A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.
Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.
RULES:
RELATED COMMUNITIES:
I miss calling my friend on the landline and asking their parents if they are available. I miss walking to my friends house and asking their parents if they are home/available.
I miss MSN/ICQ/AIM being the only way to instant message and you had to be physically at the computer to do it -- ie. When you were not at home you were not reachable
It was nice.
Coming back to my dorm room and listening to my drunk friends messages they left on my answering machine.
Getting together in person to socialize.
Calling friends on the phone and having an actual conversation being a normal thing. And heck, you might get to know their family a little too because you never knew who was going to pick up the phone.
Feeling perfectly confident without a phone in your pocket. Driving somewhere unfamiliar? No worries, if you get lost just pull over at a gas station and ask for directions.
Being free and on your own when out and about. No constant distractions and interruptions from a cell phone and people trying to get your attention via your digital tether.
Limited choice in game, movie, and TV (no downloads/streaming on a whim) meant sometimes you were bored with what you had, so you'd go outside to have fun, or over to a friend's house.
The ideas and innovations that you would have because your brain wasn't constantly bombarded by distractions and overstimulation.
Technological developments feeling exciting and inspiring optimism for a better world rather than dystopian and oppressive.
Reduced expectations; people didn't expect everything instantly and the pace of life felt more chill.
Feeling like a real person in a real world.
Common sense. See for example the work of Neil Postman.
it was quieter. it was easier to avoid distractions.
I got my first (non-smart) cell phone at 11, first Android smartphone at 15...
My answer to this is: not really anything? Having a cell phone and a smartphone has made my life much easier, more fun and less boring, I would not want to go back to a world without it. I (kinda) do want to go back to (approximately) the state of the Internet at the time, but would still want to be able to access it from a mobile device!
I remember during the time when I already had a Nintendo DS but the first iPhone hadn't been announced yet, I would occasionally be bored at school and fantasize about how awesome it would be if my Nintendo DS could connect to the Internet anywhere I went. A few years later I got almost exactly that (looked a bit different from how I imagined though). :D
Nothing. It was dreadful.
