While the internet we use today might be one of the most important inventions, it wasn’t always around. Yet, the days before the internet and after it are very different. One could also argue that life before the internet was boring and stale, with much less entertaining content to consume. The world wide web today has changed our communication with friends and family and how we use our free time for leisure activities.
Today, it is easy to see what a friend or a family member is up to because of the many social media platforms at our disposal. Communication tools like Facebook or Whatsapp have connected the world thanks to the complex and web-like internet. Thanks to them, we can reach whomever we want, whenever we want, in just a few seconds. However, life before social media was a lot different — maybe a more relaxed one.
It’s easy to imagine how the days went when there was no internet. Memes before the internet had to be shared through word of mouth while out with friends. People involved themselves in activities like fishing, hiking, and creating memories full of nostalgia. Sadly, the nostalgic childhood once experienced by the older generation will probably be lost to the younger generations. And unfortunately, the internet has done a lot to create this strange situation.
An astounded mind on the NoStupidQuestions subreddit asked — “Teenagers before the internet: what did you do in your room during your spare time?” With so many answers to choose from, we have compiled a list of the best ones below. If you can relate to some of them, be sure to upvote them. If you had a favorite activity of your own, be sure to share it with a comment below.
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"Read. A lot. Watched movies. Talked on the phone. For hours at a time. That’s assuming I was home in my room. Which wasn’t a lot… I was out at the mall with friends, or hanging out at their houses, going to movies, arcades etc. I was never bored. Even when I was at home alone in my room. Boredom just wasn’t a thing when I had a good book."
"Walked all over the neighborhood. Would just show up at friends' houses (pre-common cell phone usage) to say hi and do something silly like jump on their trampoline for ten minutes together and then leave on the next part of my walk. Listened to music and thought about my deep teenager thoughts. Played SNES and practiced band instruments. Read magazines and SO many books. Honestly didn't spend a ton of time just in my room in my free time, it was mostly going out and doing things."
And when I actually was in my room I was busy trying to perfectly time hitting the infamous record & play switch combo on my tape player so I could record the best songs on the radio.
"Tried to access certain fuzzy channels in TV with no luck."
"I think the biggest difference I can remember was having to watch tv shows at specific times. VCRs were such a game changer, but up until then if you wanted to watch Seinfeld, you tuned in on Thursday night. I skipped going out on my birthday one year to watch the season premiere of Lost."
"Making models. Those plastic ones where you glue the bits together and paint them. I think that's a hobby that's pretty much disappeared."
In the UK, my school had a whole club dedicated to these, so many spitfires
At my homecoming dance. Which was like a few months ago or something, last year idk. They were doing fireballs I think. Some people fell asleep on the floor. It was nuts.
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There's literally entire fandoms where this is 90% of the time spent. Mostly for tabletop war and rpg games...
I enjoyed making them as a kid but started doing them again a few years ago as occupational therapy. I got right into it and must have spent a fortune on kits, paints, glue and brushes - even getting the aftermarket parts to make it a bit more unique. I can't recommend it enough for people who want an immersive hobby that almost totally focuses the mind and keeps out those nasty repetitive thoughts and flashbacks. You can probably pick up a starter kit for less than £10 too. It will include everything you need; the kit, glue, paint and a brush. It worked for me, so maybe?
I bought a compressor about 3 years ago to paint models and so far all I've used it for is blowing the dust out of my desktop. It didn't cross my mind when I was buying it that I have no idea about using it to paint.
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"I made interpretive dances in front of my mirror, pretending to be a pop star for hours, lol."
"I'm 63, was a teenager from 1973 to 1979. The short answer is nothing. We weren't wealthy, and my brother and I had 2 single beds in a 10x10 ft room. I left my room at about 530am to deliver newspapers and went back at about 930 pm to sleep. I studied at a desk in our family room and was outside a lot of the time otherwise."
That just means that you get into trouble. You create your own flame-throwers (bug-spray + candle), discover that mixing zinc, sulfur, and saltpeter creates a much more flammable mix than black powder, and try to build your own solid-fuel rockets. There were a few club-type things in our school, but why would we want to stay in school any longer than we had to? I ta=ke that back. I did participate in a chemistry club in 6th grade. We got the teacher to add 95% sulphuric acid to a beaker full of sugar. Fun reaction.
"Used our imagination."
Not on MY watch. I recently took my 8 year old nephew's love of Gorilla Tag and my 5 year old niece's love of being a know-it-all and taught them both about Koko the Gorilla from my (and their mother/my sister's) childhood. So now every day when I babysit we play "The Gorilla Game" where I'm Penny the trainer and they are Phoenix and Harper (they chose their own gorilla names) and I teach them sign language and take them on adventures. Last week they got a puppy that they named Dodger. So yes, imagination still exists when you have an Aunt Cara 😉
"Obsessively rearrange my bedroom furniture and reorganize my belongings. Yes, I genuinely enjoyed it. And yes, I have OCD."
"I read a lot and wrote stories and poems. I also spent a lot of time outside on my bike. I did games on the computer or consoles but these were shared. TV wasn't a huge thing either because there wasn't much "on demand" so you were stuck watching whatever was scheduled which was always hit-and-miss. I was not easily bored. I think people assume that but when you've not had access to constant entertainment, you learn how to entertain yourself so much easier. You have a lot more hobbies."
When there's five kids, mom would kick us outside to get some peace,lol
"Lay on my back in my bed and throw a ball up against the wall."
"Actually play with toys."
"Listen to rage against the machine and make explosives."
Uuuuuummm, 100x's YES! What else is a kid supposed to do when they live in the desert and it's summer break? You make explosives in the garage while blasting RATM (just bored, not trying to hurt anything/anyone) and then you get grounded for six weeks after your parents found them cuz you didn't hide them well enough. Next, you spend six weeks thinking of where the optimal hiding places are.
"Tried to pirate music from the radio onto CDs and cassettes without getting the start or end of an add... Kept me busy for hours."
"Reading, listening to music, drawing and creating, playing/hanging out with my brothers and friends. I spent a lot of time in my room and was never bored."
"I would listen to music, read teen magazines, talk to my friends on the phone (landline) for hours, and daydream about marrying Eddie Vedder."
"I read a lot, made jewelry, wrote stories, scrapbooked, played board games with my siblings, talked to them a lot, and spent a lot of time outside. Was not bored actually. In fact, I feel like I get bored now than then. I'm Gen z but we only had one computer and it was in the living room. I also wasn’t given a phone till 16."
"Hang up posters of favorite movies. Turn on the lava lamp and listen to music on the radio."
"Lie about where Victoria’s Secret catalog is."
Ahah, i use to hide my playboy and penthouse magazines ( i was 15 or 16 and there was no internet ) under my matress
"Magazines, every month I'd buy different car and videogame magazines."
I got a phase that i bought a " BBurago " model every month, those things where stunning, the problem is that even 30 years ago they costed thevequivalent to 25€ each.... 30 years ago ( my grandfather use to finance my hobbie )
"Had weird decorating ideas like using oil pastels to paint my walls."
"Collected music on vinyl."
Still have, and enjoy, my vinyl records, around 300, on my record player to this day, scratches and skips included.
"Skating. Hoolanaganism. Ninja art on alleys. Definitely things illegal. Hair dye. Getting a job. We needed money."
"Skipping school to go swimming at the lake."
I use to Skip school to go watch ThunderCats, untill the day that my Mother found out, and no more ThunderCats for me.... To be fair i only skipped músic classes, which i despised...
"Wrote my own stories, wrote in a journal, built extremely detailed Lego houses, played on my DS and Game Cube, and talked on the phone in the evening. As I got older I started doing latch hooks and cross stitches."
Ohh man, I went through a latch-hook phase XD I don’t think I ever finished a single rug.
"I played a lot of instruments, especially piano and guitar. Ate a bunch of french fries from McDonald's with my friend while we played cards."
"I discovered drinking and then we just snuck around drinking. Lol. Ah, the good old times."
Yeah, this is a part of my past that stays with me against my will often and something I wish I had had a positive role model to watch. Alcohol hasn't ruined my life, like it has some people's, but it absolutely has caused problems that needn't happen. PLEASE BE SMART KIDS! 💜
"I used to buy index cards and draw my own Yugioh cards since I couldn't buy my own (the closest LGS was 120 miles away)."
"I would emo out by laying on the floor and blasting CDs, with a lava lamp and some nag champa burning for ambiance. Occasionally I’d smoke a gross half cigarette out my window (where did I get those?)"
"Mostly spent it outdoors screwing around in the pasture, garage, or woods, at a friend's place, or riding bikes all over, go-karts, shooting the guns, riding motorcycles… Oh, and doing whatever chores or work parents prescribed."
"I remember doing dumb stuff like a couple of friends and I would go to the woods and choose a tree, pick up rocks, and see who could knock the biggest chunk of bark off from like 30 feet away while arguing about what Power Ranger was the best or something and not be bored at all for hours. I feel bad for everyone who never got to experience that kind of thing."
"CDs, radio, trying to make mix tapes, magazines, books, video games… Talking on the phone."
"Listen to heavy metal music."
I still do, granted its heavy metal, its folk metal ( same thing but with violins and bag pipes ) and i love it.
"Watching cartoons, playing super Mario, cricket, and other local games mostly."
"I played a lot of sports, football, soccer, indoor soccer, indoor track, outdoor track, cross country, basketball, baseball, and a lot of table tennis. I also played video games, tactical simulation games, worked, and hung out with my friends and girlfriend."
"I did leather work. Made all kinds of things."
Im just viweing that scene from Thor Ragnarock, when they melt the guy and Thor starts screaming like a kidergarten girl, because of the smell..... ( I can't stand the smell of leather )
"I grew up in the 90s and early 2000s when we had internet, but it was one family computer, couldn’t be used at the same time as the phone, and we were very, very limited on time (I had three siblings). We honestly didn’t hang out in our rooms that much: We played football in the street outside and rode our bikes and rollerblades around with neighborhood kids. My family didn’t have a video game console, but sometimes we’d go play Mario Kart at friends’ houses if the weather was bad. If we hung out in our rooms we’d do things like play Crazy Bones, Pogs, or Pokémon cards. Or talk on the landline to friends if it wasn’t being used."
"Painting my nails in many different colors, trying and failing to use various products to straighten my hair in a time before GHDs."
"Honestly? I was a little ball of anxiety. I would put my headphones on, crank up the tunes, and zone out. I’d daydream and drift into lala land away from the anxiety."
"Worked on R/C cars for the next race weekend. Computer graphics on my Amiga 500. And every video game is known to man. Those were the 3 big things."
Buying those Basic code magazines for coding games. Spending a long weekend coding without being able to play because you messed....Later, cheat codes magazines
"I had a knack for taking apart any and every electrical device and trying to put it back on together(wasn't always a success) that I could get my hands on."
"But definitely lots of rock'n'roll. And riding bikes and camping, and summer jobs. And taking the train everywhere because it was cheap. Only saw my room when I was sleeping or it was raining outside and I would be reading books."
"I played with action figures a lot later than socially acceptable lol. But I’m 39 now and miss it."
"I used to read, build model cars/airplanes/ships, and go outside. Then I got a Sega genesis..."
I love modeling, building the models i can do, painting them though.... It seems like i have two left feet ( as opose to hands ).....
"I would daydream."
"Drive around aimlessly. Go to malls, egg people's houses, meet up with new people, go to parties. Good old days."
"Draw my comic book characters."
"In addition to going outside, we got into all kinds of shenanigans inside the house. For a good, while there I was a home-alone kid until some concerned neighbors called the police and let my parents know they couldn't leave their kids alone in the house."
"Texting my crush."
Couldn't do that on a landline. You actually had to talk to them on the phone
"Mostly video games, but my best friend and I did spend one Summer making a claymation version of "Pulp Fiction" using characters from Gumby. That was a fun one."
"Grew up in the 90s/00s. Spent most of my time outside with friends riding bikes, rollerblading, and making forts in the woods. When I was inside I was playing the Sims or Rollercoaster Tycoon like it was my job."
"I did have 56k internet but didn't use it so much obviously. It was mainly playing the guitar, watching MTV, playing games on the PlayStation (the first one!), and honestly also napping a lot."
"I typed in machine code from my Ahoy! Magazine into my Commodore64 so that I could play Breakout for free!"
My legs would cramp from sitting cross-legged for half the day.
Load More Replies... These were fun. Brought back memories of some good times, before the bad come
We used to get high on weed, and spend afternoons dubbing stupid TV shows on a muted TV, then go back to listening Nirvana MTV Unplugged album on cassette before going home riding our bikes
I was one of those indoor kids. I rarely made friends with neighbors (we moved a lot) so I played with Legos and did clay sculptures. Read comics books and Anne Rice novels. Played around on our Windows 3.1 computer (seriously just going through the folders clicking on every exe file) and playing lots of Solitaire. I also spent a large chunk of time watching TV, a lot of it reruns - Night Court, Gimme A Break, Diff'rent Strokes, Facts of Life, Perfect Strangers, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the War of the Worlds TV series.
My legs would cramp from sitting cross-legged for half the day.
Load More Replies... These were fun. Brought back memories of some good times, before the bad come
We used to get high on weed, and spend afternoons dubbing stupid TV shows on a muted TV, then go back to listening Nirvana MTV Unplugged album on cassette before going home riding our bikes
I was one of those indoor kids. I rarely made friends with neighbors (we moved a lot) so I played with Legos and did clay sculptures. Read comics books and Anne Rice novels. Played around on our Windows 3.1 computer (seriously just going through the folders clicking on every exe file) and playing lots of Solitaire. I also spent a large chunk of time watching TV, a lot of it reruns - Night Court, Gimme A Break, Diff'rent Strokes, Facts of Life, Perfect Strangers, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the War of the Worlds TV series.
