Men of reddit who were alive during the dinosaur age. How was life before the internet?

29 comments

  4. In many ways, it was nicer than it is today.

    When I was a kid, we went outside and played.

    Now, kids stare at a fucking screen and exercise their thumbs all day.

  6. You called your crushes house and her parents answered and you got to hear her tell her mom in the background to tell you she wasn’t home.

  7. Internet didn’t really arrive til I was late 20’s and even then it wasn’t anything like it is now. Queue shrieking robot noises when going online.

    National Geographic’s and the Sears catalogue were the wank material until you were either lucky enough to find the stash of playboys or penthouses or old enough to buy them.

    Watched a lot of scrambled cable channels…

    Calling a girl was Russian Roulette. Good chance you got a parent who answered the phone.

    We would just answer phones without even knowing who was on the other end.

    Even despite the low key threat of Nuclear war hanging over our heads, without social media or 24hr news channels life seemed safer and simpler. I thank the universe there wasn’t social media when I was growing up. Can’t even imagine what kids have to deal with now.

    I could actually work on my own car I had in high school and University. It was a car, not a high tech computer with wheels we have now. I still kinda shake my head when I took my current car in and the fix was downloading a software patch.

    Seems like literally everybody smoked. My Mom was the only adult I knew as a kid that didn’t smoke. In high-school we literally had a place called the Quad where everyone went to smoke on breaks/lunch. Teachers smoked in their break room. My PE teacher used to send us on runs, then drive behind us in his car smoking.

    Cancer was pretty much a death sentence. Got 3 of my Grandparents who probably would have survived with the treatments they have now.

    All that said things are pretty amazing now and better in a lot of ways then when I was growing up.

  8. Well, I can’t take too much offense to the caveman analogy… as children we had “rock wars” throughout the neighborhood. Basically, all the kids would go out side and hurl rocks at each other. It was good fun. But for fuck sake, I’m only 40, lol.

  9. Couldn’t “Google” anything, so we relied on our best informed friends and the library for information..

  10. A lot of bb guns, bike riding, fist fights, skateboarding, drinking, porno mags.

    Imagine staying out until the street lights came on. Like as in you could go play outside in the street or go to your friends house and be there all day with no one asking where you are at, etc…

  12. Played outside.
    Built memories.
    Played video games.
    Did loads of wild stuff and theres no digital proof to get me in trouble.

    Way better times.

  13. People called you to see if you wanted to do something or they just came over and knocked on your door and hoped you were home.

  14. You had to buy a book of maps for your state or region. the only way to figure out where you were going was to plan out your trip on a map, or to get directions from someone who had them.

  16. I can’t speak to dinosaur days, but I can tell you the worst part of the transition was pagers. Driving down the freeway and having to pull off and find a payphone only for your buddy to say “hey bro. What’s up?”

  18. Someone once said that if people had more access to information than they would be smarter but clearly that’s not true!

  19. You actually had to leave your house if you wanted anything, you used this thing called the encyclopedia for information, and if you wanted to speak to anyone, you had to pick up the phone and talk to them. The conversations can range from 10minutes to two hours. Of TALKING.

  21. Honestly, pretty fucking great. I’m so happy I got all the way to adulthood before social media was added to the mix.

  22. Children and parents weren’t so overcome with pathetic types of anxiety and fear (despite the world being objectively more dangerous back then, including the threat of actual war).

    This meant that parents had more fun and it was much less common to treat your kids like a personal project or a source of constant anxiety. They would tell their kids off, give them at least some boundaries, but also let them play and be free in ways that seem foreign now.

    It also meant kids were less depressed and (for example) could do basic human things like answer a phone call, ask someone out in person, go to someone’s house to see if they’re home and want to play, go BMXing or hang out in groups at someone’s house and actually interact with each other.

    The internet has actually made people more dependent, pathetic and – the big one – dumber.

    I had high hopes for the Internet.

  23. I made real friends and i didnt have to worry about what others thought about my pictures let alone needing to know what bullshit they were doing that day or other stupid drama.

  24. Going out playing at 7 in the morning and coming home 12 hours later to your mom like “Oh, you’re still alive.. Anyways, dinner’s ready.”

  26. A lot better actually. Stupid people didn’t voice their opinions as much and were mostly ignored. Cancel culture wasn’t a thing and people actually had the humility to experience shame.

  27. It wasnt kids jumping out of bed, tearing open the curtains to kids playing outside. We still played a lot of computer games and watched a lot of tv. The issue was TV for the most part in the 80’s and 90’s was absolute shit. You’d flick around over and over, ended up so bored you’d settle for something which you dont do today.

    If you were an introvert life was hard. You probably only had 1 or 2 friends and didnt socialize much so you spent most day indoors. The internet is an introverts sanctuary, a way of escaping that simply didnt exist pre-90’s.

  28. Having to use a paper map was the most memorable difference. The person in the passenger seat on trips often had navigation duties that requires vigilance to make sure you didn’t miss a turn.

    As a GenXer…. The rumors were true. We really did disappear from the house all day and only had to be home by dark with no way for the parents to know that we were playing in a construction site…. Or what we were lighting on fire. Other kids missed out badly if their parents didn’t let them out.

    You memorized a lot of phone numbers. Nothing crazy that you did got caught on camera. Getting porn was just as hard for a minor as getting alcohol…. But cigarettes were a lot easier.

    If you wanted something that wasn’t in a store…. It took forever to get. I remember wanting a specific book, so I had to send a letter and a check through the mail… Wait for the order to process…. And then wait several more weeks for the book to finally arrive

    Speaking of books in the mail. Getting a new order catalog for things you were actually interested in was a huge treat. Let’s just say you ordered a replica sword. It was pretty awesome when the place you ordered from sent you their yearly order catalog so you could look through it.

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