"Last generation who knew life before the internet"

[Nextphonewontbesamsung]

I heard this phrase on R2 or R4 recently (sorry I can't remember the specifics). It was a discussion programme, possibly about something on at the Edinburgh Fringe, and the general consensus was that it was quite unique to be a person who has lived through as an adult straddling that boundary between no internet/then internet.

I am in this generation and I DO actually feel in a bit of a no-mans land. Anyone else? and how old are you roughly? when did the internet become a thing in your life?

I was at work in 1994/5 when I first heard the word "internet". The Chief Exec was having some extra wiring done into his office but he was the only one in our company of about 50 people. I was over 30 so had lived many adult years without it and it was many more years before it become a thing that I just had access to.

I'm struggling to think of a more life-changing invention. Maybe fire? or the wheel?

I remember being about 12 and someone had me their website and thinking it was an email address, could not get my bead around that at all! I tried to send email after email!

My first mobile phone in 1998 was a brick with only 30 minutes of battery life and phone capability only

I remember being at college crowding round a friends phone to see these new things called text messages. My phone couldn't handle them, and when I updated it could receive them only and not send them!

I think I was about 8 or 9 when we got our first computer, not sure if it had Internet at that point. Would have been 98/99. We definitely had it in the new house we moved to when I was 10. I remember the dial up tone and no one could use the phone whole someone was using the Internet 😂

I remember not being able to use the home phone if you were on the internet.

I also remember talking to someone who lived in America and giving them my (home) phone number, my dad blocked my access and sat me down and gave me a very long talk about internet safety.

It was years later, when I figured out what he was worried about, that would of been 1995.

Also ha to my maths teacher, yes I do carry a calculator around in my pocket

I sort of used the Internet at work in 1988. I had to submit an order file to head office over a telephone modem.

I also did media studies and photography at college before the digital age. Photography was dark rooms and negatives and films, and media studies was video tapes and newspapers and magazines and radio!

I just remembered looking up cinema listings on teletext and all the towns were in alphabetical order and you had to wait ages for your town to come around again, then make a quick decision before it disappeared. And looking up club listings in time out and having a think about whether you thought you'd like the music as described, hmmm chart hits, 70s funk, rock or indie

I remember watching an episode of Tomorrows World in 89 when I was a Fresher. They had a phone where you could see the person you were calling. It was HUGE but I remember wishing it was reality so I could see my bf when he called the halls from the payphone at his uni miles away.

If I was doing a long car journey the day before leaving I would study the road atlas and write the details down. So I would have a long list of stuff like “a46 to Leicester, head for M1 southband, leave m1 at junction 4.”

And I would have that on my dashboard/knee and keep looking at it. Rarely got lost.

Last year I had a bizarre incident while driving which involved a duck inside my car. Another motorist got involved and used a road atlas to move the duck along the road. I remember telling a friend who sat their open mouthed at this really odd story and at the end declared the most unbelievable thing was that someone still has a road atlas in their car,!

But I still have an atlas as well as my satnav and phone. If there’s an accident and you need a diversion it could be vital.

Sometimes I wonder how we got anything down or knew anything in the old days :)

My kids asked me what a phone box was for the other day... they also struggle with the concept of terrestrial tv (with iPlayer a lot is on demand)...

It's certainly a unique perspective that will apply only to people born during say 1930ish to 1990.

I am only in my 30s but can remember the development of communication from my early teens to now.

First email address in 2002 aged 14
Used "Teenchat" during IT lessons at school exchanging phone numbers with strange "boys"
Nokia 3410 phones
MSN messenger
Facebook
First smartphones
Whatsapp groups

I'm 64.

I first got into 'electronics' when I did a TOPPS secretarial course, when there were old fashioned typewriters and electronic but we had to share - except we didn't because most people wanted the traditional ones so the few of us that wanted electronic were fine to have them. That was around 1979.

My first computer was an Apricot. It was a British company and the equivalent to the BBC Apple. No internet initially but word processing, some games, a basic graphics programme etc.
Since then I've always been interested in keeping up with technology I can use. Not much interested in games other than electronic versions of solitaire etc.

Gone through dial up and now on broadband.

In various work I have come across people 20 or more years younger than me saying 'I'm too old for technology'. I am so so pleased I have embraced it as I have gone along.

My dad, lost his sight due to macular degeneration and could no longer watch tv or read. Listening to books on tape was very hard work. I can just ask Alexa to read my book at bedtime - even though I can still read. I get the weather and travel time from Alexa, and so much more. I hope it's a long time before these things are a necessity rather than a choice but I am so glad I have the choice.

VivalaBeaver, we still use road atlases for diversions

Car phones - we had a friend with quite a high-powered job & he had one in 1989. It sat in between the front seats, was about the size of a large shoe box, & iirc could only be used for a few minutes at a time

I remember using the basic internet at middle school aged around 10. I don't recall using the internet at home on dial up until I was about 12/13. Msn messenger and bebo was the in social media then for my age group. I had very basic internet on my phone's but it was nothing like a smart phone. I got my 1st smart phone at 17/18 it was one of the first iPhones. I remember having only have 5 channels until we got cable tv. And using teletext too, anyone else remember that? My dad always used to look at the sport results on there.
Strange to think my DS will never know his life without internet

@fromthefloorboardsup yes similar in age, I'm 30.

The internet as it is now, with smart phones and pretty much 24/7 access is really only something I've known for the last 7 or 8 years.

I remember it all being very new and exciting and wonderful because we'd not seen anything like it before; hundreds of websites and communities about absolutely any and every subject.

Nowadays people grow up with that, but I still remember that sense of wonder and excitement when I was younger!

I went travelling in 89/90, round the world. Poor Mum and Dad got an occasional letter and the odd phone call. They had no real idea where I was or who I was with. So much easier now with SM. I remember staying with a lady in NZ (got chatting on the bus). All her family turned up that night (quick! Mums picked up a backpacker!). I could have been murdered and there would have been zero clue as to where I was.

Loving the flashbacks to Eudora and Telex!

The ‘computer’ at my first job was a screen and keyboard moulded into one unit (no mouse) green courier on black background. The processor was bigger than a 4 door Ikea Pax wardrobe. It was a data processing company, so perhaps regular computers were smaller.

I'm 41. My dad was a GP so had a huge mobile phone to take on call with him.
I went to uni in 95, Edinburgh Uni was quite advanced in terms of tech. I remember talking to my then bf (now DH) over the uni intranet.

Car phones - we had a friend with quite a high-powered job & he had one in 1989

I remember about then being in our Boston office and someone commenting that the CEO had just phoned ... from his car which was in the car park.

I remember hearing about a new search engine called google that brought up the results that you actually wanted, not a load of irrelevant stuff, I think that was 1999 in my first proper job

@kenandbarbie yes! I remember vividly in my first proper job a colleague telling me “there is this thing called Google you can use to look it up- it’s on the computer in the library”. I remember thinking “what a weird name!”. That was 1999.

I went to work for a big (probably close to 500 million turnover at the time), multinational US company in 1995. When we had large documents to send to an overseas office (files for a major tender) we used bbn (I think that was the name). Basically had to wait till after hours, go into the computer lab, dial up vpn, wait for answer and then spend about an hour transmitting files (just word files nothing major) across the world.

Putting photos in bids was literally cut and paste. I would cut out the photo, add it to the project description and then the copy centre would copy it (not really such a thing as the copy/bid/office services centre anymore - pity. the staff of the copy centre did an amazing job).

My first job as a lawyer in a small office, the best secretary in the place would type all the wills - they had to be without any typos or corrections.

But I want to know, what happened to Jeeves?
Has anyone asked him how he is?

I can also remember when my first office got its first fax machine. ONe of the partners tried to send a pound note to his friend in another office. It had to be explained to him that the actual pound note didn't go through just a ... facsimile :)

Do you feel aware of being in a bit of a unique position?

Not really. There are more people in this position than not.

When I started work we didn’t have email. It was one computer between 5 of us. Internet was just becoming a thing but wasn’t well used. The first work email I had was round about 2001. That wasn’t uncommon.

I planned my year out travelling '94/95 with massive volumes of Lonely Planet & the Rough Guide. I had to use payphones to book accommodation ahead whilst on the road & use timetables on paper to plan the interconnecting travel. How did this ever work?? I also remember accepting lifts from strangers abroad with no problem