Does anyone really remember what it was like before the internet existed? - General

It's weird..... I'm 19 now, and I just realized that I barely remember life without the internet. Computers started to *really* become a big thing when I was about 10 (i.e. cell phones, Myspace etc) and I kinda just got sucked into the whole programming thing what with Facepunch and GMod Lua.... Any older folks here wanna shed some light? What did you guys do for fun? How did you guys contact each other to hang out? What was it like not having things like Facebook and Google exist? For some reason, I feel some sort of longing, wishing I never had to experience the internet. It seems that people are becoming more superficial and disconnected nowadays, but that just might be childhood nostalgia talking. Does anyone else feel this way?

There was a time before the internet?

the fact that anybody even has to ask this is kind of sad to me idk why

Don't be stupid. There's always been internet. There's just more websites now.

I remember playing games as a child before I knew the internet really existed (don't ask me how because idk) and all I remember was it was frustrating as shit not being able to go online for help or a tutorial. EDIT: I think maybe my family just didn't have internet connection at the time but still idk.

I was born in 1996, so I was pretty much born in the era of the internet starting up i guess my parents couldn't afford a computer with a connection or didn't need it im not to sure but we had cable television so most of my days if i can remember hard enough was watching cartoon network, disney and ABC for kids, but sometimes my dad wanted to watch sky racing or something I'm sure without the internet i'd just be watching tv and doing what i normally do, just without the internet

I am 19 too and I remember using the internet even as a little kid...

I started using the computer for games at around 7, and using the internet to play runescape and diablo 2 at 9-10

Wow this is really sad.

It was a better time people went outside and skipped in the meadows

Yes I can remember. I was like 7 and my friend invited me over to his house saying he had gotten internet service. Then we looked at some site and had a really terrible layout and there were GIF images everywhere and I thought it looked stupid.

I'm 24, and I didn't have full-time unsupervised internet access until I was 14 or 15. Before that it was all dial-up, which I remember quite vividly. I even remember using a Windows 95 computer without any internet access, when my entire gaming world was a bunch of shitty little demo games that came packaged on one CD. My family probably got our first Windows PC when I was around 7. I remember laser discs very well, my dad was an early adopter. SNES was the console of my childhood.

Born in 92, my dad programmed a videogame for me on the computer when I was 4 months old. I can't remember there being a time when my family didn't have internet.

you went to school, got home, ate, and played Genesis until 11. on the weekends you would go to your friends house trade action figures, play the same 5 games over and over, jump on the trampoline, stay up till 5am drawing dicks, look for there parents porn VHS, Jack off, Repeat. I bought a PC with Windows ME it was the worst Experience ever. I only wanted it because Deer Hunter 2 came bundled with it. a program called Shallipii.exe would start and Id have to Ctrl+alt+ del it 500 times. I had Dial up until about 2008 I know its sad I remember when ppl would say "56k user warning" and ppl in threads would be like "wtf no one is on dial up anymore" I cried myself to sleep. Then I moved out of that Rural area and got real internet.

Born in 93. We had a computer at least before 2000, I think it was a Windows 95. I remember having DSL, but I never used the internet until maybe 2004. I did play games now and then, like there was some informative clicking safari animal thing, and some Land Before Time Game. So I kind of remember a time before the internet was as big. But the internet has been around since the 60s, but only commercialized since the 90s. So I think the best we're going to get is people who were either born before commercialization (80s) or early commercialization (early 90s).

I was actually able to do something productive.

I always used the internet but not that much for most of my life. It's not till I started online school in 6th grade that I started using it so much. Before that time I actually went outside and played with friends that lived on my street.

I remember, very clearly actually. I got my first PC when I was 11. Or it was more like a family-PC which I dominated over. And even that one had 33,6kbps modem on it that made browsing the internet very annoying. Only thing that internet made better from those days is that I am pretty much guaranteed to contact my friends one way or another. When we didn't have cellphones or internet it was basically a call to their house "Is he/she there? No? Oh." and repeat until the situation changed. :v: I usually did stuff on my parents' largish back- and frontyard. Basically I spent a lot of time outside. Swimming, baseball, frisbee, football, chatting with friends while sunbathing etc. Winter was super-boring, I never liked skiing or ice-skating or such. Well, after internet, I do almost none of those things anymore. Heh. Heh...

Man going round to people's houses just to find they weren't in. Crazy days. Bikes were the main thing when I was a kid, but when C&C 95 hit. Oh man, my life went downhill fast. Also, encarta.

By the time I was born the dragon megathread was already in full swing so [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/VD2jOXz.jpg[/IMG] (you'd probably have to find someone born in the 70's for them not to have been exposed to the internet-world for any sort of memorable time because BBSs and Usenet were fairly prevalant during the 80's)

I distinctly remember not having internet. I got my first computer at the age of 3 (Frankenstein build my dad made) which wasn't connected to the internet for obvious reasons. I wasn't allowed to go online until I was 6 or 7 and even then I rarely would because 56K wasn't worth it. Once we got DSL when I was about 13 there was an exponential increase in my internet usage.

Yes. I remember having to play outside as a kid. [sub][sub][sub]Those were difficult times.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

I don't remember not having internet. There was a period of time where only 3 users were allowed on our connection, which ended up being my dad, my mom, and my sister, so I had to [I]really[/I] fight to any online time at all. This was also when we had a coaxial cable that ran the length of the house that we all tapped into. Fuck we had a LAN far before I really got to know the internet. Had a Sparkle server for the house that had a monstrous [I]1 gig[/I] of space on it across like 3 drives that were like 10 pounds each. Once we went to a connection service that allowed more than 3 users online, I really got to know the internet. First site I can remember becoming very active on was GameRevolution.com If not for that site, I'd have never known about Freespace. Fuck I can remember thinking Freespace was some shitty descent knockoff so I shunned it for years before struggling to remember what it even was, finding it again, and falling in love with it. [editline]4th April 2013[/editline] Granted I still went outside quite a bit, both my sister and myself. Had a cool neighbor for a while too, always went to their house. Shit was cool back then.

without the internet my music listening was very different i was just obsessed with these cassette tapes that id find and dub, and i would constantly bother my mum about finding random cassette tapes i have a weird nostalgic connection to cassette tapes, on one hand im glad i can find such incredible music around the globe, on the other hand im a bit sad because obtaining a piece of music on a cassette tape felt like a journey and an accomplishment when i was 12 or 13

i remember having to hide my vhs porn collection

I remember using an old version of AOL with dial up and everything on my dad's old laptop. I spent the large majority of my childhood on a computer unconnected to the Internet, so I mainly played a shitload of The Sims (and 2 when it came out), Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon, and KOTOR 2. Looking back on it, I'm not sure how I managed without ever going to a website for any of those games. I didn't have steam, so I got all my games in the meager games section at Target. Those were surprisingly good times. I sometimes wish I could return to the simplicity of life without the web, but I know I'd never be able to handle it now, I'm too used to instant news, information, and meaningless posts like these on a random Internet forum :v:

When I was a kid, we played with our toys and our friends, we watched VHS movies, we swam in the river, we went places where we weren't supposed to go ("No Trespassing"? More like 'adventure this way'!), we played our Nintendos and Segas and Playstations, sometimes we went boating with a relative or a friend's reletive, or went to a theme park. Stuff like that, it was good times.

[QUOTE=Sonydude;40153115]It was a better time people went outside and skipped in the meadows[/QUOTE] Virtual Meadows.. Right?

'94 my Dad is a software developer. We have never not had three computers in our house that I can remember. Internet however I never really noticed until later. For the most part we just played point and click games on our computer. In terms of what we did without internet though is easier to answer. We used to do car trips without any electronic devices at all. My older brother invented role playing games and they were usually pretty damn amazing. My whole family has pretty good imaginations though. The main theme was Atlantis, I remember the currency being (in my mind) like dream catchers made of emeralds. We had some some small Digimon models and usually got new ones or new toys of some sort when we went on long car trips or airplane flights. Eye spy, one word stories, tongue twisters. Books. I read a lot of books. Friends called from home phone to home phone or just rocked up at our house or us theirs. The internet has pretty much made me into a recluse. I do none of these things anymore. Though if I ever have children I am not giving them electronic devices for long trips. It makes your imagination much funner to play with.

[QUOTE=fishyfish777;40153670] (you'd probably have to find someone born in the 70's for them not to have been exposed to the internet-world for any sort of memorable time because BBSs and Usenet were fairly prevalant during the 80's)[/QUOTE] Or someone born in Finland in the 80's. Like me. I don't know if I just lived in some backwater-town but until I got my own PC the most advanced thing I saw a PC being used for was Wolfenstein. First time I used the internet was in elementary-school and it was blazing fast at 40kb/s. But it was only during some special lessons (we had maybe 3 a year) which were supposed to teach us how to research stuff on the internet (Google wasn't a proper thing yet).