Give me a list of things that people used to do before smartphones and technology!

[KnittingForMittens]

I am just curious to think what we all did before smartphone invention? I remember I used to do my school homework on paper, watch DVDs all night during the weekend, go out and visit my friends, other endless things.... what about you? Your mother? Your grandma? Etc.

I did my uni essays on an electric typewriter.
Read huge amounts of Les Miserables on a train.
Rang my mum from a middle of nowhere train station when I missed my connection.
Left my purse on top of the pay phone when I rang my mum to tell her I was going to be late (different occasion).
Rang up France in very poor French when I needed to be picked up for a volunteer thing, no email and Google Translate.
Got photos developed.
And yes queued for ages to ring home from Uni halls!

Lots of reading, chatting with friends over phone, visiting each other or hanging out outside chatting, writing letters, watching TV.
Yes to arranging a meet up and sticking to agreed arrangements!
Also just waiting, DH went away to a conference and I was watching TV and thinking: nothing on the news - he’s fine. He wasn’t a prominent figure, I just needed an idea to keep myself calm.
It was before mobile phones and internet was limited.

Everything was just more time consuming. Take for example music. You had to go to the shop, but the music and bring it home, and play it. If you were skint you would spend two or three hours in a Sunday night taping the top 40 to play the rest of the week. Now it's switch in phone, find song, play.

We just lived our lives without having the need to contact people every five minutes, and not having hysterics if not replied to immediately. We used encyclopedias for obtaining information on most subjects.

Speech was the method of communication which I can foresee becoming obsolete in the not too distant future.

I still do all the things I used to do; knit, sew, crochet, art, gardening, read, a lot (mostly on a kindle). I still read a daily paper and watch the tv news. I keep a handwritten diary and a calendar on the wall.
I see modern technology as more of a tool. I wouldn't want to be without Internet shopping, bill paying and booking holidays online, but the rest I can do without really. I don't have a smartphone either as I've never felt the need. I don't want to share my every movement with other people via social media and I don't want to be instantly contactable anytime, day or night. I like my privacy. I am retired and in my 60's. I have no doubt though, if I was in my 20s now, I would probably be as glued to a smartphone as everyone else.

Writing letters.

I still do and I think people who don't are missing out.

I have boxes of letters from friends, so much more creative and expressive than text or email, full of impromptu art and crafts

I miss spending time in a record shop listening to and buying music. Also listening to albums in the correct order so you hear what the band created as a whole instead of skipping straight to an instant favourite song.

Technology is a tool, it's a shame it has become a crutch for some instead. There is research suggesting that attention spans and memory skills are reducing which is sad. The other side of the coin is that I am incredibly grateful that the information is now available to those who look for it - access to information is freedom. Freedom from damaging peer group narrow mindedness, freedom from situation, freedom from restricted learning. A gigantic library. That this has resulted in libraries shutting down in the most deprived areas (where they are needed most) is awful.

I think a certain amount of boredom is essential to developing creativity and imagination, I think achieving flow is my favourite feeling in life. I note that silicon valley parents restrict or deny access altogether to their own children in order to protect them from the negatives whilst their brains are developing.

Walk up to the phone box at the top of the road to ring boys so parents wouldn't listen in on the house phone.

Look things up at the library.

Phone the takeaway for delivery, and have a drawer full of takeaway menus.

Remember to put the digital camera on charge and empty the memory card before a big day out.

Spend ages flipping through records and CDs at the local market/our price.

I was a child in the 60's/70's and we didn't have a phone in the house. This is what i did.
Visited friends- spent a long time walking between friends houses to see who was in.
Went to the library/read books
Went swimming
Did crosswords and jigsaws
Played board games.
Listened to music
Did crafts
Did homework
Cooked/baked
Browsed in the shops
Walked the dog
Wrote letters
I don't recall ever being bored.

Read the local newspaper for cinema listings and what's in generally.

Own a phone card (a newfangled thing, a few 2p and 5p coins before that - the 5p then being the size of a 10p now)

Make arrangements to meet people at a time you'd stick to, and include a fallback plan in case one of you really was held up.

Be reasonably certain that nothing on a night out would be photographed because flashbulbs and film processing were both quite expensive.

Shop in actual shops, making day trips to nearby cities for better choice.

Know key phone numbers off by heart

Tape sings from the chart rundown, and dram of being able to afford a Walkman

Bike rides, cross stitch, reading, baking, out for walks, having a snooze.

As a kid, bike rides, playing with friends, jacks, skipping, elastics, marbles..reading Jackie. Lots of time in my room listening to the radio and tapes. Talking to friends on the phone.

When I was a teen I’d spend hours on the house phone to my friend and my boyfriend.
I’d write a lot.
Watch telly.
Have long indulgent baths.
Play with the dog.
Listen to music.

I think if we didn’t have phones now I’d probably phone my mum every night.
Watch telly.
Have long indulgent baths.
Not much different except I might not write as I’m not so self involved as I was as a teen, journaling every day thinking one day I’d love reading them back. But they just make me feel sad!

When I was a kid I spent hours doing lego and using my stamp/colouring kit. I’d make up dances. Play outside with neighbourhood friends.

I was born in the mid 80’s but it seems so old fashioned already!

I remember carrying a little A-Z Streetmap of London in my pocket. Then if I got lost, I wouldn't have to go through the toe-curling horror of having to ask a stranger for directions. Once people saw I had the map though, people kept walking up to me!

Oh, and another thing is the hours I spent typing in all the phone number and contact details into my non-smart phone using the bloody numeric keypad.

Watched crap tv but put up with it because i was bored.
Read more books.

As a child weekend entertainment seemed to consist of being dragged round garden centres by my parents.

I still use a dedicated satnav rather than my phone but before that I used to use those a-z street maps to get to work. I've been a supply teacher on and off for almost 20 years so have often had to find my way to schools I'd never heard of by quickly planning and writing out the route using the atlas. My sense of direction is so bad it's legendary but I always got there on time and even remembered the way. Now I overrely on my satnav I could go to the same school every day for a week and still not know the way.

I am trying to give my children the best of both worlds, if that's possible, by letting them play the ps4 and go on their tablet but also limiting their use and telling them to make their own entertainment. They play cards, read, colour, draw, play Lego, make dens and do a whole range of stuff that I remember doing as a child because I caved help but feel that they're missing out if they become phone zombies at such a young age. I'm probably fighting a losing battle though!

Also read magazines from cover to cover because they had good content in those days.

This thread is making me feel all nostalgic! I’m glad that I’m old enough to have experienced life before smartphones.

Smartphones and technology are deskilling people. My mother born before WWII could sew and knit well before she was ten years old.

The worst is it’s killed the art of conversation, some people are downright rude looking at their phone a lot when your with them. Plus people would discuss and debate stuff and have to do this and try and work things out whereas now people will just look it up and not wonder about it.