Recently started using a LightPhone II when out of the house, and I found the article captured my current experience pretty well. It’s not so bad to be bored sometimes.
People have all the time in the world to write better articles, better titles.
I refuse to waste life on articles, that scream “clickbait” from a mile away…
We used pagers to tell people to call us back on payphones, possibly using collect call service. Music was listened to on Sony Walkmans, maybe a boombox if you wanted to be obnoxious about it. Newspapers were sold at every street corner to provide reading material.
I wouldn’t say it was so different before smartphones. Everyone on the train was browsing the news using the copy of the local paper instead of a cell-phone connected to some news network.
i sometimes quote some of my favorites to the young generation and they look at me like im insane.
10-10-220, only a buck for the first 5 minutes and just a quarter after that for any long distance phone call!
Oh wow. Sometimes I can’t believe there are people that don’t know a world without smartphones and the internet. Then I read this and realize that there are more of them now and less of us.
My grandparents grew up on the depression. They had a very simple life. They had a tv on wheels that lived in the closet and only came out once a month or so to watch a football game. They had a radio they turned on to listen to classical music while working. And they had a newspaper and magazine subscription.
They woke up early, tended to there chores and to the garden. Then they would eat a leasurly breakfast with lots of little plates and saucers (egg cups, juice, coffee and water glasses, etc), basically it was an activity that took an hour. Then more chores.
My grandma always had a project going, making cookies for a neighbor, helping someone find a job. My grandpa would spend most of the day in his workshop repairing lawnmowers or building fun inventions (solar ovens, bird houses, etc).
Lunch and dinner were also big presentations that took an hour. It was not always a lot of food, but they took a lot of time with it. After diner they would sit in two chairs side by side reading books or more often than not just sitting quietly. Neither talked much, they were just content to be.
They ran some errands occasionally, but there only big event for the week was going to church. I don’t remember them ever going out to dinner or even to a friends house, though they did have friends who stopped by.
Mostly they were content to do very little. They were never bored, or at least they were content to be bored. I think the one big negative all technology has brought us is that we’re restless if we can’t find something to do. We don’t enjoy just sitting and listening to life.
We would run down the street with a stick and we’d stick in the fence while running so it would make a noise. Or we’d stick a playing card into the spoke of our bike so it would make a noise. We were entertained by noises. And rewinding VHS tapes.
If you were meeting up somewhere you’d arrange to have someone who was at home (and thus by a phone) to orchestrate any last minute changes of plan or notifications of late arrivals (via payphones, which were a thing, once).
You’d go into town regularly to pick up the new bus timetable.
You’d have a huge pile of maps in the back of the car, or one very big map book, often both. If you drove somewhere once, you’d remember the route the next time.
There was a set of encyclopedias at home to look up facts.
And a calendar on the wall. (That’s probably still a thing?)
There were a lot more newspapers and magazines around.
Everyone had a little notebook with all their important phone numbers in it. Filofax was revolutionary.
And we still remember the most important phone numbers from that little notebook because we had to dial them so very often.
I do miss magazines. Websites aren’t the same as the excitement of your favorite magazine coming out after waiting for it a month. And there were ads, but they could flash or make sounds.
As late Gen X I grew up without internet, and my parents both grew up on rural farms and were quite frugal, so we didn’t have cable TV, air conditioning, or much of anything else.
I spent a lot of time reading (fiction and encyclopedias), bicycling, building tree forts in the woods, snow forts, swimming (city pool or nearby creek that was probably full of mildly toxic runoff), building stuff (lots of Lego creations), etc. There were arcades, but it took like two hours on the bus to get there and then you need money to play, so that kind of sucked. We almost never had any money, so we very rarely did anything that wasn’t free. Spent a lot of time at the local library in the summer (probably read half of the scifi/fantasy section by the time I got out of high school).
About once a month on a Friday night we’d go to the local video rental store and rent a couple of VHS movies and a VCR so we could watch a movie. Eventually they also offered rentals of a NES machine, so we could play a video game at home.
We always had a home computer though, so sometimes I’d play simple games on the computer. Then when I got bored with the games (which didn’t take very long since they were all free stuff from the early days of computers) I’d go through the source code for them to learn to make my own. From about middle school on I spent a lot of time programming (with a few sample programs and lots of time as my only resources).
Lines waiting for anything were agony, but we learned to tolerate them. There were less people so often the lines weren’t as bad but still.
Boredom is something we’re more sensitive now because we can be, much like hunter-gatherers were probably less sensitive to hunger and cold than we are.
I don’t recall being particularly bored but I do recall taking a book absolutely everywhere with me. I can remember arguing with my parents because they’d only let me pack 7 hardback library books in my suitcase for a two week holiday when I was about 8!
Books, newspapers, video game consoles, broadcast television.
Because of the lack of communication you wasted a whole lot of time trying to see who was around and who wanted to do things. You’d buy 10 minutes over to Jimmy’s house see he’s not there bike 10 minutes back like 5 minutes the other direction then Gerald’s house.
Movie theaters and concessions used to be a lot less expensive even considering inflation.
There were malls and arcades. Department stores with cheap cafeterias.
As others have said standing in line was the worst. The best you could hope for was that you’d be able to do some people watching or maybe you got a book with you if you’re the type to read.
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This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
You can see they (we) enjoyed it more lol
Sad reality of a person with very small and very young friend circle.
👍
The title is a bit silly and doesn’t match the article.
People have all the time in the world to write better articles, better titles. I refuse to waste life on articles, that scream “clickbait” from a mile away…
Limit your screen time to an hour a day and you’ll figure it out
We used pagers to tell people to call us back on payphones, possibly using collect call service. Music was listened to on Sony Walkmans, maybe a boombox if you wanted to be obnoxious about it. Newspapers were sold at every street corner to provide reading material.
I wouldn’t say it was so different before smartphones. Everyone on the train was browsing the news using the copy of the local paper instead of a cell-phone connected to some news network.
Collect call from “wehadababy itsaboy”, do you accept?
I’m glad I’m not the only one with this burned permanently into my memory.
i sometimes quote some of my favorites to the young generation and they look at me like im insane. 10-10-220, only a buck for the first 5 minutes and just a quarter after that for any long distance phone call!
Oh wow. Sometimes I can’t believe there are people that don’t know a world without smartphones and the internet. Then I read this and realize that there are more of them now and less of us.
I was a heck of a lot more bored on the toilet, so….
Magazines and books by the loo were a legitimate thing I remember growing up.
Don’t see that anymore, I say as I’m typing this comment on the loo.
deleted by creator
My grandparents grew up on the depression. They had a very simple life. They had a tv on wheels that lived in the closet and only came out once a month or so to watch a football game. They had a radio they turned on to listen to classical music while working. And they had a newspaper and magazine subscription.
They woke up early, tended to there chores and to the garden. Then they would eat a leasurly breakfast with lots of little plates and saucers (egg cups, juice, coffee and water glasses, etc), basically it was an activity that took an hour. Then more chores.
My grandma always had a project going, making cookies for a neighbor, helping someone find a job. My grandpa would spend most of the day in his workshop repairing lawnmowers or building fun inventions (solar ovens, bird houses, etc).
Lunch and dinner were also big presentations that took an hour. It was not always a lot of food, but they took a lot of time with it. After diner they would sit in two chairs side by side reading books or more often than not just sitting quietly. Neither talked much, they were just content to be.
They ran some errands occasionally, but there only big event for the week was going to church. I don’t remember them ever going out to dinner or even to a friends house, though they did have friends who stopped by.
Mostly they were content to do very little. They were never bored, or at least they were content to be bored. I think the one big negative all technology has brought us is that we’re restless if we can’t find something to do. We don’t enjoy just sitting and listening to life.
We would run down the street with a stick and we’d stick in the fence while running so it would make a noise. Or we’d stick a playing card into the spoke of our bike so it would make a noise. We were entertained by noises. And rewinding VHS tapes.
If you were meeting up somewhere you’d arrange to have someone who was at home (and thus by a phone) to orchestrate any last minute changes of plan or notifications of late arrivals (via payphones, which were a thing, once).
You’d go into town regularly to pick up the new bus timetable.
You’d have a huge pile of maps in the back of the car, or one very big map book, often both. If you drove somewhere once, you’d remember the route the next time.
There was a set of encyclopedias at home to look up facts.
And a calendar on the wall. (That’s probably still a thing?)
There were a lot more newspapers and magazines around.
Everyone had a little notebook with all their important phone numbers in it. Filofax was revolutionary.
And we still remember the most important phone numbers from that little notebook because we had to dial them so very often.
We played eye spy a lot.
I do miss magazines. Websites aren’t the same as the excitement of your favorite magazine coming out after waiting for it a month. And there were ads, but they could flash or make sounds.
As late Gen X I grew up without internet, and my parents both grew up on rural farms and were quite frugal, so we didn’t have cable TV, air conditioning, or much of anything else.
I spent a lot of time reading (fiction and encyclopedias), bicycling, building tree forts in the woods, snow forts, swimming (city pool or nearby creek that was probably full of mildly toxic runoff), building stuff (lots of Lego creations), etc. There were arcades, but it took like two hours on the bus to get there and then you need money to play, so that kind of sucked. We almost never had any money, so we very rarely did anything that wasn’t free. Spent a lot of time at the local library in the summer (probably read half of the scifi/fantasy section by the time I got out of high school).
About once a month on a Friday night we’d go to the local video rental store and rent a couple of VHS movies and a VCR so we could watch a movie. Eventually they also offered rentals of a NES machine, so we could play a video game at home.
We always had a home computer though, so sometimes I’d play simple games on the computer. Then when I got bored with the games (which didn’t take very long since they were all free stuff from the early days of computers) I’d go through the source code for them to learn to make my own. From about middle school on I spent a lot of time programming (with a few sample programs and lots of time as my only resources).
removed by mod
We were painfully, PAINFULLY bored.
Lines waiting for anything were agony, but we learned to tolerate them. There were less people so often the lines weren’t as bad but still.
Boredom is something we’re more sensitive now because we can be, much like hunter-gatherers were probably less sensitive to hunger and cold than we are.
I don’t recall being particularly bored but I do recall taking a book absolutely everywhere with me. I can remember arguing with my parents because they’d only let me pack 7 hardback library books in my suitcase for a two week holiday when I was about 8!
Books, newspapers, video game consoles, broadcast television.
Because of the lack of communication you wasted a whole lot of time trying to see who was around and who wanted to do things. You’d buy 10 minutes over to Jimmy’s house see he’s not there bike 10 minutes back like 5 minutes the other direction then Gerald’s house.
Movie theaters and concessions used to be a lot less expensive even considering inflation.
There were malls and arcades. Department stores with cheap cafeterias.
As others have said standing in line was the worst. The best you could hope for was that you’d be able to do some people watching or maybe you got a book with you if you’re the type to read.
That reminds me, I used to carry a book everywhere. I certainly don’t do it half as much nowadays.
That and or a walkman
Flip the cassete and rewind it, fuck the tape is tangled… nvm you can untangle it…a bit of noise will not hurt your ears more than headphones you have