What do you miss the most about life before the internet?

[Beatrixpotterspencil]

If you are old enough to have reached adulthood before it really became a household thing?
I love the net, I can't tell a lie! But there are some things I really miss from 'before'.

Such as:
The simplicity, from booking a holiday to clothes shopping, and when watching the news only once a day was normal. Feeling satisfied with a quiet hour in the library researching, and not having a device between you and the world perpetually.

I miss how slow fashion felt, how there was less pressure to 'do all the things'.

I miss that weird, organic way of finding things out for yourself.

I miss how slower paced things felt.

I miss how not being able to find data on everything actually made life seem less stressful. You weren't dizzy with indecision over which hairdryer to buy

There was less info, less choice, and less access to global affairs in general, but whether this has improved life or not I really don't know. But it's here now, and there is much to love about it, as well as to criticise.

Anyone else?

Telephones.

Knowing your friends' numbers off by heart.

The event of the everyone watching the same must-see episode at one time and talking about it the next day, and having to wait a week to find out what happened.

Letters & receiving your monthly magazine subscription in the post.

Going to the pub and chatting and laughing ("kids these days" sit round the table on their phones not talking!)

Not feeling like you were doing something wrong because you walked around without a mobile phone glued to you!

Knowing WHO would know the answer, who was most knowledgeable on that particular subject.
It seemed to create conversation between people.

I miss the blissful ignorance.

Googling has turned me into some kind of quack who thinks they know everything about everything and my brain finds it difficult to process all the information I'm actively seeking on an almost daily basis.

Being without the internet if I force myself to put away my phone makes life feel quite surreal and like something's missing and I'm not content to just 'be'.

(I hope this makes sense)

I am 80 and I wouldn’t swap our technology for the old days. I am so much more independent. It is so much easier to do things and have stuff delivered such as food etc. I have lived through enough of old things. Yes it was nice to get letters but we had no telephone and even urgent things had to wait for the post.

I'm glad I have my old letters and postcards. Otherwise I like the convenience of shopping, chatting, booking holidays.

Getting photos developed was always really exciting. And a good one felt really special, not endless reels of identical people pouting.

I’m not sure if it’s down to the internet, but if you found a product that had your name on it, that was really exciting. Personalised products were really rare.

Looking forward to something coming on TV, and talking about it with friends the next day.

TV adverts were memorable and clever, and again, a talking point.

In some respects, needing to be organised about things, and making a decision and sticking to it. I have no idea where my eg insurance details are as I know the docs are attached to an email somewhere.

Agree about magazines, that was a real treat as a child or an adult.

General knowledge. Nothing really sinks in anymore, as I know I can just look it up if I need to.

I remember getting exciting things through the post like university offers, as well as handwritten letters.

Being ill just involved tucking yourself up in bed with a hot drink rather than seeking opinions from strangers and Googling your way to a terminal disease.

In general I guess people had to cope more without knowing things.

Everyone watching the new episode of something at the same time and phoning your mate for an hour straight after to discuss it then talking about it at work the next day.

Talking to someone's face, not the top of their head.

I used to love this and asking the travel agent if I could look in their big book that was hidden behind the desk with feedback on the hotels.

Having to ‘allow 28 days for delivery’.

only having 24 or 36 exposures in a camera so having to really think about taking photos.

Being a clever clogs because I would always know where to find the answer to random questions.. Now I am just a Google addict like everyone else.

Finding out about people by talking to them rather than googling them.

Maps! I still love maps.

It seems it was much easier and more likely to do certain things on the spur of the moment. Cinema and watching sport come to mind.

Reading and watching a broad range of material because I was bored: the shelves in my parents' house had all sorts of books that I would never have chosen to read as such, but on dull weekend afternoons I would just pick up something, anything, and read all sorts. Also watched a lot of classic, art house and foreign films in my early and mid teens, because I wanted to stay up late, and there was very little choice about what to watch. DS never will experience that accidental exposure, because there is so much choice.

I'm only barely old enough to remember, but I miss when you could go somewhere and not take a phone and no-one could find you.

I still write letters, but not so many, miss that.

The excitement of finding the third book in a series in a second hand shop having only known what it was called from the blurbs in the back pages of the other books.

Kids being able to leave school at school, bullying not being able to come into the home in the way it does now.

What I really miss though is the early days of the internet. When it was a giant "weirdos unite party" but in a good way. When everything looked homemade and the vast majority of people on there socially were nerds and were actually pretty nice to each other. MSN. The internet pre-facebook, pre-twitter etc. The excitement of suddenly being able to hear the unmediated perspectives of other people around the world. I love some of the stuff you can do online now but nobody is nice anymore, or when they are it's buried in a giant tyre fire of shitness.

The high street and shopping was much more fun before the internet. I still prefer to visit an actual shop if I want to buy clothes/candles etc. Online shopping just doesn't cut it for me :(

Not being contactable 24 bloody 7. If I didn’t have teen kids I’d ditch my phone and wander around ignorant to the bullshit.

Meeting up with friends in town and all pilling into a photo booth. I still have strips of passport photos of us all :(

Dating! OLD is hideous. I miss the days of meeting someone at a bar or through a hobby. Ok you can still meet people there to a degree but in the "old days" it was the only way to get together so people seized their chance. Now most people resort to online where you don't have to deal with a rejection face to face and there's a hundred other profiles to browse anyway. I feel it's taken away a lot of human interaction.

The high street for fashion. I dont mind online shopping, but I really do miss a lot of the clothes shops that used to be on the high street
The thrill of waiting to see what your photos would be when you got a film developed.
The absence of social media. I swear facebook is enough to make anyone depressed, I know comparison has always been the thief of joy, but I miss not knowing about all the amazing things everyone else is doing.

In some ways though, I love the ease that the internet has brought.

I was a saddo that used to have a tea and Bakewell in the market cafe and then spend the day in the library. All but one library in my area have closed and the last one is mostly screens.
I'm a hypocrite because I use a kindle now but it was a ritual.
much prefer grocery shopping though, I always hated that.

i too have googled myself into quite a few terminal illnesses

I recall losing sensation in my little finger once, about 25 years ago. I was nonplussed and just got on with it, and it want away after 2 days. Nothing ever came of it so presumed a nerve thing.

If that happened now, I would have MS, Motor Neurone disease or a brain tumour, thanks to the internet!

I recall a comedy sketch where a guy goes to see his GP about a sore shoulder. His GP seemed confused and couldn't offer an explanation, so decided to ask the internet......... "Well, umm, er, Google says it's probably cancer".

Letters. The once a year Christmas day phone call from the Aussie relatives. Not being forced to participate, however distantly, in "celeb" personal lives. I've gone nowhere near the Depp and Heard debacle and I've still absorbed some of the crap. I resent being made am audience member against my will. Goes for all narcissists and attention seekers.

I either don't miss, or don't relate at all, to any of the things mentioned.
I'm 50, and wouldn't not want to be without the Internet.

My 22" waist.

I miss handwritten letters and seeing people. Going shopping in shops and spending the day in town. Window shopping and people watching. I miss the slower pace of things.

There are pros and cons to life before the Internet. I agree with most of your points, and though I'd like to switch back to slower living, the Internet has given me many positives. Independence for one.