https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/07/sunday-routine
The shouts and murmurs is definitely a great section!
'Before the internet' pretty much coincides with 'when I was a kid' for me. I would love to hear 'before the internet' memories from people who were adults before the internet too.
I definitely get more out of physical paper where I can book mark, dog ear, underline, highlight and write in the margins than I've ever gotten from a digital copy. Except for the searching.
I don't think we'll ever have a great hybrid, but pairing the two together is the way to go.
Inter-branch loans haven't changed. I'm on 3 months now still waiting for one.
That's gone now. I totally can't imagine how it is for kids now. I mean, I would be in such deep shit by my mid 20s.
Wow! I actually had 'the booklet' when I was a kid. Carried it around with me. If you want to brighten a youngster's day, get it,
https://www.amazon.com/Rocks-Minerals-Golden-Nature-Guides/d...
Before the internet, gay kids committed suicide, never even knowing how they felt was normal for some other people far away from their small town.
Before the internet, if your county library didn't have it, it didn't exist.
Before the internet, you had 3 TV channels, and you watched what the advertisers would pay for, not what you were curious about.
I don't think this piece is contradicting to the fact the internet has brought lots of good things as well, especially in when it comes to making information accessible and easy to use/copy etc.
But it's pointing out that we also lost something in that process. Which sometimes can be hard to put a finger on, seeing as it's mostly about letting ourselves be bored, letting ourself be inspired from something within.
Inter-library loans existed long before the internet.
> Before the internet, you had 3 TV channels, and you watched what the advertisers would pay for, not what you were curious about.
Cable TV with lots of channels existed long before streaming video was available on the web. Also, you could rent videos at Blockbuster (or borrow them for free at the local library). And you had ad-free public TV stations.
Cable and video rentals weren't available till I was in college.
You're right that some of these things became available in limited quantities, or were available with a lot of effort, but overall the gist of what OP said captures the idea. Things are very different from when I grew up in the 70s/early 80s.
In a way, book searching is probably the only cool thing about internet IMO. The rest was already nice enough as it was. You don't need ultra high bandwidth and ultra low latency to find a VHS for a night with friends... it won't make the memories better.
And used bookstores. I loved those. You could find anything.
