Pre- mobiles and internet time, question for those who knew it

[gbb]

As a teenager in the late 1970s (and BTW, they were great times) as the first car owner of our group of friends, keeping in touch was haphazard.
Bear in mind, making phone calls in the 70s 80s and maybe the 90s...was expensive so you did it sparingly, usually because as a 17 YO in my case, I'd already left home (I was quite independent, my parents didn't mind)...and using someone else's phone was a bind. You'd more likely go down the phone box down the street.
So you verbally agreed times to meet, let's say Friday night, whatever, I'll be there at 8pm...and you were.
Occasionally you'd go to someone's...is Tim in ?....no, he's at Geoff...so you'd go to Geoff, no problem, we didn't get hung up about it.

It was all mostly done on spec...you just went and if he was there, no problem, if not, you'd either find him or go somewhere else.

Everyone survived, children weren't cosseted because they might be out all day and no one worried if they didn't put their head in the door till 7pm...we got on perfectly well without mobiles and social media.

It's given us a lot (social media etc) but if it disappeared overnight, people would revert to life without it in a very short time...it's nice if used properly, but it's not an essential, whatever people think.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Funny, isn't it how pre mobiles you'd go out on the bike all day, with the club or on your own and wouldn't even bother to take change for the phone box. Same with any other journey. Now I leave the house to walk the dogs round the block and if I get twenty yards down the road and find my mobile is not in my pocket I go into a blind panic...

 

[ufkacbln]

My mobile is nearly as old as you, 17 years old.

And less of the shuffling about!

According to the Police on the "Reality" Police shows, the use of old phones such as these is suspicious. Only this who want to avoid the tracking available on modern devices whilst carrying out their nefarious activities


Yoo iz a drug dealer..... obvious innit!

 

[Piemaster]

My office has a fax number. I can't remember the last time I sent one

 

[screenman]

An hour ago I was very pleased to have a phone with me, I will tell you about it later.

 

[ufkacbln]

My office has a fax number. I can't remember the last time I sent one

We are getting rid of ours!!!

The risk of documents going to the wrong place is high

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

I'd go back to the 70's at the drop of a hat. For the cycling anyway. And the pop music. But not the strikes and the wallpaper.

 

[classic33]

At the time it seemed OK, but looking back it was completely useless

As a teenager....arranging to meet someone and they're delayed but you have no idea, or you're standing in the wrong place or whatever. Meet some girl and find you've got no way of keeping in touch except letter writing or a tortuous arrangement with payphones. Losing touch with people you went to school with.

At work....getting documents sent by fax which jammed or ran out of paper. Sending paper memos around the buildings.

Having to trawl around shops on Saturdays to buy a specific lightbulb whereas now it's all online and my Saturdays are my own

It wasn't better. It was shoot

You didn't know where to buy a lightbulb?

 

[captain nemo1701]

In the 70's, I generally communicated by landline phone to friends across town and also wrote letters. Communication is fast and practically instantaneous now, but back then it was not so much and information superhighway as a slow back-lane. There was always that sense of anticipation waiting for that envelope plopping through the letterbox. These days, it's just annoying junk mail. Still, we've got the interweb now and it has it's uses. Technology now affords us the ability to communicate with others around the world. Imagine having to write 100 letters instead of just 1 email to a hundred people. as a boy, all my mates either went to the same school or lived in my street so we just hung around together - no need for 500 facebook followers back then!

It is, however,a double-edged sword. Instantaneous communication often feels intrusive with it all in-your-face 24/7. I'm always in the middle of replying to a client's email at work when another 20 arrive . If I accidentally leave my mobile at home, it's no great deal. Makes me feel a wee bit nostalgic for those long gone days of flared jeans, seemingly endless summers. Why not simulate it sometime by leaving your mobile at home for once. Might feel like being naked, but it's liberating.

 

[ufkacbln]

Whenever you ordered something you needed to place the order and send a cheque, then the ubiqitous "Please allow 21 days for delivery"

 

[ufkacbln]

Cameras and film...

In those days you had to buy film, and also account for processing costs

A week would probably have been 2 rolls of 36 exposure film. You then selected very carefully and planned what you would and wouldn't photograph

Then the weather would mean that taking photos was pointless and you regretted not taking more when the weather was good..... or the opposite, realising. that you took too many at the start of the week and are running out of film, and there was no real budget for more.

If you did compromise, then you also ended up where you had to wait until you could afford to process


My present setup can take some 6,000 photos on the camera and with my backup drive I can in theory take 2 million photos with no problems

 

[tyred]

We had a phone as my Dad needed it for his work. Most of our neighbours didn't have one and we often took messages for them and had a constant stream of people wanting to use the phone and leaving 20p to pay for it. Nowadays I communicate with people all over the world but don't generally be talking to neighbours!

The good old days of having a barman telling you you were wanted on the phone as it wasn't unusual to phone around anywhere where someone might be if you needed to speak to them.

I remember a small time second car dealer who conducted all his business from the phone box outside his front door - leaving the sitting room window open so he could hear it ringing when he advertised cars in the local paper and dashing out to answer it. I actually remember "for sale" adds in papers with no phone number, just a name and an address as the seller had no phone.

I actually miss phone boxes. In a world of everyone constantly being on the phone and shouting an trying to be heard above the background noise I think it was nice to go into a phone box and shut the door and have peace and privacy to carry out your call.

 

[nickyboy]

My office has a fax number. I can't remember the last time I sent one

Part of what I do involves dealing with a division of the London Stock Exchange. They correspond by fax....FFS

 

[PeteXXX]

I used to have to go to the library to check facts and find out information on stuff, not just hit 'search' and have several pages of garbage and adverts to troll through.
I also was a user of Par Avion blue tissue paper to write home on , and Post Restaunt for a reply.
I ran out of money in Greece and sold a pint of blood to live until my cash could be sent from England 7 days later.

 

[Grant Fondo]

All too easy to confuse different with better. Best embrace the opportunities and stop reminiscing too much...its nice to do but is too insular. We are in an age of progressive thinking and us oldies need to step up now we are 90% of the population lol