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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wonder how our parents survived without the internet.

174 replies

ICanSeeTheSun · 27/05/2014 23:01

I tend use the internet a lot, from paying bills to clothes shopping.

I also use it to gets medical advice, nothing major but things like normal temperature to treating bites from bugs.

Also I have used the internet to research autism, due to my DS having ASD.

To applying for school places and follow DC schools on twitter/Facebook to get latest updates

I do wonder how my parent managed to bring up 7 kids without the internet.

OP posts:

NotAgainTrevor · 27/05/2014 23:59

I've found it amazing for some things and lacking in others. I went to Uni as a Mature student and had to do an access course. I thought the internet would be amazing at college but soon went back to just text books as there is too much information. At Uni it was bloody amazing. I can't imagine having to search a million journals.

I'd have loved mobiles and text messages as a teenager though, not having the excruciating embarrassment of the whole family knowing when a boy rang. But I'd have hated the pressure of social media, it's hard enough now.

Ultimately I'm thankful the internet didn't exist in my teens, the net never forgets and I would need to change my name and have extensive plastic surgery to distance myself from the angst ridden poetry I wrote. I used to think it was so profound and only I knew the answers. I'd have plastered that crap everywhere . My toes curl just thinking about it.

raffle · 27/05/2014 23:59

Dr Coconut, I was just thinking that the net and smart phones have ruined pub quizzes!

Also I remember the days of sitting in the pub with friends arguing/debating who was number one last Chrstmas, or racking our brains to remember the name of that dodgy hotel we stayed at in Greece...all ruined now by instant answers from our best friend Google :)

PrincessBabyCat · 27/05/2014 23:59

My mom mastered emails and some message boards. :)

But she knows fuck all about computers. A while back she got it in her head that windows updates caused viruses. So she wouldn't update her computer.

Months later with no updates:

"I don't know why computer isn't working! I didn't install any of the updates!"

My brother was stupid enough to tell her how much knows about computers has been fixing her computer for her since he was a kid.

NotAgainTrevor · 28/05/2014 00:00

Apologies for gratuitous overuse of 'amazing' unfortunately there is hardly any left in the bottle so can't share.

raffle · 28/05/2014 00:01

notagaintrevor belly laughs!

hoboken · 28/05/2014 00:03

I am in my 60s. Life is mighty fine with the internet but it was mighty fine without, just different. All depends how adaptable people could be if it was all taken away. Read from a book, dig the garden, buy stuff from shops, ride on a bus, drive a car, play sport, go to eateries and bars.

Live life, not observe it through screens.

Original poster

ICanSeeTheSun · 28/05/2014 00:04

I do think the internet has messed up my sleep.

I have to be up in 5 hours, been up 18 hours.

OP posts:

TinklyLittleLaugh · 28/05/2014 00:05

I am 49. God I would have loved the internet when I had DS1; he was the original velcro, reflux baby. The doctors and hv just dismissed it as a bit of posseting. How I kept my sanity I do not know, I felt like the crappest Mum in the world.

But yes, I am addicted to google and mumsnet.

We changed internet provider today, so we had a gap of about 10 hours between providers, with no internet. I actually mopped my kitchen floor. There was a bit of a hairy half hour when DH struggled to get the new provider up and running; it was touch and go whether the teens would go Lord of the Flies on us.

OscarWinningActress · 28/05/2014 00:09

I wonder this often. What a huge waste of time! Looking things up in the yellow pages, employing the card catalogue in the library, encyclopedias, writing letters, buying things from dedicated shops...visiting your doctor for a diagnosis, University

EatShitDerek · 28/05/2014 00:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BOFster · 28/05/2014 00:15

I'm reminded of something I read recently which invited us to imagine the reaction of a time-traveller from from the past to seeing that we all possessed devices that could fit in our pockets which held the answers to every conceivable question about the whole of history and civilisation...yet we mostly used them to watch cats doing funny stuff and to squabble with strangers ...

fatlazymummy · 28/05/2014 00:21

I never had the internet till about 8 years ago, and I didn't use it that much. I still don't use it for things like banking.
As far as looking after my kids goes,I got on fine without it. In fact I'm glad I didn't have the internet when my kids were babies, it meant I just had to get on with things and work things out for myself.
I do love google though.

Pipbin · 28/05/2014 00:24

I love the internet. I got my first internet capable computer in 1996 when there was very little on it.
They did a short series on BBC 4 called Electric Dreams where they took a family back to 1970 and gave them the technology that they had then. Time advanced by a year each day and they got the appropriate technology. It was so interesting. Especially for things in the kitchen, like not having a freezer.

People got by just fine without the internet because the world didn't rely on it like it does now.

bunchoffives · 28/05/2014 00:28

seeing that we all possessed devices that could fit in our pockets which held the answers to every conceivable question about the whole of history and civilisation...

well, the internet version of it anyway.... remember wikipaedia isn't always correct and there's a lot of poor scholarship on the net as well as total bull

1944girl · 28/05/2014 00:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

wobblyweebles · 28/05/2014 01:31

We still don't have online grocery shopping where I live. I weep about it regularly. I miss it so much.

ToffeeMoon · 28/05/2014 01:48

Think about mobile phones though. Surely most of us didn't grow up with one and we didn't miss it. I bet teens today would be totally OMG at the idea. Can you imagine a time when people just went to a restaurant and had a conversation instead of Facebook/Instagramming the entire event?

ToffeeMoon · 28/05/2014 01:52

If I'm honest, while it is obviously wonderful useful, I'm not sure switching to a smart phone two years ago actually improved my quality of life.

Rows of parents in the park staring at iPhones - sad sight.

Chottie · 28/05/2014 03:39

I grew up without the internet. It didn't exist then, so we couldn't miss it. But my mum and extended family all lived within walking distance, so I always had childcare and support.

I'm in my 50s and use an iphone all the time. It is a wonderful way to keep in touch with grown-up children. I order online but still like to chose my shopping. I use computers at work all the time.

However, I do have friends of my own age who only use their mobiles when they are 'expecting' a call and I have one friend who complains her son doesn't keep in touch regularly. I suggested she texted him, but she doesn't 'do' texts .

CauldronOfFrogsLegs · 28/05/2014 08:18

All of this is interesting, but begs that old question...are we too reliant on the Internet? What would happen if 'they' just shut it down? Not gradually, just.. Boom!

Goblinchild · 28/05/2014 08:23

'OMG how young are you all.
I am 50 and managed perfectly well without it as what you don't have you don't miss. '

I'm older than that, the body, and I agree.
In the same way that if the internet broke, I'd still manage fine.
When we have a power cut, DS copes and treats the whole thing as a gleeful survival exercise, DD huddles over her dead technology and goes into shock.

Orangeanddemons · 28/05/2014 08:24

I'm 50 too. Managed without the Internet fine when ds was little. In fact I had much more time to do stuff, as I wasn't constantly online like now. We used to do stuff like watch tv!

I love the Internet, but find it really annoying when people are on phones all the time, and don't pay attention when you try and talk to them

katese11 · 28/05/2014 08:34

article [[http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5275894]] is very thought provoking. ..It's about a woman who lost a baby to SIDS and never really recovered, eventually committing suicide. The writer (her grown up daughter) wonders whether the support of an online community would have saved her. I cried a bit when I read it, I must admit. And it did make me wonder how different things would have been for my own mother when she lost a child if she'd been able to access support from other bereaved parents.

katese11 · 28/05/2014 08:34

Gargh, I totally screwed up the link:
m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5275894

penguinpaperback · 28/05/2014 08:51

IMHO life was easier without the internet. I didn't need Google I had Penelope Leach's Childcare book, the weekly Baby Clinic and Doctors were much more willing, had more time, for house calls if you were very concerned.
And I'm so glad I didn't have social media, websites, cyber bullying to worry about when I was Mum to a teenager. I think I just got in at the tail end of a less judgemental, competitive time to be a parent.

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