After reading this I’m having the opposite problem: I don’t know how to picture the net always being there right from your earliest memories.

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Dark_Shroud@reddit

No. I remember how shit worked without the internet.

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To me, being constantly tethered to tech now is a bigger shift than just the existence of the internet. We lived happily there for a bit while we had internet access but weren’t terminally online. The internet was a useful tool and a fun diversion. Once devices got small enough to put in your pocket and internet speeds enabled the access we have today, THEN things changed. I’d love to read more on this. I suspect we collectively became less happy once we had social media on us at all times.

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wagashi@reddit

I resisted getting a cellphone until 2005 because half the reason I left my house was to be away from the phone.

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DamarsLastKanar@reddit

until 2005

I waited until 2011.

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Dark_Shroud@reddit

I made it to 2010 without a cell phone of any kind.

Now I'm looking at some of Nokia's current feature phones for my next upgrade.

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Into-the-stream@reddit

I honestly still resent the expectation I am reachable by anyone 24/7, and need to respond within minutes.

And yeah I know I could ignore it, but that carries implications it didn’t used to.

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OverZealousCreations@reddit

This is why I have read receipts turned off for almost everyone except a few very close friends. Nobody in my family needs to know that I looked at their texts, I'll reply when I feel like it.

I also don't pick up the phone often. I've had trouble with noticing the phone ringing (often because I'm working and have hearing protection on), but I've basically trained everyone to assume I usually won't pick up the phone. Works well enough for me.

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snkiz@reddit

CNN was with the first war in iraq turning point, the perfect storm of 24 hour news cycle and ever increasing bandwidth. We killed latchkey kids because of it, and I regret that.

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PanchoBaker@reddit

I think you mean C-SPAN or don't? ?

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snkiz@reddit

C-SPAN isn't that the government of like congress? No, CNN! I don't know, what are you on about??

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Cspan predates cable news media as it was created by the government with the intent of showing how government functions.

CNN and the other media which followed wasn't originally 24 hour political opinion programming content, this only happened due to two key political events in recent history with the first being the 1999 impeachment of Bill Clinton and the second being the highly contested 2000 presidential election.

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snkiz@reddit

No it was the Iraq war in 1990 that made CNN's recent 24 hour new channel an over night success, way before hummergate. I know what C-SPAN is, THat's not what I was talking about.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

I was talking about that as well because by the second gulf war in 2003 CNN and the other two networks had already become 24 hour political opinion programming networks well before then.

Originally msnbc was a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC as a competitor to CNN. Both networks competed for the coveted breaking news demographic but really failed in that regard as there never really was all that much breaking news available to fill a 24 hour cycle which probably also influenced their decision to become 24 hour political opinion programming networks in the first place.

Most of the content on these networks consists of political talk shows rather than anchors sitting around a news desk reporting on whatever the top stories of the day happen to be, especially during their evening and prime time programming slots.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

CNN and the other cable networks didn't become 24 hpur political opinion programming networks during the first Gulf War. When the Simpson trial took place four years later it was all OJ all the time and they weren't talking about politics back then.

They didn't become the 24 hour political opinion programming networks that they currently are until Clinton was impeached.

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bluecar92@reddit

I agree with you 100%. I'm on my phone way too damn much. I pull it out and scroll reddit while waiting in line at the grocery store. I scroll around when I should be working or spending time with my family.

It's an addiction 100% and I know it's not healthy.

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Secret_Elevator17@reddit

I mostly just use Reddit and a private Discord, so I don’t really feel the usual social media pressure. That said, constantly seeing every executive order, every Jan 6th pardon, or the latest political outrage gets exhausting and rage-inducing.

Still, being able to say “I've never heard of that” and do a quick Google is nice, like looking up a weird menu ingredient on the spot.

Would I go back to pre-internet days? Probably not. I miss the simplicity, but I’d rather be informed, even if it pisses me off sometimes.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

What I suspect is that an easy 80% of the unhappiness caused by “social media” is actually caused by literally just Twitter.

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yoshilurker@reddit

Twitter's DAU/MAU is a fraction of FB, IG, and TikTok.

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

Things changed immediately for the early adopters. AOL itself changed everything yet again. Then ADSL and Cable internet yet again. Then mobile internet yet again. Then enshitification yet again.

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WolfJackson@reddit

The Internet is a vastly overrated technology. We can look at nearly every quality of life metric under the sun and the existence of the Internet hasn't appreciably improved most of them since the 80s/90s, while some have gotten downright worse (cost of living, wealth gap, mental health, more corporate and technological consolidation than ever). Many people might argue that the Internet has "opened minds" now that we're more easily able to see other people's points-of-view. Lol at that. I think we're living in one of the most intolerant periods in American history, which I largely blame on the Internet (i.e. social media propaganda campaigns).

Is the Internet fun, extremely useful on a personal level, made certain things more convenient and cheaper? Sure. But it's not even close to the transformative level that developments/technologies like agriculture, plumbing, the printing press, antibiotics have had on human society.

The Internet is poised to even have more of a negative social impact once it's fully enshittified with 95% bots.

So yeah, people actually did that and it was probably better and more socially beneficial, even if a bit more inconvenient.

Perhaps it's just social media that's the problem and if the Internet stopped "evolving" at Web 1.0, it'd be a different story.

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OkSherbert2281@reddit

I was like 12 when we got our first computer at home. We did have computer classes at school but it was once a week maybe for 30 minutes. I was already in high school by the time anything but dial up was available in my area. I learned to type on a typewriter (albeit it was electric).

Do I think I could go back to not having everything at my fingertips? Absolutely not. But back then I was fine. In fact computers were mostly just fun nonsense in my first memories not really even useful to me at the time.

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Traditional_Entry183@reddit

I really feel like getting online for the first time ever at 18 in college was exactly right for me.

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denzien@reddit

I remember sitting in front of the TV a lot, manufacturing weapons out of bamboo and destroying our plants with them. I remember riding my bike everywhere. I remember playing with my toys or reading a random volume of the World Book Encyclopedia.

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xxMalVeauXxx@reddit

Yes, I fondly remember the world before cameras everywhere, everyone online looking at things, everyone sharing immediately, everyone searching and consuming non-stop content. It was so cool to be out, no one knew who you were, couldn't look you up, couldn't take a picture of you and send it, no videos, no recordings. Those moments were yours.

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kayla622@reddit

I remember when the internet was kind of lame because there was nothing on it. Then GeoCities, Angelfire, and all those other personal homepage building sites came out and EVERYONE had a homepage to show off their hobbies, knowledge, niche interests, etc. There was a sense of community—especially on GeoCities. I hosted an I Love Lucy website at TelevisionCity/3028. I remember a very positive community filled with “Under Construction” banners, animated gifs, and clashing background colors and text. There was a sense of camaraderie. We were all learning this new thing called “the World Wide Web” together. Social media, the 24-hour news cycle, and having the internet at one’s fingertips constantly ruined it. Capitalism and commercialism of anything even remotely popular ruined it. Influencers are killing basically whatever joy was left on the internet.

gif

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

More internet has been lost than exists today.

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kayla622@reddit

Yes. When GeoCities was shutdown, everyone lost everything. I can view my old site via the way back machine. But all the links and images are broken (obviously).

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

Never imagined that we'd be the one's you'd have to ask if you wanted to know about something.

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kayla622@reddit

I know. We’re our generation’s historians.

There were so many bizarre websites back then. Like Mr Skin that compiled and ranked instances of female nudity on television and film. Then there was another website that kept track of actresses who smoked in a movie or television show and whether they’re smokers in real life.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Wasn't Mr skin parodied in the film "knocked up"?

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kayla622@reddit

It might have been. It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen that movie.

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

99% of all the pre-AOL BBS data is lost because it was entirely decentralized, and nearly all of the AOL era data too.

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ILikeBumblebees@reddit

Yes. When GeoCities was shutdown (e.g.) everyone lost everything.

https://geocities.restorativland.org/

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kayla622@reddit

Wow! This is amazing. I didn't know this existed. My background music even played! Thank you.

Here's my site:

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kayla622@reddit

With that said, I do like Reddit because it’s reminiscent of the old message boards. I also have a blog about classic Hollywood and television. It’s more or less a modern version of my old GeoCities page. I also like Letterboxd because I like keeping track of the movies I watch. There are small areas of the internet I like. I don’t participate in online arguing with strangers. Conversation goes sideways? I’m out. I don’t care.

The internet is so intertwined in everyday life, it’d be difficult to do everyday things without needing to be online in some capacity.

It does seem that many people in younger generations are negatively impacted by the internet, when I wasn’t even though I was the same age. I had an inherent understanding of not giving out personal information to weirdos and not engaging in potentially dangerous conversations.

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Mudassar40@reddit

It's not just about the net. I mean, for the longest time the net was something you had at home or at the office, compared to how it's everywhere now.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Yeah, we can blame smartphones for that.

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Jimmyjim4673@reddit

I remember being angry the first time we wanted to play an online game, and I had to "go home to play with my friends".

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wolamute@reddit

Yeah, but Halo bro.

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schleepercell@reddit

The first time I saw people playing a console online was halo and it was done using the network in a college dorm

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Jimmyjim4673@reddit

Oh, Halo was portable enough to LAN. I was when we wanted to pvp in DAOC or play Age of Empires.

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wolamute@reddit

Bro I used to drag my full tower to a friend's place to tcpip diablo2 with the boys.

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Jimmyjim4673@reddit

We would do LAN parties, but it was just special occasions. Those were always good days.

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SirBuckFutter@reddit

I never even used the Internet until I got my Sega Dreamcast when I was 16. And then I finally got a legit computer when I turned 21. But even then I mostly just used it for online gaming...

I would happily trade it all in to go back to the days of hanging out at the arcade all day. Those are some of my fondest memories.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

We didn't get internet access until around 2001 here.

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PrepperLargely@reddit

I remember before the internet. Kids played outside.

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

We just went over this on the Xennial sub lol.

It was REALLY BORING ... like MOST of the time.

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DerangedGinger@reddit

Was it though? I spent a lot of time just hanging with my homies. Lying under the stars. Exploring the woods. Ding dong ditch. Exploring abandoned buildings while our moms drank wine coolers. Dungeons and dragons.

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

yeah and those moments came at the expense of insanely brain destroying rote memorization based study at school in a world with no internet or smartphones, blistering late 80s and early 90s summers in the midwest with no A/C, nearly every person having a small mind of garbage because again no internet, constant threat of nuclear annihilation that even children were subject to, comparatively barbaric medicine, it wasn't a better world just a different mix of shit

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1981Reborn@reddit

I miss your previous comment. When things made sense.

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

lol

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westgazer@reddit

In some ways it was better, though. It’ okay if people think that having a childhood not glued to a smartphone and 24/7 connected is better.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

That's simply because in many ways it was so much better.

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1981Reborn@reddit

Fair. The nostalgia worship around here gets fucking in tents.

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eastmemphisguy@reddit

We def had AC in the late 80s/early 90s.

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

yeah having it and your parents running it at a level that made a difference or at all is a different story lol

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BalrogRuthenburg11@reddit

We had AC but my mom wouldn’t turn it on until mid August when we couldn’t bear the heat any longer.

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

yeah that was about as good as it got but, by then we were spending every summer day at the local pool in the sun and we were used to it because the school wasn't big on A/C either

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BalrogRuthenburg11@reddit

The yearly membership for the local pool was too expensive, so my parents never got one. I don’t know what it cost back then, but I checked last year and it’s $800 now. The closest free pool was about 20 minutes away.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Fortunately we had pool passes in our apartment complex and even better was the fact that the pool was located right outside our particular building.

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

We were lucky, my grandfather was a mason and member of the local business club, and they owned the community pool, so we got discount passes. Also it was pretty affordable.

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Intensityintensifies@reddit

Lmao. So much privilege.

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pixelpheasant@reddit

My Mom suddenly starting to demand its use should have clued us all in to her starting perimenopause... but, you know, "we" don't give a F about women's health ... dark secrets of the universe there

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ILikeBumblebees@reddit

Growing up in Florida, I don't think I can remember ever visiting a house -- or any kind of building, actually -- that didn't have air conditioning.

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eastmemphisguy@reddit

I went to a really old elementary school that only had it in the office, library, and portables. It was miserable, but they would give us half days on hot days in September and May, and of course no school at all in June, July, or August.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Ohh man do i remember in grade school how we had an end of the year outting to this local park but we had to walk from the school to the park which was quite a hike in and of itself. Meanwhile some staff members would simply take their cars instead and would simply meet the rest of us there.

Those were definitely some good times though.

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PrepperLargely@reddit

When it was hot we'd play in sprinklers

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westgazer@reddit

Sounds weirdly specific, plenty of people used A/C. Living in CA in triple digit summers would have been pretty unbearable. The internet is not helping the “people’s heads filled with garbage” problem btw. It’s made it a lot worse.

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DerangedGinger@reddit

I was poor and we had window A/C in our duplex. School was easy mode, but maybe I'm built different. I didn't need the internet not to be backwards and racist despite my duplex being in the rural Midwest. My neighborhors were a mix of ethnicities and socioeconomic class.

I don't know where you grew up, but it sounds like it sucks.

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

I grew up lower middle class in the midwest. My parents told me to go play in the wooded creek if it was too hot. We had a house with central A/C but they wouldn't run it most summers. Dad worked outside every day. Mom had an office with a window A/C to do paperwork and if we were good we could play on the old computer in there.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

Ding dong ditch was really boring.

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DerangedGinger@reddit

You didn't prank the right people.

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Tiny-Reading5982@reddit

Boring? Nah. We still had TV and Nintendo

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

yeah but they were inside where there wasn't A/C

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Tiny-Reading5982@reddit

We had ac in the south.

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westgazer@reddit

Yeah idk why this person is acting like nobody in the US had A/C simply because they had weird parents.

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Tiny-Reading5982@reddit

They are certainly in the minority here. We didn't have central ac until I was in 10th grade, but we had window units. I do remember when we first moved to VA from Florida, and our upstairs rooms didn't have a window unit yet, and it was so hot. I would get a wet wash cloth with ice to keep cool.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Whereabouts in va were you? I relocated from Washington DC to nova in spring of 82. Unlike our apartment in DC we fortunately had AC in our apartment in nova.

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Tiny-Reading5982@reddit

Norfolk

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

My older brother resides in va Beach right now.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

I don’t know if it even counts when not having AC can be officially qualified as attempted suicide.

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westgazer@reddit

No it wasn’t.

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Sorry-Joke-4325@reddit

"If you're bored then you're boring."

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illinoishokie@reddit

Kids play outside now.

Source: Have kids

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maringue@reddit

Of course they do, but it is different. I think pretty much everyone our age had their parents say "Go out and play, come back when the street lights turn on" or something similar. The police show up to your house for that now.

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ChrisAplin@reddit

I think that’s less common because of the buildup of suburbs. The common suburb doesn’t have shit for kids to do and they are far from anything fun.

I grew up in an old style suburb that was just outside the city center — was close to things I could bike to etc.

I now live in a development and there just isn’t much nearby when you don’t have a car.

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Sugar_Fuelled_God@reddit

This is honestly a false sentiment, I grew up in a town where there was literally "nothing to do" that was aimed at kids, we spent our time making foxholes down by the creek in the reeds, riding all the way out of town to the local state park then jumping off boulders, making mud slides, running through the bush with sticks pretending to play army, the things we done were so much more fun than anything I've ever experienced on a computer, and I've had computers and games since I was born, with commodores, Atari's, Sega's, Nintendo's, and all that, I even built my first XT PC when I was 11, sure there's been great games, but nothing beats digging out roads in the dirt to make a functional town to drive the matchbox cars around, or cutting out squares of ice cream container to attach to our bicycles so they sounded like motorbikes, or the best, decorating my helmet Top Gun style as Joker and riding around with my mates Maverick and Goose.

I had all aspects of growing up, my friends and I petitioned the council when we were 16 to get a skate park built here, to get the old quarry turned into a BMX track and upgrade the local "park" so it actually had swings and stuff instead of just a picnic table, so the "kids" would have more to do than we did, and they all happened. But the BMX track was shut down 6 years later because no one used it, the skate park became a hangout for bullies and druggos for years until CCTV drove everyone away and now it's under consideration for redevelopment, and the council sold off 80% of the park to developers and are now considering selling the rest because it's barely used.

The best fun is the fun you make, not the fun that's provided for you.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Yeah. The shift to consumer electronics and especially cellphones marketed to children spelled the beginning of the end for the creative and imaginative play that made things so special to us back when we were growing up in the 70s and 80s.

My nephew was born in 97,just when this shift from playing outdoors to focusing on consumer electronics was just beginning so his childhood was markedly different from the one that I experienced.

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westgazer@reddit

Yeah I grew up in the suburbs as a kid and there wasn’t much to do but we literally just road bikes and managed to make our own fun. Playing outside WAS the fun.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Exactly!!!

Being outside just enjoying ourselves in whatever way was possible was precisely the whole point of the experience.

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ILikeBumblebees@reddit

Lots of kides grew up in those kinds of suburbs in the '80s and '90s, and still played outside, rode their bikes around, etc.

It wasn't strange to bike for miles all over town. I got my first job as a teenager in the mid-'90s, and rode my bike to and from work, six miles from home.

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illinoishokie@reddit

Yes, we definitely don't neglect our kids as much as our parents neglected us. No question.

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MightyCaseyStruckOut@reddit

My mom just told me to be home by 9 haha

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Le_Sadie@reddit

I watched a LOT of tv

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Lil_Brown_Bat@reddit

I still do, but now the Internet is required for TV.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Only if you take part in that streaming crap.

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MightyCaseyStruckOut@reddit

I played a LOT of video games. I still do, but I used to, too.

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Le_Sadie@reddit

I just hacked my ps2 and it's the best decision I've ever made. All the games I couldn't afford (usually jrpgs which were crazy expensive) at my fingertips. I'm having flashbacks of seeing these games on shelves and now I'm enjoying them more than I could ever enjoy some shiny new, AAA studio game that requires an internet connection and was released unfinished and full of bugs with nonstop microtrasactions.

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xt0rt@reddit

Oh man when a coworker at CompUSA told me about modding my PlayStation and being able to play Japanese wrestling games (for free-ish) it changed my whole world. I took my PS down to the local game shop and they chipped it while I was at work and I picked it up omw home that night.

I had always been into the 7 seas as far as the PC world goes, but bringing that to the console realm really turbocharged it.

Months later I bought a z64 which let you copy N64 games to zip disks, and a bit after that I chipped my PS2. 🎶Those were the days🎶

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Le_Sadie@reddit

Yeah I always hacked my handhelds (ds, 3ds, psp, vita) but generally left the consoles alone until a spurt of depression required me to take up a hobby fast. I had to pretty much learn everything from scratch bc I'm not a technical person but bit by bit I hacked it, added the ps2 emulator, all the homebrew bells and whistles and it was a blast.

A sense of accomplishment and a bunch of games as a reward

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SurfNTurf1983@reddit

I used to as well but that was after I'd done 20ks on the bike checking all my local surf breaks and then surfed for 6 hours. Not to mention playing 4 different sports throughout the week as well.

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Sp0rk-R2@reddit

I remember pre-internet days. I miss being able to not feel connected and “seen” by technology all the time. I miss being able to completely disconnect from everyone to recharge. Now I just feel completely exposed by social media, GPS tracking, random texts and calls at any time and the need to always see what’s going on everywhere else.

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gardeniaphoto4@reddit

I sometimes think of my friends and I sitting around a table at one of my high school dances. I think about how our attention wasn't being pulled away by cell phones. We were experiencing things completely in the moment.

Nowadays I hang out with people in their 40s and 50s. I think we do a good job of focusing on interacting with people in person, but it's not the same. You glance at your phone whenever you hear a ping from a text or someone whips a phone out to show you the funny short video they saw the other day....

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

It was without a doubt a very unique time back then because we were all connected on a much more personal level back then.

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BrattyTwilis@reddit

There was more playing outside and hanging out with the neighborhood kids

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Yeah and I for one am grateful to have spent my childhood in that bygone era.

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gardeniaphoto4@reddit

I agree: I have a hard time imagining the Internet/social media being there my entire life. I guess it's like how television has always been around for us.

At the same time, each time I try to remember the pre-Internet days, the memory becomes harder and harder to grasp, if that makes sense.

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Ok_Kaleidoscope_6442@reddit

One thing I have a hard time remembering is how we found our way to places before Mapquest. There were maps but I don’t remember using them often. I feel like I used the map in the yellow pages more. Then there were times you had to rely on verbal directions and some people were terrible at it. I do remember getting lost a lot. We must have been more prepared before leaving the house and going somewhere unfamiliar but I don’t remember it being a problem whereas I’m not sure how well I’d handle that now.

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marle217@reddit

I learned how to drive a few years before Mapquest. We had actual books for maps, for our state, county, etc. The county map book actually had the individual streets in an appendix, so you could look up the street alphabetically and find the exact page you needed. If you were going on a trip, you could go to AAA and get books on where you are going that would include maps and directions and tourist attractions.

Honestly it was better than the Mapquest era, because you had to be prepared, and you had all the tools to be prepared. If you got lost, you'd pull over, take out your maps, and figure out where you are. With Mapquest, if you missed one turn, you'd have no way to get new directions or find out where you were. I spent so much time lost in my 20s because I set out with just a mapquest printout and no other maps

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

Yeah and that's one of the things which made long distance road trips so special. It wasn't just a trip, it was an adventure.

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tymme@reddit

Family vacations with a lot of AAA Triptiks.

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Shirkaday@reddit

I don't know about other parts of the country, but in the Dalas-Fort Worth metroplex, MAPSCO books were extremely popular, to the point that people and businesses would have their address, and then like"Mapsco 22N" or whatever the page/grid was.

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icy_sylph@reddit

It was a lot of ‘take 96 east until exit 9 and turn right. Go down until you see the big sign with the foot on it, the road after that is highland. Take a left on highland until you see ‘shady plains’ on the right. Once you’re there, we’re the third house on the left—white siding’

Or for businesses, calling them and getting ‘do you know where joes hardware is? We’re in the same plaza’ or ‘just past the diner on main street’

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

Apart from the things you already mentioned, you made sure to get very precise directions before leaving.

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illinoishokie@reddit

We got to watch the world change as we came of age. Never take for granted how incredible that is. We remember a pre-internet world, but we grew up with the internet. Not meaning we had it when we grew up; we grew up alongside the internet. We remember AOL and Yahoo chatrooms. We remember ICQ and Winamp and Napster. We remember Hampster Dance and Rotten.com and just all the crazy shit that was on the early internet. And not how our parents or older siblings remember it, as some newfangled what-the-fuck-is-this? disruption to our adult lives, but as something that came along as we were developing into the people we'd eventually become. And since we weren't old and cranky yet, we embraced it and made it our own. We made Geocities pages for fun and thought we were hot shit if ours had a countdown widget to whatever it is we were looking forward to. But we remembered when we didn't have it. We realized it was an awesome new thing that confused the shit out of our parents. We navigated the paradigm shift. We got to experience something that very few people get to experience.

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OppositeRun6503@reddit

That's just it.

Because it was a novelty it took off instantly. I remember how much better things were before the internet however because there wasn't the peer pressure of group conformity (following the herd) just for the sake of impressing others.

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SharpyButtsalot@reddit

gif

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IkajoFxXkQs&t=8s&pp=2AEIkAIB

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RobDude80@reddit

Gotta give a shoutout to Dancing Baby! It’s funny how much I loved AOL Instant Messenger but can’t stand getting text after text during the day now. Dial up internet sucked, but it was way better when my internet access was in one dedicated room instead of on me all the time.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

Is there any point in my looking up this hamster dance or is it exactly what you’d predict?

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Ok_Assistant_3682@reddit

Honestly I bet it is something that Z would enjoy.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

Oh no, I do know that one!

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FoppyDidNothingWrong@reddit

The internet is a goofy toy. It's crazy that it's people's life.

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Epicardiectomist@reddit

Yes, and it's so troubling that I'm currently working on adjusting my life so I'm not so suffocated by modern times. I've started putting my phone down and treating it like a telephone rather than a way to pass time. I've been reading more, working on music more, and just generally spending less time looking at it. When I go for my 2 mile walk at night I leave my phone at home as it gives me a glorious 40ish minutes to be completely untethered from the modern world.

It was fun for a while, but enough is enough.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

I’ve heard that walking at night can get you wired and make it harder to sleep; anyway, you might want to at least have the phone on you. What if something happens and you need to dial 911?

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Epicardiectomist@reddit

It's the opposite for me, if I don't walk my RLS will keep me awake all night.

if it was 20 years ago, I wouldn't have a phone on me and wouldn't have even thought to have one. I play the odds; statistically, I'm going to be fine. If something happens, I'll deal with it then. I do keep my license on me in case I end up headless and handless or something, so they can identify my corpse.

Life needs some edge. Without the threat of death there's no reason to live.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

Buddy, there’s a risk of death anytime you’re sitting around the house staring off into space. No one ever really knows.

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Cloud_Disconnected@reddit

I can remember being fascinated that my parents could remember the world before TV and air conditioning. It's no different from that.

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Shirkaday@reddit

Yep, that's how I see it.

We don't know a world without TV, or even radio, electricity and phones if they were rural.

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Cloud_Disconnected@reddit

Yeah, my grandparents grew up with indoor plumbing or electricity.

I work in IT, so I like to think I'll keep up with things better than some. AI has a short window before it gets completely shitted up with monetization, but right now it's a big help in my job.

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mittenkrusty@reddit

A big thing for me was the shift in saying whatever you want and getting away with it which then got far worse when social media took over in the 2010's onwards.

Before that I remember because of face to face arguments they could often at very least have an "agree to disagree" in that as it was face to face you could explain things even better and people would realise someone didn't mean offense or something came out wrong etc, and even if they did say something you didn't agree with once they explained it became now they understood what you were saying you backed off.

I often hear Gen Z age people confused to why people liked to go to rental stores, malls etc when online is so much easier and don't realise the actual browsing experience and meeting and talking to people is fun.

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FigureFourWoo@reddit

I remember the exact moment I got the internet. It was such a major event in my life. People born after that just grew up in households where it already existed, especially if they had older siblings.

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nochumplovesucka__@reddit

I remember magazine racks in bathrooms.

Which to think about it now, is so dirty and disgusting.

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diamondsnrose@reddit

They were born into a world with internet. Why would they see the world the same way we see it? Our grandparents didn't have international highways, but we can't imagine that a cross country trip takes 2 months. Same thing.

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greaterwhiterwookiee@reddit

Well I know this: without the internet, I wouldn’t have a job.

And that scares me every day

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KinopioToad@reddit

I don't want to sound like a Boomer, but we played outside. We went to our friend's houses, for hours on end, to play outside over there. We played board games, card games, dice games, etc..

We had our electronic devices, sure, but they were tethered to the walls: the game systems weren't very portable until the GameCube came out (for me, anyway). Nobody else I knew had a Gameboy, and even then, we didn't have wifi back then. Only two players could play any one game, through the use of the link cable. And for the longest time, all I had was Tetris that I could play two player with. Until Pokémon came out..

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Ethel_Marie@reddit

I'm willing to bet none of us have experienced not having electricity and indoor plumbing. Not saying this is equal, but it's something everyone experiences.

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Taanistat@reddit

Yes, it's natural for them just like TV was a natural part of life for us but not our grandparents.

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travistyle@reddit

Here's what I want to know... Who had ever had to find a remote destination using a detailed Atlas.

I was a grip for Prairie Public Television in North Dakota, and I've been to some pretty small towns just as Mapquest was taking root. I had an old school producer who had an atlas of North Dakota, and that's how we got around.

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pixelpheasant@reddit

Was at "Hammer Barn" this evening, and ... I forget the title and am too lazy, but the song that goes 🎶How's it going to be / when you don't know me / anymore / How's it going to be (do do do)🎶 played ... and I thought, "is that even possible anymore?" Like, it's hella hard to just fade out completely these days.

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The-Riskiest-Biscuit@reddit

Gen Z and Alpha must feel like the Atreides twins from Children of Dune. Like “Oh sxxt, you guys only remember one lifetime that’s your own? That’s crazy”, but… y’know… with Wi-Fi and fidget spinners.

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Gsquat@reddit

My best childhood memories were definitely pre-Internet. Much simpler and authentic experiences. Everything that happened was real and tangible. Nothing virtual.

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HouseOfAplesaus@reddit

I was just thinking about my rural craw dad woods trekking as a 10 year old treehouse hey is that a weed patch in my neighbors corn field (whatever that stinky sticky shit is) life. Other neighbor blasted on moonshine laid up on his still running tractor from yesterday on my walk to school bus heavy fog mornings? Hell yes I remember it.

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Infamous-Thought-765@reddit

I remember being annoyed I had to use the internet for school. Probably for research. Too much work learning something new.

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NopeYupWhat@reddit

I remember my girlfriend paging me. I skateboard for three blocks to a pay phone for her to ask what I’m doing. I’m hitting these streets, geeez.🤣.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)

Some of you seem to have done that thing people do where they only read what’s in a post’s image and not a single word of the text. After I’ve seen that enough times my paranoid little mind starts to wonder about convincing bots and Dead Internet Theory again.