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| "Schwarzweiß-Testbild der 1950er und 1960er Jahre auf Philips-Fernseher TD1410U ("Starenkasten") von 1952." Wikipedia Commons (public domain). |
To be honest, from the looks of him, I'm not sure he's old enough to remember life before the Internet, bet let's assume so until proven otherwise.
But that and another recent conversation about TV test patterns (yes, it was a thing) got me trying to remember what life was like and what I liked about it.
Before we get too far into this and you decide to brand me a Luddite and report me to the Social Media Police, I do want to stress that I appreciate life in the Internet age a great deal. I love the connectivity with both people and information. I love the community, the communication, the getting a glimpse of lives lived elsewhere--which has always been an interest for me.
But . . . sometimes . . . I feel a few things have been given up along the way for the sake of information and connectivity . . . and I'm not sure we're any better (and possibly a lot worse) for it.
Below are a few examples from my memory banks. I'd be curious about what you remember and what you liked as well.
- Not necessarily pre-Internet but ... A limited number of TV channels meant that we all generally watched the same programs and could talk about the same shows and understood the same cultural references. So there's your communication and connectivity right there.
- The challenge of "discovery" -- meaning that as information wasn't so readily available, when I found what I wanted or needed, it felt a bit more special. Discovery felt more remarkable. Now I rarely get a thrill from my information and research discoveries.
- I sometimes think the quality of my friendships was a bit stronger. There was no social media, so I couldn't tune into everyone's lives as easily and thus perhaps paid more attention to those around me (maybe? maybe not!). Also, I used to write letters, long, glorious letters, to those who didn't live nearby, and I used to receive long, glorious letters from those who lived far away. Nowadays I'm lucky if I can string together a couple of paragraphs, my handwriting has become atrocious, and almost all the mail I get relates to buying or selling condos. (That may be specific to Toronto, however.)
- I used to read more and create my own, temporary world through the book I was reading at the time. Or did the same through shows I watched--for example, soap operas. I'd match Dark Shadows or Another World when they were firing on all cylinders with True Blood or This Is Us. I admit to having dodgy taste, but fork it, I'd take life in Collinsport or Bay City any day over a real or imagined Pittsburgh.
- I miss receiving magazines in the mail. And holding the newspaper, smudgy ink and all, and reading it daily.
- I miss mail in general. And stamps--although I still collect them. I used to decorate the envelopes of letters to friends. (I'm sure the post office hated it, but I enjoyed doing so.) My personal favorite decorated letter was sent to a friend in Australia back in the '80s and referenced the plot of the Oz (wouldn't you know it?) nighttime soap, Return to Eden. "On the next Return to Eden, Stephanie Harper suffers major plastic surgery setback." And side by side I featured a picture of the lovely Rebecca Gilling (who played Stephanie H.) and Jamie Lee Curtis's melting face from one of the Halloween movies, imposed over a background of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and some kangaroos. (Perhaps you had to be there.)
- Encyclopedia(s) and reference books. Out of date, sure, but did you need the latest information or could you improvise with what you had? Sure you could.
- Shortwave radio. That was a big hobby for me growing up and has influenced my life even today--the music I listen to, an interest in travel and culture, a love for information, a fascination with people from other places and what life is like where they live.
- Regionalism. I miss the uniqueness of language and culture in places. Sameness makes it easier to communicate but it also makes things duller. In North Carolina, grew up calling a toilet a "commode"--very polite and rural Southern. We called the 6-peanut-butter-crackers-to-a-pack "Nabs." We all wanted to go see Tweetsie Railroad and meet Mildred the Bear. I can still sing the advertising jingle for both Cheerwine and Ivey's. Those weren't all felled by the advent of the Internet, but it's part of a similar story--consolidation and homogenization in American if not international culture. Yawn.
- International Communism. Seriously. Totalitarian regimes were at least about something, a worldview, a cultural and economic philosophy, even if they weren't always sincere. Nowadays we get dickishness passed off as ideology. In business attire, ferchrissakes.
- Ditto for "Americanism." We ran rampant over the post-war world but at least you knew what we were about--liberty, opportunity, freedom of choice, better consumer goods, making money, exploiting resources (and people along the way), defeating international Communism -- even if we didn't always live up to the liberty, opportunity, and freedom parts, at home or abroad, as much as we said we did. But think about it--would you rather be exploited on the way to a) getting a washer & dryer or a car or b) for an extra bag of millet and increased boot production in your industrial sector? Don't kid yourself, champagne supernova Socialists: You would choose a) every time. (Who even knows what millet is, let alone why you would want more of it?)
Still, it wasn't all bad, was it? I'm sure I was frustrated then as I am sometimes now, likely more so, but occasionally I feel like a few of my more cherished possessions got lost in transit while moving rapidly to the future.
So take at least some of the above with a grain of salt, a tongue firmly in cheek, the musings of a privileged goofball at 50+, whose greatest hits collection is dropping off the pop charts after a good run in the top 10, 20, 30, and 40.
I'm Weird Montag Yankingyourchainabit, and I'm here as long as you'll have me.
Now 'eat it.
