I grew up before cell phones and internet AMA

giftedmom

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 12:52 pm

amother Burntblack wrote:

Who said anything about a tape? I don't see an issue with moving on from that, it's not like we didn't have record players before tapes.

No issue at all it’s just that even super sheltered chassidish kids aren’t growing up like we did. Even if they have no internet access there are ways to get things done via others who do. The world is different regardless.

amother

Cerise

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 12:54 pm

amother Burntblack wrote:

I think you went off a tangent here. it's true that in the times before SM as as widely popular as it is today people had more patience to talk to others, they gave them their full attention because there wasn't that much to distract them with. Being calm is a different thing.

She asked if people had better relationships. And personally no one I know from those generations had better relationships. I’m sure they exist though. The world was different in many other ways. Lots of things were shoved under the rug, there were less resources for mental health, and less awareness of trauma and healthy relationships etc.
even in the outside world people generally acted tougher and did what they had to without focusing on mental health and good relationships.

amother

Royalblue

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 12:55 pm

amother OP wrote:

Not at all. The entire world was like that.
We watched the news on tv or heard things on the radio.
We wrote letters to friends. It was a different world.

I spent hours writing letters to my friends , even if we saw each other in school the next day . I still have boxes of letters from my friends in school.

amother

Brown

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 1:05 pm

It was an amazing time. Life was slower paced. Kids played outside every day after school. We interacted with eachother. Like others wrote, lots of letters. Lots of getting together.
We went to the library to read, to look things up. Much less expectations from jobs. There were no emails to catch up on at night.

Totally agree with the poster that said even if you sheler your kids, its just not the same.

The world was quieter and life felt peaceful.

giftedmom

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 1:07 pm

amother Royalblue wrote:

I spent hours writing letters to my friends , even if we saw each other in school the next day . I still have boxes of letters from my friends in school.

Same same. So many letters and poems. The only time I write by hand these days is notes for school.

saralem

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 1:20 pm

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. We spoke for hours on the phone-no call waiting, no caller ID. We for sure wrote letters and my mom saved all the letters I wrote to her from camp-very entertaining! I sewed a lot, played board games, baked and Cooked with friends. Went places by bus. Played records. Rode my bike for hours. It was truly a more wholesome time to grow up in. I wish young people had less exposure to the ugly underbelly of the world today.

essie14

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 1:27 pm

amother Royalblue wrote:

Did you use pay phones often?

Yes, that was how you called your parents to pick you up from school or the mall.
(I grew up in the 80s, early 90s)

amother

Azure

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 1:32 pm

amother Royalblue wrote:

Did you use pay phones often?

Not op, but her age range, so I'll give my amswer. I don't think people used them that often. People didn't call constantly like they do now. I used payphones only in an emergency. Payphones were 10 cents when I was younger, then it went up to 25 cents. I remember when it went up to 35 cents and everyone was upset that you would need two coins to make a phone call.

amother

Azure

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 1:32 pm

essie14 wrote:

Yes, that was how you called your parents to pick you up from school or the mall.
(I grew up in the 80s, early 90s)

Yes, that too. But I usually had a set time to get picked up.

essie14

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 2:03 pm

amother Hunter wrote:

how did you know where to go without gps

Pre-internet we used paper maps and AAA triptiks. You called AAA before your vacation and they made a custom booklet for you with the routes to all your destinations.
Every car had a map. We pulled it out often when we were lost or going to a new destination.

amother

Green

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 2:03 pm

amother Tulip wrote:

My chassidish kids are growing up the same old fashioned way.

Yep, my grandchildren literally dont know what a video is.
A gc was once looking at a video on a camera and exclaimed 'hey, the pictures are moving'

amother

Milk

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 2:05 pm

amother Hunter wrote:

how did you know where to go without gps

Paper Maps and we would also ask people how to get places before we went like it was an actual conversation. And then people would also argue about the best way to go, which way usually has traffic, etc etc. If you got lost, you would stop at a gas station and ask for directions, sometimes the gas station clerk would pull out a paper map as well to explain it.

amother

Almond

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 2:11 pm

amother Tulip wrote:

My chassidish kids are growing up the same old fashioned way.
The exception is, my daughter who got a flip phone in High School and I give her access to the internet for regents, spark notes and Youtube when she needs math explained.

Same. Flip phone, no text so that’s no different than a cordless home phone. No internet. They talk on the phone all day, like I did growing up.

amother

Zinnia

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 2:14 pm

amother Cerise wrote:

No
Those were some very traumatized generations. My father tried telling me once that in those days people were calmer and I challenged him on that. He didn’t like it. No, not he nor the generation before him were calmer people. They were very nervous angry people who were disconnected from themselves and others.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk

Studies actually show that depression and suicide rates in teens and 20s have gone up in correlation with social media .

amother

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 2:16 pm

amother Almond wrote:

Same. Flip phone, no text so that’s no different than a cordless home phone. No internet. They talk on the phone all day, like I did growing up.

But it is different than a home phone. They can walk out of your home and walk down the road with their cell phone.

amother

Amethyst

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 2:18 pm

Omg this is a thing for AMA? Lol so Did I but I can’t imagine that’s such a phenomena. Doesn’t everyone have a parent/cousin/aunt/neighbor/coworker older than 30?