5
I wouldn't... No GPS or computerized banking, having to go to a physical store or order from a crappy catalog. Nah, no way would I ever.
Imagine going on a road trip and getting stuck somewhere 3 hours from home with no cell phone
Ah, the good old romantization of the things you don't know.
If they're so eager about it, they can try taking their hands off the phone, for change.
Edit: typo
But that doesn't take away that other people will be on their phone when you're with them
Doesn’t change expectations of others for you to respond to work emails or other shit at all hours. Doesn’t bring back the days of concert going paying attention instead of 800 phones being held up to record some shitty angle that will never be watched again, or people being rude while checking out, or distracted driving.
Doesn’t change expectations of others for you to respond to work emails or other shit at all hours.
That was still a thing before the internet/cellphones. My dad would receive phone calls at home at all hours back in the 90s and he was just a low level manager. He just pretended to not be home. When work gave him a cell phone, he would just turn it off when he left work and pretend his phone died.
AT THE TONE THE TIME WILL BE 12:49 AND 50 SECONDS. BEEP!
No thanks. I like my internet time sync and GPS navigation.
OMG, I forgot about calling to get the time of day.
The idea is very different than the reality. The freedom of information, communication, and variety are so much better now.
Need a job, get a newspaper for classified ads and take whatever you can get, or start calling friends and networking when you're lucky to get a voicemail.
Want to unwind and watch something? You can spend all evening flipping through channel after channel of garbage.
Need to learn something, prepare to spend days going to different public libraries to find anything useful. Most people don't learn anything. Most people's only adult social connection is though religion. It is a small dumb world where I grew up.
Yes, the amount of time you spent just isolated and bored was unfathomable to people today.
I have to wonder if the real discussion here is between 'pre-internet' or 'not the internet where you're the product being sold and sold to', because I strongly suspect it's the latter that's the issue here.
I'm just barely old enough to recall how things worked before the internet and I don't think people would ever really want to go back to not being able to watch anything they want, any time they want, or not having turn-by-turn directions or even things like ordering a pizza by having to call someone on the phone.
As an elder millenial, I wonder if the only people they asked were elder millenials and boomers? Because I certainly wouldn't like to go back. Sure, I have a certain romanticism about the past (90s were the best, etc etc), I got to experience growing up both before and during the technological boom which gave a sort of "generational/technological whiplash" in a unique time in history. I remember using a corded button dial phone and the actual rotary phone my parents used to keep around for nostalgia.
But man, the internet, for better or worse, opened my eyes to so many things that I would've been oblivious to if not for that. So many social causes, injustices, climate and political issues, so many different communities. If it wasn't for the internet, I never would have met a great community in college that ended up gaining me a lot of friends and a job, and so many wonderful experiences. If not for cell phones, I'd have no way of calling for help when my car broke down (one of many times) in the middle of the expressway at night, or when making plans with friends or trying to find directions to some place.
No thanks, I would very much like to stay in the present.
I, for one, don't miss waiting 2 hours to try and meet up with people who might have forgotten when or where we decided to meet up at, three weeks ago.
So many sitcom episodes just wouldn't work if they had a cell phone.
I think they are likely referring to smart phones and I sort of agree with that one specifically. I've been tempted to get a standalone GPS but I'm also addicted to streaming music.
I was just thinking this earlier today. Life just seemed more simple.
Yeah, it was. But only because it was in the 80s and I was in my early teens back then. I don’t think the world was much simpler though. I was just looking at it through oblivious eyes of youth..
Cold War was in its heyday. Russia was at war, just like today. Ronald Regan came to power. There were bloody and terrible terrorist attacks. Chernobyl blew up etc etc.
It was a shitshow.
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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