Life before all this technology, (was it better,.....?)

grahamg

grahamg

Old codger
Location
South of Manchester, UK

What It Was Like to Live Without Today's Technologies We Totally Take for Granted​


https://bestlifeonline.com/life-before-technology/

Quote:
"It's hard to imagine life before technology. What if you had to get through a day without the internet? What about going on a road trip without Google Maps? Or getting gifts in a pinch without Amazon? That all probably sounds nearly impossible these days. But not only did we do it a few decades ago, some of us even miss those simpler times. We managed to get just as much accomplished, but we just did it a little differently."

Break

"During dinnertime arguments, Karen from Montana remembers using her family's encyclopedias to solve problems "like, 'Do bananas grow up or down?'" "We'd discuss the problem, someone would then decide to solve the issue by dashing for the encyclopedias, and guessing if the answer would be under B for banana or F for fruits," she recalled. Just flipping through an encyclopedia would "introduce us to other topics of conversation, and away we would go down the rabbit hole of learning… together."

Break

"In the 20th century, "you had to call someone on the phone and then make plans to meet them," recalled Cole. And if you missed the call, that person could eventually fall out of your life, for better or for worse. John P. from St. Louis added, "You could go years, decades even, without ever hearing from your old high school friends or a distant cousin that lived six states away or all your ex-girlfriends. You had no obligation to interact with any of them. It was amazing."

And if there was information you wanted someone to hear, you had to say it to them directly or pass it along via a third party. "If there was a meeting or a reunion, you'd just tell two or three people and let them pass the news verbally," remembered Marita. "Or we'd go from house to house to let people know the meeting time and place. It was a personal thing. We communicated face to face.""
 

iu
 
There is a lot I love about technology. This includes the information I can find on the internet when I am researching something, having a cell phone, especially if there is an emergency. Medical advances, one of which saved my son's life when he was in the NICU. The hospital had just bought a high-speed ventilator, and my son had just had a massive pulmonary hemorrhage in both lungs when he was a day old and weighed slightly less than 2 lbs. I love reading on my Kindle and being able to download books.

What I don't like is the cost of technology in the US, compared to some other first world countries. It is an abomination to me that cell phone useage and cable TV cost so much. I don't use cable TV any more because of the cost, the ads, and the number of stations I didn't want. With cell phones, I don't like that I cannot delete the programs I don't want from my phone without jail breaking it. I don't like that in the US we don't have the very high internet speeds that other first world countries do, and the lower costs to access that technology.

The big thing I don't like about it is the intrusion into our privacy when using cell phones or the internet. I also don't like that we cannot delete the things we have put on the internet and we cannot prevent a lot of companies and organizations from harvesting our personal data.I use four different privacy shields, and it always amazes me how much information they (allegedly) prevent from being harvested from my computer and phone, or from being added to it for their own benefit.

This is especially egregious with Amazon, Google. and Microsoft. In addition, Amazon harvests information from Alexa. I have had personal experience with this. Alexa was on, but not being used, and all of a sudden it recommended Harry Potter movies to us. We didn't use Alexa's name to activate it, but we were talking about Harry Potter movies.

DuckDuckGo has a browser for cell phones that I have put on my phone to prevent at least some of the privacy issues. I also use their search engine on my computer. But that is not enough for me. I think we should have the right to decide whether our data is harvested and whether cookies we don't want are installed on tech devices, and the right to be paid for the intrusion if we agree to it.

And then there is our government. I already know that the US government shares data from VPNs with other countries. I don't like having to research VPNs that (allegedly) do not cooperate with the governments of these countries. I don't like ISPs keeping our emails, phone companies keeping our records of calls and texts, and our government being able to pry into those in the name of Homeland Security.
 
"It's hard to imagine life before technology?"
What technology? E-mails go right over my head, still using the quiver pen and inkwell. Plastic card payment, what's all that about, and as for pointing your gizmo and paying the bill, it's beyond me, as far as I know cash has yet to be retired. I do have a landline and a cell phone, but I could easily give up the latter. Text & calls that's all it's used for, never could work out what else it does. My landline appliance is the same one we had fifty three years ago, it's as good as ever, but it's not compatible with digital wotsits where you have to press one for money, two for the show. You won't find a lot of technology in my car, but despite that it just keeps on going, just as it did when it came off the production line in 1947.

Should you be wondering how I managed to set up an e-mail in order to be a member here, my neighbour's 14 year old did it,took him about two minutes.
 
I have used the Encyclopedia Britannica, for information, the
mail, telephone or walk to visit someone for communication.

Add, subtract, multiply or divide, figures either in my head or
using a paper and pencil.

Meet in a pub, not on zoom, all of the above that I have listed
are more friendly than a machine, except over long distances,
without the technology, we wouldn't know about each other
as we are scattered all around the World.

Mike.
 
horseless carriage said:
"It's hard to imagine life before technology?"
What technology? E-mails go right over my head, still using the quiver pen and inkwell. Plastic card payment, what's all that about, and as for pointing your gizmo and paying the bill, it's beyond me, as far as I know cash has yet to be retired. I do have a landline and a cell phone, but I could easily give up the latter. Text & calls that's all it's used for, never could work out what else it does. My landline appliance is the same one we had fifty three years ago, it's as good as ever, but it's not compatible with digital wotsits where you have to press one for money, two for the show. You won't find a lot of technology in my car, but despite that it just keeps on going, just as it did when it came off the production line in 1947.

Should you be wondering how I managed to set up an e-mail in order to be a member here, my neighbour's 14 year old did it,took him about two minutes.
Click to expand...
horseless carriage; "What technology?" er, you're posting to a thread in an online computer forum.
 
WheatenLover said:
There is a lot I love about technology. This includes the information I can find on the internet when I am researching something, having a cell phone, especially if there is an emergency. Medical advances, one of which saved my son's life when he was in the NICU. The hospital had just bought a high-speed ventilator, and my son had just had a massive pulmonary hemorrhage in both lungs when he was a day old and weighed slightly less than 2 lbs. I love reading on my Kindle and being able to download books.

What I don't like is the cost of technology in the US, compared to some other first world countries. It is an abomination to me that cell phone useage and cable TV cost so much. I don't use cable TV any more because of the cost, the ads, and the number of stations I didn't want. With cell phones, I don't like that I cannot delete the programs I don't want from my phone without jail breaking it. I don't like that in the US we don't have the very high internet speeds that other first world countries do, and the lower costs to access that technology.

The big thing I don't like about it is the intrusion into our privacy when using cell phones or the internet. I also don't like that we cannot delete the things we have put on the internet and we cannot prevent a lot of companies and organizations from harvesting our personal data.I use four different privacy shields, and it always amazes me how much information they (allegedly) prevent from being harvested from my computer and phone, or from being added to it for their own benefit.

This is especially egregious with Amazon, Google. and Microsoft. In addition, Amazon harvests information from Alexa. I have had personal experience with this. Alexa was on, but not being used, and all of a sudden it recommended Harry Potter movies to us. We didn't use Alexa's name to activate it, but we were talking about Harry Potter movies.

DuckDuckGo has a browser for cell phones that I have put on my phone to prevent at least some of the privacy issues. I also use their search engine on my computer. But that is not enough for me. I think we should have the right to decide whether our data is harvested and whether cookies we don't want are installed on tech devices, and the right to be paid for the intrusion if we agree to it.

And then there is our government. I already know that the US government shares data from VPNs with other countries. I don't like having to research VPNs that (allegedly) do not cooperate with the governments of these countries. I don't like ISPs keeping our emails, phone companies keeping our records of calls and texts, and our government being able to pry into those in the name of Homeland Security.
Click to expand...
Well written article. You have brought out some important points that many people who worship at the temple of technology are not aware of. There is a price for everything. This is the main reason I am not interested in any smart home. I use a flip phone but refuse to buy a "smart" phone. I cut my cable 21 years ago. Can't stand the stupid shows and especially can't stand the brainless commercials.
 
A reason backpacking days into natural wilderness areas is popular. Isolated from the rest of the world, out of phone carrier range, one carries all the gear and food on one's back, experiencing nature like our remote creaturely ancestors, sleeping out under the immense nightly universe. Tent last July in Yosemite National Park.
Kibbie-tent.jpg
 
Nathan said:
Not better. The past is....past, I don't cling to it...gotta live life for what it has to offer.
Click to expand...
Here is an argument that "things were better", (but I accept you could argue for whom!).
In my youth in the UK there were bars, (or pubs), that were for "men only", or at least rooms in them where ladies were saved from the corrupting influences of "rough hewn men"!
Boys did better than girls academically in our local schools, (plus the schools were not "coeducational", so boys didn't get distracted from their studies, or as at my small, country, first or "primary" school that was, it had separate entrances!).
No one seemed to tell you what to think or say, (in fact at our independent school, that prided itself on being so, we were introduced to the books of George Orwell, and Aldous Huxley warning about a future where folks didn't feel free to speak as they wished).
You didn't have much money, so couldn't always go out till you'd earned some more, but you valued the money more and didn't just throws it around, (not that I do now, but I am caught paying exorbitant amounts in coffee shops occasionally).
Finally, (yes finally, I'll draw this diatribe to a close now with a seasonal comment), "CHRISTMAS" really meant something, you looked forward to it, your mother may put some coal or oranges in your Christmas stocking to fill it up, but you had a special present/toy your dad maybe couldn't really afford, and what enormous turkey dinners got consumed!!!!
"Enough already"! :)
 
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I love modern technology. Most of today's problems come from overpopulation — not technology.

Today's vehicles run far cleaner than they ever have and get much better gas mileage. Heating and air conditioning units are far more efficient. So there's that. I'm not sure if all this social media networking is good or bad for society... I guess it's good and bad depending on what you do with it. Plus there are all the advances in medical treatments that help sick people.

Those things are all due to advances in technology.

Overpopulation has resulted in too many vehicles on the road. Despite advances in technology that make our vehicles run cleaner, the fact that there are so many on the road offsets the gains and greenhouse gasses are still increasing.

Overpopulation has made it harder and harder to get away from civilization, which is a big problem for us misanthropes. :ROFLMAO:
 

Life before all this technology, (was it better,.....?)​


I agree with most of what's been said here, both sides of the coin

'Better'

One thing that seems taken away

One could (had to) use their imagination....

The encyclopedia has been mentioned
Seems I'd thumb thru in search of some subject in question......and get lost when seeing all the other things that grabbed my interest
Then my imagination would take over

Same with the huge catalogues around Christmas time....

Better now

I can YouTube most anything and learn the quicker/better way to fix or make something

......and my typing has improved (both fingers)
 
I grew up in a home with a complete set of Ency. Brit., atlases, big dictionaries,other ref books that my father had amassed & I used all of them . I think it helped me learn how to do research & find what I want to know. Still love paper maps etc. But when the “time” came, couldn’t even give the encyclopedias away.
Then, I was even luckier to be able to get in on the ground floor of computing: punch cards & huge main frames, so I built on that.
im not saying the old days were better, but to me they were an essential building block.
 
grahamg said:
No one seemed to tell you what to think or say, (in fact at our independent school, that prided itself on being so, we were introduced to the books of George Orwell, and Aldous Huxley warning about a future where folks didn't feel free to speak as they wished).
Click to expand...
I read George Orwell and Aldous Huxley's book back in the '70s, and was convinced that they foretold the future. It's my observation that people have much more propensity to speak their mind nowadays, more than ever....and I might add, more than they ought to.
 

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