What were you doing before internet?

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gherman

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Sep 15, 2000
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Location
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Its strange. It seems like I woke up one day and the internet was here:eyebrow: Idon't know what it would be like today if I didn't have it. What were you doing before the internet?

If your old enough to remember:wink:
 
I seem to recall being outside more often and getting to bed at decent hours.
 
I think we first got AOL when I was in 8th grade, so 1995ish. Starting high school, schoolwork, new time commitments, getting jobs...everything changed so it's hard to say where first using the Internet at that point had an effect.
 
it's only been 5 years. i was an adult then, too. :wink:
i read. cleaned the house. worked. watched tv. saw friends. same as now. you should reconsider it if it's altered your life that much that you've lost some or any of those things.
 
I still do the stuff I did then, but now I've added other things. I've struck up acquaintances and friendships (even business relationships) with people I would never have known otherwise, and I've met several of them.

And radio already sucked so I wasn't finding much good music pre-internet. It's now so easy to find and order music which interests me, no matter how obscure. And I reconnected with my favourite band. I'd lost track of them, but was able to find them online. That was really wonderful. And I was able to strike up conversations with one of the band members which turned into the business relationship I noted above. I never would have sent off fan mail, so the internet certainly facilitated that.

I did go to bed earlier before I got online though, but then again I had a job then too, so I'm sure that had something to do with it as well. :)
 
Probably would have been passing exams :lol:, as well as getting much more sleep!

I first had an Internet Connection costing $20 (yes!, $20) a month for 5 hours of Dial Up :lmao: This was in '99.
 
I first got the internet when i was about 16. Without the internet I would probably watch more tv, maybe read more, and probably go to bed earlier.
 
Hrmm... Good question.

I was a kid when I first heard about email and the internets. But then I forgotted about it until the summer I graduated high schoo when it became big news. That was 1995. Since then it has been a huge influence on my life and career, but mostly my career.
 
Listen to music...read...play video games.

I still do all of those things...but it's just been enhanced by computers and the internet.
 
I've been online for over 10 years but don't come online as much as I used to - pretty much on between 7- 5 while at work more than any other time :shh: :whistle:
 
I was just doing kid stuff, basically. My family first got the internet off one of those AOL disks that everyone got in the mail when I was in Grade 5 or so, so when I was about 10 or 11. Then my dad bought a dial-up internet package (something like 5 hours for 30 bucks a month!!) and the rest is history. I really never had any non-childhood memories of a time without the internet, actually.

Is it a bad thing that I still remember the very first website I ever went to? It was tsn.ca back in about 1995 at my mom's work. This is when it used to look like this (or maybe even earlier!): http://web.archive.org/web/19961227001100/http://tsn.ca/

I had no idea how to use the internet and got unbelievably frustrated when just typing "tsn" wouldn't take me to their website - I got my mom out of a meeting to show me how to use it! :lol:
 
I used to have to buy these things called "magazines", and then I'd have to hide them under the mattress. Now I just close the browser window! :happy: Technology rules.

But I wonder too what I used to do to pass time. I guess I'd watch TV. I dunno. I read probably as much as I used to. I play games still. I use it the internet mostly a work. Or anytime I get stuck on a problem I check google.
 
It's funny I can't seem to remember when I got into the net. I do remember that I got onto it in earnest in 2001 when I joined interference! Since then I have no clue how I've survived without it!
 
I watched a lot of TV!!

Hey there Jess! Would you believe that we still have snow on the ground here!?! Gotta get round to writing you a letter!!! Since I got my new computer I've been catching up on lost time and been downloading alot of U2 interviews and concerts etc.! The latest being U2s NY concert by the Brooklyn Bridge!! :wink:
 
i watched alot of daytime soaps and those sitcoms at night. listened to radio nonstop. the internet definitely changed all of that.
 
I got internet the 2nd semester of my freshman year in college that was 1998. Before that time I would read a lot and watch tv. Like others I still do all of that stuff now but when I get bored with them the internet is there :wink:
 
LivLuvAndBootlegMusic said:
I think we first got AOL when I was in 8th grade, so 1995ish. Starting high school, schoolwork, new time commitments, getting jobs...everything changed so it's hard to say where first using the Internet at that point had an effect.

What was I saying? It was 1998 when I was in 8th grade :der:
 
I remember listening to the radio non-stop just to listen to a song. I remember waiting 2 hours to catch Under the Bridge on the radio. Now if I want to hear it it takes a second or two on the net. I kind of forgot how hard it was to do shit like that. We are spoiled.
 
Remember the good old days when you had to wait for the newspaper to find out the sports stats from the game the night before.

Remember how the newspaper was your only source of news.

If you needed information, you had to physically go to the library or look it up in the encyclopedia.

If a band was performing in your town, the people in your town were pretty much the only ones going, now you are in competition with the whole world for tickets.

Penpals used to be a great way of communicating with people in different countries, and it would only take a week or so for your letter to get there.

Recipes, advice and instructions were only available in magazines and books.

Music and movies were only available at select outlets which were filled with people. I used to have to stand in line to pay bills and do my banking.

SPOILER ALERTS didn't exist, no one knew anything about tv shows or setlists before they actually saw the event.

Adult material was only on the back shelf or in a darkened store in the seedy part of town, now it owns the internet.

The internet is definitely one of the most life altering things in the evolution of human behaviour. Right up there with the wheel, electricity,telephones, motors, airplanes, velcro,teflon and juice paks.
 
I remember in high school that my math teacher would take us to the library to get hockey stats off of the internet. Used to have us create fantasy hockey teams as a class project.

Also before the internet I used to do all of my research through books. Was a great excuse to go to the library and socialize with friends :shifty: Now with a click of the mouse I can find just about everything I need and still socialize :happy:.
 
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Hi Helen! :wave:


Another thing...my U2 news came a lot more slowly before the internet, my only news sources were Propaganda and newspapers/magazines! It all made things a bit more exciting and mysterious though. :)

Then instead of email I had actual letters and packages from my Penpals from Propaganda! (hcbiggs is one of them from many moons ago. :cute: ) I used to have dozens of penpals....it was so nice.
 
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