Pre internet bliss you miss, things we dont do now because of the internet

[Bombadil]

When we first visited Galway together in 2016, my wife bumped into an old friend at Charlie's, with whom we later went out for lunch. And at the time, I was reading all Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor books, which are set in Galway, where Bruen lives. The missus went out to do a bit of shopping, drop in on an old friend's shop, and went to the bookshop, where she met Charlie, mentioned Bruen, and she had just missed the guy! So, yeah, it's a little community. I would've loved uni there.....

EDIT: Charlie remembered her!

[SHall1000]

Well as I have mentioned in another thread….being able to try a number of different headphones in a store before purchasing.

[Hink]

^^^^I think that is what planted the memory tbh

[BONES]

Indeed. Reading books for me. I used to be an avid reader, but haven't read a proper book in years. I have lots of ebooks these days, but always get distracted by the "internet".

Really? I read more than ever since I got into eBooks. It makes it so much easier, I can read in waiting rooms and on the train or the bus with my phone, although I prefer to read on my Kobo, and I've always got another dozen books lined up to read when I finish this one, so I'm never in that situation where I don't read for a week because I've run out of books and have to find time to go out and buy something. And it's also really good for the industry because before I got my first Kindle, 90% of the books I read were borrowed from others, who also borrowed mine. Now we each pay for them so they get bought 3 or 4 times, instead of just once.

My wife buys me books for Christmas and my birthday but it takes so long to read them now.

I'm already 75% of the way through my second novel this year.

It has been on my mind a lot over the last couple of years, and one of the reasons (of which there were many) why I closed my FB acc't. Reclaiming my life to pre-internet levels. Not realistic right now, but when it feels right, I'll just do it. Like, if 'normal' ever returns to my life, I'd likely kill our streaming subs. Well, I'd likely give it very serious consideration.

I've always had a FB page but I doubt I check it more than once or twice a year, and even then it's by accident. We have a band page on FB, of course, but my bandmate looks after that and I only check it every few months.

I've never understood the allure of streaming services, either. 20 years ago we only had the basic five free-to-air TV channels but now each of those five networks has five digital channels so the amount of free content is almost overwhelming. When you add in their free streaming services, I can't see any point at all in paying to watch telly. That said, I did pay for one month of Netflix, so I could watch the second season of Altered Carbon (used my free trial for the first) and I've had Amazon Prime on and off so I can watch The Expanse but now that it's finished, I won't be paying for Prime again. The problem for me is that if I can watch something any time I want, I will never find time because there is always so much more important stuff to be doing. OTOH, if it's on at 8:30pm on Thursday, then I have to watch it or miss out.

[BONES]

I had to register the car the other day. I'd forgotten about it until it was overdue but it took me literally five minutes to get my insurance renewed, then go and renew the rego. Before the internet I would have had to drive to the insurance company office and queue for 20 minutes, then drive to the Motor Registry and queue up for more than an hour. It was something you had to take half-a-day off work to do, now you can do it between breakfast and leaving for the office.

As much as I used to enjoy my fortnightly trips into the city to do over all the record stores - Phantom, Kent, Record Plant and Red-Eye - since the internet came along I have discovered a treasure-trove of great music I hadn't previously known existed. The best example are probably these guys, a band completely unknown to me until it came up as a recommendation in Zune while I was listening to The Chameleons. Now they are one of my all-time favourite bands and I kick myself that I was 30 years late to the party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MX9Rty ... tion-Topic

So yeah, there is not much about the internet that I see as having a negative impact on my life. Mobile phones, OTOH, are a completely different story and I hate them with a passion. I have one, of course, because you can't not have one. But I hate them. It gave me great pleasure the other morning when I opened the phone to check the weather before deciding if I would ride or walk to work, only to see that the last time I had opened it was at 4:12pm the previous day, around 18 hours previously, when someone had called me. To be fair, nothing gets through between midnight and 9:30am but still, it was a whole evening where the f**king thing just sat there and didn't annoy me. Ya gotta be happy with that, don'tcha?

[UncleAge]

(note to self-don't get drunk and post) <snip>

[donkey tugger]

So yeah, there is not much about the internet that I see as having a negative impact on my life. Mobile phones, OTOH, are a completely different story and I hate them with a passion. I have one, of course, because you can't not have one. But I hate them. It gave me great pleasure the other morning when I opened the phone to check the weather before deciding if I would ride or walk to work, only to see that the last time I had opened it was at 4:12pm the previous day, around 18 hours previously, when someone had called me. To be fair, nothing gets through between midnight and 9:30am but still, it was a whole evening where the f**king thing just sat there and didn't annoy me. Ya gotta be happy with that, don'tcha?

I find the whole constant need to be available thing mind boggling as well. I often have people saying, "I texted you hours ago" then are flummoxed when I explain that I left the phone in another room or turned it on silent because I was doing something. As devices for going online, checking bank stuff, ordering things, they are excellent, but no need to be at the beck and call all the time.

Must be an old git thing.

[dark water]

Dunno if it fits the thread, but I'm massively thankful that I grew up as a teenager during the 1990s and not a few years later when internet / social media / instant phone photos had become a thing...

when i think of some of the shit i did
thank god theres no video proof

Same here

[BONES]

As devices for going online, checking bank stuff, ordering things, they are excellent, but no need to be at the beck and call all the time.

I don't use mine for any of that because I spend at least 12 hours a day in front of a computer, usually more, and all that shit is way too fiddly on even a big phone screen. I check the weather a few times a day and that's about it, really. Occasionally I use the Kobo app to read a book but I never call anyone or instigate text exchanges. For 18 months I got by with just a Galaxy smartwatch, I didn't carry a phone at all. If it wasn't for the need to check-in everywhere we go during Covid, I wouldn't be carrying a phone now.

[Michael L]

Oh, the pre-internet bliss of local newspapers, bookshops and live porn

[whyterabbyt]

Ive been using the internet since the late 80s, so I actually dont have a f**king clue.

[harryupbabble]

i embraced the internet initially only because i learned i could play online scrabble with my bro who lived about 30 blocks away.

i then learned that there are thousands of others besides my bro to play with.. from all over the world.

i then learned of google and the new site called youtube (2007) and i'm like "wowee, those two sites are supergreat and superuseful".

yup, the internet is heaven. i'm superglad i'm living in the internet age. i would supermiss the internet if it were to just disappear. i don't take it for granted. countless previous generations never got to live in the internet age.

so, really, i can't think of anything i miss from before the internet. oh wait... hackers not being significant, i miss that. i already personally know of at least three people that's been hacked. also, exposure to misinformation is greater?

[foosnark]

We had one pretty decent music store in town when I was a kid, and a closer, smaller one for school instruments. Moving to St. Louis I found it was oddly kind of a music store desert. There was a pretty cool drum shop for a while, but it closed. There are a few specialist shops if they're still open (steel guitar, violin repair). There were a couple of school band instrument places that may still exist. There's the world's laziest Guitar Center which pissed me off every time I had to go in.

There are a few good record shops around but I don't really miss that. Music discovery is a lot better now.

We've got some good choices for bookstores. Of course with COVID I haven't been to one in a while.

I will echo the thankfulness that social media didn't exist when I was a kid. Lots of potential embarrassment, regret, and bullying that I just don't have to worry about.

I don't miss carrying a road atlas in the car to find my way around, or the more recent version of printing a route from MapQuest when going on a long trip and then finding out you have to detour and getting horribly lost.

I don't miss looking things up in my mom's 1967 encylopedia set.

I don't miss having to go to a whole bunch of different stores within a two hour driving radius for some specific thing or just being unable to ever find it.

I really appreciate being able to check out library books, or buy new books, albums, etc. just by going to a website.

[BONES]

You know, even when I was a kid I don't think I'd have had any interest in social media. I've tried a few times to get into it but I don't get it at all. I look at what other people post and wonder why they think anyone gives a flying f**k about the tedious minutiae of their sad, little lives. I mean, I think my life is more interesting than most people's and I still can't imagine why anyone would want to know about it. I find the arrogance of it astounding, TBH, and the thought that people might is more than a little creepy. It seems custom designed for bullying and stalking. Even with the band, we got way more engagement from MySpace than we've ever got from Facebook.