The idea is very different than the reality. The freedom of information, communication, and variety are so much better now.
Need a job, get a newspaper for classified ads and take whatever you can get, or start calling friends and networking when you’re lucky to get a voicemail.
Want to unwind and watch something? You can spend all evening flipping through channel after channel of garbage.
Need to learn something, prepare to spend days going to different public libraries to find anything useful. Most people don’t learn anything. Most people’s only adult social connection is though religion. It is a small dumb world where I grew up.
One thing I would not take for granted is the massive amount of information out there for repairing/ fixing things in your home. If you have an issue with your lawn mower, I guarantee that someone recorded a video of how to fix it step by step. It is absolutely mind boggling what we have at our finger tips.
Same for things like learning music. Back in the day if you didn’t know another good musician, you’d have to gradually piece together different techniques, chords, etc. yourself. Stuff that took me years to figure out you can learn in minutes now.___
It was probably somewhat beneficial that we all had to go outside and do something through; but yeah in smaller places your only real option would be a church or bar. I miss being able to hang out at the mall, for example; where you’d bump into your friends etc and different groups where there. Was sometimes like a big party. Then again, I was also a kid, we still had arcades that weren’t just dirty ticket casinos.
I called my grandfather when I wanted to learn something. The library was the backup if he didn’t know. He was a well educated engineer, and my grandmother also had a university education and an excellent knowledge of literature.
I wouldn’t mind killing off social media, but I have offline copies of Wikipedia for a reason. That shit is important.
The idea is very different than the reality. The freedom of information, communication, and variety are so much better now.
Need a job, get a newspaper for classified ads and take whatever you can get, or start calling friends and networking when you’re lucky to get a voicemail.
Want to unwind and watch something? You can spend all evening flipping through channel after channel of garbage.
Need to learn something, prepare to spend days going to different public libraries to find anything useful. Most people don’t learn anything. Most people’s only adult social connection is though religion. It is a small dumb world where I grew up.
One thing I would not take for granted is the massive amount of information out there for repairing/ fixing things in your home. If you have an issue with your lawn mower, I guarantee that someone recorded a video of how to fix it step by step. It is absolutely mind boggling what we have at our finger tips.
Same for things like learning music. Back in the day if you didn’t know another good musician, you’d have to gradually piece together different techniques, chords, etc. yourself. Stuff that took me years to figure out you can learn in minutes now.___
It was probably somewhat beneficial that we all had to go outside and do something through; but yeah in smaller places your only real option would be a church or bar. I miss being able to hang out at the mall, for example; where you’d bump into your friends etc and different groups where there. Was sometimes like a big party. Then again, I was also a kid, we still had arcades that weren’t just dirty ticket casinos.
I called my grandfather when I wanted to learn something. The library was the backup if he didn’t know. He was a well educated engineer, and my grandmother also had a university education and an excellent knowledge of literature.
I wouldn’t mind killing off social media, but I have offline copies of Wikipedia for a reason. That shit is important.
I used to send emails to libraries for information on a certain topic and got back lots of information
How do you get an email address for a library that is actually monitored by a human that would respond?
Libraries provide it as a free service. It’s called virtual reference. Here is one such service I found by searching.
https://askalibrarian.org/
Yes, the amount of time you spent just isolated and bored was unfathomable to people today.