Technology

As a relatively elder millennial (1987), I'd concede the title of last true pre-internet generation to Gen X. My family got AOL dial-up when I was in 6th grade, which was a little behind the curve compared to my peers, but not much. So I certainly lived through a seminal transition period as the internet developed and became...what it is today.

But the hallmark experiences of the pre-internet times, payphones, paper maps, coordinating with others, I only did so in my limited capacity as a child. I had a cell phone by...10th grade, I could at least print out MapQuest directions, etc.

I remember a lot, but didn't truly interact with most of it.

I lived before the internet. AMA

People listened to records, cassette tapes and CDs

Recording formats often get mentioned, but they are not the important music thing of which kids today are often unaware. The important thing is that we used to have record collections (which were mostly composed of CDs by the time I was old enough to have a modest one.)

I now have a more extensive one and enjoy it greatly, only now it's in mp3 form.

I'm almost 37. I remember as a kid being my parents' "navigator' on family road trips with the map. My parents still carry an atlas in their cars, but ofc, they're using GPS on their phones/cars like anyone else.

As far as actual pre-Internet, I was on the Internet at a pretty young age (back then). I think was 8 or 9 when my dad signed us up for AOL. Roughly 1995/1996. And I was all over that (only briefly did he put a filter on my account). So I don't have a whole lot of experience truly being pre-Internet. I was playing online PC games while my friends were playing on the N64 or whatever.

As a kid playing in the neighborhood, I either called my parents from my friends' houses (which I rarely did to my mom's anger) or periodically stopped back home. Or at the very least, be back before the streetlights came on.

I had a cell phone by 9th/10th grade, esp since I was involved in band and other activities. I think I used pay phone maybe once before that? And then never again.

I was driving before GPS was widely available on phones (which existed pre-smartphone), but you just printed out MapQuest directions before leaving. Which obviously relied on the Internet.

So yeah, I don't have much experience pre-Internet, really.

I'm really bad at remembering how to drive places, and always have been. Zero sense of direction. Pre-GPS life sucked ass for me in that respect.

But I do miss pre-internet socializing. Phone (voice) calls, cocktail parties, cookouts with the neighbors, and work mixers could all be very pleasant experiences.

Also miss not being tracked and recorded every minute of every day. It's creepy AF how we leave digital trails everywhere we go now.

I just want to return to a time before the technocracy, and the metricization of everything, before we started caring about clicks and views and the algorithm, for the sake of squeezing every last bit of monetization and efficiency out of everything and everyone.

We just need a proper solar flare to help us get back on track

I’ve never felt older

I miss the anticipation.

One thing about the pre-Internet times I don't hear much about is how much more centralised our media were and how, as a result, people or ideas on the fringe of society didn't get much attention. That includes for instance how the strange ideas about vaccines or ethnic groups now spread much easier than they did before the Internet, but also how trans* people and other marginalised groups find it much easier to find and support each other and be a united front against oppression.

In summary, I don't thing that what has been termed "the great awokening", nor the organised opposition against it, could have taken place before the Internet. At least not at this scale.

Ancient
I had an AM radio I listened to while delivering papers

A Magnevox tv/radio/record player, with glowing tubes. You could stack up a few records

8 track tapes were an infinite loop abomination. 4 loops of 2 channels = 8 tracks. I had a friend with a quad 8 track, 2 loops of 4 channels. the tapes started to drag after some plays, requiring various gymnastics to keep them playing. Recording at home was rare. Cost more than vinyl, lower sound quality. Let the enshittification of music begin

Cassettes Had their own weirdness, pre recorded cassettes had crap tape, crap shells & higher costs. Pre recorded tapes shed the magnetic coating & dirtied up the player which would eat your tapes.
Quality blank tapes cost about 1/4 of what an LP cost.

Moving into the cd age I stuck with cassettes, as that's what worked in my car/trucks. cd's got recorded. my favorite technique was 3 albums on a 90 minute tape, cutting out the annoying songs.

I got a computer in 2005 started making LP's & cassettes into mp3's. I pretty much try to keep the files under 5 minutes
I still have a bunch of files without proper song titles as I got bored after artist, album, year. Itunes was my go to importing cd's. Later I found out any of the metadata I changed was in a changlog or some shyt, not the actual files, there was very little rejoicing...