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We see a lot of talk about older people who grew up without the internet and have had trouble adjusting – or honestly, who just aren’t hardwired to keep up with the pace of how things constantly evolve – but we talk less about those things from the “good” old internet-free days that kids now will never really get.
If you’re curious what GenZ and Millennials are confused about when they see those movies from the 80s, here’s a fun list.
16. There was this thing called the radio… (and also MTV actually played music!)
How did people discover new music? Did you like just hang out at record stores and hope you might stumble across something and if so without wikipedia how did you know about what it was all about?
And what if you lived in the country and didn’t have access to record stores? Did you basically just listen to radio ( but they just played the same limited playlist again and again ?)
I mean like now, someone can just mention some band I have never heard of on like reddit and within 10 minutes I have listened to several of their songs and read a complete bio of the band..
15. Literally scissors and tape.
I can’t understand one thing about the times before computers: how the hell did they edit movies?
14. The newspaper and the library.
How did you guys research about current affairs from all over the world?
13. You really lose something now when you try to hang up on someone.
I had a child a couple years ago ask me why do you say “hang up the phone”?
Felt old.
12. You drove around and looked at houses! Also, you trusted your realtor.
If you were moving to a new area, how the hell did you find a house? These days you have to filter through so many crap places online to find something you even want to view, did you have to actually view all the crap places back then?
Also jobs. I get that done were in newspapers but what if you were in a high skill role and the only jobs were the other end of the country?
11. You showed up when you said you would.
Before the time of cellphones, how do you meet/find your friend in a crowded mall without actively communicating in real time?
10. Seriously, does no one stick to their plans anymore?
I’m happy I stumbled across this post. I don’t know if it has been mentioned yet but… group outings! I’ve asked people in real life and they said they just waited on good faith that ppl would show up. I’m shocked at this as I could give someone the exact gps coordinates and still get a text of “yo wya” when we pick a spot to meet. Not to mention all the people who cancel last second.
I have a great respect for those planners a generation back! (Fyi not even that young 20 yrs old atm)
9. We literally never thought about this until after it was no longer a problem.
I don’t understand how people communicated without instantaneous communication.
My grandmother was once in a hurricane and had to call her father after it happened saying they were okay and her father’s response was “What hurricane?”
8. …you called first?
How they dealt when they went 10 miles to friends house to ask him to play football or something and his dad answers and the dad says no SINCE JAMES HAS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
7. Nobody waits for anything anymore.
Who remembers actually traveling outside, making a trip to the video store to walk around for a good 20 minutes.
Then picking up a VHS to take home for 3 days until you have to make another trip to bring it back so that somebody else can come and rent the exact same copy of that movie that you did.
Now I get annoyed if Netflix is slow. The future has changed me
6. Books! In libraries! Microfiche!
How the hell did you do school projects?
5. You had to really buck up.
Kids these days will never appreciate the anxiety of calling their crush only to have the dad answer the phone and try to have a conversation about who you are and why you’re calling their daughter.
Dialing that 7th digit gave me PTSD.
4. It made us appreciate it more, though, I think.
I was born before the internet was so widespread but after it’s creation so I can understand how people lived before that.
The thing that baffles me though, is how people lived before mobile phones. I remember my mother telling me that one time she was locked outside our home and she had to go to the nearest store to call my father from there.
Damn communication back then must have been a bitch, especially for teen romance.
3. I’ve seen my own little kids do this. They try to swipe everything.
I have a friend at work.
Her daughter is 4, nearly 5. My friend printed out a nice photo of a family member and passed it her daughter to take a look. Her daughter thought it was a tablet and couldn’t understand why the picture wasn’t moving.
That scared me a bit I must admit.
2. Now that I think about it, yeah. It really was.
Must’ve been nice to wake up on a nice June day and not turn over to your phone. Like you’d just get up and do things.
1. And then you had to find somewhere really good to hide it.
If you were a kid you had to go to the woods to find porn.
As a Xennial (GenX), I can definitely see how these could fly under a younger person’s radar!
If you’re younger than 33, what would you add to this list? Tell us in the comments!
