What did people do before smartphones? Were there other, better ways of killing time? @ibogost.bsky.social on what simply cannot be remembered: (From 2023) https://theatln.tc/5E2GK6w6
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Books, got outside, reading books while outside, garden, watch tv, nap, hang out with friends, scouting yard sales. Played with the dogs.
aug 2, 2025, 8:03 pm • 2 0 • view
Two of the dudes in that picture are clearly checking out someone’s ass. They’re comfortable doing this in front of the person taking this picture because they can’t conceive of a world where that picture is suddenly transmitted worldwide, exposing them as leering creeps.
aug 2, 2025, 7:49 pm • 0 0 • view
We read books, colored, read magazines, went out for walks and discovered interesting stores and landmarks, did things with interest and care, ENJOYING music instead of just listening to it, and so many more!
aug 2, 2025, 8:28 pm • 1 0 • view
People were bored into a stupor.
aug 2, 2025, 7:38 pm • 0 0 • view
I’ve lived through that period, but I honestly can’t remember. Especially: how did we manage to organize dates???
aug 2, 2025, 7:18 pm • 1 0 • view
I had a friend who was an invisible talking elephant who wore a monocle and together we would solve crimes.
aug 2, 2025, 9:56 pm • 1 0 • view
Is this article satire?
aug 2, 2025, 9:05 pm • 0 0 • view
There are these thing called books that I found helpful in those situations.
aug 2, 2025, 7:44 pm • 1 0 • view
aug 2, 2025, 7:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Before mobile phones. When you met friends. At the pub You arranged when to meet next. And at what pub. We were smart. Then
aug 2, 2025, 7:59 pm • 1 0 • view
Destroy dictators and bad politicians…
aug 2, 2025, 7:24 pm • 0 0 • view
got lost, in space and our own thoughts, had to ask for directions. missed out on cool cat memes...were not as hateful...easy to do at a digital distance
aug 2, 2025, 7:54 pm • 0 0 • view
[peter falk voice] When I was your age, “smartphones” were called BOOKS!
aug 2, 2025, 7:22 pm • 6 1 • view
Sitting on the toilet: read shampoo bottle, farmer's almanac. Breakfast: cereal box, milk carton, newspaper. Rainy Saturday: sometimes I literally browsed the Encyclopedia Britannica in boredom. Started/restarted Lord of the Rings over my teen years until I finally completed it.
aug 2, 2025, 7:39 pm • 0 0 • view
Ok ok ok I actually read the article now and feel smug about the shampoo bottle and cereal box mention. Yes, my waiting time was accompanied by a lot of boredom and anxiety. I never smoked but my mom did; she said smoking filled the down time. But smartphones still aren't the answer...
aug 2, 2025, 8:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Mom was 100% talented. She sewed, macraméd, made beer and root beer, canned and dried food, refinished furniture, made Christmas ornaments, wallpapered the house to within an inch of its life. Remember Wallpaper to Go? I do none of these things. I doomscroll and fret about current events.
aug 2, 2025, 8:17 pm • 0 0 • view
Gameboy, Walkman, newspaper, magazines
aug 2, 2025, 8:10 pm • 0 0 • view
aug 2, 2025, 7:20 pm • 3 0 • view
Socialized with other people, face to face.
aug 2, 2025, 7:28 pm • 2 0 • view
I've always read - books, magazines, newspapers. They seem to be coalescing onto my smartphone.
aug 2, 2025, 8:18 pm • 0 0 • view
1.) Procure one large uncooked beef liver. 2.) Throw uncooked beef liver against wall. 3.) Watch uncooked beef liver slowly slide down wall. 4.) Repeat steps 2 & 3 as deemed necessary.
aug 2, 2025, 7:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Watched TV, but I'm a senior so I still watch TV and use a smartphone.
aug 2, 2025, 7:46 pm • 0 0 • view
read books
aug 2, 2025, 7:32 pm • 0 0 • view
There were PDA's, like PalmPilots and other handheld digital assistants.
aug 2, 2025, 8:16 pm • 0 0 • view
Refined their interpersonal skills.
aug 2, 2025, 7:30 pm • 0 0 • view
Drank alcohol and physically looked for pussy, in real life. Not on an app.
aug 2, 2025, 9:33 pm • 0 0 • view
Reading the responses from people who didn't seem to have read the article...how much actual dead time, especially when you didn't have a book or someone else to talk to, did y'all experience before smartphones?
aug 2, 2025, 7:40 pm • 0 0 • view
Portable games. Mattel was very successful with its Electronic Football (and other sports). I had a Blackjack game, then a Gameboy. And who could forget pocket Mumbley-peg?
aug 3, 2025, 1:13 am • 0 0 • view
There were things called books, and I still use em. Just one example.
aug 2, 2025, 7:21 pm • 4 0 • view
Read, talk, sleep, sit quietly, crossword puzzles, word searches, eat and drink, etc…
aug 2, 2025, 7:27 pm • 0 0 • view
Read physical books, comics, drawing, watch whatever was on tv, sometimes just sat and daydreamed, listened to records, then later on CDs, play solitaire with real cards, wrote letters with pens and mailed to faraway friends...
aug 2, 2025, 7:25 pm • 7 0 • view
I carried a small-ish calendar and wrote down EVERY appointment, name, and phone number that was important enough to get me thru ONE DAY !!
aug 2, 2025, 7:23 pm • 0 0 • view
We were all totally fine. Better, actually.
aug 2, 2025, 7:42 pm • 0 0 • view
books, magazines, newspapers, other people, daydreaming the 90s were awesome, brain health-wise
aug 2, 2025, 7:20 pm • 2 0 • view
I had an existential longing for the 90s this week. Listened to some 90s music while running and ran harder and faster than I ever have. And at the same time, tears streaming down my face because I miss the 90s so much and I felt so awful for all the young people. Weird week.
aug 2, 2025, 7:46 pm • 4 0 • view
totally get it!
aug 2, 2025, 11:35 pm • 1 0 • view
I remember a lot more calling my friends and hanging out doing nothing
aug 2, 2025, 7:59 pm • 1 0 • view
📌
aug 2, 2025, 7:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Read books
aug 2, 2025, 7:41 pm • 0 0 • view
Just watch Seinfeld as an exapmle - people read the paper, magazines, went to the café, hung out in the park, talk on the phone.
aug 2, 2025, 7:24 pm • 0 0 • view
Human relationships. That’s what we did before smartphones
aug 2, 2025, 7:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Talk to actual people in the same room with us.
aug 2, 2025, 11:49 pm • 0 0 • view
Had a real life.
aug 2, 2025, 7:25 pm • 0 0 • view
You ever wondered why birth rate in "restricted" societies are way higher. Like Mormon’s or orthodox religious people. Yea.,. that's why.
aug 2, 2025, 7:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Live our lives more fully.
aug 2, 2025, 7:47 pm • 0 0 • view
Like it. But the 1990s weren't that dull. Paper based activities took longer it's true. Cut and paste was real cut and paste. Life changed with the Walkman and then the early MP3s.
aug 2, 2025, 8:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Daydreaming, reading books, magazines, newspapers, thousand yard staring into the middle distance, talking to… each other.
aug 2, 2025, 7:21 pm • 5 0 • view
Newspapers, magazines, books, conversation, intimacy.
aug 2, 2025, 8:11 pm • 0 0 • view