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Things you miss pre internet days

There is a company called imemories (and I'm sure there are others) that will take your old photos, negatives, 8mm film, or whatever, digitize all of it and return the originals to you.
 
I miss having conversations with people who are fully engaged, not half engaged and half distracted with their phones.

I miss going to peoples houses without having to text 20 times to confirm.

I miss not knowing where every single person in my life stands on every single subject.

I miss communities that actually care about their neighbors.

I think the thing I miss the most is responsible drivers who aren’t attached to their phones while driving.
 
HappyHighwayman said:
Calling a restaurant directly for pickup or delivery

Traveling Europe and Australia with maps
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doc4216 said:
I miss having conversations with people who are fully engaged, not half engaged and half distracted with their phones.

I miss going to peoples houses without having to text 20 times to confirm.

I miss not knowing where every single person in my life stands on every single subject.

I miss communities that actually care about their neighbors.

I think the thing I miss the most is responsible drivers who aren’t attached to their phones while driving.
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This is a much more thoughtful expression than mine but reflects how I feel as well. Going to family occasions and seeing everyone in the room except Ms. BA and me half-listening and half-looking happens over and over.

And I thought more about it in this way: all the people on their devices are learning about everything except exactly where they actually are. It’s a complete repudiation of the present and the vaunted “being in the moment.” And the implication is always that something better is elsewhere.
 
Sitting in front of a cassette player, playing and rewinding for literally dozens of hours in order to learn that cool solo from that razor sharp new metal band instead of clicking once and having some youtoob artist spoon feed me the whole thing note for note in 15min.

O wait...no I don’t.
 
Being able to have a conversation with someone without losing their attention to people or things not currently present.
 
I've always been nostalgic for my childhood but reading this thread made me question why. I love a lot of the convenience. I don't rely on my phone for much but being able to google literally any information instantly and having access to every book, song, or movie imaginable is amazing.

What I miss is the family time that inconvenience brought. We all had to go to the video store to find something. We all had to sit and watch Miami Vice at the same time. Everyone scrambled for snacks and the bathroom at commercials before someone was yelling "It's ooooonnnn!" from the living room. Modern connectivity hasn't made that gathering obligatory, so we tend to be more independent.
 
Not exactly pre-internet, but I miss the giddy rush that used to come with the experience of dialing up your internet connection. The sound of the modem handshake, the TCP/IP connection being established, and suddenly it felt like the world was stretching out ahead of you, full of limitless possibility.

And then you went to stileproject.org
 
Being at the gym and having conversations with people while running on the treadmill.

Not having a ton of self-absorbed people sitting on a machine at the gym with their nose buried in their phone.
 
I miss being bored as a kid. Figuring out what to do is creative, builds skills etc etc. Honestly though it often led me to turn my dad's can of WD40 into a flamethrower and seeing what I could somewhat safely light on fire :laughing
 
I miss the days where people could make a horrible mistake and not get their lives ruined over it because literally everybody knows around the world within minutes.
 
greenmonster said:
Handwritten letters.
Pictures you can hold in your hand or put in an album.
Encyclopedias where you'd look up something and find so many other fascinating things to look at unrelated to your search.
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I got thinking about it and didn’t come up with much but I don’t miss any of that.
 
cheez said:
Being able to have a conversation with someone without losing their attention to people or things not currently present.
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I'M talking to you NOW. I'm right here in front of you. Am I that boring? No, you can't look at the phone and listen to me. I'm tired of repeating myself. :nchantr
 
I miss the pre-internet "ish".

Everything in the age of the internet is precise, accurate, correctly spaced, labled, timed and portioned. I usta' balance the carbs on my airhead BMW's by holding my palms over the exhaust and adjusting the throttle cables until the pulses were even and the idle was steady at 750 rpm.

At that point I would proclaim the balance was even-ish and ride off into the sunset.

(You young-uns should ask gramps how a carb works. Especially the three stages of jetting and how altitude affects it.)
 
I don;t mind receiving a hand written letter but I've never had good or fast hand writing and it hurts to write for too long.
 
DucatiHoney said:
I'M talking to you NOW. I'm right here in front of you. Am I that boring? No, you can't look at the phone and listen to me. I'm tired of repeating myself. :nchantr
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giphy.gif
 
DucatiHoney said:
I'M talking to you NOW. I'm right here in front of you. Am I that boring? No, you can't look at the phone and listen to me. I'm tired of repeating myself. :nchantr
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Somebody would think you had kids. :rofl

It's even worse that adults act like that now!

It's definitely a different world!
 
Agent Orange said:
  • Playing outside alot
  • Renting movies from video stores
  • Connecting with people either meant in person or talking on a landline
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Yeah, one or two of those connected with me.,

I guess I "miss":
  • hanging out at the landline
  • when you arrange (over a landline :) ) to meet and arrive at a ~/+/- time, the other people actually ALSO show up +/-, mostly. They don't brush you away, delay you, etc, e.g. because "it could always be fluid" if you all have cellphones

but yeah, video.

Just realized: Also family slide-showings on a white screen.
 
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