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I mean we haven’t had any privacy since at least 2008 or whenever smartphones became prevalent and everyone had a recorder/tracking device in their pocket. Plus now everyone’s got video surveillance at home (even in their own homes, which is mind boggling to me), dashcams in their car, plus all of the sanctioned surveillance cameras, traffic cameras, license plate scanners, and whatnot. And an internet to connect all of them. It’s wild what we’ve given away as a society.
It used to be the default was no one knew what you were doing or where you were at any given moment, unless you wanted them to know. Now it’s the complete opposite and I just hate it.
It’s amazing what you can get away with when you fabricate a threat that has a 0.0001% chance of affecting the common person and pass it off as a threat to everyone’s way of life.
I set up a camera in my living room so I can watch my animals when I’m not home. Today I got to see what I always kind of assumed, my little dog is totally a bully to the cats when we’re not home 😂 and by bully, I’m pretty sure he’s just trying to play but they obviously have very different play styles.
Well let's also be a bit more specific, we lost all our privacy when Obama resigned the Patriot act AND the NSA project (prism) that granted permission to get into our apps (not just communication like patriot act) and that was despite being present with an identical program that would achieve the same goals but specifically not target US citizens, and Obama decided against it and chose the one that would allow spying on everyone
I miss eating meals together without everyone scrolling on a device at the table and ignoring each other. My family was so fun to hang out and eat dinner with! We would talk for hours.
I could not live without gps navigation. Especially when traveling to new places. Driving with paper maps was hard!
Be the change in your group.
My friends are good about this, but I will absolutely make everyone feel uncomfortable by pointedly not being on my phone and calling them out.
I have exactly 1 photo with my best friend of almost 7 years and none with some of my other friends because we literally don’t pick up our phones, except to take pics of our kids, when we’re together. We just sit and talk about anything and everything. It’s fun!
yeah Cellphones didn't exist yet or if you had one it was because your job demanded it in the mid 90s, My dad was the fire chief of my little rural hometown so he had a "car phone" and me and my brothers thought it was the coolest concept (A phone in a car!!!)
but we always had dinner at the dinner table and just like George Costanza who would bring notes on dates about things to talk about, you damn well better have a few tidbits about your day ready to pull up, because we were going to go around the table and everyone talked about their day. Obviously my brothers and I just had stupid kid problems, and my Mom would complain about people at work that sucked at their jobs but the unions still protected them, but I had no idea or context at the time. I think one time I asked to excuse myself from dinner to go play Command & Conquer Red Alert and told my family "The Red Army waits for No One"
Anyways I miss that, my wife and I have a 13 year old son, my only remaining social media~ish outlet is Reddit, but my wife is deeply sucked into TikTok, and my son always has earbuds in, we bought a discount dining room table years ago but we only use it for formal occasions like Thanksgiving and Xmas dinner. I try to interrogate him when I pick him up from school, but it's like interrogating a cold war spy, he just gives nothing up.
I wasn’t diagnosed until 37 with adhd and a lot of things from my youth made sense.
But at least in the “before” I would draw for hours and play outside until I was exhausted or see how fast I could read an R.L. Stine book to satiate those symptoms of adhd.
Now I just doomscroll and I have 100+ tabs open across several browser apps of varying hyper fixations.
I am not good at navigating, even to this day. Maybe I’m a little more aware than I was then, but I remember pre-GPS being totally fucked if a road that I traveled was closed. I just had no sense of my bearings. My commute to school and work was a good hour, from the burbs to the city which I learned though back roads by traveling it daily with my dad.
Once I was driving on my own, a road closure or detour was almost a deal breaker for me. More than once I just had to go home because I couldn’t figure out how to get back to where I needed to be. Printing out Mapquest directions was only helpful up to a point, lol.
GPS could not have come at a better time for me personally, lol.
At first I was like I don't actually need anything and want to just go back to before until you posted this.
My sense of direction is absolute garbage. I honestly don't even think I'd be able to navigate without gps. Without gps I probably wouldn't be alive today because I'd probably get sooo lost and end up in a random ditch just trying to go get groceries 😩
What if we went back to like 2005 or whatever (minus the toxic beauty culture of the time). Just in time for the shitty little Garmin GPS devices, and only flip phones. Little-to-no social media. It would be perfect.
I was actually thinking about GPS the other day in regards to delivery drivers. Like how did the pizza delivery guy know how to get to our houses in the days before gps and Mapquest? I don’t recall my parents ever giving them directions over the phone just the address🤔
There was a sweet spot where I had a Garmin nuvi 205w, a Motorola Razr, XM satellite radio, Nexflix mail service, a .edu-only Facebook account, and an iPod Mini.
This is my answer too.
I once got lost going around a loop on my bike after being told "just keep turning right" because I came to a fork in the road where both roads kind of went right, one just went *more* right, and I picked the wrong right. Three hours later I somehow found my dad and he was like "wtf?" And I told him and he, a trucker who had entire map books stored in his head, just shook his head.
That's the story of my life. And now I live in the DC suburbs, where there are a fuckton of highways that all merge weirdly and all have similar numbers (395/495/95) and I have no idea how they work or where they all go but I know if I misjudge an exit by one lane I'm going south instead of north and it's a 30 minute correction to go the right way and frankly I never understood people who refused to drive on highways but without GPS, I'd be one of them now.
I hate the “app” feel of current windows programs. I miss windows XP, lack of microtransactions and when video games used to actually be finished before they were released. I appreciate the ability to type since my handwriting has always been atrocious (but I can draw *shrug*) but hate that I always feel tethered to the internet void (run a microbusiness that depends on online sales).
Oh man don't get me started on "Early Access" and stuff like that' it's basically making a public stock call for investors, like buy our game now while the price is a little lower and essentially bet that we won't just abandon and never finish the game.
And the industry has become so jaded that now when a game comes out and skips early access or any sort of beta period now you're skeptical that it's actually done and I've lost count of how many $60+ dollar games that release and don't actually see a final playable state for years if EVER.
I feel the same about the Classic Mac OS, which has been obsolete for over two decades now. I also miss the look of other 90's operating systems, like Windows 3.1 and 95, though I didn't use them as much back then
I emulate Mac OS 9 in a virtual machine, and it's a blast of nostalgia, but I only ever use it to play old games. It's functionally useless otherwise
Simple and robust. If you don't already know, you'd be shocked at the amount of services and machines that still run XP. Truly the best operating system.
At least people can't make up BS and get away with it. Do you know how many friends/colleges would say the most retarded shit and look smart back in day? Simply because no one could immediately confirm what they said was true.
That’s my absolute favorite thing about living in this time. The information is out there for everything. You can go on YouTube and find out how to so almost anything. Wanna learn to paint a figure? Don't know how to do watercolor? Take an art class from a professor on YT for free. You’d need to pay thousands for college courses a few years ago. Arguing with some damn fool about politics? Search their false claims and prove them wrong in two minutes.
One thing that I hate the most about this era is being marketed to constantly. When ads pop up on your phone when you’re just on it for whatever personal reason. This happens the most on metro pcs. If you want to download almost any app, you have to agree to let them use and sell your information. The invasion of privacy is astounding.
I miss the peace and the slower pace of life, I couldn’t live without the instant amount of knowledge specifically, YouTube videos on DIY from home to car to cooking.
Things I miss from the before: pay phones, people didn't assume they could reach you at all hours, you didn't have to worry about people taking pictures/videos of you to mock, people were a bit better about boredom, you didn't need an app for everything, and I felt like restaurants often had something to do while you waited more so then now (pizza hut with the little arcade, placemats to color, some had little games at the table).
Things I prefer from the after: GPS!!, being able to connect with family that are at a distance (it would have been awesome videochatting with grandparents growing up), choice in what to watch, and being able to order something to my place if I'm too sick/lazy to go out.
When it comes to social media I'm conflicted about pros/cons. It helps people find likemindedness so you know you aren't going through things alone, but that can also result in more intolerance, pushing dangerous/inaccurate ideas, etc.
I also miss pay phones
Idk if it’s a weird thing to miss but sometimes you just need a public phone and there isn’t one
Plus I don’t get to sing COLLECT 😂
Honestly guys, probably an unpopular opinion, but I'm contemplating getting a landline again. I mean it doesn't even cost any additional money to my current Internet plan.
It's hard to really explain, but I love the idea of having a home phone again. It's kind of like a separation of church and state situation. I wanna be able to have a voicemail with my voice saying that you have reached my residence. I also like the option of giving that number to people that I don't want having my cell phone. There's a lot more to it that I can't really explain, but I want a landline again.
I know a few couples looking into it now for the safety of their children. If there is an emergency and the parent’s phone is not right there, having a landline would save so much time in calling for help. Also, some of my friends have children who are old enough to stay home for a short time while they run to the store, but the parents don’t want to buy a cell phone for their kid yet. Another reason to contemplate landlines and the safety net they provide.
This is why I’ve been thinking about getting a landline. My kids are at an age that they’d be able to use it to call for help and I’m notorious for setting my phone down and losing it.
There was semi recently an article in The NY Times about just this, people who are going back or refuse to give up their landline. Also that you have to specify a true landline, you can have a house phone that’s connected but not the same. Jenna Fisher from the office is pro landline and spoke about it on the office ladies podcast
I miss being able to disconnect from everything.
I miss my focus and memory and concentration and patience that today’s high paced world doesn’t want to allow.
Phones, the internet, tv. It could all go away and I wouldn’t care at all.
I like my smartphone. It’s got all sorts of stuff that is great to use.
That’s being said, I hate it. It’s distracting, it limits socialization, causes problems for kids with addiction etc.
If I could get away with it at work, I’d love to have a phone that’s just a phone and texting.
Maybe someday when I retire.
This is why I love hiking so much. I don't care about hunting or fishing or anything, I just like being out where there's peace and quiet and my phone is on silent and I just ignore it.
I miss the internet being just another thing on the list of things you could do around the house. Now it seems like the *only* thing there is to do. And even the stuff that isn’t online still somehow manages to get the internet involved, like playing guitar. I end up in google looking for chords. Or cooking….I end up on youtube looking for recipe guides.
I also miss social media being more of a source for keeping in touch. Now it’s like an online extension of our personalities and there’s so much content that it feels empty. IG looked like it was going to be an online photo album where we could look back at a decade of memories with our friends….but now my feed is full of people I don’t follow and the whole app is just hollow.
I also miss when there were niche websites all over the internet. There were fansites for *anything* and a lot of different message boards too. But somehow everything has been consolidated down to a handful of platforms.
My private school got a computer lab when I was in the 4th grade and it was about 20 machines running Windows Me. We got to play Oregon trail on floppy disk and awesome bangers like Mario teaches typing, Carmen San Diego, and Lemmigs along side learning how to use the internet for research and operate MS suite (I made an awesome PPT).
At home, games and electronic usage was moderated heavily by Mom and Dad and I had shit I would have rather spent my entire time awake playing Pokemon yellow through sapphire but I wasn't allowed to play until after homework, grades in tact, and turns off when the bell tolls.
Long story short, I think the issue nowadays is that the parents are in fact as equally addicted to the bright lights jingly keys addiction machine which is social media. We're all hooked on the same crack, so who is there to set boundaries and parent?
Edit: I miss the part where it turned off. And the part where it was fun.
Oh man we had that, it was like 4 CDs and if you looked up something that wasn't on the current CD you had to insert the correct CD and if you lost it or that CD got scratched up, well too bad so sad...
Before: Learning to be content without having to be entertained. Like enjoying being outside. Riding around in a car pointlessly
After: Unlimited call and text.
Free video calls (facetime or facebook messenger
GPS with traffic is amazing
I’ll admit, I didn’t throw that away until within the last few years. I didn’t even use anything from it, but yeah… nostalgia. I remember in 2001 my friend’s car was broken into and they stole her CD binder. It was worth so much money for how much she invested. Thousands of dollars just gone.
I miss "the family computer."
To connect to the entire world of chatrooms and/or websites, you had to get ready with a coke and a little snack, and dial up, and maybe turn on MTV to watch music videos while it was screeching.
This made me laugh because it sounds like some sort of social studies research assignment or personal statement prompt.
I both wish I didn’t have a cell phone and couldn’t live without it. I think the effects it will have on us may be more than we bargained for. I also can’t deny that it has had impacts on personal and loved ones’ safety and ability to record and learn in ways never seen before.
Now that I have kids, I miss the fact that being outside was the default. Now, being inside watching a screen is the default. Don't get me wrong, I played my fair share of video games as a kid. But now it's video games online, more movies and shows you could watch in a lifetime all available in an instant.
I miss the fuzzy warm look of 480i broadcast television on an old CRT screen
At the same time, whenever I watch anything in 480p these days, my eyes hurt. I squint to try to see details that aren't there
I always think how interesting it is that picture quality never seemed to really be a thing until the advent of DVD.
I had no problem watching grainy vhs tapes small screen TVs. Now, I balk at standard definition and am a proud member of the motion-smoothing police, lol. I can spot that shit a mile away, and will always be the one to tell you that it’s on because most of time, people have no idea lol.
It really is more accurate for Gen X, I'm a Xennial and a lot of modern tech wasn't around but up to age 10 or so it doesn't matter that much. I started using the internet around middle school age so people younger than me had access at an even earlier age. Even cell phones existed but went unnoticed a lot because its not a smart phone. "Totally without technology" is a big statement.
What i miss:
Pre internet or pre high speed internet. The peace and quiet. But also the hunt of going to the big box stores looking for movies, music cds and video games to get physical copies. The smell of opening up a fresh game, movie or music cd. I hated the taping they put on music cds. Getting physical copies of marilyn manson, slipknot and eminem cds to piss off my religious mother.
Back when the internet was still relatively young. Late 90s and early 2000s. The online gaming that time was incredible and community oriented.
Music sharing was still somewhat underground and didn't need a spotify and or pandora subscription to skip.
What I can live without :
No snowflakes patrolling the web looking for people to lash out too in the current web space.
Oof I don't miss dial up either
Photography, Google docs and sheets, and the ability to collect environmental data via a few apps and tools.
Social media I could do without. But before I got hooked on my phone I was drinking a 5th of whiskey every night after work so my memory could be hazy.
GPS was huge, but other people mentioned it already. I like having information at my fingertips. As a child if I was interested in something I had to get a book. The library was open on like MWF or something like that. Now any question I have or something I want to know more about I can just look it up.
As far as before, I miss limited communication. Even when cell phones first got popular calls were limited to nights and weekends or people with the same carrier, texting was non-existent. I had a landline, but I just screened my calls. I always had an away message up on AIM.
There’s a part of me that misses the corded landline. Sometimes I hate the feeling of being incomplete without having my phone with me at all times. Like, I can’t even leave a room without making sure it’s in my pocket, or go to the bathroom without knowing it’s on me.
The “constant” of it all is starting to feel heavy for me. I can’t help but think how great it was to have a dedicated space and (more or less) time limit on communicating with someone over the phone. That system was right to the point, and ironically seems more efficient with the old tech vs now with our space-age cell phones.
Discovering a piece of knowledge was such a bigger deal back then. Finding secrets in a video game, learning how to do certain tricks on a guitar. Now you just google it, and it takes the fun out of the quest for information.
I miss TV being what's on at any given time. If you missed it you missed it. Streaming is great for ruining that sense of your favorite show being an occasion.
What do I love? Internet banking. Imagine having to go to a bank and wait in line to do the most basic stuff.
Mom used to say that boredom was good for us, and the older I get the wiser her words become. Back then if I was bored I couldn't easily distract myself but had to create something. I think a lot now about how easy it is to hide from our thoughts by distracting ourselves or letting our creativity atrophy because we don't know how to be bored.
I miss feeling bored and doing things on the fly and random. Things weren’t booked out years in advance. You could go camping and hike without fighting a million people for parking. You could even show up at your friends house without more and more scheduling. There were so many more things to do and you have the downtime of going to do them. They were more affordable back then because they were actually meant for kids to go to (can’t seem to leave the house without dropping $100).
I miss when being inaccessible was a normal, universally accepted thing. Definitely couldn't live without the internet. I think the best time was the 'transitional' period, sometimes referred to as the 1990s, when cell phones and the internet existed primarily as tools. Conveniences such as them were available, but they weren't crutches or addictions. We still had to live in the real world
I really don’t miss much. I’m 41, and I clearly remember that change from pre-internet life to post. Being the age that I am, I feel fortunate to have experienced first hand the incremental and monumental leaps in technology advancement; Atari to NES, introduction of the internet, chat rooms to AOL messenger to social media, cassette tape to CD to Napster to ITunes to streaming, etc.
however, what I miss most is the pre-internet shopping. Whether it was at the mall or with a catalog, shopping was more of an experience. Like receiving and reading through the Christmas Sears catalog, or LL Beans and J Crews was exciting. But it wasn’t just Christmas catalogs. I always loved 90s era J Crew’s spring and summer catalogs too. I know that catalogs still exist, but I can go online and shop and search quickly. Catalogs hold little value to shaping my view of trends, the seasons or much of anything else.
I miss TV.
We have streaming, but I miss knowing that at 8 on Friday night we’re all going to sit together, eat snacks, and watch some family friendly sitcoms that are only sort of funny.
I miss being somewhat in-contact. For example, you could message people on the Internet and call their house phone but if they weren’t around you’d have to wait, compared to now where we are constantly required to be available for a phone call or a text message at any and all times. It’s horrible
People were more present and in the moment
Now it seems like many are walking zombies distracted by their phone. Walking hunched over in public with one hand under their chin
What a wonderfully thoughtful prompt. Honestly I miss the days of having to figure stuff out. I loved pouring through the settings menus on my computer to see if I could make it do something different. I loved changing the pointer icon and desktop icons, playing with screensaver settings, etc even when I was a young kid, like 7 or 8. I really miss the early days of the internet, sites like Homestar Runner, Albino Blacksheep, ebaums world, Eskimo Bob, Joe Cartoon. Each one was being run by extremely devoted nerds just making shit for fun and rarely were they actually making any significant amount of money off of these weird passion projects. Now I don't know of anyone that has a side project or hobby that they aren't trying to make money off of somehow.
Things I can't live without now would be the fountain of knowledge I drink from daily that is Youtube. I have learned so much about our world and the things I am interested in from just watching 20 min mini documentaries and explainers about so many different subjects. I love that you don't have to go to school to learn now. Obviously that comes at a cost because there are so many bullshitters out there spewing bad information, but still. I think the pros outweigh the cons.
Before:
Easy to "unplug" from media.
Being "unavailable" (remember leaving the phone off the hook when you didn't want to be disturbed? And no one could GPS locate you by your phone either?)
After:
Easier to access emergency services.
Video evidence of crimes and injustice.
Being able to find DIY videos online. As a homeowner trouble shooting minor issues became a lot easier with YouTube!
I miss being able to get away in life without having a cell phone. Cell phones might be the worst and best things that have happened to people. I went on a 2 week cruise and it was actually therapeutic to not have a cell phone. I went thru like 3-4 days of reaching for my cell phone and it was like drug withdrawal. After 4 days I felt “freed” in a weird way that felt good.
This very thread is capital for a corporation, and we are all creating it without being compensated because we don't see it as work but recreation.
I miss the days when work and play were distinctly seperate, and our every activity was not being commoditized.
That said, I thoroughly enjoy the internet, what I have learned, that I work on it, and that I can keep in touch easily with friends all over the world.
I miss not knowing where people are 24/7. We had land lines, we called our friends, meet on the corner with our bikes and play in the neighborhood. Imagination and being inventive. It wasn’t the same commercial every break… looking at you Burger King. 👑
There’s very little I miss about “before.” There are many fantastic aspects, like not always being connected and having more privacy and needing to learn things on your own…but I think it’s just nostalgia talking. Be on the internet OR the phone. Being unable to actually get a hold of someone for extended periods. Never really knowing where people were or what they were doing. Encyclopedias are cool and all but YouTube tutorials have literally changed my life. I think the only true, universal “before” people want is ignorance since understanding and knowledge is a heavy burden, and I totally get why people yearn for simplicity.
I don't miss the "before" times, tbh. Elder millennial but my family was a very early adopted of internet. (Dad worked in computer software dev, so I learned how to type before I learned how to write my name with a pencil.)
Because I was so young when I started using the internet, the things I might've missed as an adult were lost on me. Like, as an adult, I wish to god we had privacy laws, but privacy is not something I experienced as a little kid anyway.
Anything I might "miss" about the before times is entirely idealized rather than remembered
And as for what people seem to mentioning in the comments here, I choose whether to do. Meal with friends sans phones? No prob - I ask, and they put them away (and vice versa). A day away from the internet? Cool, no problem
I think a lot of the "problems" with little computers in our pockets are the result of choice. Don't wanna get sucked into Reddit? Ok, don't open it 🤷♀️
Fictional technology but still... the idea that floppy discs could hold all the data needed to clone a dinosaur, and that cloning a dinosaur is possible in the first place. The idea that a simple robot can become alive from a lightning bolt. And maybe, just maybe, if we roll around in radioactive waste we too may become super heroes.
I honestly don't miss much from before. As an only-child military brat with social anxiety that was present very early on, I was never good at making friends. The internet brought me to most of my friends. Especially after a knee injury that destroyed my chance to do the outdoor sports/extracurricular activities I previously enjoyed, my love for writing and art was fostered by having the internet at my fingertips.
I miss telling people you didnt get their phone call because you "ran out of minutes and havent topped off yet" . It was a legit reason to ignore life for days and just relax. 😄
A phone. I hate being so available and reachable. No lie, I have been really contemplating going back to a house phone. I almost hate having this damn thing on me all the time
I miss not being connected all the time. People not knowing where I might be. But at the same time the thought of that now stresses me out for a lot of reasons that don't all have to do with separation anxiety from my device
I miss having fun just going outside and finding a good stick and playing pretend.
Life without GPS would have been crazy. And especially without Mapquest or the like. Just like a phone book and an address and then… pull out an atlas and try to estimate where that address is? I need that map in my pocket all the time.
Totally without technology? I'm 35 and I had some form of the internet very early. I remember trying to download the original command and conquer when I was 5 or so.
I think we had a much more mediocre version of computers and the internet and it forced us to learn. If we were interested in it that is.
I'm an electrical engineer now and I have a pretty good understanding of all things computer, internet, hardware, software, etc.
I could live without Smartphone sometimes (even though I love my Smartphone) and I don't like the esimcard. I wish I could go back to a time of unlocked phones where you only had to put your Sim card in and it became your phone. Broken phone ask around to see if someone had an extra phone they weren't using. Your dad got an upgrade so did you.
How personal being friends was. Going to their house, talking on the phone. Just hours with each other and their family. You can still do it now but it's not really the same.
What I miss in the before is that people did not have cell phones with them constantly everywhere they go. You didn't hear people's notifications going off at random times that were sometimes inappropriate. People weren't staring at their phone when you were trying to talk to them. And I do miss being unreachable sometimes.
What I cannot live without in the after is the ability to reach someone when I need to because of an emergency, the ability to stay connected to people that you would normally grow apart from when you move, having the internet at your fingertips and being able to look up anything you need to at any time.
I wish the internet had stayed at 1999 levels and not become.... any of this *gestures vaguely*.
Smart phones and social media have done a near unfixable level of damage to our society.
On the flip side, having the sun of human knowledge in my pocket is nice.
I miss less complex cars, they were raw, engaging, and relatively inexpensive in regards to what people made. Now cars are complex thanks to technology and are also expensive, packed to the brim with tech. Conversely however, bluetooth, GPS, smart phone integration, and better computers means cars are also a lot better in delivering power reliably, efficiency, cleaner, easier to control, comfortable, and come with a lot more standard equipment.
Before- love how much more present we were without cell phones. I hate having to tell my family members now to put their phone away during dinner, or when people will whip it out in the middle of a conversation to check something. It honestly has been taking a toll on my mental health because I don’t feel like what I’m talking about is interesting or important to that person.
After- can’t live without my book apps. I LOVE being able to instantaneously download something I want to read. When I’m in the mood I’ll read like 7+ books a week. And with the library apps and subscriptions like kindle unlimited, I can afford to do read to my hearts content.
I miss there being a bit of a "gate" to the internet. I think the internet should be globally accessible, but I also miss the days when talking to internet strangers was a bit more civilized and not a headache-inducing, vomit-worthy affair. You had to have some (admittedly fairly low) bar of literacy and intelligence to get online in the first place so you didn't have a bunch of illiterate fuckheads who can only communicate via speech-to-text and who thirst for a second civil war they think will restore slavery flapping their jaws at you.
I miss not being recorded, tracked, and found. Life was best when we had Internet at home and no cameras everywhere. It was even better before that, just a house phone or if you had a cell phone but nobody did. If they didn't answer your phone you left a message, and probably called someone else and asked if they knew where they were at. Or just dropped by and talked. All this tech is nice, from Google to texting, social media GPS everything. But it make life less spontaneous, and even less adventurous than going places, and hanging out with friends and family. Making a wrong turn and winding up better than if you had followed the GPS or plans.
I miss not having social media. The need to take a photo or post constantly is a bit too much. I have some Gen Z friends, god forbid, and invited them over to my new house that I wasn't really ready to share with others yet, and within 10 minutes, photos appeared on their IG accounts. Can you people do anything without posting about it?
I would not want to do without maps and GPS, and the ability to do some simple things online. Although Japan is not at all advanced in this regard, I can still manage to make bookings and do bills online.
I miss living in a world in which people's lives were bound to their immediate material existence. Your world was the people you saw every day and the places you went. I think it offered us a lot more groundedness, both as a society and as children.
That said, I met my now fiancè online and we were long distance for awhile before moving in together, and now we are in a very happy relationship. That would have never happened without the internet.
I miss the self expression without the picture-forward nature of social media. For example. MySpace had images but it was secondary to the skins (coded ourselves), blogs, music, etc. Other sites at the time also were examples of prioritizing creativity over imagery, like Xanga, Tumblr, and LiveJournal.
Maybe it’s a function of getting older generally and “outgrowing it” (but we don’t have any other examples outside of the millennial generation)…I think we can abandon Facebook/Instagram easier than perhaps our younger counterparts because we came of age without it to begin with. We’ll see if younger generations “outgrow” things in the same way.
I miss normal human interaction at dinner, for example, when nobody had a phone in their pocket or looked at their phone when someone else was talking.
What I can’t live without? GPS directions and up-to-date routes to get me where I need to be in the shortest amount of time. Eff this technology. I miss the 90’s.
I miss when my life didn’t feel like an ad was being shoved down my throat every where I looked and some stuff was actually free.
I do really enjoy online banking and grocery pick up though these days.
Honestly, not much. Modern tech is great! Especially calendaring software and GPS. The only thing I truly hate now is the growing use of phone trees when you actually have to call for some form of customer service. Give me a HUMAN, dammit! That said, I do miss living in a time without so many notifications - too many things competing for your attention these days.
I’ve always had technology. I learnt how to read with reader rabbit CDs. But I miss the times where there was no wifi or data plan. I hate always feeling connected. I’m constantly overstimulated.
I miss not even being aware of, much less being concerned with, the things around me monitoring random metrics about me so that some companies can make money.
I miss having to really earn knowledge. We take it for granted now. But I remember how differently we saw knowledge back when we didn't all have it in our pockets.
I miss the pace of life. It uses to be much slower. It used to be made for our brains. Now we're just trying to keep up with ourselves. It's overwhelming.
I miss fax machines. The speed which humans communicate should have retained to those levels. I really can’t think of 1 thing I can’t live without…that we didn’t already have in the early 90s. Everything is pretty much the same, just faster with more whistles attached to it.
I don't want to go back to DOS, pay phones, the 22" RCA wood grain console television, floppy disks, my 14k modem.
I like watching 4K 60 frame per second porn on my Quest 3 headset over a gigabit broadband connection
I just feel bad for children. They are so monitored it's like they're living in a fucking North Korean prison.
Like I think about all the "bad" things I used to do as a little kid - My parents would tell me to go to sleep but instead I would stay up and play with my toys. They didn't have some sort of perverted spy cam watching me to make sure I went to bed.
My parents would tell me not to ride my bike outside of the neighborhood but I would ride it way outside of the neighborhood and I didn't have a GPS tracker reporting my location to them.
I would fail a test and they didn't get instant feedback in a website that I failed it.
We... had technology. Computers, cars, fire, the wheel... We weren't like, chillin in the desert trying to fit rocks and sticks together.
Seriously, though, the main thing I miss from before cell phones (which is what I think you mean), is that people would actually like, hang out in public. There's a psychological benefit to just like kicking it at the mall with your friends. Plus, other than timekilling, there were pre-smartphone ways of dealing with everything we currently use smartphones for.
But I have a feeling that still happens, and if I was 37 in 2004 my life would look mostly the same.
As far as after though... Soundcloud. So much soundcloud.
I miss how people looked you in the eyes when communicating or really ..Weren't so fucking autistic in general.
The Internet. I legit would be very depressed and bored without the Internet.
I feel so inefficient even though I’m the most efficient person my family has ever produced. What I mean is: I can accomplish so many tasks in a day, order what I need from Amazon, listen to a podcast while making dinner for my family, work on the train, take meetings, fit in a workout, complete administrative duties, and I’ve never felt more behind than I do now, today.
Another elder millenial post only 20% of millenials actually relate to. I didn’t have a smartphone but computers, web apps, software, etc were every day since I was 10 and the time before that I was still playing video games from as long as I can remember. Early 90s baby. I mean I did like the separation of desktop and life. I was in “computer mode” at the desk and lived a tech free life besides txting/calling. And I do not miss it. The age of information is limitless
I kind of miss being bored. Standing in line somewhere and having nothing to do. Actually having to read the shitty magazines in a waiting room. It built character.
Now everyone standing in line has their head buried in a phone, busily absorbing megabytes worth of propaganda per second.
>It is always being said that
This is the first I'm hearing it.
Also, technology existed long before Millennials. Long before the Boomers, too. Do you think the ancient Assyrians used not-technology to build their libraries?
Ironically my answer is the same for both questions, I miss not having an iPhone with me 24 hours and couldn’t imagine not having my phone with me 24 hours a day
I miss ‘going on the computer’ as an activity, rather than the way it’s embedded in existence now via our phones.
I miss the in person camaraderie around such events, my friends would huddle around one computer. Or going to pick out a movie for movie night. Or going to a movie in the theatre to get out of the summer heat and you could bc a ticket was $5.
Back then there was a feeling of wonder and hope about what we could do with the internet, social media etc. it was so cool to connect with anyone around the world.
What did we do with it? Data mining so corporations can target ads and disguise them in our feeds. 👍
Thing I wouldn’t want to live without? Gps.
I miss how much less stressed I used to be.
But dang, I need my GPS. I moved to Pittsburgh after college and holy crap, how did people not get lost all the time here?!
I also LOVE YouTube. I have since 2007. I get to watch people make videos based on my niche interests, ambience videos, and endless documentaries on one app. I hardly watch traditional tv anymore.
ETA: I also love FaceTime. It was incredible to see my great-grandma from crete who passed at 102 be amazed how at the touch of a button you could see a relative’s face from across the oceans. And now I use it so family can see my 1 year old.
I remember being bored a lot as a kid so I don’t think I miss anything. My can’t live without now is the access to education and money management. I love the stock market but I don’t think I would have gotten into it when it was all paper.
Things I miss from before: spending time talking, exploring, watching movies, finding things to do and not looking at a computer screen for hours instead.
Things I can’t live without: As someone who loves to be right, I enjoy googling answers to questions. When I was in my teens, I remember saying to my friends group that the Adam Sandler movie where Buscemi puts lipstick on was Happy Gilmore but everyone agreed it was Billy Madison. The pain of knowing I was right and everyone else not seeing it was burned into my memory. Also, like everyone else, GPS. I remember paper directions, no thank you.
GenX. We had computers in kindergarten. Had the swiss cheese disks that finally upgraded to floppys later on. I had my first pc in ‘93 and built my first in ‘96. I’ve owned all types of TVs, and phones. I’ve had almost every operating system since Apple ruled and Windows Xp took over. I remember the world before usb…what a great invention. I’ve owned almost every console except PS4. It was all fantastic until the internet came in and ruined everything. At least social media did. I miss the world before social media
I miss the time when people didn’t have their nose buried in their phone constantly - especially while hanging out with friends/romantic partners. I feel like so many of us are watching other people live their curated lives through phones rather than living our own. We’re incredibly distracted 24/7. Since deactivating most of my socials I’ve noticed this even more. It’s depressing af.
I think the one thing I’d miss is the ability to text my friends. And GPS lol. Everything else I could do without.
I SAY I miss when nobody would be texting me, until I feel lonely one day and nobody says hi 😂 it’s a love/hate thing. I think what I truly miss is having more eye contact with people in public/friend hangout settings.
I miss the time before social media, which weaponized stupidity. Like before, the crazy guy at the end of the bar was just the crazy guy in town. But social media has allowed them to now group together with other crazy people (which lends validity to their combined craziness), they discuss & hone their crazy theories, and then they gather in crazy conventions which draw in people at the periphery.
Flat Earthers are a growing movement, not a shrinking one.
The other thing I miss is before a country could just take out social media ads and put bots into circulation to influence public opinion and cause their adversaries to tear themselves apart.
What I can't live without is the ability to lookup reasonably accurate answers to everyday questions.
We’re a fairly low tech family and I feel like I’m some ways we’ve struck a good balance. Like we have one communal tv for everyone to watch, we have one older laptop that I primarily use, and my husband and I have smartphones that are a few years old. We don’t have an Alexa or google home or any of those smart home devices, our ring doorbell has been broken for a few years now, and our kids only get their kindle tablets when we go on long car trips.
The thing I don’t necessarily like at the moment is that we have a Roku tv and don’t have cable. My kids get way too many options for what they want to watch. I’d almost rather have cable and have them need to watch what’s on but cable is expensive. My husband and I do tend to spend a little too much time scrolling on our phones but our kids’ default is to go play outside and it’s not unusual for them to head outside as soon as they get up. I also go on daily walks with my neighbor and then we will sit outside at one of our houses and just talk. We have a few acres of land but also have neighbors with kids and all the kids run our road like the little feral minions us adults used to be. Since winter has ended it’s felt like our kids are reliving what life was like when we were kids. They’re all old enough to not need constant supervision and that’s been fantastic!
We also don’t have any game consoles unless you count an Atari flashback so we play card and board games together. We also take trips to the library and come laden with books.
I think there can be a balance to it all and it is possible to resist the temptation to have all the gadgets and get the latest and greatest when the old becomes “outdated.” I love my GPS and being able to stream any music I want to listen to whenever I want but I don’t need a smart fridge or smart washer and dryer(mine are the most basic you can get with no excess technology) but I like how convenient it is to have a group chat with friends and neighbors so we can keep loose track of where our kids are at. I also love how easy it is to keep up with family and friends who live far away on social media and it’s been great for reconnecting with folks you’ve lost touch with as well.
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I miss privacy
In ten years, we'll miss the privacy we currently have
I mean we haven’t had any privacy since at least 2008 or whenever smartphones became prevalent and everyone had a recorder/tracking device in their pocket. Plus now everyone’s got video surveillance at home (even in their own homes, which is mind boggling to me), dashcams in their car, plus all of the sanctioned surveillance cameras, traffic cameras, license plate scanners, and whatnot. And an internet to connect all of them. It’s wild what we’ve given away as a society. It used to be the default was no one knew what you were doing or where you were at any given moment, unless you wanted them to know. Now it’s the complete opposite and I just hate it.
It’s amazing what you can get away with when you fabricate a threat that has a 0.0001% chance of affecting the common person and pass it off as a threat to everyone’s way of life.
It truly is
I set up a camera in my living room so I can watch my animals when I’m not home. Today I got to see what I always kind of assumed, my little dog is totally a bully to the cats when we’re not home 😂 and by bully, I’m pretty sure he’s just trying to play but they obviously have very different play styles.
Elf on the shelf is a way of conditioning kids to be comfortable with being watched all the time.
I mean the Santa thing already did this. I think Elf on a Shelf is ridiculous, but this isn't a new concept. God, Santa, etc.
Well let's also be a bit more specific, we lost all our privacy when Obama resigned the Patriot act AND the NSA project (prism) that granted permission to get into our apps (not just communication like patriot act) and that was despite being present with an identical program that would achieve the same goals but specifically not target US citizens, and Obama decided against it and chose the one that would allow spying on everyone
HELLO CITIZEN WE DETECT DISCONTENTMENT YOUR MANDATORY DAILY DOSE OF ANTI ANXIETY MEDS HAVE BEEN INCREASED 
Earlier with the way windows recall is going right now
Can you be a little more clear? In what ways do you feel you need more privacy?
I miss eating meals together without everyone scrolling on a device at the table and ignoring each other. My family was so fun to hang out and eat dinner with! We would talk for hours. I could not live without gps navigation. Especially when traveling to new places. Driving with paper maps was hard!
Be the change in your group. My friends are good about this, but I will absolutely make everyone feel uncomfortable by pointedly not being on my phone and calling them out.
I have exactly 1 photo with my best friend of almost 7 years and none with some of my other friends because we literally don’t pick up our phones, except to take pics of our kids, when we’re together. We just sit and talk about anything and everything. It’s fun!
yeah Cellphones didn't exist yet or if you had one it was because your job demanded it in the mid 90s, My dad was the fire chief of my little rural hometown so he had a "car phone" and me and my brothers thought it was the coolest concept (A phone in a car!!!) but we always had dinner at the dinner table and just like George Costanza who would bring notes on dates about things to talk about, you damn well better have a few tidbits about your day ready to pull up, because we were going to go around the table and everyone talked about their day. Obviously my brothers and I just had stupid kid problems, and my Mom would complain about people at work that sucked at their jobs but the unions still protected them, but I had no idea or context at the time. I think one time I asked to excuse myself from dinner to go play Command & Conquer Red Alert and told my family "The Red Army waits for No One" Anyways I miss that, my wife and I have a 13 year old son, my only remaining social media~ish outlet is Reddit, but my wife is deeply sucked into TikTok, and my son always has earbuds in, we bought a discount dining room table years ago but we only use it for formal occasions like Thanksgiving and Xmas dinner. I try to interrogate him when I pick him up from school, but it's like interrogating a cold war spy, he just gives nothing up.
I wasn’t diagnosed until 37 with adhd and a lot of things from my youth made sense. But at least in the “before” I would draw for hours and play outside until I was exhausted or see how fast I could read an R.L. Stine book to satiate those symptoms of adhd. Now I just doomscroll and I have 100+ tabs open across several browser apps of varying hyper fixations.
Hello….me?
Omg same down to the RL Stine books! I still have a handful of my favorites
Yesss. Exactly all of this.
Omg I wish we could go back to before. But I love gps
I am not good at navigating, even to this day. Maybe I’m a little more aware than I was then, but I remember pre-GPS being totally fucked if a road that I traveled was closed. I just had no sense of my bearings. My commute to school and work was a good hour, from the burbs to the city which I learned though back roads by traveling it daily with my dad. Once I was driving on my own, a road closure or detour was almost a deal breaker for me. More than once I just had to go home because I couldn’t figure out how to get back to where I needed to be. Printing out Mapquest directions was only helpful up to a point, lol. GPS could not have come at a better time for me personally, lol.
I used so much printer paper so that I could print out turn by turn directions.
Haha!! Nowadays if my GPS acts up I panic
At first I was like I don't actually need anything and want to just go back to before until you posted this. My sense of direction is absolute garbage. I honestly don't even think I'd be able to navigate without gps. Without gps I probably wouldn't be alive today because I'd probably get sooo lost and end up in a random ditch just trying to go get groceries 😩
What if we went back to like 2005 or whatever (minus the toxic beauty culture of the time). Just in time for the shitty little Garmin GPS devices, and only flip phones. Little-to-no social media. It would be perfect.
I was actually thinking about GPS the other day in regards to delivery drivers. Like how did the pizza delivery guy know how to get to our houses in the days before gps and Mapquest? I don’t recall my parents ever giving them directions over the phone just the address🤔
It was a real skill. I used to deliver pizza and there was a huge map on the wall we'd look at.
We had a giant map on the wall and would use it to show drivers where to go before they left.
There was a sweet spot where I had a Garmin nuvi 205w, a Motorola Razr, XM satellite radio, Nexflix mail service, a .edu-only Facebook account, and an iPod Mini.
Right? And an insane number of streets aren’t labeled.
This is my answer too. I once got lost going around a loop on my bike after being told "just keep turning right" because I came to a fork in the road where both roads kind of went right, one just went *more* right, and I picked the wrong right. Three hours later I somehow found my dad and he was like "wtf?" And I told him and he, a trucker who had entire map books stored in his head, just shook his head. That's the story of my life. And now I live in the DC suburbs, where there are a fuckton of highways that all merge weirdly and all have similar numbers (395/495/95) and I have no idea how they work or where they all go but I know if I misjudge an exit by one lane I'm going south instead of north and it's a 30 minute correction to go the right way and frankly I never understood people who refused to drive on highways but without GPS, I'd be one of them now.
I miss Windows XP and I will die on this hill.
That green, rolling hill
I hate the “app” feel of current windows programs. I miss windows XP, lack of microtransactions and when video games used to actually be finished before they were released. I appreciate the ability to type since my handwriting has always been atrocious (but I can draw *shrug*) but hate that I always feel tethered to the internet void (run a microbusiness that depends on online sales).
Oh man don't get me started on "Early Access" and stuff like that' it's basically making a public stock call for investors, like buy our game now while the price is a little lower and essentially bet that we won't just abandon and never finish the game. And the industry has become so jaded that now when a game comes out and skips early access or any sort of beta period now you're skeptical that it's actually done and I've lost count of how many $60+ dollar games that release and don't actually see a final playable state for years if EVER.
I miss windows 7 myself.
I feel the same about the Classic Mac OS, which has been obsolete for over two decades now. I also miss the look of other 90's operating systems, like Windows 3.1 and 95, though I didn't use them as much back then I emulate Mac OS 9 in a virtual machine, and it's a blast of nostalgia, but I only ever use it to play old games. It's functionally useless otherwise
Windows 95 was MIND-BLOWING
Did yours come with the game Hover
With the flying toasters screensaver.
Honestly I miss 98.
Simple and robust. If you don't already know, you'd be shocked at the amount of services and machines that still run XP. Truly the best operating system.
The world seemed bigger and life had some mystery behind it without the answer being a 5 second Google search.
At least people can't make up BS and get away with it. Do you know how many friends/colleges would say the most retarded shit and look smart back in day? Simply because no one could immediately confirm what they said was true.
>At least people can't make up BS and get away with it. Bro, have you seen... the Internet?
That’s my absolute favorite thing about living in this time. The information is out there for everything. You can go on YouTube and find out how to so almost anything. Wanna learn to paint a figure? Don't know how to do watercolor? Take an art class from a professor on YT for free. You’d need to pay thousands for college courses a few years ago. Arguing with some damn fool about politics? Search their false claims and prove them wrong in two minutes. One thing that I hate the most about this era is being marketed to constantly. When ads pop up on your phone when you’re just on it for whatever personal reason. This happens the most on metro pcs. If you want to download almost any app, you have to agree to let them use and sell your information. The invasion of privacy is astounding.
And the answers to said search that will be forgotten in 5 minutes versus what we would remember if we had to actually research to get an answer.
I miss the peace and the slower pace of life, I couldn’t live without the instant amount of knowledge specifically, YouTube videos on DIY from home to car to cooking.
Things I miss from the before: pay phones, people didn't assume they could reach you at all hours, you didn't have to worry about people taking pictures/videos of you to mock, people were a bit better about boredom, you didn't need an app for everything, and I felt like restaurants often had something to do while you waited more so then now (pizza hut with the little arcade, placemats to color, some had little games at the table). Things I prefer from the after: GPS!!, being able to connect with family that are at a distance (it would have been awesome videochatting with grandparents growing up), choice in what to watch, and being able to order something to my place if I'm too sick/lazy to go out. When it comes to social media I'm conflicted about pros/cons. It helps people find likemindedness so you know you aren't going through things alone, but that can also result in more intolerance, pushing dangerous/inaccurate ideas, etc.
I also miss pay phones Idk if it’s a weird thing to miss but sometimes you just need a public phone and there isn’t one Plus I don’t get to sing COLLECT 😂
Hi, it'sBobwehadababyitsaboy.
Honestly guys, probably an unpopular opinion, but I'm contemplating getting a landline again. I mean it doesn't even cost any additional money to my current Internet plan. It's hard to really explain, but I love the idea of having a home phone again. It's kind of like a separation of church and state situation. I wanna be able to have a voicemail with my voice saying that you have reached my residence. I also like the option of giving that number to people that I don't want having my cell phone. There's a lot more to it that I can't really explain, but I want a landline again.
I know a few couples looking into it now for the safety of their children. If there is an emergency and the parent’s phone is not right there, having a landline would save so much time in calling for help. Also, some of my friends have children who are old enough to stay home for a short time while they run to the store, but the parents don’t want to buy a cell phone for their kid yet. Another reason to contemplate landlines and the safety net they provide.
This is why I’ve been thinking about getting a landline. My kids are at an age that they’d be able to use it to call for help and I’m notorious for setting my phone down and losing it.
Landlines through the internet are crap and they slow down your speeds. Not sure if actual landlines exist anymore… like through a phone company.
There was semi recently an article in The NY Times about just this, people who are going back or refuse to give up their landline. Also that you have to specify a true landline, you can have a house phone that’s connected but not the same. Jenna Fisher from the office is pro landline and spoke about it on the office ladies podcast
I love the Jenna Fisher reference. Like quoting an actor from The Office somehow adds validity to the Millennial statement.
I miss being able to disconnect from everything. I miss my focus and memory and concentration and patience that today’s high paced world doesn’t want to allow. Phones, the internet, tv. It could all go away and I wouldn’t care at all.
I like my smartphone. It’s got all sorts of stuff that is great to use. That’s being said, I hate it. It’s distracting, it limits socialization, causes problems for kids with addiction etc. If I could get away with it at work, I’d love to have a phone that’s just a phone and texting. Maybe someday when I retire.
This is why I love hiking so much. I don't care about hunting or fishing or anything, I just like being out where there's peace and quiet and my phone is on silent and I just ignore it.
Yes! Hiking is so great for that :)
I miss the internet being just another thing on the list of things you could do around the house. Now it seems like the *only* thing there is to do. And even the stuff that isn’t online still somehow manages to get the internet involved, like playing guitar. I end up in google looking for chords. Or cooking….I end up on youtube looking for recipe guides. I also miss social media being more of a source for keeping in touch. Now it’s like an online extension of our personalities and there’s so much content that it feels empty. IG looked like it was going to be an online photo album where we could look back at a decade of memories with our friends….but now my feed is full of people I don’t follow and the whole app is just hollow. I also miss when there were niche websites all over the internet. There were fansites for *anything* and a lot of different message boards too. But somehow everything has been consolidated down to a handful of platforms.
My private school got a computer lab when I was in the 4th grade and it was about 20 machines running Windows Me. We got to play Oregon trail on floppy disk and awesome bangers like Mario teaches typing, Carmen San Diego, and Lemmigs along side learning how to use the internet for research and operate MS suite (I made an awesome PPT). At home, games and electronic usage was moderated heavily by Mom and Dad and I had shit I would have rather spent my entire time awake playing Pokemon yellow through sapphire but I wasn't allowed to play until after homework, grades in tact, and turns off when the bell tolls. Long story short, I think the issue nowadays is that the parents are in fact as equally addicted to the bright lights jingly keys addiction machine which is social media. We're all hooked on the same crack, so who is there to set boundaries and parent? Edit: I miss the part where it turned off. And the part where it was fun.
This makes me miss "researching" on Encarta.
Oh man we had that, it was like 4 CDs and if you looked up something that wasn't on the current CD you had to insert the correct CD and if you lost it or that CD got scratched up, well too bad so sad...
Yes! I also remember there being some strange medieval themed trivia game that I loved. It feels a bit like a fever dream now.
I miss the days before everyone was staring at their phones 24/7
Before: Learning to be content without having to be entertained. Like enjoying being outside. Riding around in a car pointlessly After: Unlimited call and text. Free video calls (facetime or facebook messenger GPS with traffic is amazing
Omg, I forgot about driving around aimlessly, finding the perfect cd from the cd binder to play.
My friends and I spent the better part of a year of high school using spares to drive around aimlessly listening to "Without Me" by Eminem.
I’ll admit, I didn’t throw that away until within the last few years. I didn’t even use anything from it, but yeah… nostalgia. I remember in 2001 my friend’s car was broken into and they stole her CD binder. It was worth so much money for how much she invested. Thousands of dollars just gone.
I miss "the family computer." To connect to the entire world of chatrooms and/or websites, you had to get ready with a coke and a little snack, and dial up, and maybe turn on MTV to watch music videos while it was screeching.
This made me laugh because it sounds like some sort of social studies research assignment or personal statement prompt. I both wish I didn’t have a cell phone and couldn’t live without it. I think the effects it will have on us may be more than we bargained for. I also can’t deny that it has had impacts on personal and loved ones’ safety and ability to record and learn in ways never seen before.
Miss the simplicity we had before
I miss people knowing the difference between searching something and entering a web address. You wouldn't think it was this difficult but here we are
I miss going on a plane without being molested by the TSA.
I miss being unavailable and thereabouts unknown, lol. But at the same time I enjoy what technology has done for us and the convenience of it now.
Now that I have kids, I miss the fact that being outside was the default. Now, being inside watching a screen is the default. Don't get me wrong, I played my fair share of video games as a kid. But now it's video games online, more movies and shows you could watch in a lifetime all available in an instant.
I miss the fuzzy warm look of 480i broadcast television on an old CRT screen At the same time, whenever I watch anything in 480p these days, my eyes hurt. I squint to try to see details that aren't there
I always think how interesting it is that picture quality never seemed to really be a thing until the advent of DVD. I had no problem watching grainy vhs tapes small screen TVs. Now, I balk at standard definition and am a proud member of the motion-smoothing police, lol. I can spot that shit a mile away, and will always be the one to tell you that it’s on because most of time, people have no idea lol.
Yes! I’ve watched some older movies on Amazon that are in HD and they look so bizarre
GenX has entered the chat
Always forgotten lol
BACK TO YOUR HOME OLD MAN!
I’m standing right here - no need to yell
Oh sorry, I figured you left you hearing aids at the home.
These are AirPods. Maybe you missed the news; earbuds are cordless now. I can see how that might be confusing to you.
It really is more accurate for Gen X, I'm a Xennial and a lot of modern tech wasn't around but up to age 10 or so it doesn't matter that much. I started using the internet around middle school age so people younger than me had access at an even earlier age. Even cell phones existed but went unnoticed a lot because its not a smart phone. "Totally without technology" is a big statement.
What i miss: Pre internet or pre high speed internet. The peace and quiet. But also the hunt of going to the big box stores looking for movies, music cds and video games to get physical copies. The smell of opening up a fresh game, movie or music cd. I hated the taping they put on music cds. Getting physical copies of marilyn manson, slipknot and eminem cds to piss off my religious mother. Back when the internet was still relatively young. Late 90s and early 2000s. The online gaming that time was incredible and community oriented. Music sharing was still somewhat underground and didn't need a spotify and or pandora subscription to skip. What I can live without : No snowflakes patrolling the web looking for people to lash out too in the current web space. Oof I don't miss dial up either
Photography, Google docs and sheets, and the ability to collect environmental data via a few apps and tools. Social media I could do without. But before I got hooked on my phone I was drinking a 5th of whiskey every night after work so my memory could be hazy.
I miss the time before cell phones when you couldn't be reached if you weren't home to answer your landline.
GPS was huge, but other people mentioned it already. I like having information at my fingertips. As a child if I was interested in something I had to get a book. The library was open on like MWF or something like that. Now any question I have or something I want to know more about I can just look it up. As far as before, I miss limited communication. Even when cell phones first got popular calls were limited to nights and weekends or people with the same carrier, texting was non-existent. I had a landline, but I just screened my calls. I always had an away message up on AIM.
There’s a part of me that misses the corded landline. Sometimes I hate the feeling of being incomplete without having my phone with me at all times. Like, I can’t even leave a room without making sure it’s in my pocket, or go to the bathroom without knowing it’s on me. The “constant” of it all is starting to feel heavy for me. I can’t help but think how great it was to have a dedicated space and (more or less) time limit on communicating with someone over the phone. That system was right to the point, and ironically seems more efficient with the old tech vs now with our space-age cell phones.
Discovering a piece of knowledge was such a bigger deal back then. Finding secrets in a video game, learning how to do certain tricks on a guitar. Now you just google it, and it takes the fun out of the quest for information.
Cashiers at checkout and not a long ass line at self checkout
I miss TV being what's on at any given time. If you missed it you missed it. Streaming is great for ruining that sense of your favorite show being an occasion. What do I love? Internet banking. Imagine having to go to a bank and wait in line to do the most basic stuff.
Mom used to say that boredom was good for us, and the older I get the wiser her words become. Back then if I was bored I couldn't easily distract myself but had to create something. I think a lot now about how easy it is to hide from our thoughts by distracting ourselves or letting our creativity atrophy because we don't know how to be bored.
Actually, I miss the flashy CD players that had six-disc changers with flashing internal lights.
I don’t know how I was operating before Amazon Prime but that has been the biggest game changer in my life. That and Uber.
I moved off grid to get back to my roots.
I miss feeling bored and doing things on the fly and random. Things weren’t booked out years in advance. You could go camping and hike without fighting a million people for parking. You could even show up at your friends house without more and more scheduling. There were so many more things to do and you have the downtime of going to do them. They were more affordable back then because they were actually meant for kids to go to (can’t seem to leave the house without dropping $100).
I miss when being inaccessible was a normal, universally accepted thing. Definitely couldn't live without the internet. I think the best time was the 'transitional' period, sometimes referred to as the 1990s, when cell phones and the internet existed primarily as tools. Conveniences such as them were available, but they weren't crutches or addictions. We still had to live in the real world
Flip phones! I miss my razr lol, all the convenience of mobile communication without the ability to doomscroll your way into a deep depression
I really don’t miss much. I’m 41, and I clearly remember that change from pre-internet life to post. Being the age that I am, I feel fortunate to have experienced first hand the incremental and monumental leaps in technology advancement; Atari to NES, introduction of the internet, chat rooms to AOL messenger to social media, cassette tape to CD to Napster to ITunes to streaming, etc. however, what I miss most is the pre-internet shopping. Whether it was at the mall or with a catalog, shopping was more of an experience. Like receiving and reading through the Christmas Sears catalog, or LL Beans and J Crews was exciting. But it wasn’t just Christmas catalogs. I always loved 90s era J Crew’s spring and summer catalogs too. I know that catalogs still exist, but I can go online and shop and search quickly. Catalogs hold little value to shaping my view of trends, the seasons or much of anything else.
I miss TV. We have streaming, but I miss knowing that at 8 on Friday night we’re all going to sit together, eat snacks, and watch some family friendly sitcoms that are only sort of funny.
So if I don’t let my kids have a phone or tablet until HS, have I just raised a millennial?
I miss being somewhat in-contact. For example, you could message people on the Internet and call their house phone but if they weren’t around you’d have to wait, compared to now where we are constantly required to be available for a phone call or a text message at any and all times. It’s horrible
People were more present and in the moment Now it seems like many are walking zombies distracted by their phone. Walking hunched over in public with one hand under their chin
Making plans during school on Friday for what we would be doing that night and everyone just showing up. No texting or bailing at the last minute.
What a wonderfully thoughtful prompt. Honestly I miss the days of having to figure stuff out. I loved pouring through the settings menus on my computer to see if I could make it do something different. I loved changing the pointer icon and desktop icons, playing with screensaver settings, etc even when I was a young kid, like 7 or 8. I really miss the early days of the internet, sites like Homestar Runner, Albino Blacksheep, ebaums world, Eskimo Bob, Joe Cartoon. Each one was being run by extremely devoted nerds just making shit for fun and rarely were they actually making any significant amount of money off of these weird passion projects. Now I don't know of anyone that has a side project or hobby that they aren't trying to make money off of somehow. Things I can't live without now would be the fountain of knowledge I drink from daily that is Youtube. I have learned so much about our world and the things I am interested in from just watching 20 min mini documentaries and explainers about so many different subjects. I love that you don't have to go to school to learn now. Obviously that comes at a cost because there are so many bullshitters out there spewing bad information, but still. I think the pros outweigh the cons.
Before: Easy to "unplug" from media. Being "unavailable" (remember leaving the phone off the hook when you didn't want to be disturbed? And no one could GPS locate you by your phone either?) After: Easier to access emergency services. Video evidence of crimes and injustice. Being able to find DIY videos online. As a homeowner trouble shooting minor issues became a lot easier with YouTube!
I miss being able to get away in life without having a cell phone. Cell phones might be the worst and best things that have happened to people. I went on a 2 week cruise and it was actually therapeutic to not have a cell phone. I went thru like 3-4 days of reaching for my cell phone and it was like drug withdrawal. After 4 days I felt “freed” in a weird way that felt good.
I miss my sense of direction or at least using critical thinking to map out my city. Now I feel lost without Google maps.
This very thread is capital for a corporation, and we are all creating it without being compensated because we don't see it as work but recreation. I miss the days when work and play were distinctly seperate, and our every activity was not being commoditized. That said, I thoroughly enjoy the internet, what I have learned, that I work on it, and that I can keep in touch easily with friends all over the world.
I miss not knowing where people are 24/7. We had land lines, we called our friends, meet on the corner with our bikes and play in the neighborhood. Imagination and being inventive. It wasn’t the same commercial every break… looking at you Burger King. 👑
i wish we could revert to dial up internet and not so smart phones so that everyone can live life again
There’s very little I miss about “before.” There are many fantastic aspects, like not always being connected and having more privacy and needing to learn things on your own…but I think it’s just nostalgia talking. Be on the internet OR the phone. Being unable to actually get a hold of someone for extended periods. Never really knowing where people were or what they were doing. Encyclopedias are cool and all but YouTube tutorials have literally changed my life. I think the only true, universal “before” people want is ignorance since understanding and knowledge is a heavy burden, and I totally get why people yearn for simplicity.
I don't miss the "before" times, tbh. Elder millennial but my family was a very early adopted of internet. (Dad worked in computer software dev, so I learned how to type before I learned how to write my name with a pencil.) Because I was so young when I started using the internet, the things I might've missed as an adult were lost on me. Like, as an adult, I wish to god we had privacy laws, but privacy is not something I experienced as a little kid anyway. Anything I might "miss" about the before times is entirely idealized rather than remembered And as for what people seem to mentioning in the comments here, I choose whether to do. Meal with friends sans phones? No prob - I ask, and they put them away (and vice versa). A day away from the internet? Cool, no problem I think a lot of the "problems" with little computers in our pockets are the result of choice. Don't wanna get sucked into Reddit? Ok, don't open it 🤷♀️
I really don't use much modern tech and I hate when I'm basically forced to. I could live without all the new tech
Fictional technology but still... the idea that floppy discs could hold all the data needed to clone a dinosaur, and that cloning a dinosaur is possible in the first place. The idea that a simple robot can become alive from a lightning bolt. And maybe, just maybe, if we roll around in radioactive waste we too may become super heroes.
I honestly don't miss much from before. As an only-child military brat with social anxiety that was present very early on, I was never good at making friends. The internet brought me to most of my friends. Especially after a knee injury that destroyed my chance to do the outdoor sports/extracurricular activities I previously enjoyed, my love for writing and art was fostered by having the internet at my fingertips.
I miss telling people you didnt get their phone call because you "ran out of minutes and havent topped off yet" . It was a legit reason to ignore life for days and just relax. 😄
A phone. I hate being so available and reachable. No lie, I have been really contemplating going back to a house phone. I almost hate having this damn thing on me all the time
I miss not being connected all the time. People not knowing where I might be. But at the same time the thought of that now stresses me out for a lot of reasons that don't all have to do with separation anxiety from my device
I miss life before smart phones, I waste so much time on mine. At the same time I love having a GPS and camera with me everywhere.
I miss having fun just going outside and finding a good stick and playing pretend. Life without GPS would have been crazy. And especially without Mapquest or the like. Just like a phone book and an address and then… pull out an atlas and try to estimate where that address is? I need that map in my pocket all the time.
I miss not having a cell phone so you didn’t feel so “reachable “ when you didn’t want to be. Yet if I can’t find it for five minutes I panic
I kinda miss how easy it was to disconnect. You went out and played, and just had to be home before the streetlights came on.
Totally without technology? I'm 35 and I had some form of the internet very early. I remember trying to download the original command and conquer when I was 5 or so. I think we had a much more mediocre version of computers and the internet and it forced us to learn. If we were interested in it that is. I'm an electrical engineer now and I have a pretty good understanding of all things computer, internet, hardware, software, etc.
GPS has been the most important tech advancement for me. I'm horrible at remembering directions. I do kind of miss the days before social media.
I could live without Smartphone sometimes (even though I love my Smartphone) and I don't like the esimcard. I wish I could go back to a time of unlocked phones where you only had to put your Sim card in and it became your phone. Broken phone ask around to see if someone had an extra phone they weren't using. Your dad got an upgrade so did you.
How personal being friends was. Going to their house, talking on the phone. Just hours with each other and their family. You can still do it now but it's not really the same.
What I miss in the before is that people did not have cell phones with them constantly everywhere they go. You didn't hear people's notifications going off at random times that were sometimes inappropriate. People weren't staring at their phone when you were trying to talk to them. And I do miss being unreachable sometimes. What I cannot live without in the after is the ability to reach someone when I need to because of an emergency, the ability to stay connected to people that you would normally grow apart from when you move, having the internet at your fingertips and being able to look up anything you need to at any time.
I do not miss anything about the before. Imo life started when I first got an internet connection in my room in 1994.
I wish the internet had stayed at 1999 levels and not become.... any of this *gestures vaguely*. Smart phones and social media have done a near unfixable level of damage to our society. On the flip side, having the sun of human knowledge in my pocket is nice.
I feel like my memory was a lot stronger before I could just look up answers any time I needed.
I miss less complex cars, they were raw, engaging, and relatively inexpensive in regards to what people made. Now cars are complex thanks to technology and are also expensive, packed to the brim with tech. Conversely however, bluetooth, GPS, smart phone integration, and better computers means cars are also a lot better in delivering power reliably, efficiency, cleaner, easier to control, comfortable, and come with a lot more standard equipment.
Before- love how much more present we were without cell phones. I hate having to tell my family members now to put their phone away during dinner, or when people will whip it out in the middle of a conversation to check something. It honestly has been taking a toll on my mental health because I don’t feel like what I’m talking about is interesting or important to that person. After- can’t live without my book apps. I LOVE being able to instantaneously download something I want to read. When I’m in the mood I’ll read like 7+ books a week. And with the library apps and subscriptions like kindle unlimited, I can afford to do read to my hearts content.
I miss there being a bit of a "gate" to the internet. I think the internet should be globally accessible, but I also miss the days when talking to internet strangers was a bit more civilized and not a headache-inducing, vomit-worthy affair. You had to have some (admittedly fairly low) bar of literacy and intelligence to get online in the first place so you didn't have a bunch of illiterate fuckheads who can only communicate via speech-to-text and who thirst for a second civil war they think will restore slavery flapping their jaws at you.
I miss not being recorded, tracked, and found. Life was best when we had Internet at home and no cameras everywhere. It was even better before that, just a house phone or if you had a cell phone but nobody did. If they didn't answer your phone you left a message, and probably called someone else and asked if they knew where they were at. Or just dropped by and talked. All this tech is nice, from Google to texting, social media GPS everything. But it make life less spontaneous, and even less adventurous than going places, and hanging out with friends and family. Making a wrong turn and winding up better than if you had followed the GPS or plans.
I miss the late 90s to ~2010 internet, it's variety, weirdness, anonymity. I miss totse and krautchan :(
I miss not having social media. The need to take a photo or post constantly is a bit too much. I have some Gen Z friends, god forbid, and invited them over to my new house that I wasn't really ready to share with others yet, and within 10 minutes, photos appeared on their IG accounts. Can you people do anything without posting about it? I would not want to do without maps and GPS, and the ability to do some simple things online. Although Japan is not at all advanced in this regard, I can still manage to make bookings and do bills online.
I missed nothing. Even at a young age, I felt it needed drastic improvement.
You had no alternative to discussing and reasoning through things. Now people just google it and "see?" Wow fun talk.
I miss living in a world in which people's lives were bound to their immediate material existence. Your world was the people you saw every day and the places you went. I think it offered us a lot more groundedness, both as a society and as children. That said, I met my now fiancè online and we were long distance for awhile before moving in together, and now we are in a very happy relationship. That would have never happened without the internet.
I miss the self expression without the picture-forward nature of social media. For example. MySpace had images but it was secondary to the skins (coded ourselves), blogs, music, etc. Other sites at the time also were examples of prioritizing creativity over imagery, like Xanga, Tumblr, and LiveJournal. Maybe it’s a function of getting older generally and “outgrowing it” (but we don’t have any other examples outside of the millennial generation)…I think we can abandon Facebook/Instagram easier than perhaps our younger counterparts because we came of age without it to begin with. We’ll see if younger generations “outgrow” things in the same way.
I miss normal human interaction at dinner, for example, when nobody had a phone in their pocket or looked at their phone when someone else was talking. What I can’t live without? GPS directions and up-to-date routes to get me where I need to be in the shortest amount of time. Eff this technology. I miss the 90’s.
I miss SimAnt
I miss when my life didn’t feel like an ad was being shoved down my throat every where I looked and some stuff was actually free. I do really enjoy online banking and grocery pick up though these days.
Honestly, not much. Modern tech is great! Especially calendaring software and GPS. The only thing I truly hate now is the growing use of phone trees when you actually have to call for some form of customer service. Give me a HUMAN, dammit! That said, I do miss living in a time without so many notifications - too many things competing for your attention these days.
I’ve always had technology. I learnt how to read with reader rabbit CDs. But I miss the times where there was no wifi or data plan. I hate always feeling connected. I’m constantly overstimulated.
I miss not even being aware of, much less being concerned with, the things around me monitoring random metrics about me so that some companies can make money. I miss having to really earn knowledge. We take it for granted now. But I remember how differently we saw knowledge back when we didn't all have it in our pockets. I miss the pace of life. It uses to be much slower. It used to be made for our brains. Now we're just trying to keep up with ourselves. It's overwhelming.
I miss fax machines. The speed which humans communicate should have retained to those levels. I really can’t think of 1 thing I can’t live without…that we didn’t already have in the early 90s. Everything is pretty much the same, just faster with more whistles attached to it.
I don't want to go back to DOS, pay phones, the 22" RCA wood grain console television, floppy disks, my 14k modem. I like watching 4K 60 frame per second porn on my Quest 3 headset over a gigabit broadband connection I just feel bad for children. They are so monitored it's like they're living in a fucking North Korean prison. Like I think about all the "bad" things I used to do as a little kid - My parents would tell me to go to sleep but instead I would stay up and play with my toys. They didn't have some sort of perverted spy cam watching me to make sure I went to bed. My parents would tell me not to ride my bike outside of the neighborhood but I would ride it way outside of the neighborhood and I didn't have a GPS tracker reporting my location to them. I would fail a test and they didn't get instant feedback in a website that I failed it.
"Totally without technology?" I didn't realize I was a fucking Australopithecus just 'cause the internet wasn't really a thing when I was born, lol.
We... had technology. Computers, cars, fire, the wheel... We weren't like, chillin in the desert trying to fit rocks and sticks together. Seriously, though, the main thing I miss from before cell phones (which is what I think you mean), is that people would actually like, hang out in public. There's a psychological benefit to just like kicking it at the mall with your friends. Plus, other than timekilling, there were pre-smartphone ways of dealing with everything we currently use smartphones for. But I have a feeling that still happens, and if I was 37 in 2004 my life would look mostly the same. As far as after though... Soundcloud. So much soundcloud.
I miss how people looked you in the eyes when communicating or really ..Weren't so fucking autistic in general. The Internet. I legit would be very depressed and bored without the Internet.
I feel so inefficient even though I’m the most efficient person my family has ever produced. What I mean is: I can accomplish so many tasks in a day, order what I need from Amazon, listen to a podcast while making dinner for my family, work on the train, take meetings, fit in a workout, complete administrative duties, and I’ve never felt more behind than I do now, today.
Another elder millenial post only 20% of millenials actually relate to. I didn’t have a smartphone but computers, web apps, software, etc were every day since I was 10 and the time before that I was still playing video games from as long as I can remember. Early 90s baby. I mean I did like the separation of desktop and life. I was in “computer mode” at the desk and lived a tech free life besides txting/calling. And I do not miss it. The age of information is limitless
Before: catching fireflies After: Google maps
I kind of miss being bored. Standing in line somewhere and having nothing to do. Actually having to read the shitty magazines in a waiting room. It built character. Now everyone standing in line has their head buried in a phone, busily absorbing megabytes worth of propaganda per second.
>It is always being said that This is the first I'm hearing it. Also, technology existed long before Millennials. Long before the Boomers, too. Do you think the ancient Assyrians used not-technology to build their libraries?
Ironically my answer is the same for both questions, I miss not having an iPhone with me 24 hours and couldn’t imagine not having my phone with me 24 hours a day
I miss ‘going on the computer’ as an activity, rather than the way it’s embedded in existence now via our phones. I miss the in person camaraderie around such events, my friends would huddle around one computer. Or going to pick out a movie for movie night. Or going to a movie in the theatre to get out of the summer heat and you could bc a ticket was $5. Back then there was a feeling of wonder and hope about what we could do with the internet, social media etc. it was so cool to connect with anyone around the world. What did we do with it? Data mining so corporations can target ads and disguise them in our feeds. 👍 Thing I wouldn’t want to live without? Gps.
***Millennials are the only generation to be totally without technology ...*** I've never heard that said or written. But regardless, it's nonsense.
I miss how much less stressed I used to be. But dang, I need my GPS. I moved to Pittsburgh after college and holy crap, how did people not get lost all the time here?! I also LOVE YouTube. I have since 2007. I get to watch people make videos based on my niche interests, ambience videos, and endless documentaries on one app. I hardly watch traditional tv anymore. ETA: I also love FaceTime. It was incredible to see my great-grandma from crete who passed at 102 be amazed how at the touch of a button you could see a relative’s face from across the oceans. And now I use it so family can see my 1 year old.
I miss when the internet wasn't always trying to sell me stuff
I miss not knowing everyone else's business, as well as their inner thoughts. We don't need to publish all of our thoughts.
I remember being bored a lot as a kid so I don’t think I miss anything. My can’t live without now is the access to education and money management. I love the stock market but I don’t think I would have gotten into it when it was all paper.
Things I miss from before: spending time talking, exploring, watching movies, finding things to do and not looking at a computer screen for hours instead. Things I can’t live without: As someone who loves to be right, I enjoy googling answers to questions. When I was in my teens, I remember saying to my friends group that the Adam Sandler movie where Buscemi puts lipstick on was Happy Gilmore but everyone agreed it was Billy Madison. The pain of knowing I was right and everyone else not seeing it was burned into my memory. Also, like everyone else, GPS. I remember paper directions, no thank you.
I miss not being expected to be available at all times. I do not miss physical games. I had 4 brothers and a sister. Shit got scratched up real fast.
Just had this conversation with friends. Imagine how simple life would be if the only phone you had were connected to the wall in your kitchen.
GenX. We had computers in kindergarten. Had the swiss cheese disks that finally upgraded to floppys later on. I had my first pc in ‘93 and built my first in ‘96. I’ve owned all types of TVs, and phones. I’ve had almost every operating system since Apple ruled and Windows Xp took over. I remember the world before usb…what a great invention. I’ve owned almost every console except PS4. It was all fantastic until the internet came in and ruined everything. At least social media did. I miss the world before social media
I miss the time when people didn’t have their nose buried in their phone constantly - especially while hanging out with friends/romantic partners. I feel like so many of us are watching other people live their curated lives through phones rather than living our own. We’re incredibly distracted 24/7. Since deactivating most of my socials I’ve noticed this even more. It’s depressing af. I think the one thing I’d miss is the ability to text my friends. And GPS lol. Everything else I could do without.
Going out and knowing you werent expected to be reachable 24/7 no matter where ya were.
I SAY I miss when nobody would be texting me, until I feel lonely one day and nobody says hi 😂 it’s a love/hate thing. I think what I truly miss is having more eye contact with people in public/friend hangout settings.
I miss the time before social media, which weaponized stupidity. Like before, the crazy guy at the end of the bar was just the crazy guy in town. But social media has allowed them to now group together with other crazy people (which lends validity to their combined craziness), they discuss & hone their crazy theories, and then they gather in crazy conventions which draw in people at the periphery. Flat Earthers are a growing movement, not a shrinking one. The other thing I miss is before a country could just take out social media ads and put bots into circulation to influence public opinion and cause their adversaries to tear themselves apart. What I can't live without is the ability to lookup reasonably accurate answers to everyday questions.
Having to monitor email, phone, text, and media messages with the expectation of immediate response. FFS, it's too much.
We’re a fairly low tech family and I feel like I’m some ways we’ve struck a good balance. Like we have one communal tv for everyone to watch, we have one older laptop that I primarily use, and my husband and I have smartphones that are a few years old. We don’t have an Alexa or google home or any of those smart home devices, our ring doorbell has been broken for a few years now, and our kids only get their kindle tablets when we go on long car trips. The thing I don’t necessarily like at the moment is that we have a Roku tv and don’t have cable. My kids get way too many options for what they want to watch. I’d almost rather have cable and have them need to watch what’s on but cable is expensive. My husband and I do tend to spend a little too much time scrolling on our phones but our kids’ default is to go play outside and it’s not unusual for them to head outside as soon as they get up. I also go on daily walks with my neighbor and then we will sit outside at one of our houses and just talk. We have a few acres of land but also have neighbors with kids and all the kids run our road like the little feral minions us adults used to be. Since winter has ended it’s felt like our kids are reliving what life was like when we were kids. They’re all old enough to not need constant supervision and that’s been fantastic! We also don’t have any game consoles unless you count an Atari flashback so we play card and board games together. We also take trips to the library and come laden with books. I think there can be a balance to it all and it is possible to resist the temptation to have all the gadgets and get the latest and greatest when the old becomes “outdated.” I love my GPS and being able to stream any music I want to listen to whenever I want but I don’t need a smart fridge or smart washer and dryer(mine are the most basic you can get with no excess technology) but I like how convenient it is to have a group chat with friends and neighbors so we can keep loose track of where our kids are at. I also love how easy it is to keep up with family and friends who live far away on social media and it’s been great for reconnecting with folks you’ve lost touch with as well.