What do you miss about the days before internet?

1. I would lie on my floor and read a book for five hours uninterrupted and full engaged. Now I get twitchy for the internet.
   — dinosauronehundred


2. Going through life without worrying about somebody taking a video of you and positing it for everybody to see.....
   — mombed


3. Getting off to nude pinups. Now I need interracial anal fisting of transexual amputees just to get even slightly aroused.
   — UnnamedNamesake






4. Asking people I haven’t seen for a while how they were and not already knowing because of social media.
   — dauntedbox376


5. Actual privacy.
   — WTF_Fairy_II


6. You know what I miss? The days ***just at the start of the internet***. I can still remember the first time I started browsing AltaVista, which eventually became Yahoo. For a time, I thought that I really could follow all the links and read everything that was on the internet. And since there were so few links at that time, it really felt possible. This was back when **advertising on the internet was a big no-no**. The internet was not for commerce at that time. It was for sharing ideas, information, connecting people. Can you imagine the novelty of the internet the first time you encountered it? Can you imagine the fascination? You were actually reading webpages served by servers across the globe, mostly grass-roots kinds of people (not corporations), for free, containing wide-ranging topics where everyone could find something that interested them. I remember **writing down** the URLs to sites that I liked. Bookmarks were cool but we were all using college computers and nobody could guarantee your bookmarks would remain tomorrow, or guarantee you'd get to use the same machine tomorrow. So I had a little folder with URLs written down. I remember driving to campus on days when I didn't have to be there, just to get on those computers and surf the internet. I remember how **webpages with images** were still novel at the time. Most webpages resembled text-based bulletin boards. There were no digital cameras, and image compression technology still had a long way to go. So pages with images, well that was just mindblowing.
   — whomp1970






7. I miss just going to a friend's house unannounced. You could just walk up, knock, and then suddenly you were hanging out. Now people are fearful to even answer their door. The common question you'll get is, "Why didn't you text me?" I was in the neighborhood and wanted to say hi! Everyone is amazingly busy all the time now, even though they're most likely just lying on their couch, swiping through vastness of the internet.
   — dunununubatman


8. Reading the shampoo bottle as I sit on the toilet.
   — Nickelbagn


9. The joy of anticipation... instant gratification has stolen it long before.
   — 4noop






10. People had a lot more practice in 'face to face' communication. "Awkward" wasn't as common.
    — squeeeeenis