Life Before the Internet
Apr. 17, 2007 by JJ
It’s almost hard to imagine at this point. Just a few years ago, people went about their daily lives without the internet. I was in college the first time I saw a website. It was black 10-point font on a white screen. Only a handful of my friends had email addresses at the time. And it would be several years before I’d have internet access at home. Life was different back then:
- If I wanted to leave my co-worker a quick note, instead of sending an email or an IM, I’d leave a Post-it.
- If I wanted to keep in touch with all my friends, I couldn’t just spend a few minutes on MySpace. I’d have to call them and actually talk to them.
- If I wanted to know what movie George Lazenby was in before he was James Bond, I couldn’t do a quick search in IMDb. I’d have to ask the movie dork at Blockbuster.
- If I wanted to buy a used guitar, instead of checking Craigslist, I’d thumb through the classified section of the paper.
- If I wrote a funny story and I wanted to share it with my friends, I couldn’t post it on a blog. I’d have to print it out a few times and bring it to them.
- If I wanted to know when my favorite bands were heading on tour, I couldn’t search Pitchfork. I’d wait for next month’s NME.
Okay… That’s enough from me… What else?
April 17th, 2007
If I wanted to get laid, or even just flirt, I’d have to get all dressed up and go out to a bar and drink myself silly.
April 17th, 2007
The first computer I saw was a 7×4 ft monster that set type by reading paper tape. Still better than what my buddy Gutenburg used though.
Oh, Blockbuster was still years away as were video tapes and DVDs.
When I wrote a funny story it was with a pencil and a piece of paper (which happily never crashed and ate the story) or typed on a manual typewriter. You could make copies though. That cc on your email stands for Carbon Copy which, once upon a time, was actually copied with carbon paper…and I have the still black fingerprints to prove it.
If I wanted to leave a quick note for a co-worker…I didn’t.
April 18th, 2007
If you wanted a porno, you had to either go into a sleezy adult video store with all the other pervs, or order it in a plain brown wrapper. No amazon.com or limewire for free pornos.
And if you wanted a song? You had to go to the record store and buy a cassette tape or album. No downloading it free and burning it to make your own mix CDs. You’d have to have a dual cassette tape or maybe record it off the radio.
That sucked.
Cinders: Don’t you do that anyway?
April 18th, 2007
I am in college with a bunch of 18-20 year olds that can.not.believe.it when I tell them I used to type papers on a typewriter when I was first in college.
April 18th, 2007
dude. you had to look thru a phone book for a phone number and look at the newspaper for movie listings.
April 18th, 2007
You can order a fucking pizza online to be delivered to your house. The pinnacle of the internet.
April 23rd, 2007
How about … I used to hold my cassette player up to the radio to tape songs.
May 8th, 2007
if i wanted the news, i’d have to wait until 6pm to watch it instead of going to 11alive.com (shameless plug).
if i wanted to find out the criminal history and background of anyone i’d actually have to make calls and go research through local clerk of court archives… waste days on something that now takes seconds…
if i got bored at work, i’d have to do something that people back in the 80s would do when they got bored at work… what the hell would that be? read a book? play cards? i just don’t know!!! i boggles the freakin’ mind!
April 20th, 2009
before the internet, a boyfriend and i used to send handwritten letters because calling long-distance was too expensive. now there is skype and all the rest of it!