I didn’t have to worry that someone would call me at a random moment and will assign me some random task.
The creativity that came with being bored. Without being able to entertain yourself with a phone at every moment, there were plenty of times when we’d hang out with nothing to do and end up having a blast after figuring out stuff to do. It’s so easy now to just sit and pass hours surfing the phone, and I think it’s taken the drive for that creativity away.
Also, the acceptance of being bored. We could be content for long periods of time just in our own thoughts. We didn’t have other people’s thoughts to consume all the time. Sometimes I miss my own thoughts, I don’t think I give them enough attention nowadays. Back then we didn’t have to work at it, oftentimes it was our thoughts or silence.
Being young.
You had to organize to meet a place and time. It wasnt just spur of the moment to moment decisions with easy communication.
It meant you actually had to plan and going places was a bit more like a quest and you had to consider other people into your plans.
As someone who had that, but got the spontaneity that cell phones provided in my teens. Those unplanned hang outs in the park started by someone texting “going to the park, anyone wanna come?” in the group chat, were absolute freedom. Just a bunch of friends meeting up with about 10 minutes notice.
Lack of FOMO. No constant stream of stuff I am missing out on. Not seeing a childs weekend crushed because everyone said they’d just chill at home, but SoMe clearly shows all gathering leaving you out.
Not needing an account to do everything.
You paid at the door, you enjoyed your bowling/concert/etc, you didn’t get adverts for the rest of your life.
I just don’t like the account nonsense.
If it’s required at a physical business, guess I’m going home.
Not the expectation of being reachable 24/7. Employers with the advent of cellphones and their ubiquity expect that from you and they can fuck right off.
why don’t you miss that?
Could probably word it better, one moment.
i’ve got my boss trained to not bother calling after hours. He was grumpy at first, and probably still is, but i just cant make myself care enough to read that email.
That’s what do not disturb is for. I tell them I don’t even get alerts after 5 pm and before 8 AM. My phone won’t ding so don’t call.
Only time it isn’t is when we negotiate overtime before the emergency.
They still expect it and some raise hell if you miss a single call for even the smallest of things.
I miss phone screening. I wish I could just let all calls go to my answering machine and if the caller is leaving a legit message about something I could pick up, or if the caller was a telemarketer or someone I didn’t want to talk to, let them think I wasn’t home. Now, if someone calls and I don’t pick up, I have to explain that the phone was in another room and I didn’t hear it even though everyone knows I’m on Lemmy 24/7.
I don’t have to explain shit.
I was busy, the end.
Besides, I don’t answer random calls except from very specific people.
A lack of cameras everywhere. Plenty of dumb things that happened in my childhood now only live in my memory (and maybe those who were there). There’s no video proof of a dumb thing I said or did. I was free to make mistakes.
Oh yeah. This is a good one
The freedom to make mistakes honestly. For real that hurts my heart to think about.
The freedom to make mistakes, the freedom to go out with your friends all day without being contactable, “Be home before dinner time.” The freedom to explore, the freedom to be bored and entertain yourselves. Just so much more freedom to grow and learn without parents or carers forever watching, tracking, monitoring your whereabouts and activities. We got in trouble but learned how to get out of it ourselves.
Trying to find the person you wanna hang out with. I remember always riding my bike around my neighborhood trying to find one of my friends and avoiding bullys. Time together seemed so much more intimate. Because you couldn’t just call them and ask where they were and instantly get connected.
Greater intentionality in mundane things. Wanted to go somewhere? Mark it on the map. Photos? You only have so much film left. Trying to remember a phone number, address, passcode, note? 9 times out of 10, you’d write it down and carry it with you.
Smartphones are a technological miracle but we lost a lot of intention through the convenience, which has pros and cons.
I have been intentionally de-smarting my life in various ways. The next step is a seperate camera i think. Ill probably get a little digital one for convenience but i have a polaroid for exactly those kinds of intentional shots
Separate cameras are awesome and I highly recommend (for cost) to opt for an old 35mm rather than a Polaroid. The non-instant nature of it makes photos more intentional, then its really exciting to get the developed photos back
Ive considered it. Every time ive had film rolls, they sit around and end up expiring. Polaroid film is so expensive that i still use it with intention but then i dont pay the ADHD tax later by losing those photos
I hope you didn’t throw out expired film! Sometimes it has some really fun unexpected result, but your reasons are totally fair!
Oh no, i didnt throw it out, but it usually just comes out neat and multicolored. Never anything recognizable as a memory. I take photos to combat short term memory loss, so its effectively a waste for me. They are neat though
Ohhh thats fair!
Even when my polaroid film fucks up; i just, like, wrinkle the film as it devolops. then the inks all run together and it does some cool stuff. Def cool, abstract, in the moment art
I’m GPS free and greatly enjoy having to figure out where I’m going before I leave the house. What are some other examples of your de-digitzed life?
I started using and carrying a pocket calandar this year. I really like it!
I have also abandoned gps. I still use phone maps but im on organic maps and just navigate the old school way. Ive also fully abandoned streaming other than nebula. All of my media is either files on my computer or hard copies. Same goes for cloud storage of any kind. Other than that, i just try to use cash and public transit as much a possible. No longer on meta or google. Just lemmy really
Edit: like i said, just de smarting. Not really dedigitizing
Actual proper typewriters.
No spellcheck, no always-online license drm, no ai bs forced down your throat, no saving to the fucking cloud.
Just paper, ink, and a machine which hammers the two together with the force of someone who stopped giving a fuck until the bell goes ‘ding’.
Haha I have a typewriter! In my goals for the year I actually wrote get the damn typewriter to work lol because it’s just display at the moment.
Until you discover you had the carbon paper in the wrong way round.
At least that’s just a PEBCAK and not some ai agent which destroys an entire database when you’re not looking at it. ;)
Garage sales! Holy shit garage sales used to be so fucking awesome. As a 12-15 year old I scored so much computer stuff dirt cheap at garage sales, along with books and music. Just about every Saturday in the summer you could see me with a box precariously balanced or a shopping bag hanging from my bike’s handlebars.
Nowadays everything worth more than a couple bucks goes up on FB marketplace and Kijiji, and the only stuff anyone puts in a garage sale is actual garbage that the thrift stores wouldn’t even put on the shelf.
Estate sales are where it’s at now
As far as writing essays in analog times, I do have fond memories of time spent scratching away with a Quicker Clicker. Running out of lead felt like an accomplishment!
My paternal grandparents. Best adults in my life, loved them dearly, and I still didn’t appreciate them as much as I should have.
