How Did We Survive Life Before the Internet Cell Phones?

Ask anyone under thirty and you might get a blank stare. Yes, life existed before smart phones and the internet. How did we survive?

The Truthspew blog put forth some things the thirty and under crowd continue to ponder about life twenty plus years ago

1. How did you make plans? But seriously. HOW DID YOU MAKE PLANS. THIS REMAINS A MYSTERY.

A: You called your friends and made plans. We did have wired land line phones.

2. How did you CANCEL plans? So, you’re stuck in traffic and you’re not going to make it to dinner with your friend. How in the WORLD did you let this friend know? You didn’t have a cell phone. He/she didn’t have a cell phone. People must have gotten stood up on back then… a lot.

A:You pulled over and found a pay phone. They were everywhere back in the day.

3. How did you know who was calling you before you picked up the phone? Did you just answer the phone without knowing who was going to be on the other end? That sounds so… adventurous.

A: You didn’t know. That was part of the way it worked.

4. How did you find out information about people before you went on dates with them? Like, you couldn’t "Google" them… so how did you find out about them? Did you, like, have to talk to them to find out information? What if they lied? How could you trust them? HOW COULD YOU TRUST ANYONE?.

A: Thing was social circles got huge. And you tended to date within that social circle so you’d get the 4-1-1 from friends.

5. How did you keep tabs on exes? Oh wait, you didn’t? That sounds smart. And also healthy. TOO BAD THE INTERNET HAPPENED.

A: We never found it necessary to keep any tabs on exes. 

6. How did you keep tabs on what you’re entire graduating class from high school was doing? You mean that’s what reunions were for? I thought reunions were for seeing all those people you witnessed becoming fat on Facebook in person.

A: Simple – school we went to published an alumni directory. Pretty easy to find people.

7. How did you look for jobs? And then apply to jobs? But seriously. This is a legit question. And when you did find jobs, how did you apply? Did you manually write cover letters? And resumes? THE HORROR.

A: It’s called friends or the newspaper.

8. How did your parents get in touch with you when you were out? This might have been the only perk of life before internet. Less annoying parents.

A: You had an answering machine. Just leave a message, maybe I’ll call. And some of us had pagers.

Check out full article on 20 ways we survived before smart phones and the internet.