Older Adults Are Revealing The Little Moments That Modern Technology Erased For Younger Generations, And These Never Even Crossed My Mind

As someone who's old enough to remember having to print out driving directions from MapQuest but young enough to know who Addison Rae is, I've often wondered what growing up was like before the internet, before smartphones, before social media, and before — most importantly — air fryers.

Though I'm certainly grateful for the technology that we have now, I am curious about the experiences older adults have dealt with and how different life used to be. So when redditor u/mr__wolf__ asked the members of r/AskOldPeople to name what they miss from the past that technology has now made obsolete, I was completely enamored with the responses. Here are some of the things people shared that will have you either feeling nostalgic or mystified:

1."Never knowing who was calling until you picked up the phone. Back in the '60s and '70s, there weren't even answering machines, so if you didn't pick up, you'd have no idea who called. On the other side of that coin, if you called somebody and they didn't answer, you'd know it wasn't because they didn't want to talk to you, it was because they weren't available."

2."Going to a cellphone-free concert."

3."I miss taking most of Sunday to read the paper. I miss doing the big crossword puzzle, having to look up clues in the encyclopedia or dictionary, and reading all the sale inserts. Now I get the paper on an iPad, where there are no puzzles and no Sunday inserts."

4."This is a weird one, but I miss being able to hear a song and not know what it is. Any song you want now is a click away, but it used to sometimes take decades to find a track. Better yet, sometimes it took decades to even know where to start looking."

5."Analog controls in cars and appliances, which were superior. Touchscreen and digital displays are far less functional than knobs and springs and stuff."

6."Phone booths. The feeling of privacy while making a call was unique to the time — being able to step out of the noisy world for a moment and still see it in motion, living and pulsating. The quiet desperation of taking notes on scraps of paper or, worse, on a page of a phone book, then ripping that page out for safekeeping, was so extraordinary. People in a phone booth were still part of the world, but they were seeking to connect to an active site that was far away. Then the call was over, and you moved on with your life."

7."I miss the simple, cheap cars that any ham-handed shade-tree mechanic could fix."

8."Stereos weighed a lot back in the day, for sure. But they sounded fantastic. People today think earbuds are high-fidelity sound."

9."I miss the friendly arguments we used to have about who was the better ballplayer. Nowadays, you can look up statistics immediately, but in the '70s and '80s, it was your word against your buddies' as to who was better."

10."Road maps. The person in the passenger seat would tell the driver where to go — otherwise, you'd never make it to the destination. For long trips, there was almost always a stop at a gas station to get directions when driving through unfamiliar areas. Those were great times — always an adventure!"

11."The satisfaction of flipping open a newspaper and bending it in a way where it would stay open in front of you while you held it, crinkling slightly (and turning your fingers black). I didn't realize I missed this until recently when I needed to use some newspaper at work. There was a stack of them, and I flicked open a double page expertly, despite not having done it for...decades?"

12."Encyclopedias and other reference books — there aren't many left now except ones on subjects that students might need. There used to be books for everything, and you'd always end up learning about more things than you wanted to whenever you opened one up."

13."I miss the early internet in the mid-1990s, when there weren't all these ads!"

14."The newer generation will never know the feeling of slamming a phone down when someone pissed you off on a call, then slamming it two or three more times for good measure. Hitting a button on a touchscreen to hang up on someone's stupidity just doesn't give the same satisfaction."

15."Albums and perusing record stores. The posters, album artwork, and incense smell were something else."

16."There was nothing like folding up a manual convertible top in the rain. That, or you left the top at home and had to drive in the rain while people stared at you for being an idiot."

17."Being able to buy tickets at concert venues without having to worry about associated fees and shitty broker companies."

18."There was a high standard in journalism. Striving for facts and objectivity was required. We had a limited number of channels on the TV, so all three broadcast news programs chose and reported pretty much the same news stories with identical, essential facts. Opinions of political parties over bills and whatnot were reported, not critiqued."

19."I loved waiting for the mail to see if you had a card or a letter."

20."The communal experience of television or radio entertainment. Growing up in the '70s and '80s, we didn’t have cable. We had like four TV stations. Everyone was pretty much watching the same thing in the evenings, and folks would discuss the shows at school or work the next day. Same with radio — as teens, we all tried to catch Rick Dees or Casey Kasem on the weekend so we knew what was cool and new."

21."Party lines on the telephone. That was when you were literally sharing a phone line with someone else and were able to listen in on their phone conversations. It was annoying, though, when the 'other party' was using the line and you needed to make a call."

22."The feeling of sitting alone in your room, sobbing over some guy when you are 16, moving that needle to play the same sad song over and over again on your record player while your Bonne Bell black eyeliner and Yardley of London white lipstick melted down your face."

23."The younger generation will never know the anticipation of waking up, seeing snow on the ground, turning on the radio, and waiting for the announcer to say whether your school will be closed. The announcer would have a list and would be reading it aloud, and you'd wait for him to get to your school. Almost there...here it comes...and then, 'YESS!!'"

24."It was always the best when you were sitting at a red light, jamming to a good song on the radio. Then you'd look over and notice the neighboring driver was jamming to the same song, so you both started an impromptu jam session until the light turned green."

25."It was always nice walking a loved one all the way to the departure gate and watching their plane take off."

26.And last: "The freedom that came with your parents not really knowing where you were was awesome. We just rode our bikes, all without being tethered to a cellphone."

I don't know about you guys, but I personally miss being able to slam the phone down in anger too. Are there any things you miss from the past that technology has basically made obsolete? Let me know in the comments!

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.