People who were around pre-internet/social-media: Do you MISS those times? If yes, why. If no, why?

[TenderFantasy]

[WhiteSteve]

Holy shit, YES. I miss the hell out of it. I’ll throw cellphones into that mix too. The world just moved slower, it seemed like less was expected of you, and I liked that. Everything is “Go! Go! Go!” now, simply because we CAN and because it’s profitable for someone who employs us. I’ll abandon the phone aspect after this (other than the internet being available on them), but that, coupled with email and now social media…. I just feel way too “reachable”, at any time, and that I’m expected to be. I liked it better when you called my house phone, and I was either home or I wasn’t, and you just had to wait to get a hold of me. I guess where I’m going with all this is that we’ve become somewhat addicted to communication. Everyone texting all the time or posting on social media. I just don’t need to see people or be seen that much, haha.

Its summertime, and I love summer, because it just reminds me of the best parts of childhood, namely summer vacation. I think back to summers of the past, some I can pinpoint, like summer of 1994. I was 15, I was staying with my aunt who had a house that was a 1 minute walk to a nice beach, and a new buddy from the high school I had just finished my first year at had a family summer house that he’d be at pretty frequently. We’d chill at the beach, try to holler at chicks, see if we could scare up a bag of shitty weed, we were drinking short-lived “OK” soda, which was the most 90s/Gen-X-marketed shit that ever 90s’d/Gen-X’d, lmao, and we’d go to the arcade at the beach boardwalk and I’d watch him absolutely walk through Mortal Kombat 2, he was fucking phenomenal, knew all the codes for the fatalities/animalities/babalities for ever character, absolutely ridiculous.

Anyway, I say all that to say, back in those days, YOU DID STUFF. Honestly, home video gaming consoles were more the worry, like “get off the Nintendo and go out into the real world, interact with people, get exercise.” I guess that’s still a thing today too, but now you have to tell kids to get off Tik Tok and Instagram too.

There are tons of pros to the internet, of course. You don’t need to buy the Encyclopedia Brittanica collection for your home library, you just Google things now. I can find entire catalogs of music from almost any artist who ever had a record deal. Endless information, endless entertainment. I used to use paper road maps to figure out how to go places when I first started driving, I can’t imagine doing that now. And it opens the door for things like online shopping. There were always catalogues you could order from by mail or by phone, but the internet has blown that wide open. It’s really revolutionized the way we do things. We can do things more quickly and efficiently, which would be great, except that’s where all the stuff I was talking about in the beginning comes in, our modern-day slave masters are just like “oh, are you idle? Here’s more work to do, then.”, we don’t get to bank the free time for our own pursuits anywhere near as much as we should. More and more, we live to work. We’re probably getting into bigger issues there, so I’ll steer back into the intended lane, but hopefully you understand what I’m saying.

Specifically to social media…. here’s where we go awry. One thing I have very little confidence in is the intelligence of the modern human. Our species’ stars shine brightly, but that pitch black background that they stand out against is the rest of us morons lmfao. I’ll just be blunt: humans are WAY too stupid to be able to spread their ideas around to one another this easily. And the standard is usually “somebody said it, and it was on some sort of platform, and it agrees with and thusly validates my preconceived notions, so it has to be true!” I’m reaching the word limit, but it should be obvious why that standard combined with the available forums makes for a pretty unhealthy and probably dangerous environment in society.

[LikeALog]

Yes. It seems with internet and social media it is easy to insult and denigrate people with little or no repercussions.
It has also polarized people. Everything is left or right, progressive or conservative, emotional or scientific, the ends justify the means or law and order.
It's easy to find news feeds supporting whatever position you have on a subject. The same event being spun to confirm to viewpoint, further polarizing people.

[AmandaYVR]

I do appreciate all the conveniences, entertainment, and communication options that are available now in this age. But unfortunately many people get swept up in the darker temptations that are so readily available online, and this has certainly led to the degradation of many facets of society. Culture is morphing rapidly, and mostly not for the better. Anxiety and discontentment is on the rise. Work ethic is down. The most popular goal (wish) for many young people is to be famous. Not successful, not a master of a particular craft... famous. Celebrity. Because of the internet, and social media, fame feels more attainable than ever before. The reality is that it is not. The numbers do not support this at all. The easier the point of entry (such as TikTok), the more people flock to a platform, the more competition there is. '15 minutes of fame' has never been so desired. And what is fame, really? What does it mean to be known? Why does it matter? The grim truth (said by the rare few who have 'made it') is that it did not buy happiness. It did not fix their problems. In fact, it amplified whatever issues they had internally, before they 'made it.'

The internet facilitates communication, research, and even knowledge. But it is also rife with disinformation, trivial, superficial, garbage, and is a potent propaganda machine. It has the power to connect, as much as to divide.

I like being able to get to know people from all around the world. I have, quite a few, and it has been a pleasure. I can handle this. I am not addicted to technology. I just wish that everyone else could use these things as the tools that they are, for entertainment but also, more importantly, to broaden their understanding of the world, and society, and people. These platforms should not be used to bully, harass, hide their vicious opinions and beliefs behind cowardly anonymity, or to mindlessly drown out the world day after day, night after night, in escape, because they think "everyone sucks", and there isn't a single person out there worth their time, or focus, or curiosity. That's what I miss, that is slowly dying away. Not with everyone, but the proportion of people believing this is all fucked up now. In some ways, at some times, it does feel true. But maybe it's that way because so many have given up trying to be good people, to be open-minded, and to expand their minds. It's become a very selfish society, without community, with a lot of greed, and it makes me sick and not want to be around for the future anymore. Many days, I think I've seen enough. I don't want to go back to or live in the past, but I don't have faith in the future, with the way too many people are behaving.

[erandal]

Yes and no.

I liked that very little was shared with everybody and anybody, why do people have to share their entire lives on Instagram or whatever? I really don't care what you had for lunch or what you wore to take the kids to school yesterday.

I love the internet, I love being able to have all that information accessible anytime, anywhere.

[TuxTheAstronaut]

i didn't use the internet to much as a kid before social media but i wish we could go back to that time still cuz the internet was like so much better more of a wild west

all the cool websites and fourms nowadays everyone uses the same 4 sites that are all look similar and now every thing tracks your every move

[TuxTheAstronaut]

also there was more of a separation back then of irl and i really liked the early days of YouTube were people just made videos for fun not profit and people could be themselves while now everything on youtube has become so dull and family friendly cooperate blandness to appease advertisers

[BCRanger10]

Yes, because things were much simpler and you actually spent time with your friends and family.

[God_of_Thunder]

You mean the dark days before free internet porn? 😱😱😱

[TenderFantasy]

Before computers/internet, you had VHS and Adult Rental section at seedy places if not Blockbuster lol. Also, Playboys, Penthouse.

Now it's DISGUSTING and too free!

[God_of_Thunder]

Yeah, but those were all nasty, and I was too young to rent them, anyway, lol.

I'm honestly just kidding. I do miss certain aspects of it, but that's just general nostalgia, and not necessarily related to the internet & social media.

I miss that kids could ride their bikes all over creation, without worrying about being kidnapped. I miss cartoons from my childhood, and music was waaaaaay better.

That's just me being an old fart, though. I'm an introvert, and I hate people, so the rise of the internet didn't really change much for me.

[Guardian45]

Analog world had its merits like REAL human contact, and less expensive stuff, but tech was clunky and slow and outdated quickly.

[goodgirlsteven]

yes i miss it because it was a sociable time people would actually talk and meeting a old friend on the street and talking was a treat. now everyone is hunched over their stupid telephones texting

[Xtendable]

I do miss those times. More social and less pressure to check messages