Life before smartphones (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#31

Post by mojuba » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 5:09 PM UTC

kernoble wrote: post #14

The unmentioned thing here is why? Why does the world with a smartphone and today's hyper-connectivity seem so different now compared to what it used to? Did people feel the same way when the railroad and other forms of rapid transport showed up? What makes things feel so different? Is it more competition, and for what? Is it that things are just faster, and the certainties have changed? Has it fundamentally changed…

Something I've been wondering about lately:

In the pre-Internet era, rumors, incidents, conspiracies, book and movie opinions were passed on verbally. I saw an article nobody else in my circle ever read; a friend watched a movie nobody else is going to see any time soon, etc. There were endless opportunities to get together and talk.

We were each other's Internets.

Do people talk less these days? I certainly do but that might be due to my age. But I'm genuinely curious if the topics of conversations are as intellectually fulfilling as they used to be.

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#32

Post by jeffbee » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

m0ngr31 wrote: post #17

I've been working my way through Seinfeld, and I realized most of the plot lines couldn't have happened if cell phones were commonplace back then.

You know, that's another thing that has changed a lot. Modern TV writer just can't stop himself from using the mobile phone as a device to advance the story. We have to watch some guy in a TV show sending iMessages. That is so boring, and as a caveman from the pre-cellular era it takes me out of the show and makes me want to turn it off. A recent offender in this regard was the Amazon show "Bosch". If you made a supercut of the titular detective answering his iPhone, it would be almost as long as the series itself. This is particularly irritating since the Bosch novels were written in the 90s, before the smartphone era, in the car-phone era at the latest.

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#33

Post by austinl » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

mateo411 wrote: post #24

m0ngr31 wrote: post #17

I've been working my way through Seinfeld, and I realized most of the plot lines couldn't have happened if cell phones were commonplace back then.

There's a modern Seinfeld twitter account, which has a bunch of zany plot lines that are only possible in the smart phone era.

Wanted to share the link just because I love this account as well: https://twitter.com/SeinfeldToday

A recent example:

George's GF wants a "no phones at dinner" rule. G: "We had a good thing going, Jerry! Now we're supposed to talk? That can only end badly!

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#34

Post by mc32 » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #11

jeffbee wrote: post #7

The thing that rings out for me in this essay: "Once plans were made, I showed up without any further contact to check whether we were, in fact, “still on for tonight,”" I miss that. Used to be that if you made plans to meet someone, they would come to that time and place. Amazing! And the difference is not even limited to your friends and dating. Now we can't even count on regularly scheduled activities to happen as…

(Pre cellphones, early 90s era) My problem with that is that my friend group were not exactly punctual (myself included). So that meant a lot of waiting around, and in some cases, your group may not show up. Being near a pay-phone or begging a phone call from an establishment helped some. Also - you remembered your friends phone numbers (or had a black book).

Someone usually had a beeper to help coordinate things with the stragglers.

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#35

Post by tboyd47 » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

lubujackson wrote: post #29

tboyd47 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always go back, any time! Get a dumb phone. It's great. Engage with others more authentically, more meaningfully, and more consistently.

You can't go back though, not really. Like if you got lost pre-smartphones you would find a gas station and the person there would rattle off a series of turns you had to memorize on the spot or would pull out an atlas and walk you through directions - this was normal. Now, they would look at you like an alien. There was a culture of nudging people along to the right place. Even as a kid you would be asked for direct…

Yes, you can. I did. I do fine. I'm happy with my choice :)

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#36

Post by Damogran6 » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 5:15 PM UTC

kernoble wrote: post #14

The unmentioned thing here is why? Why does the world with a smartphone and today's hyper-connectivity seem so different now compared to what it used to? Did people feel the same way when the railroad and other forms of rapid transport showed up? What makes things feel so different? Is it more competition, and for what? Is it that things are just faster, and the certainties have changed? Has it fundamentally changed…

I still occasionally marvel that I can wake up at 4:30am in Denver and be in Very Rural Virginia by 5pm...and that's with stopping over in Atlanta first.

It's not the travel, or the time, it's the 'it's more efficient to go thousands of miles out of the way due to logistics.'

This has not been particularly new, but I can still marvel at it.

Having fixed plumbing, I'm reminded that the current iteration is as a result of 2000 years of refinement.

I have a lathe, manufactured in 1966, it still holds tolerances, and I refer to a book (how to run a lathe) that's first printing was at the turn of the 20th century (1912 or thereabouts)

Old stuff is remarkable, too.

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#37

Post by r00fus » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #34

r00fus wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Pre cellphones, early 90s era) My problem with that is that my friend group were not exactly punctual (myself included). So that meant a lot of waiting around, and in some cases, your group may not show up. Being near a pay-phone or begging a phone call from an establishment helped some. Also - you remembered your friends phone numbers (or had a black book).

Someone usually had a beeper to help coordinate things with the stragglers.

None of my friends had beepers. LOL I assumed all folks with beepers were dealers.

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#38

Post by tboyd47 » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

ahofmann wrote: post #12

tboyd47 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always go back, any time! Get a dumb phone. It's great. Engage with others more authentically, more meaningfully, and more consistently.

Tried it, hated it. Everyone is using WhatsApp, Telegram, whatever. Try typing a sms with those tiny buttons, it sucks. There is a reason why some people have a smartphone but not a computer.

SMS is a drag, but all the apps you mentioned have desktop versions.

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#39

Post by Damogran6 » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

paulvs wrote: post #21

This is eerily similar to videos forwarded on WhatsApp about "things you'd only understand if you were born in the " :) I did relate to it though. It would be apt for a video about things you'd only understand if you're a millennial.

I could see it being a pretty nifty series on the History Channel. "If you were 120 years old, this is what you'd remember from when you were 20"

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#40

Post by legrande » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

You can still live like what's described in this article. Get yourself a dumbphone and a paper atlas, only pay with cash, avoid loyalty cards, read paper books, newspapers, etc

Now and then I do that, just to switch off from our hyper-connected world. Switching off is the new peace of mind.