The "pre-internet" times
The "pre-internet" times
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From the Atlantic article they link:
I cannot overemphasize how little there was to do before we all had smartphones. A barren expanse of empty time would stretch out before you: waiting for the bus, or for someone to come home, or for the next scheduled event to start. Someone might be late or take longer than expected, but no notice of such delay would arrive, so you’d stare out the window, hoping to see some sign of activity down the block. You’d pace, or sulk, or stew.
Dude, read a book. What the fuck?
I don't have a smartphone and am happy to answer any other questions.
seriously, I would bring a book wherever I went. these people are intellectual voids
Earlier in the Axios thing they talk about people watching Friends and Seinfeld to understand the before times. But they're forgetting Elaine aghast at Puddy for not reading on a plane. "You're just gonna sit there, staring at the back of the seat?" "Yeah."
Puddy was just idlemaxxing
You'd be surprised how little most people actually read books.
I feel alone even in a crowded room
Books, sketchpads, knitting or some other portable craft, table games like flick football and pocket chess, crystal radios. Plenty to do to pass time. There’s nothing on my phone that’s new.
Boomers, Gen Xers and elder millennials are now the last people who remember what it was like to use a pay phone, a paper map, a typewriter, etc. — and they're being rapidly outnumbered by younger adults who don't.
younger millennials and even elder zoomers remember those things, at least the pay phones if nothing else
I'm a YM and I've used all of those things
Typewriters? I'm an elder zoomer and we had computer class and big personal computers to type on when I was a young kid.
yeah we never used typewriters in school either. I just used one bc my parents had it
the other stuff though was standard
I’m an older millennial and I’ve be never used a typewriter. Think I’ve only seen them in museums
My Grandma had a Word Processor (hardware, not software) for years after she got a PC. She just liked using it and mailing personal letters to family.
An IBM Selectric is the last one I ever used. Meanwhile, I’ve had internet since ‘88 and a family computer in the home since ‘85. I’m described as elder Millinial, but I prefer Digitally Native Gen X frankly.
Damn you had internet in ‘88? We didn’t get it until around ‘94.. around 6th or 7th grade for me. Been hooked since!
I think I may be the same age as you. I’m ‘82 but my 2000 graduating class was ‘81-‘82 kids.
I’m actually just a bit younger than you. We had it because my dad worked at Bell Labs and Scientific Atlanta way back when, so we could get the hook ups and build out whatever computing or network machinery we needed at the time. It was like sci-fi legos learning it as I grew up. It was great!
My dad worked at Bell South in Atlanta lol. My perk was having a cell phone since ‘97
StarTAC! Then I had a Nokia 5100 when I went to college with a blue airbrushed lighting faceplate so it looked like the cover of Ride the Lightning. I might have made three total calls between the two of them and never texted, only partly because it was 10 cents a text.
My friends all had pagers so my phone was the lifeline so they didn’t have to use a pay phone if we were out. I don’t think I ever texted until the iPhone came out.
Ride the lightning album cover is one of the best covers of all time! Also liked and justice for all cover too and master of puppets wasn’t bad either. They must have run out of ideas by the time the black album was released lol
Do you have some kind of portable device that allows others to instantaneously reach you?
I do have a dumb phone, but I have disabled texting.
I don’t like how the author said this, I but kinda agree with what they are getting at. Any time I’m in a line or waiting for something, I just pull out my phone and amuse myself. Before smart phones, in those situations I was usually just alone with my thoughts. I’m now at the point that being alone with my thoughts can make me a bit fidgety and uncomfortable.
As if the same people who get angry at you for looking at your phone wouldn’t also beat the shit out of you if you pulled out a book. As if you could just pull out a book in line. Do you carry a backpack literally everywhere? Most people don’t, hence what the author said.
Also, reading a book takes quite a bit more commitment, and you’re a little less connected to the environment when you do it.
There are a lot of books that are pocket-sized, and many people carry purses. I don't have a book every time I'm in line at the grocery store, but for the examples the author uses - "waiting for the bus, or for someone to come home, or for the next scheduled event to start" - yes, of course I'll have a book with me.
No one's beaten the shit out of me for it yet. (Some folk did look askance at me at a wedding once.) But we're not even talking about "people who get angry at you for looking at your phone," we're talking about people who pretend they have no idea how humans ever functioned without phones.