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What it feels like to be the last gen to remember life before the internet

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Re: What it feels like to be the last gen to remember life before the internet

#91

Post by khedoros »

rayiner wrote: post #14
okket wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phones are important but without the internet they are just phones. Even with GPS, you would have to carry the whole world (or a significant amount of it where you live) as a map within your phone. Early pre-"Smart Phone" PDAs did exactly that (with external GPS receiver). Information wise, Google changed everything. There was a before, where you the information was there, but you couldn't find it and an after, where…

That's kind of like saying phones are important, but without electricity they'd just be aluminum bricks.

Isn't that the point? If phone's are significantly less useful without the internet, then doesn't that mean that the internet is the more transformational technology?

Re: What it feels like to be the last gen to remember life before the internet

#92

Post by herzogshoe »

Interesting how the year 1985 (or there abouts from what I've seen) is regarded as truly "pre-internet." I've always felt like I was relatively delayed getting online (born in the early 90s and first remember googling something in about 98-99 so I would have been about 6.) I suppose that has something to do with age and the fact that I was living in a country without widespread connection, but the www was well established by that point so I'm surprised. Anyone else in their early 20s feel like they remember the "pre-internet" days?

Re: What it feels like to be the last gen to remember life before the internet

#93

Post by technofiend »

caseysoftware wrote: post #62
dreeko_ wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lindybeige is a fantastic explainer when it comes to that sort of thing - it also highlights how quickly a person can go from knowing nothing to practically hobbyist levels of knowledge in 20 minutes post internet

Scott Adams - creator of Dilbert - was recently ridiculed for suggesting that someone could become an expert on a topic after an hour of talking with the brightest minds in that field. While "expert" needs to be defined, I don't think it's far fetched. How many times have we had that conversation with someone who knows their topic backwards and forwards and after minutes, we have a deeper understanding of it than alm…

I recently attended a lecture by Hadley Wickham on his latest tools built for R. It was both edifying and deeply saddening. I learned a great deal about R in a short time from (IMHO) one of the masters, and I realized that if Haldey is typical of a Rice University professor I should have challenged myself to get a better education than I did.

Re: What it feels like to be the last gen to remember life before the internet

#94

Post by Scottn1 »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #24

For the benefit of younger generations, here's everything you need to know about the pre-internet era: You didn't miss anything. Everything was strictly worse. Much, much worse. It makes me shudder to even think about any of it. Count yourselves lucky that you didn't have to live through those dark ages. If you ever feel the urge say something like "but the internet gave us mass surveillance", just stop and think wet…

Wow, that was a downer to read and I'm sorry you feel that way. I feel much different.

In fact, some of my best memories and seemingly happiest times were my pre-teen through post teen years through the 80's and early 90's. Without internet but was still immersed in the geeky stuff. Simpler times as the cliché would say.

Things like seeing what my friends were up to actually involved a sense of more freedom and independence because you had to actually get on your bike and knock on their door as your parents told you to stay off the phone (that cost like .3/minute to call a block away). The only "tech" that interfered with our lives was in our homes. Parks, lazing around with friends, exploring, baseball.. etc. Whatever you could do to pass time and enjoy ones company. Driving my bike to nearest field to see who else was there and sharing baseball cards, stories, flirts, etc was our Facebook.

But this was also a time of exploring the exploding world of hobby electronics (Radio Shack, Popular Electronics, First IBM PC and DOS, etc) but was more hands-on physical rather than the post-internet software/webpage intangible is king. Like I said before it was all in your home and my house was the epi-center of this stuff in my neighborhood as I was the one known to have it. If not outside getting dirty, we'd be in my house playing Earl Weaver Baseball or NFL Challenge. A pittance compared to todays sports games graphics-oriented games as these were more numbers/strategy based.

I also remember once modems became affordable that there was actually an "online" world BEFORE the internet. BBS's, usenet.

Re: What it feels like to be the last gen to remember life before the internet

#95

Post by Terr_ »

okket wrote: post #13
jpatokal wrote: post #2

I think the more meaningful difference is life before and after mobile phones. This is one of those technologies that changes everything , and it's why mobile phone penetration far exceeds internet penetration -- although smartphones are rapidly closing the gap. As a trivial example, consider meeting a friend. Before, you used to agree on a time and place, and if they didn't show up you had no way of knowing if they…

Phones are important but without the internet they are just phones. Even with GPS, you would have to carry the whole world (or a significant amount of it where you live) as a map within your phone. Early pre-"Smart Phone" PDAs did exactly that (with external GPS receiver). Information wise, Google changed everything. There was a before, where you the information was there, but you couldn't find it and an after, where…

> Information wise, Google changed everything.

Better to say "Search engines." A huge chunk of that change was already well underway before Google--as a specific product and company--came onto the scene.

Re: What it feels like to be the last gen to remember life before the internet

#96

Post by throwanem »

majewsky wrote: post #83
throwanem wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Says the guy whose company is so specific to the Internet that it wouldn't exist in a world without one. Not that I don't see what you're saying, but there are a lot of us out here who've built careers around the Internet which are, at the very least, far better than any other prospect that might've been available to us. Certainly in my own case - absent the Internet, I'm nothing but a mouthy unlettered redneck with…

I think you got the original article wrong. The author didn't argue against the connected life. He observed that the people who know life without the internet are starting to go extinct, and argues that we should preserve the unconnected experience by going offline for a few days every so often.

As well to say we should "preserve the pre-electrification experience" by tripping the house main breaker for a few days every so often. Or that we should preserve the "pre-air-conditioning experience" by turning that off for a while. (I actually read such an article not long ago, in case that sounds too absurd to be borne. Cite on request.)

The past is a foreign country. It is also dead. To study it has value. To pretend oneself a tourist there has not.

Re: What it feels like to be the last gen to remember life before the internet

#97

Post by bbctol »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #71

I think it's good to remember the nice things about pre-internet and try to protect them/bring them back. But the internet has one very important job: Allow us to prevent global climate catastrophe. It would be impossible without the internet. Only by integrating all of our cultures together into one giant knot, and having armies of people coordinating together in loose federation can we implement the myriad social,…

I am unconvinced that integrating all cultures into a giant knot is good for the environment, scientific progress, or human equality.

Re: What it feels like to be the last gen to remember life before the internet

#98

Post by erikpukinskis »

bbctol wrote: post #97
erikpukinskis wrote: post #71

I think it's good to remember the nice things about pre-internet and try to protect them/bring them back. But the internet has one very important job: Allow us to prevent global climate catastrophe. It would be impossible without the internet. Only by integrating all of our cultures together into one giant knot, and having armies of people coordinating together in loose federation can we implement the myriad social,…

I am unconvinced that integrating all cultures into a giant knot is good for the environment, scientific progress, or human equality.

I share your skepticism, but my working hypothesis is that it will help. That said, fear of it going wrong does keep me up at night.

Re: What it feels like to be the last gen to remember life before the internet

#100

Post by eli »

throwanem wrote: post #49
eli wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt your skills are so specific to the internet that you would be unemployable in a universe without it.

Says the guy whose company is so specific to the Internet that it wouldn't exist in a world without one. Not that I don't see what you're saying, but there are a lot of us out here who've built careers around the Internet which are, at the very least, far better than any other prospect that might've been available to us. Certainly in my own case - absent the Internet, I'm nothing but a mouthy unlettered redneck with…

The business I'm in is media. It's been around before the internet.
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