life before the internet?

[cheep]

i sometimes miss the US vs THEM-ness of those days when listening to that music meant being spit on and having only say 5 friends and getting a NIN tape (for god's sake!) was a fucking quest instead of a couple clicks to DL

thinking about this... what were YOU doing before you could spend all day online, talking to like minded people about the most random shit than no one else cares about? do you remember a time before the pervasiveness of the internet and the culture that has sprung up out of it?

me, i did pretty much the same shit as i do now, only in cheaper clothes. oh, i used to BUY CDS too... and sometimes have to get the local record shop to order something for me.

of course, i never used the internet until i was out of highschool... and until 2002 i only used AOL to try to hook up with girls. sufu was the first forum i had ever come to.

[sushijerk]

My friend used to come over and we'd play NES. Afternoons are all about beating Contra and Double Dragon 2 for like the 100th time. Then we'd go look at the really hardcore porn mags that he stole out of his neighbors trash.

[kunk75]

i would hang out with the 2 or 3 living-breathing like minded people i knew. internets is ruining my real-life friendships. online peeps are easier to get along with and if not, i can log out and don't have to throw them out of my house.

[chronoaug]

My friend used to come over and we'd play NES. Afternoons are all about beating Contra and Double Dragon 2 for like the 100th time. Then we'd go look at the really hardcore porn mags that he stole out of his neighbors trash.

this pretty much

Also, in 4th-7th grade we used my buddy's garage and built all kinda of skate ramps, boxes, and other shit. My dad welded us some nice rails too. We basically built our own skate park in this kid's driveway (our parents wouldn't let us just skate downtown by ourselves or anything)

Lots of basketball too

[kunk75]

and that too.

this pretty much

Also, in 4th-7th grade we used my buddy's garage and built all kinda of skate ramps, boxes, and other shit. My dad welded us some nice rails too. We basically built our own skate park in this kid's driveway (our parents wouldn't let us just skate downtown by ourselves or anything)

Lots of basketball too

[Blicero]

No one knew anything. Seriously, getting information was impossible. You could have hour long arguments about what song lyrics actually were and never get any resolution.

The height of information retrieval was the dewey decimal system and microfiche. And microfilm. There was some substantial difference between the two, I believe.

Life was stupid before the internet.

[habia]

I would have to go to the library to do research.

I am 20 now... so pretty much all my pre internet days were spent doing kid stuff which I don't would change even if we had internet. Playing baseball or whatever in the streets, tag, riding bikes around, water fights, if someone had SNES play that.

Definitely used to get excited though when catalogs would come in the mail too. Who even takes phone orders now? History Preservation Society holding out on that one.

[jeepster]

My family didn't have the internet until we moved to where they live now, in like 1998. The only time I'd actually use it was at my mom's office at Yale. All I would do is go on Star Wars fan sites.

Before the internet, I played a lot of MtG, Star Wars CCG, read, wrote a lot of fantasy stories. Drew a lot. Played piano. Went to temple a lot (probably cause my mother was working at Yale at the time). Did well in school (but shit was simpler then anyways). Watched TV. Played baseball.

[aitsuka]

basketball, basketball, soccer and then skateboarding

everything was outside, my parents wouldn't buy me an NES like other cool kids, now they can't stop me with my xbox and ps3s.

Thank god I have an active life, my friend told me his brother has high blood pressure due to inactivity and junk food - he's 12

[jeepster]

^yeah, kids are mad fat these days.

I never had console video games growing up either. I didn't discover emulators and all that kind of stuff until the internet entered my household. Before that it was like zip disc games and like, checkers/chess/solitaire on the comp. Though my dad did have a Windows NT PC that had Heretic, Doom, and Commander Keen (There Goes the Universe!) on it, so that kept me occupied.

[amo te]

played street hockey, baseball, football. one time this old guy gave us a TON of old tv's and computers (no idea how he got them) and i was living upstate at the time so we had lots of land and we went out back and shot them with the 12 gauge which was sweet.

we also used to do alot of dumb shit like prank phone calls, prank drive-thru orders, we made lots of dumb jackass-esque movies. when winter rolled around it was nothing but snowboarding and when we couldn't snowbard we'd just go sledding down this insane hill by my friends place.

mannn i miss those times. everyone is all bitter and grown up and it sucks.

[ProfMonnitoff]

when i was 7 my dad brought me civilization 2 from america

there went my childhood

other than that just hanging out with neighborhood kids, doing stupid kid stuff, etc.

[nicotine]

i used to ride my bicycle to friends' houses. built random shit out of junk wood from dumpsters with friends. climbed almost every tree i saw. spent a lot less money. made stupid (awesome at the time) zombie movies after i bought a gallon of stage blood from this costume/prop/halloween store..

the internet didn't ruin my life or anything but, damn, days before the internet were well-spent.

[JackPhotography]

skateboarded alot. read (about supreme in) skateboarder magazine. watched mtv. went to shows. school. video games. this was in middle school before we got DSL. we had AOL before that but I'd only use it for school and chatting (LOL).

ever since i had the real internet (broadband) i started downloading music alot and getting into my own shit. I maybe owned 1-3 tapes and maybe 5-7 CDs before just cause i never had the money to spend on music. In High school it meant the world because it gave me an outlet to make my own money to spend how I wanted to with eBay.

access to resources and information improves your life situation in insurmountable way

[Guest Phrost]

before the internets i used to smuggle vhs of porno. it was tough hiding tapes

fuck the internet is not productive to a person's health

[timber]

I didn't really use the internet till I was maybe eleven...my mom used to work at the museum, so a few days a week I'd go there with my sister and play around the exhibits. I also read a lot of books - and then started writing stories that were riddled with poor grammar and were fifty handwritten pages long. There was this guy who worked at my afterschool care who was this sort of nerdy college student and he used to tell us all epic stories of MUDs and like, online rpgs.

Similarly, I didn't really branch off and start listening to my own music till I had the internet. Although I still really like the stuff my parents listened to when I was a kid - Tower of Power, Paul Simon and old jazz stuff. I also had a Hanson tape.

[mrchariybrown]

half of the time playing nes, snes, genesis, etc..

the other half of the time I was outside running around playing freedom, street hockey, baseball in the alleyway, or just riding my bike around with my friends..

and when I wanted music I'd record it off the radio on my cassette player

[the_state]

we also used to do alot of dumb shit like prank phone calls

mannn i miss those times. everyone is all bitter and grown up and it sucks.

yeah dude. i remember when i was like 8 or 9 heads would make the dumbest prank calls - 1800mattres and do stupid shit like order a bed to the white house, or call up hooked on phonics and say "yo i used your product and i can't even read your commercial - my teacher had to dial the phone". dumbest shit in the world that was so entertaining back then.

internet became accessible in like '97 when i got to HS, but was a shadow of it's current self until college (00/01).

middle school was:

anyway - bikes. main method of transportation.

gawking over ccs catalogues as a 7th grader and ordering completes over the phone with holiday money and shit

batting cages

paintball

used cd stores - getting all giddy and shit when album booklets came w/ printed lyrics

watching dated 80's movies like spaces balls and other john candy jawns on WPIX (old school WB/CW) sunday afternoons.

high school was:

driving around w/ friends getting fucked up and trying to get girls

[Eccles]

jumped off roofs

set fire to stuff

walked in the woods

formed a band

stole

thrifted

broke into abandoned buildings

slept rough

spraypainted slogans on walls

read in the library

fell off bikes

rode trains to cities

taped songs off the radio

get drunk and did any of the above

I still do most of these things

[nicotine]

jumped off roofs

set fire to stuff

walked in the woods

formed a band

stole

thrifted

broke into abandoned buildings

slept rough

spraypainted slogans on walls

read in the library

fell off bikes

rode trains to cities

taped songs off the radio

get drunk and did any of the above

I still do most of these things

yeah, i still spraypaint, get drunk, set fire, trespass, fall off bikes.

[andewhall]

I used to buy magazines. They were like internet pages printed on this material called 'paper'. Not sure if they still make them.

[kunk75]

^they do, but no one reads them.

[nicotine]

^they do, but no one reads them.

i do. 567890

[Mogli]

Hung out in our small town, rode bikes around, helped out on my neighbors farm/they took care of us since my parents worked in different towns. Played a shit load of road hockey/ mini sticks/ hockey, went to church every Sunday and spent the say at my grandpas, he had cable so we usually watched shows we couldn't get with an Ariel, Never had and Nintendo shit, first thing I had was a 360 when I bought it myself. Computer was mostly used for video games then turned into what it is now. Most of this was when I was a kid under the age of 12ish.

[whitney]

I do @ kunk and ande

I don't reallly recall life before the Internet cos i've been using it since the 3rd grade

I mean I played tackle football, Chinese jump ropes and had legos..

never did get an elmo for Christmas

[kunk75]

^ i was kidding as i read more mags than anyone i know. at last count i have 28 subscriptions.

[nicotine]

holy shit. i don't subscribe to mags, i tell my wealthy friends to subscribe for me and then i take them after they are done reading.

[andewhall]

28...sheesh. Yeah I used to buy loads of magazines, when THE FACE shut down I got all magazine rejected.

[mr fluffernutter]

i iii don't remember

[denimdestroyedmylife]

the only place to buy the music i wanted was from catalogs or at a table at shows

or i'd buy records in bulk to sell to friends or trade

i used to have pen pals

i used to write zines, trade them for zines, stickers, shirts, at shows

i used to be surprised to meet people with similar interests (now i run the other way)

and yeah, watch the same pornos over and over

i was okay with that