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?

Going out with friends and actually talking to each other without someone breaking off to check something on their phone, look something up, or show yo a zillion photos.

Meeting friends being just a case of agreeing a time and a place and then everyone just turned up there.

People not being a fucking expert on everything just because they read about it online

I don't get that booking a holiday pre-internet was something to miss. My dad used to spend evenings poring over maps plotting routes in France and stopovers. I remember flying to Rome and taking a massive guide book and ringing a hotel at 02:00 to see if they had a room. Holidays now are so much easier to organise.

Teletext holidays

Not having to do everything myself from booking stuff myself, insurance - a broker would do it for you, having to sort out my own holiday tickets instead of getting a folder with them in. Going to a concert and not having to look past phones.

The larger choices for buying presents; note paper, pens & paper, books, records, tapes, cds, etc etc 😄

Also the high street selling said items.

Not being available 24/7.
Being able to go to a live music gig and not having everyone recording it on their phones.
Being able to hold a conversation with someone without them being distracted by their phone.

I miss-
Photo albums
I dislike-
Seeing what the world has to offer but being restricted in what I can access
Not being popular on social media

I thought I had made this up, thank you for remembering this.
I quite liked going into the travels agents & seeing what holidays were available we ended up in some wonderful places due to availability suddenly popping up I hate the stress of online booking & the hours of trawling/comparing prices etc.
also get very irritated doing company’s jobs for them, rather than speaking to a RL person & the culture around “computer says no” can make straightforward tasks virtually impossible.

No apps for everything, I'm sure it takes twice as long to pay for parking now compared to putting a pound in the machine

We have to do everything ourselves now, there is no service anymore,

I predate computers and mobile phones by A LOT and I don't miss anything. the slow life is still there if you want it, there are still a couple of people I write paper letters to, but they are printed out because I can't hold a pen for more than about 5 minutes before my right hand fingers lock which is both painful and annoying. I still limit the amount of news I watch/read. Library research is only as good as the library's budget...I don't miss the only book in the library about a subject being 10 or more years old and totally and utterly wrong. I don't miss having to wait MONTHS to read a newly published book from the library because the net book agreement made books so expensive. I love my kindle, even though I still have too many real books! I can't help thinking how much my parents would have LOVED zoom and facetime when family members were far away. I lived in the US for a while and phonecalls were expensive. I wrote to my widowed mum twice a week and phoned as often as I could afford but the distance really hurt.
I love not having to trail from shop to shop to find...well anything really.
I do think that it needs to be used mindfully. oh and online grocery shopping is the pinnacle of human evolution!

you can still do this. Its actually my nephew's job.

still absolutely possible if you want to do it.

It was possibly easier to get hold of concert tickets.

Yes, Dr. Google can be terrifying.

The magazines thing is interesting - I think the key is that you used to read a magazine and there would be things in there you didn’t already know. Now every celebrity lives out their lives in real time on Instagram, the interviews are just PR platitudes. I remember absolutely poring over them and taking in every little detail! There would be clothes in there you’d never seen before from brands you’d never heard of, music mentioned that was completely unknown, films described that you’d have to spend years wondering about before you got the chance to see them. It was a real glimpse into another world. Now every magazine looks and reads the same and you’ve already seen everything in it 100 times online.

Shopping as a fun activity. Pottering around the high street or shopping centre with my friends on a Saturday afternoon, trying stuff on, smelling all the perfumes in Body Shop, looking at the fashion magazines in Easons, listening to the new release CDs, maybe buying a poster in Woolies. I'm sad that those days are gone and my daughter won't have that with her friends.

Going on holiday and not knowing exactly what to expect because photos are available from every angle of every landmark now.

photos that these days would be deleted immediately but actually give a really interesting historical documentation. These days if it’s not a perfect angle with a perfect pout it’s gone.

does anyone remember a programme called ‘press gang’ Dexter Fletcher and Julia swahala? There was an episode where someone had to write the horoscopes. It took them all day just to work out what the star signs were.

reading a book. I know I can still do this but I really miss doing it without constantly wanting to look something up while I’m reading it.

Knowing less about the news
Not being constantly available
Having far fewer channels of communication so feeling less hassled
Getting info from the library
Not knowing people's opinions on things (both strangers & people I know)

I miss bloody everything and I'm only 36. Maybe its because I was a youth pre-internet (didnt get a dial up modem in my house til 2003) but I often wish my kids could grow up in the times I did. I was never bored, every day seemed fun and me and my friends always found something to do. I find my kids are easily bored and rely too much on technology to keep them entertained.

I can't help thinking how much my parents would have LOVED zoom and facetime when family members were far away.

Yes! My mum had siblings overseas and was always trying to find out about her family tree - she'd have thought Ancestry and FB were amazing to be able to see all her ancestors and nieces' and nephews' lives. Instead she had to write letters to individual parishes to see if they might have some information.

I still have a magazine subscription and bought one for my youngest for her birthday.

One thing I've just remembered missing is finding an English newspaper on holiday and seeing some big news story. Being cut off from the news for 2 weeks would be quite nice.

If you were off work for a week you didn't return to over 500 emails to answer. Emails are the bane of my life.

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.

This is so true. Search engines and web forums have basically trained huge numbers of people to operate with the mindset of a hypochondriac.

I was involved in some research for a healthcare app a few years ago and one of the most surprising things we found was that a huge - and growing - number of people now consider even a visit to the doctor as just one element of a triage. So they’ll see their GP, maybe even a specialist, and then cross-check the expert information they’re given against an article online somewhere like Healthline or WebMD, or a forum.

And the truly frightening thing is that many people will go on to discount the doctor’s view/diagnosis/advice if the article/forum says something different. Even if the end result turns out to have been that the doctor was correct all along.

Actually all the technology is great for us oldies. Online shopping saves so much time and energy
However the downside is how people tend to be glued to their phones and don't interact so much. Its very sad to see a young Mum pushing a buggy with one hand and scrolling her phone with the other