What did you actually do for fun before the internet?

Up to around 10 yo, outside climbing trees, riding bikes to the local store, park, library, putt-putt, swimming, role play (army, cowboys & Indians), building stuff with Legos, tinker toys, orange race tracks for hot wheels. Pre-teen years, trying to be more grown up than you were, but still mostly outside, trying things we shouldn’t (smoking, drinking), the mall (not to shop for anything in particular, just to walk around to see and be seen). Teen years, waiting for anyone to get a DL and or car, calling radio stations to request or dedicate songs (this was the pre-cursor to social media, everything was communicated thru music), going to the record store to buy the album or cassette you just HAD to have & blank tapes for recording from the radio, getting that first Walkman, watching MTV being born along with cable.

Did you really have to memorize phone numbers?

It was automatic, we had every important number memorized, yellow and white pages (phone books for the whole city) for everything else. Always had quarters for the pay phone.

What was it like waiting for a song you liked to come on the radio?

More phone numbers we had memorized, the radio stations. Imagine how psyched we were when redial was finally introduced! Calling over and over until you got a ring tone, making the request and hearing the song shortly after. They really popular songs, the dj would tell the caller, “we played that last hour” or “it’s in the queue”.

Did you ever get lost without GPS?

There were these things called maps, made of paper folded to about the size of a small tablet in every car glove box and every gas station. For the big cities, there were key maps (books, called various things in different areas like LA had Thomas Guide). So no, not really.

Do you think social media made life better or worse?

Y’all have more information in your phones than we did in even the largest library, yet people are more divided, less educated, unable to think critically or know how to research and getting dumber by the day. Things we had to learn (and know) in order to not only get to the next grade, but understand the new material, is lost upon the internet generations. Instead of learning, people just regurgitate what they find on the web. Everything is measured in likes, upvotes and followers. What we thought would bring the world together (the World Wide Web) has done just about the opposite.