What do you miss before the world went viral? When you couldn't be contacted after work hours except by your home phone or via postman?

#1

I miss having to actually physically engage with my friends as a teenager and having to phone a friends house phone. I miss having to write and receive letters in the post. MOSTLY I miss the fact that when your day is done it's done! Nobody can contact you in a split second. To contact you took ages and no matter where you turned you wasn't immedialty accessible. Plus mistakes stayed in the past, not easily brought back up by anybody whenever they felt like it on social media. I miss the lost trust humanity had in itself and engaged in just generally being sociable. Just a 👋 how are you when passing. Now we choose to keep ourselves to ourselves for safety.

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#2

Turning on my video game console and not waiting for a gigantic mandatory update to complete.

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anarkzie
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes! Each console had it's trademark sound when you loaded a game, from the Gameboy's iconic "ting" to the Megadrives "Sa--GA" and that was it you were ready to play.

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#3

People being in touch with reality and people having social skills. Oh and being able to ride my motorcycle without worrying about some idiot face timing or texting while driving.

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TKA
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Now days it’s best to take an experienced riders course to help you learn how to handle those situations. (Not that they would advertise it that way)

#4

I’m 30. I grew up poor and homeless so I didn’t have access to the internet much. I miss the ignorance. It’s bliss, as they say. Now, if someone shits their pants 2 states over we all know about it. The constant influx of information is overwhelming sometimes. I love knowledge. Don’t get me wrong. The internet has taught me so many things. I just wish it didn’t teach me what a mother or father’s face looks like when they find out their child was killed at school. Seeing tiny body bags. I wish I didn’t feel like I’m prying into someone’s pain and tragedy every time I go online. I’m not saying I want to ignore what people are going through. I just can’t handle everything all at once. It’s like a bad news tornado you can’t escape. And it’s not just in the palm of my hand. My husband and family all have phones chained to themselves too so even when you think you have a moment of peace it keeps coming. Until I was 16 I didn’t even have a cell phone. My first was a smartphone and now I have so many devices and info streams that sometimes I’d like to jump off a bridge.

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#5

Actually having to research things in libraries using card catalogues, encyclopedias, and other REAL reference materials instead of going off of what Wikipedia had to say about a topic..

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#6

Having LAN parties with my bros. These were such exciting times, we had our special thing going on and were overwhelmed by the simple possibility to play against each other. Nowadays it's cool that we meet reguarly in TeamSpeak while everyone is sitting at home and we can easily play togehter. But you cant compare the vibe, its something different. And I miss it

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#7

Just having that sense of healthy disconnect, like everyone wasn’t constantly glued to a phone and social media. You couldn’t instantly contact people throughout the entire day. Kids spent most of their free time outside playing/hanging out with neighbors and friends for hours and hours. I feel like it was a much less toxic time, whereas now we’re constantly exposed to so much hate and opinions and putting everyone down. I genuinely miss my childhood, it was a simpler, less stressful time with less toxicity. I’m 36.

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#8

1970 here. Going on summer vacation and writing letters to your friends and actually sending them in the mail. Being able to slam the phone down when you’re mad. Taking the phone off the hook when you don’t want to talk to anyone. Anonymity. The whole school not seeing your mistakes on a video or photo. Going a whole weekend being outside, riding bikes, making forts, running around with friends. You truly did not come home till the streetlights came on. Good times.

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#9

im just 12 so this may wont count, but i wish i was born 1972 cuz then i could go on conserts! Im a huge fan of the 80s and 90s and early 2000s.
and there was cooler cars then

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TKA
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love this! And yes the music and cars were way better! ❤️

#10

I'm in my 30s so I grew up when it was just hitting it's stride. What I enjoyed most was everyone not having their phones in everyone's faces every time something happens. Of course there is the positive side for evidence but what I mean is video recording someone to shame them or even instances where instead of helping someone they decided to film it instead.

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#11

Christmas morning when you opened your curtains and kids were playing outside on whatever new toy they had. Bikes, rollerskates, pushing a doll and pram, skateboards. It didn't matter how cold or wet it was, they were out there in their element showing off their new prized possessions to each other. Sheer joy and pride on their faces. Now the streets are dead on Christmas morning and kids communicate via text or consoles etc. Feels like a bit of the magic of Christmas has disappeared with the kids and it has become so impersonal.

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TKA
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Where did you live? It definitely couldn’t have been Ohio, I am 41 and have never seen this happen or done that.

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#12

Oh, my god! The peace and quiet! We are inundated with texts, emails, the constant marketing. I miss the days when all I got pissed off about is occasional (once a week/month) of crappy marketing calls on my land line!

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