Before the Internet (2017) | Hacker News Reader

Before the Internet (2017)

newyorker.com

74 pointseodafbaloo31 comments

It still blows my mind that I used to make plans with friends to go see a movie a week in advance and everyone would just show up.

I struggle to remember precisely how we did .. I know we did.. I know it involved theater programs and phoning .. but the concrete memory is gone as if it was fantasy

There were these things called newspapers. They ran theater ads, at least a week in advance.

Remember calling the theater's recorded schedule line? Then if someone bugged you at the wrong moment you'd miss the times for the one you needed and have to listen to the whole damn thing again?

Yes, I do indeed. That was an intermediate technology level. And in some ways, not so much worse than the Internet.

And/or, when you saw a movie, while you were at the theater, you'd just try to memorize the show times of any films you might be interested in seeing next weekend. Or you'd rely on what others told you about when/where they saw a movie.

And if all that failed (or you didn't even try), sometimes you'd just show up at the movie theater around 7pm without having done any research at all and see whatever looked good based on movie posters, titles, and actors you recognized.

in my area we used to buy an aggregate journal of all theater programs, crazy to think how early on things were planned

There were these social networks called high school.

Did anyone use Teletext? I booked a holiday from an advert on there once. Of course you had to just phone them when you wanted to book. It was also good for a laugh playing Bamboozle [1]. It was like a mini internet.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboozle_(quiz)

Slightly off topic, but I've had a print subscription to The New Yorker for many years and I always read the Shouts & Murmurs satire pieces and the absolute most riotously funny one I've read is "Sunday Routine" by Jen Spyra:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/07/sunday-routine

Same, TNY is the only publication we are still subscribed too and it's always a pleasure to read. Coming in weekly we are always behind, so they are all scattered around the house and actually pushes us to read more.

The shouts and murmurs is definitely a great section!

I loved reading this!

'Before the internet' pretty much coincides with 'when I was a kid' for me. I would love to hear 'before the internet' memories from people who were adults before the internet too.

Yeah, same here. What's especially sweet is the focus on ~clueless tween memories. And how it evokes that protective isolation from the "real world" that some children enjoyed. Mainly privileged children, but that's forgivable in a New Yorker article.

That's gone now. I totally can't imagine how it is for kids now. I mean, I would be in such deep shit by my mid 20s.

Here's one from the "damn, that sucked" side: literature research. I spent days in libraries, digging through various indexes (that is, lots of large and heavy books) and taking notes. Then finding journals, and making copies on temperamental photocopy machines. Or "printing" from microfilm. And requesting stuff through inter-library loan.

I actually enjoyed all of that, and still occasionally spend time pouring through the stacks. Right up until the "making copies" part. It goes very quickly (instantly?) downhill from there.

I definitely get more out of physical paper where I can book mark, dog ear, underline, highlight and write in the margins than I've ever gotten from a digital copy. Except for the searching.

I don't think we'll ever have a great hybrid, but pairing the two together is the way to go.

Inter-branch loans haven't changed. I'm on 3 months now still waiting for one.

Before the internet, high school reunions had a lot of suspense to them, because you didn't have Facebook and already know nearly everything about people you hadn't seen in N number of decades.

Catalogues. Toy shops. Newspapers. Libraries. The visual and structural meaning of these would be highly more enveloping of the imagination and the only source for curiosity. Definitely different times.

And there would be no way to look it up, no way to prove who was right, except if someone had a little booklet. “Anyone got a little booklet?” you’d ask, looking around. “Is there a booklet on this shit?”

Wow! I actually had 'the booklet' when I was a kid. Carried it around with me. If you want to brighten a youngster's day, get it,

https://www.amazon.com/Rocks-Minerals-Golden-Nature-Guides/d...

What a lovely piece!

Before the internet, parents of children with rare diseases watched them die without a doctor ever believing them.

Before the internet, gay kids committed suicide, never even knowing how they felt was normal for some other people far away from their small town.

Before the internet, if your county library didn't have it, it didn't exist.

Before the internet, you had 3 TV channels, and you watched what the advertisers would pay for, not what you were curious about.

Your earnest outrage is not really appropriate to the tone of the article. Did you see the part about crow telephathy?

I mean, if we're going to go this route, then, after the internet, gay kids commit suicide because strangers far away can now bully them.

> Before the internet, if your county library didn't have it, it didn't exist.

Inter-library loans existed long before the internet.

> Before the internet, you had 3 TV channels, and you watched what the advertisers would pay for, not what you were curious about.

Cable TV with lots of channels existed long before streaming video was available on the web. Also, you could rent videos at Blockbuster (or borrow them for free at the local library). And you had ad-free public TV stations.

I've never done an interlibrary loan. Obviously, some did, but still.

Cable and video rentals weren't available till I was in college.

You're right that some of these things became available in limited quantities, or were available with a lot of effort, but overall the gist of what OP said captures the idea. Things are very different from when I grew up in the 70s/early 80s.

> Inter-library loans existed long before the internet.

And used bookstores. I loved those. You could find anything.

You could find anything, but mostly by chance. Looking for a particular thing was hard.

And, of course, you had to allocate 2-3 hours for the adventure, and traveling there and back again.

Sure, but people spend at least that much time browsing random stuff. Also, many stores did organize their collections, at least somewhat.

When I was ~13, discovering New York City, I found a copy of Fortunes in Formulas for Home, Farm, and Workshop. And an ad in a comic book for a chemical company in Texas that sold fireworks supplies. Years of fun followed.

I wonder how book search systems were used, surely large library indexes existed but how efficient and how often they'd be used..

In a way, book searching is probably the only cool thing about internet IMO. The rest was already nice enough as it was. You don't need ultra high bandwidth and ultra low latency to find a VHS for a night with friends... it won't make the memories better.

Without the Internet: between rentals, purchases, and the library, more than enough media to keep me 100% happy and occupied my entire life for very little money.

With the Internet: Same but now I have way more than I need rather than just more than I need, to the point that picking something to enjoy is kinda hard because there's so much and it's all about equally hard to get—i.e. not hard—all the time. Total expense kinda high, actually, since you can't reduce the base cost of Internet access by checking more movies out from the library, even if you manage to replace Netflix and friends—to use it at all, there's a high monthly price, so if you occasionally need it for work or whatever you're just stuck.

Also, for those who didn't grow up without the Internet, here's a fun one: passing thoughts about trivia didn't used to bug us. In fact they'd often not even reach the level of conscious thought. It was difficult enough to find out the answers to "when was that actor born?" or "who produced [album you don't have on hand]?" that we just... didn't even think about it, most of the time. If we did and no-one within yelling distance knew the answer and there wasn't a relevant coffee table book around to consult, that was it, rarely did anyone go to the effort to find out or feel any kind of nagging sensation that they really ought to go look that up. In short, it was wonderful.

For those who didn't grow up without smartphones (they're old enough to be on here now!): we used to often do one thing at a time, not one thing plus being on our phones. Oh and kids—even ones old enough that they all have their own cell phones now, like 8 or 9 years old—used to just have to find something to do if they got dragged somewhere by their parents and got bored. Usually games with other kids around, if there were any. The games would be imagination-based or use improvised playing equipment—cup ball, for instance, which was like baseball but with a wadded up cardboard concession cup for a ball, and makeshift bases. Seriously.

paradox of choice

I'm going to assume you're honestly sticking up for the internet.

I don't think this piece is contradicting to the fact the internet has brought lots of good things as well, especially in when it comes to making information accessible and easy to use/copy etc.

But it's pointing out that we also lost something in that process. Which sometimes can be hard to put a finger on, seeing as it's mostly about letting ourselves be bored, letting ourself be inspired from something within.

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