# Life Before Computers and the Internet



## Couchie

Old persons, what was life like before the internet and computerization? It never ceases to amaze me that for the fairly modest price of $50/month to my ISP I can pull up virtually anything in the sum of human knowledge that I want to know in a matter of seconds. How did you people get by before this age? Better or worse standard of living than now?


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## Ukko

Less information, more work to get.


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## Sid James

The library was one way of getting info, but there were other eg. informal ways.

The media now, even the broadsheets in some ways, are now a shadow of what they were in the past. All this infotainment stuff, infomercials. Here before there was less of that, and more "real" news and stuff like that. REal opinion, well researched stuff, real journalism, not the plastic junk we are fed now (& now, I hardly consume any media, it's mostly junk).

In terms of human communication before the internet, I reckon it was better. You just talked face to face or by phone. I would agree that email is more convenient than using snail mail.

Knowing people subjected to cyber-bullying, I think that it's the dark side to what goes on online. Just in the past week, a girl here has committed suicide due to cyber-bullying. She now adds to the growing tally of this sad list in this country.

But as for this forum, that aspect is good. But I think this may be the exception to the rule. I was on another forum before that I left. The atmosphere there was just toxic. Maybe the moderators on TC are doing a better job. Maybe the overall vibe or culture is better. Written and unwritten rules/norms. Dunno, but some places online are not as good as this, that's for sure...


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## Klavierspieler

There was life before internet? You gotta be kidding me.


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## Sid James

^^Which reminds me of a joke (which I don't live by, btw) - "There are two things in my life - work and facebook." Something like that, roughly paraphrased...


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## sospiro

I love having all this information at my finger-tips but it's made me & my memory lazy. I know I don't need to retain information so I don't bother.

In the ancient times BC (Before Computers) there were parts of the media I trusted (maybe I shouldn't have) & I learned a lot from watching documentaries like 'Life on Earth' 'The Ascent of Man' and 'Civilisation'. At the time episodes were only transmitted once, so I had to concentrate.

My uncle lives in Australia and doesn't have a computer so we correspond by letter. I find it very frustrating that I can't communicate instantly with him, especially as he adores opera & loves hearing about my latest purchases & live opera trips. 

I always used my phone (fixed line not mobile/cell) a lot & still do as I have a internet/phone package which gives me free calls in UK.


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## Art Rock

All the background information I used for my PhD thesis (on top of my own research) came from reading journals in the university library using their archaic search mechanisms. I wrote my thesis by hand (quicker than using a type writer), after which a secretary typed it out for the professional printers. All graphs were drawn by hand by professionals. You whippersnappers have no clue how easy your life is. And stay off my lawn!


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## TresPicos

I found an old notebook of mine a while ago, and I was amazed that I had actually written page after page by hand! Where did I ever find the energy to do that? And how futile it seems today...


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## Polednice

I was born in 1990, and even I find it unnerving how much we have progressed with technology. I remember when I was much younger, my Dad having a giant PC with a dial-up internet connection for the family to share, which me and my slightly older brother used for really simplistic games. Now, everyone in my family has a portable laptop to themselves, with broadband connections, plus smartphones and all kinds of other gadgets.

I can't imagine what it seems like to a person much older than me to have entered this new world while an adult, and I wonder just how long it will be before I start feeling left behind by technological advances.


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## elgar's ghost

The Good (in fact, The Great): getting entertained, informed, clothed, shod, fed, bills paid (no queues) and keeping in contact with others is easier than it's ever been. All pretty fantastic.

The Bad: internet purchasing culture which has led to the demise or assimilation of those more traditionally-run shops and businesses which fatally eschewed the advancing technology that could have increased their chances of survival (some folk may say that was their lookout but it's still sad so many fell or are falling by the wayside).

The Ugly: those websites which exploit the vulnerable and make it easier still to make their lives a misery (gambling/loans/scams etc.) and others which have no right to exist but still seem to escape censure (chatrooms catering for those interested in illegal sexual activity/those espousing antisocial behaviour, fight clubs, illegal blood sports, racial or religious hatred etc.)


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## Huilunsoittaja

I remember in elementary school using one of those really old computers with a small black screen, and big green pixels that barely made images, to play an educational game. I also remember watching a lot of TV, which I don't do anymore because internet/computer has replaced it in importance to me.


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## Krummhorn

Being one of the 'older' generation that actually survived (and quite nicely, too) without the internet OR computers, we had lots of resources:


Dictionary
Encyclopedia (a whole set usually comprised some 15 or so volumes)
The public library
Okay, so we had to hit the pavement and go find this stuff, but that was half the adventure of knowledge back then, and we made it work, got through school, got our degrees, and were able to function and live quite normal lives.

Off topic, but even a television set was not in every household like it is today. Very few homes had a TV, but did have a FM radio at least. Our TV had an 11 inch screen, and, of course, all shows were in black and white.

Kh


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## Taneyev

There were public libraries and second-hand texts books shopp. You have to move and occupy, but nobody died for it. I hadn't TV for many years. And I've lived more than 50 years without internet.


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## StlukesguildOhio

I'm reminded of the following, loosely paraphrased quote that I came upon some years ago on a computer-related site:

"You are sitting in front of a computer that would have filled a skyscraper had it been built in 1956. You have terabytes of the world's accumulated wisdom at your fingertips via Google. You have a college education in your pocket. Einstein, Feynman, Gödel, Jung, the Wachowski Brothers, Turing, Fermi, Crick and Watson have all blazed an intellectual trail for you to follow. With all this going for you, your major contribution to society so far consists of a message board post theorizing that the castaways on Lost might be in Purgatory and an on-going dispute concerning the comparative literary merits of The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter saga, and the Twilight novels.

About 400 years ago, before the discovery of electricity and only 150 years after the invention of the printing press, a barely literate German cobbler came up with the idea that God was a binary, fractal, self-replicating algorithm and that the universe was a genetic matrix resulting from the existential tension created by His desire for self-knowledge.

Clearly, someone's been slacking off.":lol:

Seriously... computers and the internet are merely tools. It all comes down to what you do with these tools. Ordering books and CDs on line has saved me a great deal of time and money and I have been able to find obscure works that I could never find before... but I certainly miss the experience of scrounging through old used book stores and coming upon the unexpected find. I don't think the net has saved me much time in terms of dealing with paying my monthly bills with the dozens of passwords I need to keep track of. When it comes to research, it has been as much of a help as a hindrance. There is so much information to wade through and the most reliable is not necessarily that which pops up at the top of a Google search.

On the other hand... it has allowed me to engage in dialog with individuals who share my love of art, music, literature, etc... from around the globe, where finding such individuals in my day to day life is highly unlikely.


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## Couchie

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I remember in elementary school using one of those really old computers with a small black screen, and big green pixels that barely made images, to play an educational game. I also remember watching a lot of TV, which I don't do anymore because internet/computer has replaced it in importance to me.


Do you mean number munchers?









I had some good times playing that in elementary school on beige Dell computers running Windows 3.1. Those were the days.


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## TrazomGangflow

This raises another intersting question what if the composers of the Baroque, Classic, and Romantic Eras had today's technology? How would that have effected their compositions and the composers effect on our world today?


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## Polednice

TrazomGangflow said:


> This raises another intersting question what if the composers of the Baroque, Classic, and Romantic Eras had today's technology? How would that have effected their compositions and the composers effect on our world today?


We would never have heard of them because they'd have been distracted by YouTube. It's probably a petty excuse, but sometimes I resent how easy it is for me to entertain myself with technology. I like to think that if I didn't have a TV or the internet, I might make more productive use of my time writing music.


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## TrazomGangflow

Polednice said:


> We would never have heard of them because they'd have been distracted by YouTube. It's probably a petty excuse, but sometimes I resent how easy it is for me to entertain myself with technology. I like to think that if I didn't have a TV or the internet, I might make more productive use of my time writing music.


Yes, I can see it now Mozart updating his status on facebook: "Too busy watching Youtube to Finish Don Giovanni. I think I'll just scrap it."


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## starthrower

My hands hurt less back in the old days before all this typing and clicking. There were lots of cool record stores too!

Now there's nothing but Tim Horton's and Wal-Mart's, and ditzy women texting while driving to these cheesy places.


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## bassClef

I first had internet at home when I was about 28, I managed pretty well before that, though it's hard to imagine it now. The search for information in those days was a challenge and an adventure, it's too easy these days - is that a good thing? Not sure.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

I've been trying to convince the school I go to to upgrade our computers to MS-DOS.

Or... _downgrading_...

Never mind.


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## Crudblud

******** to that, *NIX terminal makes even less sense.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

There was a very good reason I tried to convince the school to downgrade the operating system.


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## kv466

_Life before computers and the internet_ was just fine.


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## presto

The internet is absolutely fantastic and has opened up enormous avenues of discovery.
Kind of strange as I spend a lot of time on the PC but cant remember what I was actually doing with all this time before I had one.


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## Klavierspieler

Couchie said:


> Do you mean number munchers?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I had some good times playing that in elementary school on beige Dell computers running Windows 3.1. Those were the days.


SuperMunchies ftw!


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## Rasa

I think the internet is a great tool for societies to communicate on a sort of hive-mind level. Think democratically.


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## mmsbls

There are an enormous number of ways the present world with computers is much better than the older world without them. My first year at college we registered for classes without computers. I stood on a line probably 50 meters long and waited about an hour to get into the large gym. Once inside I went to one table to register for a class in one subject. Then I went to another table to register for my second class. After registering for a few classes I found that I had a conflict so I had to go back to the prior tables and change my classes. After maybe another 45 minutes or so I finally finished. The next year we had computers. I stood on line for maybe 10 minutes and registered in another 10 minutes. Now of course, students register online at their convenience.

In general none of the work I've ever done would be possible without computers.


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## Vaneyes

Polednice said:


> I was born in 1990, and even I find it unnerving how much we have progressed with technology. I remember when I was much younger, my Dad having a giant PC with a dial-up internet connection for the family to share, which me and my slightly older brother used for really simplistic games. Now, everyone in my family has a portable laptop to themselves, with broadband connections, plus smartphones and all kinds of other gadgets.
> 
> I can't imagine what it seems like to a person much older than me to have entered this new world while an adult, and I wonder just how long it will be before I start feeling left behind by technological advances.


You're a very mature Vampire Piggy.

What's a FAX?


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## Vaneyes

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I remember in elementary school using one of those really old computers with a small black screen, and big green pixels that barely made images, to play an educational game. I also remember watching a lot of TV, which I don't do anymore because internet/computer has replaced it in importance to me.


I've found that I'm still interested in, and do many things I did BC. AC has probably made me a better budgeter and more organized. I don't mind that.

I have not yet decimalized the hour. I hope it doesn't come to that.

I refused to partake of computers until they were seriously ready, 1996. Yep, I considered dial-up pretty heady stuff.


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## Vaneyes

StlukesguildOhio said:


> I'm reminded of the following, loosely paraphrased quote that I came upon some years ago on a computer-related site:
> 
> "You are sitting in front of a computer that would have filled a skyscraper had it been built in 1956. You have terabytes of the world's accumulated wisdom at your fingertips via Google. You have a college education in your pocket. Einstein, Feynman, Gödel, Jung, the Wachowski Brothers, Turing, Fermi, Crick and Watson have all blazed an intellectual trail for you to follow. With all this going for you, your major contribution to society so far consists of a message board post theorizing that the castaways on Lost might be in Purgatory and an on-going dispute concerning the comparative literary merits of The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter saga, and the Twilight novels.
> 
> About 400 years ago, before the discovery of electricity and only 150 years after the invention of the printing press, a barely literate German cobbler came up with the idea that God was a binary, fractal, self-replicating algorithm and that the universe was a genetic matrix resulting from the existential tension created by His desire for self-knowledge.
> 
> Clearly, someone's been slacking off.":lol:
> 
> Seriously... computers and the internet are merely tools. It all comes down to what you do with these tools. Ordering books and CDs on line has saved me a great deal of time and money and I have been able to find obscure works that I could never find before... but I certainly miss the experience of scrounging through old used book stores and coming upon the unexpected find. I don't think the net has saved me much time in terms of dealing with paying my monthly bills with the dozens of passwords I need to keep track of. When it comes to research, it has been as much of a help as a hindrance. There is so much information to wade through and the most reliable is not necessarily that which pops up at the top of a Google search.
> 
> On the other hand... it has allowed me to engage in dialog with individuals who share my love of art, music, literature, etc... from around the globe, where finding such individuals in my day to day life is highly unlikely.


"You're travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination - Next stop, the Twilight Zone!"


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## Vaneyes

TrazomGangflow said:


> This raises another intersting question what if the composers of the Baroque, Classic, and Romantic Eras had today's technology? How would that have effected their compositions and the composers effect on our world today?


Hearing MIDI, they all would've checked out.


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## Vaneyes

starthrower said:


> My hands hurt less back in the old days before all this typing and clicking. There were lots of cool record stores too!
> 
> Now there's nothing but Tim Horton's and Wal-Mart's, and ditzy women texting while driving to these cheesy places.


Cheesy places, yes, but my fingers used to cramp. Don't miss that.


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## Vaneyes

mmsbls said:


> There are an enormous number of ways the present world with computers is much better than the older world without them. My first year at college we registered for classes without computers. I stood on a line probably 50 meters long and waited about an hour to get into the large gym. Once inside I went to one table to register for a class in one subject. Then I went to another table to register for my second class. After registering for a few classes I found that I had a conflict so I had to go back to the prior tables and change my classes. After maybe another 45 minutes or so I finally finished. The next year we had computers. I stood on line for maybe 10 minutes and registered in another 10 minutes. Now of course, students register online at their convenience.
> 
> In general none of the work I've ever done would be possible without computers.


Now, only the fast survive. All classes are full in 3.8 seconds.


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## bassClef

When I was first collecting classical music in the mid 80s, a visit to a large record shop with a classical section was a special kind of excitement, each one had a different selection - there was nowhere with absolutely everything. Most of my purchases were cassettes in those days, sound quality wasn't brilliant in today's terms, but I was happy


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## Rasa

Multiquote, people... there's little icons of a quote and a plus on the right bottom of each post...


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## Vaneyes

Rasa said:


> Multiquote, people... there's little icons of a quote and a plus on the right bottom of each post...


One step at a time, don't rush me.


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## science

Vaneyes said:


> One step at a time, don't rush me.


You do your thing, buddy. I'd bet you still live in a country at least that free.


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## jurianbai

wikipedia blackout in few hours http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout

that something like life before wikipedia simulation.


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## Couchie

jurianbai said:


> wikipedia blackout in few hours http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout
> 
> that something like life before wikipedia simulation.


I was about to go search on wikipedia which sites are blacking out today.


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