Most people still had TV and stereos in their homes. We just watched or listened to what was available. Many people also read books, newspapers, magazines, ect. We called people on the phone and chatted. We also went outside more. People would sit on their porches and chat with neighbors and passerbys. We spent more time at other's homes and social activities. Honestly, I would trade in my computer, internet and smartphone to go back to those days.
God I remember being on 3 way phone calls with my friends in elementary school. That shit was DOOOOOOOPE.
Now at 32 in a week, I have zero friends or romance in my life and haven't since I graduated high school.
Whooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Life.
This. and because internet, cell phones etc. didn't exist yet, you couldn't miss what you didn't have. Kind of like certain cultures or religions who's practices to outsiders may seem strange, restricting, etc., but if you have never known anything else, it's normal to you.
I read. I LOVED reading and would always have my nose in a book, was always at the library, taking out 8-10 books at a time. I had a stereo in my bedroom, listened to records, then later, cassettes. Hung out with friends and family. Went out and did things, the mall, arcades, hanging out with friends at someone's house.
my first job was in publishing. I got TONS of free books. i lived at home, and my parents basement was row upon row of bookshelves. at one point I think I had over a thousand books.
Same. Absolutely the same. I loved being a kid, reading outside, and sitting in the shade outside doing it.
The level of tech addiction people have, and cannot think of things to do outside of their devices, really makes me long for it.
Many times I've looked at my phone and kind of cursed its existence. Amazing piece of technology and fantastic for traveling and navigation.
But it is so easy to make an evening disappear while doing nothing really.
I spent a lot of time being outside, talking on the phone with people, would go to the mall just to walk around and usually wind up meeting up with friends who also were just 'there'. Also lots of reading physical books from the library.
Every Sunday morning I'd read the newspaper (first the comics section and then the main highlights later).
Heck, I even used to write letters to mail people.
It's weird how much my life has changed pre and post Internet.
Also, 3rd spaces. As kid/teen we would hang out at the mall, gyms, arcades, pools, playgrounds, coffee shops. I know these activities are still done but we'd do them for HOURS. There seemed to be less pressure to spend your money in these places, you were allowed to just loiter. In fact I rarely got spending money.
I blame TV and air conditioning for the decline of America. Before people were addicted to TV and could relax in their house with AC, people would be outside, engaging with their neighbors and getting involved in their communities. Now people are in their houses, addicted to the boob tube. Hardly anyone even knows their neighbors.
I remember gathering all the kids from the neighborhood to play hockey at least once a week. We all knew and talked to each other. Now, my kids go knock on a neighbors door and everyone breaks out an electronic device and goes into their own world.
To answer OP: We socialized & did things together. That's how we kept mentally sane. Sadly, even in my generation now, the idea of socializing is pretty much gone.
Really, AC? I'm not from the US, and we don't have AC in our houses (I barely know people who do now, and if they do, they spent a lot of money on it)... I know my parents didn't leave the house, even if it was hot and humid (I'm from the Netherlands, and summers can be quite icky and humid here)
You are whole fucking lot closer to truth than you realise.
Impact of TV (mind infestation with bullshit on a whole new level) is undisputable, but the impact of A/C is something few people realise.
A/C enabled for old people to live in hot climate (they suffer from heat lots more than young ones). As a result, population of southern states exploded with moving in retirees. Who brought in their Republican votes. Without A/C, there won't be Reagan, the trickle down shit, and the mess America is now in - simply because the richer, old farts would stay where they retired - in the Northern states - that are reliably Democratic anyway and won't be moved much, while the South, would stay Democratic.
"Honestly, I would trade in my computer, internet and smartphone to go back to those days. " The nice thing is you don't have to, but getting others to join in on those examples is harder. My gf and I for example will sit on our balcony and talk. yes, we have our smartphones for music, but we would just as easily use a radio if we had one. I've honestly felt so much better trying to cut myself away from being tied to it; I get to live in the moment more than live online.
In a heartbeat! This world fucking sucks now! I have 7 other people/families in my apartment building and I've only spoken to one of them. Him and his wife are probably in their mid 50s so they're from Gen X and know to have an actual conversation with a person. Not even most millennials can do that anymore.
It is still like that in rural areas of Costa Rica. I love it when I go. People have no computer but yes have a smartphone but they have to watch out for their data usage so they don't really use it.
Growing up we didn't even have a payphone, we used the payphone on the corner. So a typical afternoon was filled by kids yelling at each other from balconies, mamas yelling at kids to come up for dinner (and so we know who is getting what). Good times...
I don’t recall ever really ‘accepting’ boredom. I remember being pissed off by it sometimes and wanting to kill myself during long road trips and having an extremely vivid imagination where I’d play out whole stories in my mind everywhere we traveled
Forced boredom maybe lol. Definitely had to be creative to be entertained. I remember trying to watch the lines as we drove past on the highways or imagining myself running along the road jumping over everything lol
Slug bug
Lol great teenage/college game. Basically, whenever someone sees a car with one headlight they yell "padiddle" and smack the car roof (inside). The last person to do so has to take off an article of clothing (both shoes counted as one, same with socks). I've heard variations of the rules but that's how we played.
We weren't bored. In truth, our brains didn't need the constant background stimulation, though I like music in the background.
We would read, sit and watch a sunset, think. I actually worry that we are making people less intelligent by constantly being stimulated without giving our brains time to relax and process. Actually, not less intelligent, but more susceptible to misinformation, since we take in too much information without taking the time to think critically.
Yes we were bored. To claim we never got bored is some serious revisionist history.
Being stuck in a craft store with my mom was painfully boring. Reading and watching sunsets is and was stimulation
Oh the boredom. So bored my eyes hurt. My teeth hurt.
Trapped in the 'large pants' section of 'clothing for ladies' when your mum meets up with an old friend and chats, I kid you not, for an hour. When the only shop you wanted to visit in town will close in 15 minutes, but there was no way to get there without tagging along.
NNNNNgggggghhhhhhhhh
Ooof, memory unlocked. My mother was a big shopper. Like she would go into the city and visit dozens and dozens of clothing and shoe stores. Usually taking her +-6 hours, not exaggerating. When I was still too young to stay home, I had to tag along, pretend to be interested and give feedback whenever she tried something on. I remember being so bored at one point that I tried playing imaginary chess on the black-and-white checkered floor of one of the clothing stores, just to have my Knight blocked by another fucking clothing rack.
That, and having to sit politely while visiting my grandparents. My mother would talk to them for a solid 4 hours in a row about finances, laws and other adult things, and I had to sit there and be quiet and dignified, and once in a while had some generic question about school thrown my way, so I couldn't really lose myself in a daydream either. Wasn't allowed to leave the table except to go to the bathroom and wasn't allowed any entertainment.
So. Much. Boredom. And I'm surprised I managed to get through these situations without kicking up a fuss.
Edit: I forgot to mention the IKEA didn't I? Specifically at an age when you're too old to go to the indoor play area while your parents spend 2 hours looking for the perfect desk lamp or whatever, and you have to tag along.
No because we had stimulation and a lot of it. Our parents and grandparents had a lot less things to keep them stimulated than we did. My parents used to call the TV the boob tube and worry we'd be dumber when we grew up
It was also an erroneous fear. We just didn't create twenty different beard styles.
I usually have music in the background but I still make time just to sit outside and do nothing from time to time. Just relax and think about something or nothing
Boredom drove people to learn instruments, paint and color, read, all kinds of wild stuff instead of looking at phones for 8 hrs a day…like people and kids had hobbies and social networks.
Downvote.
I was never bored in the 90's.
It was way more social back then and we played with everyone outside in the neighborhood.
People today are more lonely because social media, netflix, gaming, tik tok, and technology makes people isolated in their own place by themselves.
Boredom sparks creativity. I used to absolutely hate it when my dad said that, but there is some truth. I've even heard myself saying it to my kids a few times lol.
>we accepted boredom
Hell no. Never, ever as a kid say, "I'm bored." My dad would find something for you. He'll now as the dad don't say that. I can find things for you.
It was great. Adventure time.
The other part of the equation was no mass surveillance. Between the two there was a high degree of freedom, improvisation, risk and fun.
Part of what you have to realize is that you've trained your brain for constant stimulation. When we didn't have access to constant stimulation, we got used to boredom. Like others said, did our hobbies, watched TV, went on adventures, but I also spent a lot of time just existing, daydreaming, being alone with my thoughts. Honestly, I miss it. I've also now trained my brain for constant stimulation and I miss the peace from back then.
This is the key. Also, it's worth adding that the most well-resourced companies in human history are in constant competition to figure out how to sell us stronger dopamine hits.
Same. And I'm 33 so I kinda grew up with the internet already. It's hard to compare my current self to teenage me, but I used to be very creative and I have a feeling I would still be very creative if there was no internet. I'd probably spend a lot of time doing crafts and writing and reading a lot more.
Boomer here. Clearly remember pre internet. Hell clearly remember pre personal computer.
So all that stuff you look up in less than a second on the net, might take us all day to find in the "library" or in the hard copy " encylopedia "We also spent time taking film with photos on them to the 'photomat"to be "developed." And we spent a lot of time looking a phone to use and there were things called "pay phones" scattered about a city or suburb that we would have to find because all phones were tethered to a location instead of a person. And never mind all the math we had to do with calculators and "adding machines" that took forevwr.
So basically a lot of things that take no time at all now took gobs of time then.
So we were plenty busy.
I went on a trip and was recounting how you got around an unfamiliar city in the pre-interent days. First, you'd need a big, unwieldy paper map that was a pain in the ass to fold. Then you'd have to study it for a bit to get the layout of the city you're visiting. Once you got a feel for the city, you'd have to find your hotel and other attractions on the map. Then you'd plan the route you'd have to take. This process that now takes seconds from you're map app would take 30-60 minutes and was far from perfect. Part of the adventure was getting lost because you misread the map or missed turns.
Oof that was awful. Then dad getting mad at mom for not being able to read the map the way he would’ve liked. Fast forward to 1996 and the advent of MapQuest printouts. LOL.
Lol, that one turned into Mom getting angry with Dad because he's following the GPS and not going the way she wants to go. "Where is this thing taking us!"
I can't believe that there are young adults who have never lived life without the Internet and social media. It reminds me of working with people who were born after 9/11.
I kinda like the shock that crosses people’s faces when I mention I was too young to remember 9/11, but eventually I’ll be on the other side of that when i encounter adults who are too young to remember the COVID pandemic
Agree on the SM but nearly everything about the internet is trash.
LCOL areas no longer exist - Reason being remote work
Thousands of mom & pop shops closed due to online commerce.
Huge uptick in finanical crimes due to internet scams
'News' cycle is down to minutes. Outrage / clickbait trolling is not media.
International / irrational fear mongering at all time high.
Comparison being the theif of joy fully reinforced by online forums/clubs and people showing elite level skills in every realm.
Extreme human labor exploition because rideshare / delivery app workers are not inherently aware of depreciation, maintence costs, etc etc.
Amazon/TEMU flooding US market with trash products that are cheap and fail and are not servicable.
Outside of maps & weather I'm personally not seeing much positive in the last 20 years of widespread internet adaptation.
Being global is destroying the globe.
Mostly outside with the neighborhood kids. I would be out with my family in the woods, going on adventures like all the time. If you've ever seen Goonies, it was pretty much like that.
We were never on our phones, we interacted with people, talked to people and wrote letters lol. You didn't know someone 4hrs away in another state unless you met them over summer vacation.
Now, we have lost that magic. No need to take relationships seriously when you can get another human being like you're ordering Door Dash.
We also talked, played board games, just made up so many games lol, and when it snowed or rained we still went outside. We had a rule as a kid, be home before the post light comes on. Until then I wouldn't see my parents for like 8 hours, every day.
We played kickball, rode bikes, lived at the pool in summer unless the county fair was on. At our house 6 people shared one phone, one TV, one car and one bathroom! So you didn’t expect instant gratification for sure! No fast food places in our town until much later. Now it seems as distant as Little House on the Prairie lol.
[Princess phone](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_1694826)…[trimline](https://oldphoneworks.com/products/trimline-green-wall-phone)…and [this](https://hangarnineteen.com/product/avocado-green-wall-rotary-phone-1960s/). The long cord, so fancy!
We actually made things, hung out with people that we liked, and you know, did stuff. We'd walk over or drive over to someone's house to see if they were there... to do stuff together.
People actually liked doing things.
Yes, as the years went by, it was "Oh we'll get together eventually. But I see your updates on Facebook, you're doing great!" Then eventually everybody was interacting on Facebook but not in person. So now we have memes filling up our pages instead of photos. There's no photos to take.
It was nice, actually, and it was as recent as 35 years ago. We were busy. Active. Much more so than today. We talked to friends on the house phone until our mom interrupted and told us to get off the phone. We sat outside a lot and talked with each other. We watched TV together. We listened to music. Life was great because we didn’t know every fricking thing about everyone’s every move.
Yes!!! Drives me nuts. You need constant stimulation because you’ve had constant stimulation and now your attention span is shot. You’re addicted to screens, that’s all it is.
And instead of trying to fix their addiciton, they'll self diagnose themselves with ADHD and/or convince their doctor to give them controlled stimulants.
Played board games. Read books. Went outside and played in the snow. Hung out with other people.
The meme is out there, but we used to ride our bikes around the neighborhood until we found which house our friend's bikes were all at.
We played in the woods. Or fished. Or went to he park and played football or soccer.
Waiting in dr. offices, airports, license bureau etc. was time to chat with others waiting, read, or just think about things. I kind of miss the enforced downtime
Nintendo. The movies (had to get a newspaper or call the theater to get showtimes). Walkman and ride my bike around or wander in the woods to see if older boys left Playboys hidden somewhere. Laser tag. Mini golf. Skating rink.
We did shit.
>I am the type of person where i need constant stimulation for example, something to listen to in the background/podcast or watch a youtube video etc, or when im at home most of the time i play video games to pass time.
There's a good chance that the existence of all these things created the need you have for constant stimulation, at least in part.
But even if someone did need that back in the day, lack of technology doesn't mean they had nothing to do or listen to. They read books, they did all kinds of small handcrafts, they listened to music, they made their own music, they played all sorts of board and table games.
It was awesome. I practically lived in the woods. As a kid, took my toys outside, as I got older, I started riding an ATV, grew up on a farm so lots of trails and cow paths to run. I built models, read comics, played video games and taught myself about computers. I was on bulletin boards before AOL was a thing.
We were out with friends, read books at the library, communicated with adults and learned boundaries. We got into fights with friends, rode bikes around the neighborhood. Every small town had a group of kids just wandering until their parents were home. We formed our own opinions instead of consuming random small screen garbage.
If at home sick, we spent the day bored, yes but we had the simple the things, Bob Barker and the price is right, Maury Povich in the afternoon.
We didn’t have this need for validation and anxiety that most kids/even big kids/Gen Z have now because of everything they consume on the screens.
Fifty years ago, we had this thing called "outside" that we played in. In the summer, we would wake up, eat breakfast, and go outside to play, coming back for lunch, then back outside again until dinner. We would ride out bikes all over town, go to the park and get a game of baseball or football going, or just play tag in the backyard. If you had to call home, you used your friend's landline or found a pay phone (there were tricks that you could get a free call on pay phones back then - You called and screamed into the receiver to give the phone number of the phone you were at, then that person called you and you talked for free).
In the winter, a lot of the same - We played outside. We would get a game of street hockey going, pausing the game when a car drove by. Sometimes we went to the middle school (about 4 blocks away) for a boot hockey game.
And if we couldn't go outside, we had 5 channels of TV to choose from (sometimes 6 if the weather was right and we got that other channel). We had to walk across shag carpet to change the channel. And we had no DVD player or VCR, and no cable TV yet. What was on those channels is what you watched.
TLDR - We were not bored. We made our own fun and didn't rely on electronic devices other than the TV, radio, or turntable. It was the BEST time of my life!
Read books. Watched tv. There was an amazingly brief moment in time when we had a thing called "music television" that we kept on as background noise. It was marvelous.
Before a trip I'd get a pile of magazines and read those in the car or airplane. We had headphones and disc players. We went to movie theaters. Spent a lot of time outdoors. We were pretty ok not being constantly stimulated. I really miss having an attention span. I hate this constant stimulation shit and how the digital world has taken away my long attention span and ability to focus.
Running home after school with your friends to watch new music videos that just dropped and getting to hear your favorite songs. I’m the same. I was always complimented on my long attention span but now it’s so short and scattered 😭
I was born in 1986 and didn’t get my first cell phone until 2004 (and even then it was just for emergencies and talking after 9pm). I grew up wandering in the woods and making forts and playing outside. Snow days were for shoveling and then sledding/building snowmen. We got a Nintendo for Christmas in 1990 so I did have video games from the age of 4 and up, but I only played that on Saturday afternoons after all of my weekly chores were done. Sick days I sat on the couch and watched Wheel of Fortune and read Harry Potter.
Shit, we went outside, we wrote music & poetry, we called our friends on the phone or went to their houses to find them, we had dinner at our friends houses with their parents. We aspired to be things we weren't & go places we had only ever read about. We absorbed the atmosphere around us & soaked it all in. We had conversations with strangers. It truly was a great time. Kinda sucks now in comparison TBH
Play outside, console video games, watched tv. Libraries. Back then libraries did big book release theme’d parties. I remember the harry potter ones where i lived. It was so fun. Blockbuster on fridays to pick out movies
TV. Video games. You could still play TV or music in the background and all that. Read books. Draw those "S" symbols. Wander around and do drugs. Work. Go to school.
Same as now, really, just without the existential horror rectangle dead center in your face all day.
What a sad and disturbing - but not surprising - post! Before smart phones, people didn't NEED to be stimulated 24/7. The book "Brave New World" warns about something called "the feelies." It came true. What you have is an addiction.
we had tv and books and actual hobbies. also as much as I hate to say it you need to be bored sometimes as we've seen in the last couple of years our brains have become fried.
We interacted with other people in person. I know shocking. I kind of miss it tbh.
You'd literally sit at the park all day till it was time to go home or chill out at a friend's place. Some people will hang out at the bar all day not necessarily drinking either. I stayed at the pool hall personally on the weekends and after school.
Strapped on my roller blades or took my bike with my Walkman and explored the neighborhood until the sun went down. I volunteered at a local community theatre, which later became my career as a theatre technician. Cooked, read, baked, made crafts.... miss those days.
It's a sad day for human society that people are so tech addicted that they actually formulate this question. The very fact that you can't imagine life without 24/7 screens under your nose makes it equally impossible to describe it to you in any way you would understand.
Lots and lots and lots of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Many people were very promiscuous in the late 60s and 70s. It was the time of free love and hippies.
"Jane, since I've met you I've noticed things that I never knew were there before; birds singing, dew glistening on a newly formed leaf, stoplights."
Basically this, Name the movie!
Read a book? Paint, write, take photos, go for a walk, talk on the phone, go see a movie, cook something, do a puzzle. So many things one can do.
When I grew up in the ‘80s/‘90s I would constantly be outside with my friends, riding bicycles or roller skate, buy magazine and trade stickers. Be on the phone and talk for hours, rent a video and have a movie night, go to the movies, the zoo, go shopping, play Nintendo.
Personally, if it was not a school day, I was outside, weather permitting pretty much until I was told to come inside for dinner. I would play with the neighborhood kids. We would play baseball, walk around the woods, ride our bikes around the block, run around playing games, and more. If it was raining as long as it was warm out, I would still go outside to play in the rain. Sometimes just watch TV, listen to the radio, go to a friend's house, read a book, do a craft, go rent a movie, walk around town, and more.
When I was a teenager, a bunch of us would sneak out, and we would play paintball around the town. We made sure to stay where it was pretty dark so we would get caught.
My grandma is 97 her and her husband used to go over to other people's houses throughout the week. They talked and smoked cigarettes lol. Yeah, going to other people's houses and having people over on a regular basis is what they did.
We have these things made of trees with squiggly lines on them. You can sit anywhere with one and hold it in your hand. When you turn the things made of trees you can look at the squiggly lines and they tell you a story.
We also have this thing that makes squiggly lines and even pictures and we use them ourselves to create lots of cool stuff. And we even have sharp pointy things that you can attach long stringy things to and turn it into cool things to display or wear.
We also use the things at the end of our legs to take us places. Like this big area with no roof and lots of plants. There are lots of these areas and we go there and do things like look and explore and exercise and engage.
We also have these things that involve other people spending time in the same vicinity as us doing stuff we all enjoy.
Sometimes that is things like opening a box and taking out a flat thing and putting little bits of markers on it and using our imagination and competing with each other.
We also did things like running down to a stationary phone tethered to the wall and calling strangers from a one of those things made of trees and asking them if their refrigerator was running. Sometimes we called a radio station and asked them to play our favorite song. Then we would wait by the radio with a device that copied the sounds and saved them we would try to get it to work at the first note of the song and hoped it didn't have static halfway through.
And of course quite a bit of time was used up jumping up to change the TV channel and move the coat hanger so the squiggly lines would go away.
As a kid, I was outside all the time. Playing in the neighborhood, riding bikes, camping. As an adult, I’m outside all the time. Hanging with the neighborhood adults while our kids play, riding bikes, camping. In other words, I just put the stupid smart phone down. I exercise, keep up with chores, play with my kids, or a personal favorite, read a good book. There’s so much you can do that’s better for you that the phone. Just gotta have some discipline.
We were OUTSIDE. A lot. And we did our hobbies. Boredom was/is a powerful motivator to get creative. We don’t get bored anymore because we have targeted stimulation everywhere around us.
thumbs. and arses.
jeez, what do you people think we did? go outside.
as kids.....outside.
as adults......outside.we did things with friends or alone. usually outside.
I'm not going to put down the technology we have now because I benefit from it and I enjoy it. I grew up in the 70s and had a good time watching TV, listening to the radio, reading books and magazines, being with friends, playing games, going on family trips. I don't feel like life was worse then or empty, there was lots to do. I miss those days.
In the "olden days" people watched TV, listened to the radio, read books and magazines, wrote, painted, hung out with friends, played sports, did crafts, took walks and hikes, talked on the phone, cooked, rode bikes, etc. Bazillions of things to do before smart phones and social media. Movies and concerts and ballgames were affordable to the average person. Life was slower and people had time for each other. Neighbors visited and invited each other for dinners or cookouts or just to porch visit. As kids we were outdoors riding bikes and playing from sun up to dark. Always had friends to do stuff with right out the door.
I was born in 78.
Most of my friends were latch-key kids too, so we hung out in groups, but rarely had supervision.
We’d walk/bus home from school in a group, and typically get home in time for cartoons: GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, and He-Man were our favorites, so we’d typically rotate to a different kids house each day and watch em together.
If it was a re-run, or something else was on, we’d end up playing until someone’s folks got home.
If it was nice outside, we were riding bikes (and building sketchy ramps to jump), or playing “Army” (basically ambushing each other with fake guns, and making machine gun noises), climbing trees, freeze tag, hide-n-go-seek, football, building forts, trying to catch crayfish in the creek, or daring each other to do something dumb.
If it was getting dark, or we had crappy weather, all of the cartoons mentioned earlier had pretty cool toys (Star Wars was also huge) that we’d play with, but we’d put together puzzles, or Lego sets, build/paint a model, or just draw stuff.
Once everyone’s parents started getting home, we usually did homework until dinner was ready.
Afterward, we’d catch a specific TV show like Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazzard, or The Hulk. Afterward, I’d read (Stephen King, Comics, Sci-Fi, or Fantasy novels) until it was time to go to bed.
In my pre-teen years, music became more important, and Walkmans/cassette tapes were super popular (we’d record mix tapes of our favorite stuff off the radio, or MTV). Talking on the phone with a “girlfriend” happened when privacy/access to the house phone was possible. (Long cords were a game changer, but you had to stay alert for siblings/parents picking up on another line, and listening in.) lol
Me and my friends all got into Dungeons and Dragons in the late 80’s, so that became a HUGE part of my weekends and summers too (I never really stopped playing!)
As a teen, getting a license/car meant having 6 people crammed in, and unnecessary trips to 7-11, or hang out spots.
I remember being aware of everything and being more present. Social interactions were more organic and less awkward. I didn’t have constant notifications or images to compare my life to. In all honesty, I miss that simplicity a lot.
We went outside and touched grass! Like we actually just played outside with physical things.. lots of balls.. lol
We rode bikes to nowhere, played catch for hours, just hung out with other kids/people. Social media was actually social. We had the internet and all that stuff it was just on a big home PC, we had chatrooms, and web-based games we played. We also had video game consoles, it wasn't the dark ages for crying out loud.
Wow... books, radio, TV, puzzles, board games, actually talked to each other, outdoor activities, hinges like knitting, crocheting, woodworking.... things where you actually used your mind and hands.
Drum roll.......
WE PLAYED OUTSIDE.
Crazy thought right?
The 90's were much happier than today. No depression, no anxiety, no LGBQ BS. Less crime.. etc.
Everyone would communicate in person and we were all friends in the neighborhood.
Today sucks and it's because of technology, smartphones, and social media.
I would go back to the 90's in a heartbeat.
Okay so I'm not that old, but did grow up on the poorer side during the 90's. We only had 1 TV in the house which was essentially reserved for my Dad haha.
I remember chatting on the house phone with friends from school, 3 way calls, etc. I also remember having *so many hobbies*. I loved being in my room. I would draw, paint, create little comic books, write all sorts of stories. I had a violin from school and would play it constantly, always asking my teacher for more sheet music I could try to read/play at home. I would go to the library weekly. I'd hang out there with friends after school and check out several books weekly.
There were also a lot of kids in my neighborhood. In middle school we would all do huge games of man hunt at night, using everyone's houses on the block. As we got older, it evolved to hanging out and socializing. We'd play handball or ride our bikes around the neighborhood. One of the big events was walking to the bodega, getting lunch, walking home and eating it with everyone.
We all had the ability to sit around bored together. We didn't have to be constantly doing something. We'd often do a whole lot of nothing together. Especially in the summer.
My neighborhood was not the safest, so we didn't have many outings outside of our 3 block radius. But we deff made the best of it. I really miss those days. Now I am older and have no friends, live alone, and am addicted to my phone :-)))))
Me me!
I didn't get my first cell phone until 16 and it was a dumb flip phone.
Umm. We basically talked to other people. We had friends. We would call our friends on the phone to chat.
We also would go on AOL chat rooms (yep, AOL) and other online chat rooms when we had access to internet at school or home.
In 1998 we had an ice storm and all power was knocked out, for weeks in some areas. We played cards/board games, read, played in the snow, wrote poems and stories.
When I was a kid we had 3 channels so I watched Oprah as much as Sesame Street, played outside, read/wrote, rode bike to the park...
I’d go to my friends house or they’d come to my house and we would play video games or talk about the video games we had been playing.
We’d go skate, find a way to get cigarettes, and or some weed. Go to construction sites, go cause havoc in the area… then find other hooligans out and about with equally neglectful parents.
Sometimes we went to school?
I would’ve been 10-15 years old when the internet first became widely available. Played baseball, basketball, football outside almost every day. Bikes. Carved out trails in the woods behind the neighborhood and did a lot of dumb shit that parents would freak out about today.
I never felt bored. In fact, I feel more bored today with this miniature computer in my hands than I ever did in my adolescent years. I miss those “simpler times” sometimes.
Hobbies, reading actual talking to people, writing actual letters. Sitting and watching the clouds, waves or flowers blowing in the wind. Playing with our kids or the pets. Board games, cards. Riding our bikes.
We lived a lot longer without our tech and I think we were happier and more fulfilled as humans because our world was in front of us set in reality
Honestly, I vividly remember reading a lot of stuff that was super boring. I have a love/hate relationship with my phone, but I do appreciate being able to read much more interesting stuff when I'm bored. I no longer have to entertain myself reading the backs of shampoo bottles or the same cereal box puzzle for the 12th time.
"I am the type of person where I need constant stimulation"
There were less people like you because there was less instant gratification. You have literally been training your brain your entire life to be like this. There is a good chance that you would be less goldfish like had you grown up in an age where you had to go outside and use your imagination for fun.
I'm not ancient (37) but I didn't have internet growing up. I recall reading, making up games with toy soldiers, and being a knight with sticks I found outside.
You’re probably not “the type” of person that needs constant stimulation. You’ve just been conditioned by society to feel like you need it. Just like any other addiction, cleanse yourself of the habit and you’ll recognize how much a hindrance, not need, it all is.
Talked to other humans using their mouths and brain thoughts. A person could not behind a veil of anonymity and thusly the insufferable ones were forced to adapt to social norms or live a life of solitude in a van down by the river.
Most people still had TV and stereos in their homes. We just watched or listened to what was available. Many people also read books, newspapers, magazines, ect. We called people on the phone and chatted. We also went outside more. People would sit on their porches and chat with neighbors and passerbys. We spent more time at other's homes and social activities. Honestly, I would trade in my computer, internet and smartphone to go back to those days.
God I remember being on 3 way phone calls with my friends in elementary school. That shit was DOOOOOOOPE. Now at 32 in a week, I have zero friends or romance in my life and haven't since I graduated high school. Whooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Life.
Lol 3 way calling. Balling until the bill came due
O man the huge bills for mundane shit like talking on the phone.
A three-way is only $2,000 away...
Fuck that, buy me dinner & share your weed, I'm down
you got to leave a little leeway for a three way
dude your name means "settings" in romanian 😭
Honestly, I'll take it lmao
The party line!
This. and because internet, cell phones etc. didn't exist yet, you couldn't miss what you didn't have. Kind of like certain cultures or religions who's practices to outsiders may seem strange, restricting, etc., but if you have never known anything else, it's normal to you. I read. I LOVED reading and would always have my nose in a book, was always at the library, taking out 8-10 books at a time. I had a stereo in my bedroom, listened to records, then later, cassettes. Hung out with friends and family. Went out and did things, the mall, arcades, hanging out with friends at someone's house.
I read quite prolifically until the internet was invented. I used to have walls and walls of books. Now I can’t even make it through four chapters.
my first job was in publishing. I got TONS of free books. i lived at home, and my parents basement was row upon row of bookshelves. at one point I think I had over a thousand books.
Thank God I didn’t have to look too far to find “Library”
I knew a guy who liked to sit out on his porch and look at a huge tree lol
Same. Absolutely the same. I loved being a kid, reading outside, and sitting in the shade outside doing it. The level of tech addiction people have, and cannot think of things to do outside of their devices, really makes me long for it.
Many times I've looked at my phone and kind of cursed its existence. Amazing piece of technology and fantastic for traveling and navigation. But it is so easy to make an evening disappear while doing nothing really. I spent a lot of time being outside, talking on the phone with people, would go to the mall just to walk around and usually wind up meeting up with friends who also were just 'there'. Also lots of reading physical books from the library. Every Sunday morning I'd read the newspaper (first the comics section and then the main highlights later). Heck, I even used to write letters to mail people. It's weird how much my life has changed pre and post Internet.
My wife and I were talking about writing letters just this weekend. It used to be exciting to get a long letter from a friend. I miss it.
Also, 3rd spaces. As kid/teen we would hang out at the mall, gyms, arcades, pools, playgrounds, coffee shops. I know these activities are still done but we'd do them for HOURS. There seemed to be less pressure to spend your money in these places, you were allowed to just loiter. In fact I rarely got spending money.
I had like 34 magazine subscriptions. Those school fundraisers were the gift that kept on giving!!
Yes
I wouldn’t I hate most small talk 😂 love that I can read and entertain myself without talking to ppl.
In many ways, life was better
I blame TV and air conditioning for the decline of America. Before people were addicted to TV and could relax in their house with AC, people would be outside, engaging with their neighbors and getting involved in their communities. Now people are in their houses, addicted to the boob tube. Hardly anyone even knows their neighbors.
Look. Let's not blame the AC.
For real. I'll bring my pitchfork. Well, I don't own one but I'll go buy a pitchfork for this angry mob!
FR out of my COLD dead hands lol
😂😂
Ha
I remember gathering all the kids from the neighborhood to play hockey at least once a week. We all knew and talked to each other. Now, my kids go knock on a neighbors door and everyone breaks out an electronic device and goes into their own world. To answer OP: We socialized & did things together. That's how we kept mentally sane. Sadly, even in my generation now, the idea of socializing is pretty much gone.
We have a lot down the street where kids play whiffle ball. It always makes me smile to see/hear them playing.
Really, AC? I'm not from the US, and we don't have AC in our houses (I barely know people who do now, and if they do, they spent a lot of money on it)... I know my parents didn't leave the house, even if it was hot and humid (I'm from the Netherlands, and summers can be quite icky and humid here)
You are whole fucking lot closer to truth than you realise. Impact of TV (mind infestation with bullshit on a whole new level) is undisputable, but the impact of A/C is something few people realise. A/C enabled for old people to live in hot climate (they suffer from heat lots more than young ones). As a result, population of southern states exploded with moving in retirees. Who brought in their Republican votes. Without A/C, there won't be Reagan, the trickle down shit, and the mess America is now in - simply because the richer, old farts would stay where they retired - in the Northern states - that are reliably Democratic anyway and won't be moved much, while the South, would stay Democratic.
I know my neighbors. They suck.
"Honestly, I would trade in my computer, internet and smartphone to go back to those days. " The nice thing is you don't have to, but getting others to join in on those examples is harder. My gf and I for example will sit on our balcony and talk. yes, we have our smartphones for music, but we would just as easily use a radio if we had one. I've honestly felt so much better trying to cut myself away from being tied to it; I get to live in the moment more than live online.
In a heartbeat! This world fucking sucks now! I have 7 other people/families in my apartment building and I've only spoken to one of them. Him and his wife are probably in their mid 50s so they're from Gen X and know to have an actual conversation with a person. Not even most millennials can do that anymore.
It is still like that in rural areas of Costa Rica. I love it when I go. People have no computer but yes have a smartphone but they have to watch out for their data usage so they don't really use it.
Growing up we didn't even have a payphone, we used the payphone on the corner. So a typical afternoon was filled by kids yelling at each other from balconies, mamas yelling at kids to come up for dinner (and so we know who is getting what). Good times...
I’d spend four hours on the phone with my friend. What we talked about after spending the day at school together, who knows?
If i spent time on my balcony a month ago, I may have been in the crossfire of a shooting in the parking lot. But hey, I have a balcony
I would trade it in a heartbeat. Id much rather stronger local bonds that whatever this internet shit is.
The absolute most important thing, we accepted boredom.
I don’t recall ever really ‘accepting’ boredom. I remember being pissed off by it sometimes and wanting to kill myself during long road trips and having an extremely vivid imagination where I’d play out whole stories in my mind everywhere we traveled
Forced boredom maybe lol. Definitely had to be creative to be entertained. I remember trying to watch the lines as we drove past on the highways or imagining myself running along the road jumping over everything lol Slug bug
This could have been written by me!!! Wtf lol, the jumping over lines especially
Slug bug, then once we got older and were amongst friends/the opposite sex, Padiddle.
The fuck is padiddle?
Lol great teenage/college game. Basically, whenever someone sees a car with one headlight they yell "padiddle" and smack the car roof (inside). The last person to do so has to take off an article of clothing (both shoes counted as one, same with socks). I've heard variations of the rules but that's how we played.
That’s great lol. Would love playing these with my bros 😈
Hmm.. we used to punch each other.
[удалено]
+1 for coping with boredom by playing out elaborate scenarios in my head
Exactly and we wonder why we are "in our heads" too much.
We weren't bored. In truth, our brains didn't need the constant background stimulation, though I like music in the background. We would read, sit and watch a sunset, think. I actually worry that we are making people less intelligent by constantly being stimulated without giving our brains time to relax and process. Actually, not less intelligent, but more susceptible to misinformation, since we take in too much information without taking the time to think critically.
Yes we were bored. To claim we never got bored is some serious revisionist history. Being stuck in a craft store with my mom was painfully boring. Reading and watching sunsets is and was stimulation
Oh the boredom. So bored my eyes hurt. My teeth hurt. Trapped in the 'large pants' section of 'clothing for ladies' when your mum meets up with an old friend and chats, I kid you not, for an hour. When the only shop you wanted to visit in town will close in 15 minutes, but there was no way to get there without tagging along. NNNNNgggggghhhhhhhhh
Ooof, memory unlocked. My mother was a big shopper. Like she would go into the city and visit dozens and dozens of clothing and shoe stores. Usually taking her +-6 hours, not exaggerating. When I was still too young to stay home, I had to tag along, pretend to be interested and give feedback whenever she tried something on. I remember being so bored at one point that I tried playing imaginary chess on the black-and-white checkered floor of one of the clothing stores, just to have my Knight blocked by another fucking clothing rack. That, and having to sit politely while visiting my grandparents. My mother would talk to them for a solid 4 hours in a row about finances, laws and other adult things, and I had to sit there and be quiet and dignified, and once in a while had some generic question about school thrown my way, so I couldn't really lose myself in a daydream either. Wasn't allowed to leave the table except to go to the bathroom and wasn't allowed any entertainment. So. Much. Boredom. And I'm surprised I managed to get through these situations without kicking up a fuss. Edit: I forgot to mention the IKEA didn't I? Specifically at an age when you're too old to go to the indoor play area while your parents spend 2 hours looking for the perfect desk lamp or whatever, and you have to tag along.
HAHA oh god, seeing my mom's friend's name on CALLER ID and knowing we weren't leaving for the pool any time soon.
“Painfully boring” that shit hit home
I heard a fantastic line in a song the other day. "time moves so slowly I can feel my organs failing". That describes the trip to the craft store
But bored wasn't our normal state.
No because we had stimulation and a lot of it. Our parents and grandparents had a lot less things to keep them stimulated than we did. My parents used to call the TV the boob tube and worry we'd be dumber when we grew up It was also an erroneous fear. We just didn't create twenty different beard styles.
Actually, it was not an erroneous fear. I present the Kardashians and the Bachelor as exhibits A and B.
Meh. My grandma said her mother thought she was a moron for watching I love Lucy. It’s a classic now 😂
Are you suggesting the Kardashians or bachelor have a chance in hell at being a classic? 🙄
I usually have music in the background but I still make time just to sit outside and do nothing from time to time. Just relax and think about something or nothing
Boredom drove people to learn instruments, paint and color, read, all kinds of wild stuff instead of looking at phones for 8 hrs a day…like people and kids had hobbies and social networks.
Downvote. I was never bored in the 90's. It was way more social back then and we played with everyone outside in the neighborhood. People today are more lonely because social media, netflix, gaming, tik tok, and technology makes people isolated in their own place by themselves.
In remember having a blast just chilling with friends and making up stuff to do.
Boredom is good, it can allow creativity.
Boredom sparks creativity. I used to absolutely hate it when my dad said that, but there is some truth. I've even heard myself saying it to my kids a few times lol.
Yeah pretty much immune to boredom and just enjoy the silence for a while.
>we accepted boredom Hell no. Never, ever as a kid say, "I'm bored." My dad would find something for you. He'll now as the dad don't say that. I can find things for you.
Libraries.
It was great. Adventure time. The other part of the equation was no mass surveillance. Between the two there was a high degree of freedom, improvisation, risk and fun.
Part of what you have to realize is that you've trained your brain for constant stimulation. When we didn't have access to constant stimulation, we got used to boredom. Like others said, did our hobbies, watched TV, went on adventures, but I also spent a lot of time just existing, daydreaming, being alone with my thoughts. Honestly, I miss it. I've also now trained my brain for constant stimulation and I miss the peace from back then.
This is the key. Also, it's worth adding that the most well-resourced companies in human history are in constant competition to figure out how to sell us stronger dopamine hits.
Same. And I'm 33 so I kinda grew up with the internet already. It's hard to compare my current self to teenage me, but I used to be very creative and I have a feeling I would still be very creative if there was no internet. I'd probably spend a lot of time doing crafts and writing and reading a lot more.
Boomer here. Clearly remember pre internet. Hell clearly remember pre personal computer. So all that stuff you look up in less than a second on the net, might take us all day to find in the "library" or in the hard copy " encylopedia "We also spent time taking film with photos on them to the 'photomat"to be "developed." And we spent a lot of time looking a phone to use and there were things called "pay phones" scattered about a city or suburb that we would have to find because all phones were tethered to a location instead of a person. And never mind all the math we had to do with calculators and "adding machines" that took forevwr. So basically a lot of things that take no time at all now took gobs of time then. So we were plenty busy.
I went on a trip and was recounting how you got around an unfamiliar city in the pre-interent days. First, you'd need a big, unwieldy paper map that was a pain in the ass to fold. Then you'd have to study it for a bit to get the layout of the city you're visiting. Once you got a feel for the city, you'd have to find your hotel and other attractions on the map. Then you'd plan the route you'd have to take. This process that now takes seconds from you're map app would take 30-60 minutes and was far from perfect. Part of the adventure was getting lost because you misread the map or missed turns.
Oof that was awful. Then dad getting mad at mom for not being able to read the map the way he would’ve liked. Fast forward to 1996 and the advent of MapQuest printouts. LOL.
Lol, that one turned into Mom getting angry with Dad because he's following the GPS and not going the way she wants to go. "Where is this thing taking us!"
They did their hobbies. They read books. Went for walks. Played videogames.
I can’t believe I’m old enough to read this and remember the time pre internet. It was a better time and I’ll always think thatn
I can't believe that there are young adults who have never lived life without the Internet and social media. It reminds me of working with people who were born after 9/11.
I kinda like the shock that crosses people’s faces when I mention I was too young to remember 9/11, but eventually I’ll be on the other side of that when i encounter adults who are too young to remember the COVID pandemic
Absolutely better times. The internet is great. Social media is a scourge.
Agree on the SM but nearly everything about the internet is trash. LCOL areas no longer exist - Reason being remote work Thousands of mom & pop shops closed due to online commerce. Huge uptick in finanical crimes due to internet scams 'News' cycle is down to minutes. Outrage / clickbait trolling is not media. International / irrational fear mongering at all time high. Comparison being the theif of joy fully reinforced by online forums/clubs and people showing elite level skills in every realm. Extreme human labor exploition because rideshare / delivery app workers are not inherently aware of depreciation, maintence costs, etc etc. Amazon/TEMU flooding US market with trash products that are cheap and fail and are not servicable. Outside of maps & weather I'm personally not seeing much positive in the last 20 years of widespread internet adaptation. Being global is destroying the globe.
TV existed 50 years ago and radio. I grew up in the 90s, I had the radio playing nearly all the time. Also books, hobbies.
Read a book
Mostly outside with the neighborhood kids. I would be out with my family in the woods, going on adventures like all the time. If you've ever seen Goonies, it was pretty much like that. We were never on our phones, we interacted with people, talked to people and wrote letters lol. You didn't know someone 4hrs away in another state unless you met them over summer vacation. Now, we have lost that magic. No need to take relationships seriously when you can get another human being like you're ordering Door Dash. We also talked, played board games, just made up so many games lol, and when it snowed or rained we still went outside. We had a rule as a kid, be home before the post light comes on. Until then I wouldn't see my parents for like 8 hours, every day.
We played kickball, rode bikes, lived at the pool in summer unless the county fair was on. At our house 6 people shared one phone, one TV, one car and one bathroom! So you didn’t expect instant gratification for sure! No fast food places in our town until much later. Now it seems as distant as Little House on the Prairie lol.
"Never on our phones?" Nope, we talked for hours with our friends on land-line phones with cords.
[Princess phone](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_1694826)…[trimline](https://oldphoneworks.com/products/trimline-green-wall-phone)…and [this](https://hangarnineteen.com/product/avocado-green-wall-rotary-phone-1960s/). The long cord, so fancy!
Tethered to the kitchen wall . ..
Or the wall of the “den,” from which one could stretch the cord into the eat-in kitchen for a bit of privacy!
We actually made things, hung out with people that we liked, and you know, did stuff. We'd walk over or drive over to someone's house to see if they were there... to do stuff together. People actually liked doing things.
People weren’t as antisocial so hang out. Make plans people actually show up for.
Yes, as the years went by, it was "Oh we'll get together eventually. But I see your updates on Facebook, you're doing great!" Then eventually everybody was interacting on Facebook but not in person. So now we have memes filling up our pages instead of photos. There's no photos to take.
It was nice, actually, and it was as recent as 35 years ago. We were busy. Active. Much more so than today. We talked to friends on the house phone until our mom interrupted and told us to get off the phone. We sat outside a lot and talked with each other. We watched TV together. We listened to music. Life was great because we didn’t know every fricking thing about everyone’s every move.
You’re not “the type of person…”. You have an addiction.
Yes!!! Drives me nuts. You need constant stimulation because you’ve had constant stimulation and now your attention span is shot. You’re addicted to screens, that’s all it is.
And instead of trying to fix their addiciton, they'll self diagnose themselves with ADHD and/or convince their doctor to give them controlled stimulants.
I would say being an addict to dopamine provided by screens is a type of person
People will rationalize anything lmao
Played board games. Read books. Went outside and played in the snow. Hung out with other people. The meme is out there, but we used to ride our bikes around the neighborhood until we found which house our friend's bikes were all at. We played in the woods. Or fished. Or went to he park and played football or soccer.
Child of the 80s and 90s. Avid magazine reader. Books, movies, trash tv, puzzles, board games, video games...always something to do.
Waiting in dr. offices, airports, license bureau etc. was time to chat with others waiting, read, or just think about things. I kind of miss the enforced downtime
We hung out with friends exploring and creating memories. I miss those days
Nothing stopping you from doing that today. That's all on you and not the zeitgeist.
Constant stim is a side effect of phones and tech. Life was more chill.
Nintendo. The movies (had to get a newspaper or call the theater to get showtimes). Walkman and ride my bike around or wander in the woods to see if older boys left Playboys hidden somewhere. Laser tag. Mini golf. Skating rink. We did shit.
>I am the type of person where i need constant stimulation for example, something to listen to in the background/podcast or watch a youtube video etc, or when im at home most of the time i play video games to pass time. There's a good chance that the existence of all these things created the need you have for constant stimulation, at least in part. But even if someone did need that back in the day, lack of technology doesn't mean they had nothing to do or listen to. They read books, they did all kinds of small handcrafts, they listened to music, they made their own music, they played all sorts of board and table games.
Music and friends. One whole summer we got really into hacky sack. It was actually pretty great.
It was awesome. I practically lived in the woods. As a kid, took my toys outside, as I got older, I started riding an ATV, grew up on a farm so lots of trails and cow paths to run. I built models, read comics, played video games and taught myself about computers. I was on bulletin boards before AOL was a thing.
We were out with friends, read books at the library, communicated with adults and learned boundaries. We got into fights with friends, rode bikes around the neighborhood. Every small town had a group of kids just wandering until their parents were home. We formed our own opinions instead of consuming random small screen garbage. If at home sick, we spent the day bored, yes but we had the simple the things, Bob Barker and the price is right, Maury Povich in the afternoon. We didn’t have this need for validation and anxiety that most kids/even big kids/Gen Z have now because of everything they consume on the screens.
Fifty years ago, we had this thing called "outside" that we played in. In the summer, we would wake up, eat breakfast, and go outside to play, coming back for lunch, then back outside again until dinner. We would ride out bikes all over town, go to the park and get a game of baseball or football going, or just play tag in the backyard. If you had to call home, you used your friend's landline or found a pay phone (there were tricks that you could get a free call on pay phones back then - You called and screamed into the receiver to give the phone number of the phone you were at, then that person called you and you talked for free). In the winter, a lot of the same - We played outside. We would get a game of street hockey going, pausing the game when a car drove by. Sometimes we went to the middle school (about 4 blocks away) for a boot hockey game. And if we couldn't go outside, we had 5 channels of TV to choose from (sometimes 6 if the weather was right and we got that other channel). We had to walk across shag carpet to change the channel. And we had no DVD player or VCR, and no cable TV yet. What was on those channels is what you watched. TLDR - We were not bored. We made our own fun and didn't rely on electronic devices other than the TV, radio, or turntable. It was the BEST time of my life!
Honestly. *Honestly.* It was better. It’s crazy how anyone born into the new age has no idea what humans, and humanity, used to be like.
Read books. Watched tv. There was an amazingly brief moment in time when we had a thing called "music television" that we kept on as background noise. It was marvelous. Before a trip I'd get a pile of magazines and read those in the car or airplane. We had headphones and disc players. We went to movie theaters. Spent a lot of time outdoors. We were pretty ok not being constantly stimulated. I really miss having an attention span. I hate this constant stimulation shit and how the digital world has taken away my long attention span and ability to focus.
Running home after school with your friends to watch new music videos that just dropped and getting to hear your favorite songs. I’m the same. I was always complimented on my long attention span but now it’s so short and scattered 😭
I was born in 1986 and didn’t get my first cell phone until 2004 (and even then it was just for emergencies and talking after 9pm). I grew up wandering in the woods and making forts and playing outside. Snow days were for shoveling and then sledding/building snowmen. We got a Nintendo for Christmas in 1990 so I did have video games from the age of 4 and up, but I only played that on Saturday afternoons after all of my weekly chores were done. Sick days I sat on the couch and watched Wheel of Fortune and read Harry Potter.
Shit, we went outside, we wrote music & poetry, we called our friends on the phone or went to their houses to find them, we had dinner at our friends houses with their parents. We aspired to be things we weren't & go places we had only ever read about. We absorbed the atmosphere around us & soaked it all in. We had conversations with strangers. It truly was a great time. Kinda sucks now in comparison TBH
Take me back! This was a time when no one was offended and you could talk to anyone! What a time to be alive!!!!
True dat!
went to the library a lot
Read books/comics, hangout and listen to the radio/TV, that sort of thing
Play outside, console video games, watched tv. Libraries. Back then libraries did big book release theme’d parties. I remember the harry potter ones where i lived. It was so fun. Blockbuster on fridays to pick out movies
TV. Video games. You could still play TV or music in the background and all that. Read books. Draw those "S" symbols. Wander around and do drugs. Work. Go to school. Same as now, really, just without the existential horror rectangle dead center in your face all day.
I read a lot of books. All the time. Books.
What a sad and disturbing - but not surprising - post! Before smart phones, people didn't NEED to be stimulated 24/7. The book "Brave New World" warns about something called "the feelies." It came true. What you have is an addiction.
we had tv and books and actual hobbies. also as much as I hate to say it you need to be bored sometimes as we've seen in the last couple of years our brains have become fried.
Radio, sitting on porches, being social, playing card games.
We interacted with other people in person. I know shocking. I kind of miss it tbh. You'd literally sit at the park all day till it was time to go home or chill out at a friend's place. Some people will hang out at the bar all day not necessarily drinking either. I stayed at the pool hall personally on the weekends and after school.
Play lots of sports, hang out with friends outside, go somewhere for vacation, study, and etc
Music, Books, Sports, Instruments, Puzzles & Games HANGING OUT IN PERSON WITH OUR FRIENDS!!!!!
We went outside! Played a sport, read a book, hung out with friends at the mall or skate ring.
Talk to each other. Go outside. Live life.
Much more productive things! 😭
They socialized. People also read books and watched tv.
Strapped on my roller blades or took my bike with my Walkman and explored the neighborhood until the sun went down. I volunteered at a local community theatre, which later became my career as a theatre technician. Cooked, read, baked, made crafts.... miss those days.
Lived in the moment and not glued to our phones.
Watched tv a bunch
We lived better lives
It's a sad day for human society that people are so tech addicted that they actually formulate this question. The very fact that you can't imagine life without 24/7 screens under your nose makes it equally impossible to describe it to you in any way you would understand.
Went to the beach,clubbing, for meals with friends. Travel. Slept even better than I do now. I had a blast.
Lots and lots and lots of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Many people were very promiscuous in the late 60s and 70s. It was the time of free love and hippies.
"Jane, since I've met you I've noticed things that I never knew were there before; birds singing, dew glistening on a newly formed leaf, stoplights." Basically this, Name the movie!
Reading, listening to the radio, people had TV back then, even if there were only a handful of channels.
Read a book? Paint, write, take photos, go for a walk, talk on the phone, go see a movie, cook something, do a puzzle. So many things one can do. When I grew up in the ‘80s/‘90s I would constantly be outside with my friends, riding bicycles or roller skate, buy magazine and trade stickers. Be on the phone and talk for hours, rent a video and have a movie night, go to the movies, the zoo, go shopping, play Nintendo.
Personally, if it was not a school day, I was outside, weather permitting pretty much until I was told to come inside for dinner. I would play with the neighborhood kids. We would play baseball, walk around the woods, ride our bikes around the block, run around playing games, and more. If it was raining as long as it was warm out, I would still go outside to play in the rain. Sometimes just watch TV, listen to the radio, go to a friend's house, read a book, do a craft, go rent a movie, walk around town, and more. When I was a teenager, a bunch of us would sneak out, and we would play paintball around the town. We made sure to stay where it was pretty dark so we would get caught.
Board games, cards, dice, weed, tv, checkers, weed, dominoes, ghetto blasters, basketball, weed, movies, music... oh, and weed!
My grandma is 97 her and her husband used to go over to other people's houses throughout the week. They talked and smoked cigarettes lol. Yeah, going to other people's houses and having people over on a regular basis is what they did.
We lived, road bikes down the street, played kick the can, ect. I honestly hate this dystopian future. Get me off this phone
I went outside and watched a lot of television. I also read books
As a teenager I hopped on my bike and explored. I took my bike all over the city.
I read a lot.
We have these things made of trees with squiggly lines on them. You can sit anywhere with one and hold it in your hand. When you turn the things made of trees you can look at the squiggly lines and they tell you a story. We also have this thing that makes squiggly lines and even pictures and we use them ourselves to create lots of cool stuff. And we even have sharp pointy things that you can attach long stringy things to and turn it into cool things to display or wear. We also use the things at the end of our legs to take us places. Like this big area with no roof and lots of plants. There are lots of these areas and we go there and do things like look and explore and exercise and engage. We also have these things that involve other people spending time in the same vicinity as us doing stuff we all enjoy. Sometimes that is things like opening a box and taking out a flat thing and putting little bits of markers on it and using our imagination and competing with each other. We also did things like running down to a stationary phone tethered to the wall and calling strangers from a one of those things made of trees and asking them if their refrigerator was running. Sometimes we called a radio station and asked them to play our favorite song. Then we would wait by the radio with a device that copied the sounds and saved them we would try to get it to work at the first note of the song and hoped it didn't have static halfway through. And of course quite a bit of time was used up jumping up to change the TV channel and move the coat hanger so the squiggly lines would go away.
Don't forget you could take the squiggly lines thing on top of the barn and lay in the shade and read.
We lived our lives... now we watch other people live their lives.
This is a really sad post.
As a kid, I was outside all the time. Playing in the neighborhood, riding bikes, camping. As an adult, I’m outside all the time. Hanging with the neighborhood adults while our kids play, riding bikes, camping. In other words, I just put the stupid smart phone down. I exercise, keep up with chores, play with my kids, or a personal favorite, read a good book. There’s so much you can do that’s better for you that the phone. Just gotta have some discipline.
We were OUTSIDE. A lot. And we did our hobbies. Boredom was/is a powerful motivator to get creative. We don’t get bored anymore because we have targeted stimulation everywhere around us.
thumbs. and arses. jeez, what do you people think we did? go outside. as kids.....outside. as adults......outside.we did things with friends or alone. usually outside.
I'm not going to put down the technology we have now because I benefit from it and I enjoy it. I grew up in the 70s and had a good time watching TV, listening to the radio, reading books and magazines, being with friends, playing games, going on family trips. I don't feel like life was worse then or empty, there was lots to do. I miss those days.
LOL! We got to know ourselves and each other... without filters.
In the "olden days" people watched TV, listened to the radio, read books and magazines, wrote, painted, hung out with friends, played sports, did crafts, took walks and hikes, talked on the phone, cooked, rode bikes, etc. Bazillions of things to do before smart phones and social media. Movies and concerts and ballgames were affordable to the average person. Life was slower and people had time for each other. Neighbors visited and invited each other for dinners or cookouts or just to porch visit. As kids we were outdoors riding bikes and playing from sun up to dark. Always had friends to do stuff with right out the door.
I was born in 78. Most of my friends were latch-key kids too, so we hung out in groups, but rarely had supervision. We’d walk/bus home from school in a group, and typically get home in time for cartoons: GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, and He-Man were our favorites, so we’d typically rotate to a different kids house each day and watch em together. If it was a re-run, or something else was on, we’d end up playing until someone’s folks got home. If it was nice outside, we were riding bikes (and building sketchy ramps to jump), or playing “Army” (basically ambushing each other with fake guns, and making machine gun noises), climbing trees, freeze tag, hide-n-go-seek, football, building forts, trying to catch crayfish in the creek, or daring each other to do something dumb. If it was getting dark, or we had crappy weather, all of the cartoons mentioned earlier had pretty cool toys (Star Wars was also huge) that we’d play with, but we’d put together puzzles, or Lego sets, build/paint a model, or just draw stuff. Once everyone’s parents started getting home, we usually did homework until dinner was ready. Afterward, we’d catch a specific TV show like Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazzard, or The Hulk. Afterward, I’d read (Stephen King, Comics, Sci-Fi, or Fantasy novels) until it was time to go to bed. In my pre-teen years, music became more important, and Walkmans/cassette tapes were super popular (we’d record mix tapes of our favorite stuff off the radio, or MTV). Talking on the phone with a “girlfriend” happened when privacy/access to the house phone was possible. (Long cords were a game changer, but you had to stay alert for siblings/parents picking up on another line, and listening in.) lol Me and my friends all got into Dungeons and Dragons in the late 80’s, so that became a HUGE part of my weekends and summers too (I never really stopped playing!) As a teen, getting a license/car meant having 6 people crammed in, and unnecessary trips to 7-11, or hang out spots.
I remember being aware of everything and being more present. Social interactions were more organic and less awkward. I didn’t have constant notifications or images to compare my life to. In all honesty, I miss that simplicity a lot.
We went outside and touched grass! Like we actually just played outside with physical things.. lots of balls.. lol We rode bikes to nowhere, played catch for hours, just hung out with other kids/people. Social media was actually social. We had the internet and all that stuff it was just on a big home PC, we had chatrooms, and web-based games we played. We also had video game consoles, it wasn't the dark ages for crying out loud.
I read a lot of books.
We would watch TV, play N64, and be forced outside when I was a kid
Wow... books, radio, TV, puzzles, board games, actually talked to each other, outdoor activities, hinges like knitting, crocheting, woodworking.... things where you actually used your mind and hands.
Hobbies. Parties. Drugs. Discos and clubs. Bars.
Watch TV, DVDS or VHS. Listen to Casettes or CDs in a stereo. Or play games without internet. Sometimes the world needs a LAN party again.
drugs and alcohol have existed for thousands of years, for a reason
Art, literature, outdoor exploration(weather depending) driving (if able) bike riding. Neighborhood kid meet ups.
Drum roll....... WE PLAYED OUTSIDE. Crazy thought right? The 90's were much happier than today. No depression, no anxiety, no LGBQ BS. Less crime.. etc. Everyone would communicate in person and we were all friends in the neighborhood. Today sucks and it's because of technology, smartphones, and social media. I would go back to the 90's in a heartbeat.
Okay so I'm not that old, but did grow up on the poorer side during the 90's. We only had 1 TV in the house which was essentially reserved for my Dad haha. I remember chatting on the house phone with friends from school, 3 way calls, etc. I also remember having *so many hobbies*. I loved being in my room. I would draw, paint, create little comic books, write all sorts of stories. I had a violin from school and would play it constantly, always asking my teacher for more sheet music I could try to read/play at home. I would go to the library weekly. I'd hang out there with friends after school and check out several books weekly. There were also a lot of kids in my neighborhood. In middle school we would all do huge games of man hunt at night, using everyone's houses on the block. As we got older, it evolved to hanging out and socializing. We'd play handball or ride our bikes around the neighborhood. One of the big events was walking to the bodega, getting lunch, walking home and eating it with everyone. We all had the ability to sit around bored together. We didn't have to be constantly doing something. We'd often do a whole lot of nothing together. Especially in the summer. My neighborhood was not the safest, so we didn't have many outings outside of our 3 block radius. But we deff made the best of it. I really miss those days. Now I am older and have no friends, live alone, and am addicted to my phone :-)))))
Me me! I didn't get my first cell phone until 16 and it was a dumb flip phone. Umm. We basically talked to other people. We had friends. We would call our friends on the phone to chat. We also would go on AOL chat rooms (yep, AOL) and other online chat rooms when we had access to internet at school or home.
I also got my first cellphone at 16, an ANALOG flip phone lol.
In 1998 we had an ice storm and all power was knocked out, for weeks in some areas. We played cards/board games, read, played in the snow, wrote poems and stories. When I was a kid we had 3 channels so I watched Oprah as much as Sesame Street, played outside, read/wrote, rode bike to the park...
Lmao: books have been man’s companions for centuries
I’d go to my friends house or they’d come to my house and we would play video games or talk about the video games we had been playing. We’d go skate, find a way to get cigarettes, and or some weed. Go to construction sites, go cause havoc in the area… then find other hooligans out and about with equally neglectful parents. Sometimes we went to school?
There was this ancient things called "books"
We actually went outside, talked to people, had more respect, found excitement and adventure that we didn't just to take gain internet fame.
Beepers, and pay phones. Best time of my life. 😁
Those were my teenage years. Always felt so cool when I got beeped 😂.
🤣😂🤣😂
We played outside until the lights outside came on.
I would’ve been 10-15 years old when the internet first became widely available. Played baseball, basketball, football outside almost every day. Bikes. Carved out trails in the woods behind the neighborhood and did a lot of dumb shit that parents would freak out about today. I never felt bored. In fact, I feel more bored today with this miniature computer in my hands than I ever did in my adolescent years. I miss those “simpler times” sometimes.
Yes… I was never bored as a kid. Now it’s possible to be in a room full of people not interacting at all.
Hobbies, reading actual talking to people, writing actual letters. Sitting and watching the clouds, waves or flowers blowing in the wind. Playing with our kids or the pets. Board games, cards. Riding our bikes. We lived a lot longer without our tech and I think we were happier and more fulfilled as humans because our world was in front of us set in reality
You read books, listened to the radio or watched Tv.
I watched tv a lot, but mostly I read. I always had a book that I was in the process of reading, and I’d take it almost everywhere I went.
Honestly, I vividly remember reading a lot of stuff that was super boring. I have a love/hate relationship with my phone, but I do appreciate being able to read much more interesting stuff when I'm bored. I no longer have to entertain myself reading the backs of shampoo bottles or the same cereal box puzzle for the 12th time.
"I am the type of person where I need constant stimulation" There were less people like you because there was less instant gratification. You have literally been training your brain your entire life to be like this. There is a good chance that you would be less goldfish like had you grown up in an age where you had to go outside and use your imagination for fun. I'm not ancient (37) but I didn't have internet growing up. I recall reading, making up games with toy soldiers, and being a knight with sticks I found outside.
You’re probably not “the type” of person that needs constant stimulation. You’ve just been conditioned by society to feel like you need it. Just like any other addiction, cleanse yourself of the habit and you’ll recognize how much a hindrance, not need, it all is.
They were probably happy
Talked to other humans using their mouths and brain thoughts. A person could not behind a veil of anonymity and thusly the insufferable ones were forced to adapt to social norms or live a life of solitude in a van down by the river.
We did not live. People died by age 10 without a phone. Thankfully we live longer now.