Discussion Anyone born before 1975, would you relive it with no internet or cell phones?

[Remobz]

Just a friendly discussion here. To all of you that never had internet until your 20's or born before 1975 especially.

Knowing what you have now internet wise, computers, games, cell phones, new tech etc.

Could you handle going back in the past and reliving those days with no such luxuries like today?

As for me, I had no internet use until I was 24 years old and no cell phones until I was in my mid 30's. I did not own a computer until I was 24 years old as well.

Would I go back and relive the days without it? HELL YEAH!

 

[Spacehead]

Relive my youth without the tech we have now? Yes, easily.

As for me, I had no internet use until I was 24 years old and no cell phones until I was in my mid 30's. I did not own a computer until I was 24 years old as well.

Just add about 10 years to those numbers for me.

As for present day, cell phone would be easy to give up but i do like internet access so need the computer for that vs using a phone for that. I like a large screen.

 

[Remobz]

Relive my youth without the tech we have now? Yes, easily.


Just add about 10 years to those numbers for me.

As for present day, cell phone would be easy to give up but i do like internet access so need the computer for that vs using a phone for that. I like a large screen.

To be honest. I would miss some things. For example, being connected to the world. I did not grow up in North America. My country only had two movie stations with no cable TV for years to come. The magazines and other news media were always outdated and weeks late.

Would kind of suck not looking up information about anything on your phone using the internet. I would miss some things.

Maybe ignorance is bliss right? Porn was always some hand me down OLD magazine or book with some pages stuck together....LOL!

VHS was popular before cable TV existed and one rich friend had Satellite TV and access to some 24/7 porn channels. He would record hours and hours of porn on VHS tapes and sell them to us. I think the channel back then was called American Exxxtasy channel.

I was also a BMX bandit back then. Some of us after school would ride to the ALL girls Catholic School about 25 minutes away from our school. Perform some BMX stunts to get the girls attention as they were leaving the school to go home or waiting to be picked up by parents. Exchanging love letters was common back then. Exchanging phone numbers was too risky at times because many girls had only one land line phone. Imagine calling and the Dad or Mother picked up the phone hearing this young scared guys voice asking to speak with their daughter Not exactly too safe to do. Many passing of letters or secret meet ups or house parties were the preferred ways back then.

Anyway, I am feeling nostalgic today and feeling my age too.

 

[MtnMan]

Exchanging phone numbers was too risky at times because many girls had only one land line phone. Imagine calling and the Dad or Mother picked up the phone hearing this young scared guys voice asking to speak with their daughter Not exactly too safe to do.

That's how it was done back in the days. Yes, and we got laid too.

 

[RLGL]

YES!!!

 

[Captante]

Not no..... FVCK no.

I could cope but I'd never choose to do so.... I like tech.

 

[sandorski]

Knowing that I was missing it? No.

 

[zinfamous]

The question assumes that you would go back and relive it with the knowledge of what you are missing, because otherwise why would it be worth asking us to challenge our brains and our addictions?

I mean, if you just go back to that time, with normal amnesia...so what. Of course everyone is happy to live with only what they know.


But would I go back to my teenage life in the 70s, knowing that cell phones and the internet will be real, even though none of this is accessible for some time?

Fuck yeah I would. You know why? I'd have the most valuable information in the world that literally no one else would: I know the future. I know what technology will bring us, with great certainty, and even if I wouldn't know how we specifically got there, I'd be able to smoke out any important company or step in the line to get there, and make bank.

I could slog fries at In N Out burger making a teenager's salary in 1975, just take that reasonable salary for the time and invest in cheap, high-risk companies like Apple and Microsoft and Intel and RAMBUS and Nokia, etc...and be able to own the world without having any more stress than a fry-tosser at the In N Out, who spends the rest of his time getting high and bagging local chicks.

I'd be making and spending money like whoever it is that somehow pays Maddoka to spend their money.

 

[Hotrod2go]

Yes & no. I miss the days of catching great tunes from AM/FM radio & recording them on to cassettes!
Seriously though, the best tech things from that era would have to be automobiles. Big family sized sedans/wagons/utes, as an example with relatively simple mechanics/electricals whereby a home handyman kind of dude could fix or maintain stuff on his own. Today, that is not on, even the local garage mechanics or motor dealers have to consult computers to diagnose & tune cars now. Sophistication for the sake of it! A lot of stuff on modern cars is just there for lifestyle convenience & because the skill of driving a car is now controlled or monitored by microchips, there is no fun in the art of driving anymore.

 

[BoomerD]

Sure. Easily. Having worked construction for 30+ years, I saw the changes on jobsites. Foremen and superintendents used to be able to make decisions without having a phone welded to their heads...and shit got done...usually quicker...and right. Nowadays, every foreman or above is constantly on the phone getting instructions or help...and shit doesn't get done. (although, I admit, getting in touch with an engineer quickly when some unexpected problem arises is a good thing)

 

[highland145]

I was in wal mart today. They were playing The Cars on the speakers. After 40 years and they couldn't add a little bass? Bastards.

 

[Torn Mind]

Would be easier for criminals. Lyon sisters were kidnapped around that time. Bundy was doing his thing too.

 

[Kaido]

80's kid myself. I'm in that weird space before Millennials called Oregon Trail'sters:

The Oregon Trail Generation: Life Before and After Mainstream Tech

We came of age just as the very essence of communication was experiencing a seismic shift, and it’s given us a unique perspective that’s half analog old school and half digital new school.

socialmediaweek.org

aka Xennials:

Xennials - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

We were the first generation to get computers in school & played Oregon Trail on them. People had typewriters & corded house phones. Nintendo just came out. VCR's grew in popularity. We got dialup in 1999 at my house, iirc. I got hooked on Counter-Strike in high school. I built my own computer after high school. I believe my first post here on ATOT was on the WRT54G, which had just been launched in 2002:

The WRT54GL: A 54Mbps router from 2005 still makes millions for Linksys

Open source firmware, reliability make an old product attractive to new buyers.

arstechnica.com

Oddly enough, it was Bill Gates who created the moniker "router" for home Internet hubs:

Linksys previewed its first consumer router at the COMDEX computer industry conference in November 1999, before its official launch, but at the time was calling it an "Integrated Internet Hub." "We were at the show and Bill Gates came by our booth... and he said, 'why don't you guys just call this a router?'" Sohl said. Linksys changed the product's name, opting for "Broadband EtherFast Router."

Would I relive my childhood with zero technology? What a fun question lol. I played a lot outside. My parents had a 13" black & white TV with bunny ears until like 1992 & were always like you can watch as much TV as you want on it! Which of course was pretty boring so we played outside lol. We biked to different towns. Every kid was outside playing all day, no fear of getting kidnapped. As long as everyone was home by sundown it was fine.

I do remember being bored a lot. And also not knowing the answers to things...I'd have a question & ask my parents, their friends, the encyclopedia, go down to the library, and if I couldn't find it through local resources...I'd just never know! Now I have a slight Wikipedia & Youtube addiction when I'm going down a rabbit trail learning about something lol. Amazon can delivery just about anything in the world to me. Pinterest has millions upon millions of recipes to try out. Thanks to international shipping & computerized inventory systems, the average grocery store has more than 42,000 unique items for sale. We can buy strawberries in the dead of winter. The world is our oyster these days!

But would I change how I grew up? I mean, my life experience made me who I am today. I see kids all zoned out in their screens 24/7. School by Zoom due to COVID. I dunno. Technology as a kid sounds great, but I was right in that micro-generation where electronics came into existence for personal use, and I really enjoyed that growing up!

 

[PowerEngineer]

I've enjoyed this first time around quite a bit, and I'd happily sign up for a second time around without all the tech. Frankly, I'd agree to give up a lot more!

 

[Torn Mind]

80's kid myself. I'm in that weird space before Millennials called Oregon Trail'sters:

The Oregon Trail Generation: Life Before and After Mainstream Tech

We came of age just as the very essence of communication was experiencing a seismic shift, and it’s given us a unique perspective that’s half analog old school and half digital new school.

socialmediaweek.org

aka Xennials:

Xennials - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

We were the first generation to get computers in school & played Oregon Trail on them. People had typewriters & corded house phones. Nintendo just came out. VCR's grew in popularity. We got dialup in 1999 at my house, iirc. I got hooked on Counter-Strike in high school. I built my own computer after high school. I believe my first post here on ATOT was on the WRT54G, which had just been launched in 2002:

The WRT54GL: A 54Mbps router from 2005 still makes millions for Linksys

Open source firmware, reliability make an old product attractive to new buyers.

arstechnica.com

Oddly enough, it was Bill Gates who created the moniker "router" for home Internet hubs:


Would I relive my childhood with zero technology? What a fun question lol. I played a lot outside. My parents had a 13" black & white TV with bunny ears until like 1992 & were always like you can watch as much TV as you want on it! Which of course was pretty boring so we played outside lol. We biked to different towns. Every kid was outside playing all day, no fear of getting kidnapped. As long as everyone was home by sundown it was fine.

I do remember being bored a lot. And also not knowing the answers to things...I'd have a question & ask my parents, their friends, the encyclopedia, go down to the library, and if I couldn't find it through local resources...I'd just never know! Now I have a slight Wikipedia & Youtube addiction when I'm going down a rabbit trail learning about something lol. Amazon can delivery just about anything in the world to me. Pinterest has millions upon millions of recipes to try out. Thanks to international shipping & computerized inventory systems, the average grocery store has more than 42,000 unique items for sale. We can buy strawberries in the dead of winter. The world is our oyster these days!

But would I change how I grew up? I mean, my life experience made me who I am today. I see kids all zoned out in their screens 24/7. School by Zoom due to COVID. I dunno. Technology as a kid sounds great, but I was right in that micro-generation where electronics came into existence for personal use, and I really enjoyed that growing up!

As an '88 kid with less income, I would say "Xennialism" ended with kids born around 1990. As kids, the schools that those old Apples that could play Oregon Trail and later those AIO Powermacs or whatever they were. Windows was not ubiquitous until high school with XP.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

Easily, i'd be doing more camping and fishing than i already do now. I have grandkids and the addicted look on their faces when they don't get "screen time" is scary.

 

[sdifox]

No way

 

[jmagg]

Either way.

 

[Fritzo]

I was born in 1970 and in high-school I was part of the up and coming "tech generation." In the 70's I was amazed by gadgets and technology- James Bond's watches were being replicated by Casio and Seiko, primitive video game consoles, hand-held digital calculators, primitive word processors...I wanted to be a part of it!

In the late 70's our school received a computer, and I helped the teachers figure out how to use it. By '82 I had my own computer and learned BASIC, then started making my own text adventure games and dungeon crawlers. By the late 80's I was helping businesses with document processing and storage. Finally by the mid-90's I was recruited out of college to work at an up and coming Internet company because I new how TCP/IP worked.

After all of that the Internet turned into something most of us couldn't even imagine. The ability to achieve instant information and instant gratification has made all of us better, and some of us worse. I don't think after being exposed to that it would be possible to go back to the technological "dark ages." I think we forget how ignorant we all used to be and how difficult it was to learn anything or gain any type of skill.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Knowing that I was missing it? No.

Just imagine all the technology you >wink> could be inventing going forward!?! You could beat Apple to the iPod, iPhone and much more. You could abort Zuck and Putin. And your prior knowledge give you enough confidence to hit every hot MILF in the neighborhood.

 

[sandorski]

Just imagine all the technology you >wink> could be inventing going forward!?! You could beat Apple to the iPod, iPhone and much more. You could abort Zuck and Putin. And your prior knowledge give you enough confidence to hit every hot MILF in the neighborhood.

Not without the Internet...

 

[brianmanahan]

I'd be making and spending money like whoever it is that somehow pays Maddoka to spend their money.

if i knew that in the future i'd end up buying 99 of the same pistol

or buying a house to fill it with legos

or living month-to-month despite clearing over a million bucks a year

i would rethink my future life choices

 

[SKORPI0]

I would. Survived about 35 years without them.

Wheres the poll?

 

[Kaido]

Easily, i'd be doing more camping and fishing than i already do now. I have grandkids and the addicted look on their faces when they don't get "screen time" is scary.

Oh man. You've just put into words something I've seen but never really thought about. That's exactly what it is. Screen addiction face.

 

[Pohemi]

We had C64 'puters in school. No home PC until I was on my own, none self-built until I was 22 or 23. No smartphone until I was 26-ish. NES and Master System came out when I was in middle school.

I have a lot of good memories of childhood, and wouldn't change that. I actually avoided PCs and tech until my 20s (I did own a Sega Genesis in HS though).