I miss that feeling of going to school on Monday and hearing all the shit that went down on the weekend that I wasn’t there for. I lived far from town with no phone 90% of the time (dad worked nights so it had to be off the hook a lot) so I was always last to know anything. It was freeing. I didn’t care that I had to wait to talk to my friends in person about everything.
Everything. The world had so much before we started spending our present in phones. I had time for art and hobbies and writing. I did so much exploration and sports and socializing. Road trips, and events, and helping others. Things were memorable.
Now is more like an addiction. The time goes but I’m never sure where it went. I barely have time to sleep, much less any other activities
Being inaccessible was a hidden pleasure. Just be where you are
Hanging out with my friends in deep parts of forest near the small town we all grew up in
We would bike out past the highway with backpacks, and make little shelters and a fire …and just be lads…throw stuff, sometimes at each other, see who could lift the biggest rock, or jump the widest part of the stream, fish, make a lean-to…we made a neat little spot over a few years
we experienced being totally and completely lost once then, which was a very humbling and powerful experience I can still remember the realization of total silence and total loss of sense of direction…but, we didnt panic, stayed together found our way home
We also played a ton of baseball w tennis balls during the summer in a park that was kinda in between everyone’s homes - tennis balls were fun cause they didnt hurt you if you got beaned , or break peoples wnidows around the park, and also dont travel very far, so make for some fun pop-up fly balls
good times
Not linked directly to the tech, but generally the thing I miss the most was the optimism. In the 90s people were excited for the future. Crime was trending down, the economy was doing well, the government was paying down the debt, the internet was new and full of wonder. In general there was a push for you to be whatever you wanted to be no matter who you were. The beginning of a lot of breaking down and removing stereotypes and gender norms.
Some of this seems to have reversed, most of it ended on 9/11/2001. That attack killed a lot of the optimism and things line the PATRIOT ACT really put us on the dystopian track we find ourselves on now. Also a lot of the economic boom were from the deregulation that would cause massive problems later…
So, yeah generally I miss the optimism we had.
Wasn’t much different for me. I usually walked around reading a mass market paperback book instead of a cell phone just took up more pocket space. I grew up in the 90’s so I still had portable gaming like the Gameboy advance too. Thr one I had before that, the nomad was… let’s just say NOT as portable. Oh. And my Walkman CD player. Nowadays I just have it all on one device… my legion go. I use my cell phone exclusively for social media which I had ro go to my computer for, use slow as he’ll 56k dial up internet, and browse all message boards and chat rooms for that online social aspect.
Lack of expectation that wherever I am and whatever I do anyone can just call me to get instant answer.
Also - less societal control. Kids nowadays can’t go anywhere in public without their parents. They either get kicked out, have police sicced at them, or spaces where anyone can hang out for free are regularly erased. Case in point - even online spaces are now slowly closed from non-adults. In my youth one could go to any of the public spaces and hang out there for free with nobody troubling you.
World now feels like it’s strongly geared towards raising slaves - always available, always under control, even rest seems to be paywalled.
I miss the higher level of engagement and interactions with another person or group when socializing.
Now that everyone has a computer in their pocket, they have an alternative (and sometimes primary) source to engage with during social interactions and events. Now instead of using social skills to change, deepen, or otherwise adjust conversation and engagement on an individual or group level, many people opt out and zone out on their phones instead.
It started with texting. I noticed that at parties or small group interactions, people would oscillate between interacting with the group and texting others either in attendance or not, whichever entertained/engaged them the most. Suddenly instead of parties being full of people who were there to be there and interact with others there, they became full of people who were there until the next exciting thing flashed on their screens and they would just leave without even really being there anyway.
What I’m saying is that people used to be engaged and dedicated in a more wholistic way when socializing, and I miss that. I hate that texting others while you have someone right in front of you that you agreed to spend time with is normal. I hate that I can’t trust anyone to value my time as much as I do theirs, and that apparently I’m taking it too seriously if I do.
My son is about to be 13, doesnt have his own phone, hardly plays video games, and often doesnt watch Tv instead chooses to play outside.
He finally found a kid in the neighborhood who also isnt screen addicted and its so nice to see them play. Shortly after school hours, you see either my son or the other kid start circling on their bike waiting for the other kid to come out. Then they play outdoors for hours. They come home from their neighborhood adventures sometimes covered in mud, with new scrapes and out of breath from running and playing. I love it! I love to hear them laughing and enjoying their time, I love that they are learning social skills, figuring out who they are, while not comparing themselves to what they see on the internet. It’s fantastic.
Recently a teacher was taken aback when said he didnt have a phone (he uses mine to text friends) and I scoffed a bit inside with pride. My kid has healthy self esteeme and makes friends everywhere he goes. It brings me a lot of joy to see him thrive in this way, hes begining to learn independence and idk, I love it for him.
Socializing in a spontaneous way.
You showed up, no idea who was gonna be there. Genuine unplanned interactions and meet new people.
Being unreachable without it feeling weird—peace was built into the day.
This was such a beautiful thing.
The quiet
Not knowing everything all the time led to more interesting conversations.
I made a friend a few years ago that would whip their phone out during our conversations to answer my questions or theories about the topics we were discussing. Every single time.
IMO a conversation is just that, I enjoy discussing ideas and theories about subjects I’m not 100% familiar with and want to hear your thoughts and theories as well.
To slice through all of that with a ‘let me google that for you’ was very much not the interaction I found enjoyable at all.
On a related note, not having to know literally everything a public person has done before feeling safe to express even the most basic support for their work.
I appreciate the accountability, I don’t want to support bad people, but back in the day it was like “I enjoyed that album” and then you went back to living your life. Lack of information made separating the art from the artist the default and it made enjoying new stuff take so much less effort.
Orson Scott Card - Ender’s Game
DilbertOne thing that was interesting to me about OSC is that he publicly came out in support of gay marriage pretty early. His reasoning wasn’t moral or supportive, though; he just said that it was inevitable and therefore not worth fighting.
That makes it even more bizarre to me that he’s a practicing Mormon.
No disagreement.
And at least half of this is just the fact that these people had less reach and weren’t able to be on TV all the time. Back then the CEO of Sears may have thought trans people were monsters, but he wouldn’t have been pushing it on the news or Twitter every day/week.
I still say I prefer wild conjecture.
Also less self proclaimed experts.
As a self-proclaimed expert of grammar, I can tell you that the word is “fewer”, as self-proclaimed experts are (supposedly) countable.
Yes, also. More strongly I feel not being able to contact or be contacted, on chronic but varying intervals, gave me a freedom i didn’t grasp by then, free from worries or work dependancies. I feel I was more independent and more relying on myself.
The mobile communication tool has became something else.
Cycling to friend’s place to see if they’re home or spinning around the town checking where the people are hanging out at
It was quite simple and nice not being connected 100% of the time
Taking that further: you had to expend a decent amount of energy with no promise that someone was there or that you didn’t have to go elsewhere.
Turning virtually any high powered device on meant it would have to spin up, power up, cycle, etc. Usually with satisfying whirring, humming, clicking. Nowadays everything boot’s up and you might get a chime.
The background noise was pretty high though. Those old circuits and tubes would hum. There was a lot of interference between them, so stereos would click, pop and hum when operating other devices nearby. Things like that.
