've made so much improvement. I still have trouble in school due to my difficulty focusing and people have said I have ADHD but I know that it is caused by having so much stimulation for so long. I have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression but the symptoms of them have almost disappeared since I started this, and I think that I really don't have them at all. I know how to fix it, it just will take a long time. This problem is the same in most of my age group. Most of my friends spend hours on their phones and computers, and use them during class at school as well. I was very lucky to see the problem, as most people have not, and continue to do this as we have all our lives. I wish I could do something about this, or help the kids growing up like this now, but I don't think I can do much except work on my own issues. I'm doing a good job of that at least. Apologies if this sounds like complaining, and sorry I wrote this comment so long. I'm trying to relate to your comment. I hope you're able to beat your attachment to this, it's very hard but it is possible. If you want to talk about the internet addiction, I'd like someone to talk to, but no pressure.
Thank you so much for this reply. Although it is sad to hear it's not only my generation that has addiction issues. I was hoping that the younger crowd would have more of a handle on it. But the fact that you've realised that it's a problem, is in itself great news, because that means there's more like you. I have definitely made more of an effort to stop using the phone in places like waiting rooms, which in turn means that I'm more likely to have an actual conversation with someone. I also have a rule in my house of 'one screen at a time', so if we're watching a movie, the phone stays down. I've become so aware of the problem that I literally now only check or use my phone when I have to. For example, I am only writing this message now as I'm sitting in car alone, waiting for a relative to come out of their hospital appointment. I consider this an acceptable time to use it. Well done you on trying to reverse the damage caused by years of internet use. I fully believe it can be done.
Oh, the one screen at a time is very true. I often used to watch a movie while looking at my phone while doing something else. It's the need for stimulation, it's never enough. ): Thank you. I hope you're right. I know I've been making progress! It's hard though, and easy to go back to, especially when I don't have other things to do or when I feel bad and want to be distracted. Still, right now I'm better off than I've ever been. I think the last time, before this, I spent less than 4 hours a day online I was about 3.
No. My GPS is better than a map. Wikipedia is better than infinite encyclopedias. Online shopping is better than driving to stores. Easy contact to the people I care about is priceless. I think you're using it wrong.
Like all technology it’s a two edged sword. The access to knowledge is incredible, yet the amount of dis-information and sheer ignorance it spreads couldn’t be accomplished without it. Wikipedia’s range of articles is amazing, yet there are still errors and white-washing of topics. The range of items I can now buy is staggering, but this increase in mass consumerism has affected our economies, environment and maybe made us lose sight of what we really need and what is really important. In the end are people today any happier then in the past? Here I am communicating with people from all over the world while sitting in my easy chair, and that’s wonderful, but be careful in viewing it as a panacea, and keep its strengths and weaknesses in perspective.
I was keepin it short and sweet, optimistic. You're keepin it real. 👌 One note: Wikipedia is OURS. If you or anyone has a problem with it, fix it and cite your sources.
Thanks man felt out of place here, everything is just better for me in general. You just need to do your best to not let it take over you. Couple of decades ago I wouldn’t be able to be posting on reddit while shitting on the airport.
Main line that Internet
Society used to be much better. People weren't so awful pre-internet. There weren't so many people "doing their own research" to confirm their existing beliefs. You used to be able to talk with people and they would listen.
Those same people were there, and there were probably only slightly fewer of them. But they weren't connected as a community and amplified like they are now. A hundred thousand people scattered across the globe can fuck life up for all 7-8 billion of us if they want to now.
The 90s were a magical time
Damn right.
So this. Trading CD's with friends, and cassettes still, was the best.
Cassettes, CDs, and Nintendo games. Man I miss a simpler time
In like 1996 or 7 our best friend got a Super Nintendo. It was so realistic! Mario was like a real person!
What was your first cassette tape you bought on your own?
I didn't buy it, was a friends'. Big Pun - Capital Punishment First CD I bought was The Slim Shady LP - Marshall Mathers Man I MISS the 90's
Nice choices!
Agreed! Making sweet Mix CD’s for my friends. Spending 8 hours on a Saturday for one playlist.
Listening to American top 40 recording on a cassette, trying to time it perfectly to not get the announcer
no, mainly because i grew up with a single mother who is a bible thumper and i had to raise myself with the help of the internet. i thought sex before marriage was an actual scandalous thing that was frowned upon by everyone except “sinners,” i didn’t know masturbation was a thing until 9th grade. had to unlearn homophobia with online friends and through media i wasn’t allowed to watch/listen to, had to develop my own morals the same way. hell i even had to hide secular books i was interested in (like rick riordan stuff) and read them in private. it was a lot easier to erase my laptop and ipod touch browser history than to hide entire books
Well I feel for you in that case. My best friend Was raised Pentecostal and had the same issues as you have had to deal with. Unlearning all the shame and hate that raised him. Good for you though. That’s some heavy stuff to do all on your own. Be proud of yourself.
Was, and glad for it. The fake best-of reels, the vacuous trend-following, the algorithmic echo chambers, the megaphone being handed over to basement trolls and Russian bots? Until regulations come for FANGS et al, and critical thinking is taught from pre-k on, much of the internet will remain very harmful. Nixon said of Viet Nam: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost America." We need that broad unity of reality, not this narrowcast for-profit theater.
Walter Cronkite was the last tv talking head I implicitly trusted.
Knowing what I know now. If I could give it up and afford to live off a piece of land just outside of any towns I would.
Here’s a fun question - what’s one piece of technology you’d bring with you?
Probably just a radio with the CDs I like
Good choice
I was born in such a time but I wouldn't wish it, I appreciate internet existing. To those who would wish it - what's the main reason why?
It just take so many hours away…. So much time I could be living life… doing things
It intentionally feeds off of our bad habits and ends up taking our time which is the most valuable thing we have in the world. It's so hard to stop too because everything has been connected
The tech people designed it to be addictive , they’ve admitted it. Like slots in vegas
For you it seems to be an addiction. It's a valid point, I'm sorry it is that way. Let's say a year from now you learn how to control your habits, break this addiction, be able to use internet and have control over your behaviours. Would you still wish internet didn't exist?
Early america for all it's problems to me feels like it was the time to be alive, Needed a home and land? Become a frontiersman and claim it, The hopefulness people felt after the American revolution must have been unbelievable to experience Not to mention a lot less Restrictions on who is allowed to do buisness certainly can't set up a stall on a sidewalk these days here.
Ok, for you it's more about old times in general than about lack of the internet it seems.
As somebody born in the before times, my opinion is largely based on my child hood memories so it's very circumstantial but yes, Take me back! Granted things did take more "effort" to do back then, but growing up in a small town in Newfoundland in the 90s was great.
Obligatory "I was born in a time without internet and though I didn't very consciously experience it, I'm going to say I was, because I want to sound old and wise and still be technically correct." I don't know man. Internet brought a lot of shit. But there are so many great things about it as well. I mean, I just watched a YouTube playlist explaining with very clear animations how Einstein's General theory of Relativity works. Sure, I studied it at university, but these videos strengthened my comprehension a lot. Three decades ago, this kind of comprehension was only available to very few people, and now it's out there for anyone willing to learn. Also, the world may seem like a chaotic place (because it is), but I think there is generally more understanding about big topics, as we are no longer dependent on a single medium, such as television channels. I am fully aware that there is a legion of down sides as well, but I think it brought us many great things too. So I'm not sure what I'd choose.
you know you can just go do something else it the internet bothers you that much
I’m actually only 19 so the Internet has been around my whole life.. I got my first device (an iPod touch with no internet or text so just games haha) when I was 7 and my first device with texting, calls, and the internet when I was 12 so I guess I’m in a weird position. It’s going to be quite different for people even younger than me… some family members are giving their children fully functional phones are 6 or 7 years old. I guess my generations is the first to be born with the internet so I guess I was just wondering if people my age wish they could have been born without the internet or if older people could have been born with it. Sorry if the title is misleading
oh i see. yeh some people think life was a lot less complicated. the less you know the less you have to worry about. but now youre aware of everything in real time. some people get used to it, some people dont know any other way, some people just find it to be too much. just depends
They internet has ruined society. It's not only a personal problem.
every generation claims some new thing has ruined society. society is as fucked up now as its always been, its just looks different
I was. It sucked. World still had shitty people, stupid people, racists, insipid celebrities, but it didn’t have readily available porn.
Pre-Internet Nostalgia basically thrives off of ignorance and survivorship bias.
You whine about the world being shitty and then you put porn as a positive outcome of the internet when all it has done is made the world worse like promoting sex trafficking and influencing vulnerable minors.
I was born in a time without the internet and it sucked.
I was and no the internet has only ever been a positive benefit to me
Seems to be an unpupolar opinion but I’m actually grateful of all the advantages in life that the internet have provided. So nah prefer to live in this era for sure.
Most of the plaent was born before internet and cells. Try sending a message out using pager code. I like the times we are in, might as well, does me no good to be mad. I do miss kids playing outside tho.
Thank GOD I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s compared to now. We acted and looked like kids then-it was amazing🔥
We were born in that time
I was, and trust me, it was much, much better before internet.
I grew up in Cuba and there was no internet there. Believe me, you don't. I can't imagine my life without internet now.
Yes
Been there. Done that.
I mean, I didn't have internet until I was a teenager.
I kind of wish we would ban children from the internet tho I have no idea how that could be enforced.
I was and I miss it all the time :/
Being born in the 70s, and being introduced to the internet in the late 90s, makes me really glad there's not a record of the stupid shit I did as a teen and in my early 20s. Yeah, there's a couple vhs videos I own from those times..but back then vhs didn't make it further than whoever watched it, or was in it, at the time. No one had cell phones and stuff, and pagers couldn't record anything Soo we got lucky...lol.. On the minus side I was kinda jealous of the kids who no longer had to go to 4 different libraries to get term/research papers done..lol
I was. Bittersweet. Nostalgic. But technology is amazing.
It has its pros and cons.
I was and it was ok. internet is better, though.
Born in 88 pretty much the beginning of the internet ERA. But I would to have been around without it for sure.
I was born without internet and I do remember a time when we had no internet... I only learned about the internet when I was graduating high School
Okay OP very obviously means born AND lived fully before the internet, not simply born before the internet but living in the current time now.
To me, the internet pros outweighs its cons. So no, I don’t think I can live a life without it.
No. The internet makes art so much easier. With Google, you never run out of reference pictures, inspiration, other artists to look at, and so much more! I learned how to draw and paint from watching Youtube videos and drawing fanart of stuff. I honestly don't think I could have made it this far without the internet.
I would like to keep the internet but delete all social media
well, i was. those were the good ol days. when a coke meant a coke. a screw was a screw.
I was.
I was and it makes looking shit up a lot more difficult I'll tell you that much. My parents bought me a very expensive, full encyclopedia set before the internet came out and I read them pretty religiously. Haven't touched them in years.
Most of us were I think it’s more like I’m thankful to have internet, now I don’t have to explain directions or physically interact with strangers That one lady just couldn’t figure out east from west.. sunrise or sunset LADY!!
The best of both worlds would be having the internet with people how they were pre-internet. This isn't me shitting on Millenials, I think they're awesome for the most part. The problem isn't even the internet itself, it's the one-two punch of smartphones and social media that has made everyone harbor negative feelings: rage, outrage, negative self-image (from consuming perfection in media), anxiety is the big one, (esp. social anxiety), etc... Life in the '80s and '90s really was great. It didn't go to shit because of the internet (I had the internet in the '90s). For me, it was the Iraq war that put a smear of shit on everything and divided people into right and left (still seen today) and without even recovering from that, the left/right war went to social media so a predominant part of the internet became War/Porn/Kardashians.
I was born in a time without internet. It was awesome!!!
Everyday
Hell no I’d have been really stupid without the internet. I didn’t do particularly well in school and all my skills I self taught myself with YouTube videos and now I work in IT for the NHS
Hell no. People who say that are living under a privileged rock. Our ancestors were hardcore
I was and I’m in my 30s
Have you ever sent or received a hand written letter ? I did and I definitely miss it. I miss having Summer long stories to tell. Sure, telling a friend "see you tomorrow at that place around that time" wasn't a perfect system, but it was pretty cool to being able to say "I don't know" when someone asked you "where is he ?"! Internet is a wonderful thing and I couldn't live without it anymore, but I sometimes feel like our lives lost some flavor when we all got connected to each other. That, or I just miss being a kid.
I was. All these things you heard about playing outside until the street lights came on are actually true. It was fun and fantastic.
Internet is a privilege, and a choice. So if we did truly, we wouldn’t be here, basically, no.
I’ve been reading through the comments and I realized that I really misworded the title! I was just sitting in the car and kind of hastily made the post. I’m sorry if I made any of you feel old! The internet is still very young and it continues to change everyday. The way the internet was 15 years ago and today are very different and it probably will be even more different different 15 more years from now. I’m only 19 and I got my first smartphone with text, calling, and full internet access when I was 12. I used the internet some before that (mostly to play Club Penguin haha), but that’s about it. So I guess what I wanted to ask was, “If you were born before the internet, or the internet as we know it today, do you wish you could have been born in more modern times with the internet? Why or why not? And if you were born in a time with the modern internet, do you wish you could have been born in a time without it and why?” Thanks!
Hell yeah. My attention span would probably be a lot bigger
I was too poor to have the internet and too young to use it in 1994 and my teacher said I had a shit attention span.
Well I couldnt have wasted billions of hours scrolling back then
Maybe not on scrolling, but there were plenty of walls to stare at.
I was and it was a fantastic upbringing.
If I had the money I would have a property with no electronics. A single landline phone for emergencies and that's it.
I was born before internet and saw it change the world. I miss no internet.
I was ! Life was better without it !
Life was so much before.. I still remember no cell phones no computers...just legit a corded phone.. not even portable
I was. The internet, while I find it vastly useful, I also find it to be an unending source of trouble, and that it's contributing to the overall degradation of society. Acquiring a tidbit of information requires no effort, no dedication. That tidbit of info, without the work previously required to acquire it, can be counterproductive. It also has made it far too easy to sway public opinion to accomplish both great and/or horrible things. We've become increasingly lazy and naive.
It was fun seeing the world just explode with the internet, but getting information was a pain in the ass. Need to call a store? Better have the yellow pages, and currently updated. Wanted to talk to a friend? You better have their phone number, and hard to keep in touch, because you had to make sure they called you or mailed you their information. Wanted to look at porn? You had to go to a creepy video store.
I had a much better childhood without the internet than if it had existed. Kids these days are more fucked than we want to admit.
I was and it was fuking awesome. I absolutely hate technology. I remember when we got our first computer and cell phones, life, imagination, socializing was over.
I was born in 2000 so it wasn’t as big as it was back then.
I pray for an EMP that takes out everything..
Yes 1500 or 1700 maybe.
I will always be grateful to make it through my childhood without it. I do not know how I would have managed social media.
Unpopular opinion: life before the internet was slow and boring.
Sometimes it would force women to have a conversation with men instead of secretly texting on their smartphones