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We all know how technology has benefited us, but have you ever stopped to think about what we lost when the internet started permeating every aspect of our lives? Nervously sitting in a diner waiting for your date to arrive without any way to communicate with them, heading home when the sun starts setting (rather than when Mom sends a text), and taking the time to write physical letters that will be delivered days later via snail mail.

If you’re in the mood for nostalgia, we’ve got the perfect list for you, pandas. Eric Alper recently asked fellow Twitter users to share the little things they miss about their pre-internet lives, so sit back, relax and get ready to reminisce on the good old days!

#1

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troufaki13
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to have pen pals all over the world. Unfortunately we lost touch 😥

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We wanted to learn more about how this conversation started in the first place, so we reached out to Eric Alper via email, and lucky for us, he was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. "I love using the internet, and specifically Twitter and Facebook, for good," he shared. "I really have no interest in creating or adding to the mess some corners of the platform are using it for, and as a publicist working in the music industry, I know people love talking about themselves."

"I started asking questions that were only positive, feel-good, fun and wholesome to offer a simple reminder that communication and just treating people nicely goes far," Eric continued. "So, instead of asking 'People old enough to remember life pre-Internet, what are some less obvious things you’re glad will never come back,' which can trigger or conjury up negative feelings, it’s all about what’s cool that you remember doing before all of this."

#2

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Paul C.
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I remember going to see The Who in Brighton before mobile phones and about half way through there was the use of laser, strobe lights. I remember turning and seeing the wonder on all the faces around me. Today would just be a sea of mobile phones held in the air.

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We were also curious how much Eric remembers about pre-internet life. "I remember going outside, playing with my friends or going to their houses, and parents not having any clue where we were," he told Bored Panda. "It was so bad that at 11pm, the TV stations would ask if they knew where their children were as a REMINDER that they had kids. Bizarre."

And as for the responses to his initial tweet, Eric says he read almost all of them, purely for his own entertainment. "I related to almost all of them, and I’m surprised we’re all still here, in one slightly somewhat hilariously damaged piece," he added.

#3

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October
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Back then it was way easier to ignore people and just slide off the grid for a while. I miss that.

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And although there are things Eric sometimes misses, he seems to have made peace with how technology has progressed. "There’s always going to be the generation that came before that will claim they had it better," he noted. "In fact, I’m sure cavepeople and their kids were complaining to each other about what life was like before fire, when food tasted cold and they like it that way. But, as I look around at my own family, with two dogs at my side, talking to the fab Bored Panda, this is a very good life I wouldn’t trade up."

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#4

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KJ
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It was getting the Argos catalogue that I loved, circling all the things that I wanted for christmas.

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On April 30, 1993, the World Wide Web became available to the general public, forever changing the trajectory of our world. Today, over 5 billion people on the planet use the internet, and 60% of the world’s web traffic comes from cell phone users. We shop online, read the news online, keep up with our friends online, work online, order food to be delivered through apps, and many of us have even incorporated the internet into our watches, home appliances and cars. And while it’s almost impossible to imagine our lives without the internet at this point, plenty of people have actually experienced a life before Facebook and Google existed. And it wasn’t half bad.

I have to admit that I never knew a world without the internet, pandas. Of course, it was very different when I was a child, and I still remember the very first time I saw a YouTube video. But there was never a time when I was a kid, or at least not when I was old enough to remember, that our home didn’t have a computer in it. Back then, it was one bulky desktop that my parents kept in their bedroom, and I was only allowed to use for very limited amounts of time to play games. But it still kept me from ever knowing true boredom or being amazed by how technology has advanced since then. 

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#5

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David Wambold
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, had to look things up in a library with a card catalog. Now you just google it.

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#6

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Lisa T
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I remember on the weekends the radio would play the top 40 songs. The list was printed in the newspaper. So you’d sit there with the list, with the songs you wanted to record circled in pen, listening to the Top 40

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As you can see from the responses on this list, and what you may remember about your own life, days before the internet were simpler, and perhaps even much more peaceful. Dating was limited to people you actually met in person, or blind dates you were set up on through friends, rather than swiping through endless options on apps where individuals can curate their personas and photoshop their pics. Hanging out with friends hinged on verbal agreements or spontaneously running into one another at your “spots,” and parents had to trust their little ones to come home when they told them to.

I have to admit, however, that I cannot imagine traveling without having a smartphone. I’m well aware that I’m young and spoiled, but Google Maps is a godsend. Trying to find a location based on paper maps and an address alone sounds like an incredible feat for someone in Gen Z to accomplish. But along with the convenience of apps and smartphones comes the unfortunate reality that we’ll never get to experience what life was like without them.   

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#8

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David Wambold
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Finding something on the 3 or 4 TV channels we had as kids. Wonder why anyone ever watched some of those old shows. Because there was nothing else on.

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#9

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KJ
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I really don't miss using physical maps for journeys, google maps is so useful in my job.

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According to Valerie Forgeard at Brilliantio, one of the great luxuries of life before we had constant access to the internet was having more free time and fewer distractions. If we were at home trying to accomplish a task, we couldn’t simply start scrolling on our phones or watching YouTube videos. Nothing would interrupt us unless the phone rang or someone physically showed up. And people had to value conversations with one another, otherwise there was no way of knowing what friends and family members had been up to since you last saw them. We also had to discuss politics and news in person, in case we hadn’t all read the paper that day. We weren’t bombarded with constant information and distractions.

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#11

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Kimberly Alison
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And then you’d make up things to do with your friends or siblings- like build forts.

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#12

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Annik Perrot
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ah, the joys of "Let's meet at Fontaine St Michel at 8". There were at least 200 people around the blasted fountain, but not the ones you were looking for.

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We also had longer attention spans before being presented with endless streams of information. One study found that topics that quickly gather widespread attention from the public have been losing traction faster and faster over time. “For example, a 2013 Twitter global trend would last for an average of 17.5 hours, contrasted with a 2016 Twitter trend, which would last for only 11.9 hours,” Dream McClinton wrote for The Guardian. We have access to so much information that we can’t stay fixated on anything for too long, otherwise it’s already old news. And while this trend started at least a century ago, experts say it has only gotten worse and worse since the internet permeated our lives. 

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#13

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David Wambold
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And you could answer the phone without it being a robot or someone selling something.

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#14

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Kalon Suszko
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People that use their phone while I am talking to them I just stop the conversation and walk away. That bugs the c**p out of me!

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#15

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Fraxinus excelsior
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Looking through the saucy seaside postcards, deciding which one to send to your grandparents. Like the "No nurse, I said prick his boil"

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Back in the day, we couldn’t immediately Google everything we wanted to know. We had to actually be curious about things, while today we’re used to instant gratification, which isn’t always a great thing. According to Pamela Li at Parenting for Brain, getting what we want right when we want it can actually be worse for us than having to exercise patience. A classic example of this is the marshmallow test from the 1960s, which involved researchers asking preschoolers whether they would rather have one marshmallow immediately or wait to have two later. Those who could wait the longest before eating marshmallows had better outcomes all the way into their adolescence, reporting higher SAT scores, better social skills, better emotional coping, greater self-control, as well as being less prone to temptation, more intelligent and better at concentrating.   

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#16

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Paul Neff
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Heh, being out of touch with people was easier, because the amount of effort to reach out and communicate was not sustainable long term, IF you ignored it long enough.

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#18

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Marcos Valencia
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh... meeting THAT girl at the library for a classwork when you were 14...

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While we might not find anything wrong with immediately Googling the year that famous event took place or that one actor’s name that’s on the tip of your tongue, seeking instant gratification in certain aspects of our lives can actually be dangerous. Li writes that the desire to have things as soon as possible is what often leads teenagers to engage in risky behaviors such as shoplifting and experimenting with drugs and alcohol. These provide an immediate reward, but they aren’t without consequences.  

#19

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Pyla
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ah the joy of an independently owned local newspaper where you can read everything from the news and sports, to weather and get a recipe for dinner.

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#21

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Huddo's sister
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I still watch (and buy) my dvds regularly, but I have far more than 12!

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There are pros and cons to the advancement of technology, of course, but sometimes it’s nice to have a reminder that life certainly wasn’t bad before the internet. We didn’t have social media to help us keep up with our high school and college friends, but we also didn’t have influencers telling us how to dress and allowing us to compare ourselves to unattainable standards. It may have been harder to meet people you were genuinely interested in dating, but today, many people’s standards have become unrealistic due to the illusion of having endless options. Obviously, we love the internet here at Bored Panda, we wouldn’t exist without it! But that doesn’t mean our lives were missing out before its creation.

#22

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Kimberly Alison
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And not getting ripped off at every turn. The cereal boxes actually had cereal to the top of the box!

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#23

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KJ
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For me it was taking a football to the park behind the school, your either kicking the ball against a wall or got a full on football match.

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#24

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Hiram's Friend
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Thank the 24 hour news cycle. Something that would have been local before CNN is now on all the news networks because they have to fill the time between commercials.

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Just because certain things have become much less common since the internet became widely available doesn’t mean that they have to be phased out completely. Take dating, for example. Sure, it may be extremely common nowadays to meet partners on apps or websites, but that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to strike up a conversation with someone you fancy at a coffee shop or the library. If you miss the good old days of being disconnected, don’t use social media, and don’t be scared to leave your phone at home when you go for a walk. Personally, I’m a huge fan of leaving mine on airplane mode when I don’t want any distractions. Without any notifications coming in, there’s no need to check it!   

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#26

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Kimberly Alison
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, the options were much fewer too. You just picked what was available and made due. But things were made better then too so you got ripped off less.

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#27

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Kalon Suszko
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

OMG! Me and my buddies would call this " A Cruise To Nowhere"! Would just set a general direction and just drive, not follow any signs, except the direction we were headed...say west. In the late 70's early 80's it was OK to drink and drive w/o worries of a DWI. So we got our beers and drove for 6-8 hours. Get tired crash there on the spot as it was late night. Check out the area we were in the next day, get a map find out where we landed then head home the following day. We always found something interesting on our travels!

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We hope you’re enjoying this trip down memory lane, pandas, if you’re old enough to remember those pre-internet days. Despite all of these things we may have lost, we’ve gained many more opportunities with the growth of technology, so we’ll try to focus on the positives. But we’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments below. What do you miss about those simpler times? Then, if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article that will make you nostalgic, we recommend reading this one next!

#28

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Doyle Alan
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I miss people using actual words instead of acronyms. I spent a lot of time looking things up now days. :)

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#29

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Kalon Suszko
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

West coast and East coast USA. Was probably one of the first in New Jersey to low rider my pickup when everyone else was adding lift kits and 3 foot tires to there trucks. I read west coast car magazines at the time (remember magazines?) I loved the west coast low rider scene, so brought it to NJ. Old pic of my work in progress...1983-84. Truck1-unf...29a6a9.jpg Truck1-unfinished-648340229a6a9.jpg

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#30

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Suzy Creamcheese
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Social interaction of any kind that doesn't involve a screen is a lost art among the younger generations. I've seen with my own eyes a group of kids together in the same room, noses buried in phones, not interacting with each other in any way.

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#31

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Suzy Creamcheese
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And the news was delivered by true professionals who just gave you the facts with as little spin as possible. There was no "infotainment" in those days.

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#32

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Pie
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow. What an elitist and gatekeepery opinion. Why not be happy that people are able to experience the things that you love without having to have access to the shops and concerts you do? The value of your rare album isn't diminished by a poor person being able to hear a recording they could never afford to buy or devote the time to track down. Or in different countries where it may be impossible to go to "the right record store and sift[ed] through crates."

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#33

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Huddo's sister
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I still do this- I have a notepad and pen in my car specifically to write down the names of bands/song I don't know. Many people still listen to the radio don't they?

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#34

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#35

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Suzy Creamcheese
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I miss the days before people spent every waking minute with their noses buried in a screen, but I don't miss waiting two or three weeks to receive something I ordered.

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#36

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DubMaccaT
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Being Scouse and moving to the prairies I was bullied relentlessly for being different. They’d wait for me outside school, the shops, even those meet up places talked about above. There was no escape. Bullying has always existed for some unlucky people.

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#37

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Chintan Shah
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I still remember purchasing calling cards with a set amount of time pre loaded. You would call for a few minutes to every family member that had a phone just to hear their voice and ask for life updates and give them yours. Before ending the call you would tell each other the next date and time that you would call again so both families would be waiting by the phone to receive a call and hear each other.

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#38

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DubMaccaT
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

2 days for Pink Floyd with my best mate. My Dad brought us soup, good times. Ended up with 11th row. 😂

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#39

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Tucker Cahooter
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And the fact that those opinions were harder to share. All those ratbag ideas such as flat earth etc, while they have been around for ages, I doubt they would have gained the traction that they have without the internet

#43

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Walter Brameld
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Go back early enough, and the manuals would include instructions on UI basics like how to use a mouse, how to navigate a menu bar, how to click a button, etc.

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#46

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Agnes Jekyll
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I went to an expensive restaurant with a friend after the lock down ended, and there was a table of four young women (maybe 18 to 22), and they spent the entire meal on their phones. They didn''t speak to each other. They took photos of the food, and that was their only interaction. I never could have afforded that restaurant at their age--it saddened me that they didn't enjoy the ambiance or experience of the place or that they didn't interact with each other. ... It's true, I do not know their story, it just seemed, after lock down, to be a missed opportunity.

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#47

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Walter Brameld
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Conspiracy theories thrive like never before thanks to instant global communication.

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#48

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Kimberly Alison
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Life was just so less stressful when you weren’t constantly bombarded with information and endless choices. There is so much pressure now that is just “there” all the time in everyday life. “Doing” and “knowing” has become the culture.