This question on Reddit had a bunch of answers that I think are worth reflecting on.
”People old enough to remember life pre-Internet, what are some less obvious things you miss about that time?”
Work-life balance
“Leaving home and just being gone for the day. No cell phones.”
Mind-wandering
“I miss spacing out. Like, you could legit just sit on a bench or ride a bus and space out completely, letting your mind wander into those creative zones. Now phones/tech makes it much harder to get there.”
“Having an idea, finding a new hobby or skillset or project to work on, going to the library or bookstore to educate yourself about it, start learning and growing and excited about a new passion. Now… you look it up online, realize there’s a bunch of people who are wayyy better at it than you will ever be, and so you immediately give up out of discouragement. :\”
Presence
“If there were cameras, it was really different. You used them to take pictures of things or had people take pictures of you. But there was no social media to preoccupy your mind. It was just doing something. And whoever you were with, was who you were with.“
“My former housemate – who is twenty years younger than me – and I both left our phones at home by accident one day. So we kept on keeping on doing the days activities. Some errands and some wandering around. At one point, she turned to me and said “So this is what the 80s were like?”
“We weren’t getting texts all the time. No constant robocalls and spam e-mails. No expectation of instant reply 24/7. No constant stress or pressure. We were just there enjoying the moment and the simple stuff.”
The news cycle
“News only being on at 6pm. That was it. Now we have 6 hours of local news and 24 hours of cable news. Not being bombarded all day with “news.” And when you saw “Breaking News” on the screen you knew some serious shit went down.”
A curious one for me was one about identity:
“The ability to start over. I moved a lot, every move I could reinvent myself, bookworm, punk, preppie, I got to try out lots of aspects of my personality and my past wasn’t a factor.”
and its reply “I think especially when young it’s genuinely damaging to be locked into an identity by the stuff you have said / done years ago. How are we supposed to grow? Also being judged by the norms of a previous era which are not cool now.”