Recently, a post I saw on the popular Ask Reddit page kind of made me laugh. In it, user IndieCurtis asked, “People who grew up before cell phones, what did you use to look at?” and the answers are nostalgic as well as pretty funny (because they seem so obvious!). If you’re down for a dose of pre-phone nostalgia, read on:1. “We drew, or read books, or watched TV.”
Bradleyhebdon / Getty Images
“Or nothing. Just close your eyes and listen to your favourite music.”
2. “The instructions on the back of shampoo bottles.”
3. “As a kid, I used to read absolutely everything I could get my hands on, especially when I was bored. If I didn’t bring a book with me, sometimes that meant reading the ingredients on the back of a ketchup bottle. I don’t even like ketchup, I just needed to read something.”
4. “At home, we would watch TV, listen to music, and read. It was much more common to carry a newspaper or a book with you. Like you would never go on a journey without one of these two things.”
Thomas Mcgovern / Getty Images
“Many of us also carried a Walkman to play tapes or CDs. There was a great device a few years before the iPod/mp3 player came out called a mini-disc player, and it was the best personal music player ever.
One thing I miss about the olden days is how new music coming out was more of an event. Like we would buy a new album and go to a friend’s and just listen to the album together. We’d look forward to the video playing on the TV because we couldn’t just watch it whenever we felt like it.”
5. “Books and magazines — and don’t let people pretend it was highbrow or more sophisticated. Magazines were filled with short fluff filler material.”
NBC
6. “Mad Magazine.”
—u/bmcgowan89
7. “My Game Boy, watched TV. Spent time outside.”
Related: 14 Celebrities Who — Yes, It’s True — Killed People
8. “We had a kids’ magazine called Highlights, plus books and newspaper cartoons.”
—u/Good_egg1968
9. “Books, crossword, sudoku. There was a reason why newspapers were a hot item.”
Joe Giddens – Empics / Getty Images
—u/Benneldli
10. “We looked at the world around us and the people in it.”
“Now, when I sit in a waiting room and don’t have my phone out, I feel like people think I’m the weird guy for not staring at my phone. No, I have a right to look in your general direction.”
Related: 24 Absolutely Bizarre Historical Events I Can Hardly Believe Actually Took Place
11. “I observed the world more, people-watching while in public. At the kitchen table, I’d read the food packaging. In the bathroom, I’d read whatever product was around, like toilet paper packaging, or just had introspective moments about the day I had or interactions with others.”
12. “Ride bikes, rollerblade, climb trees, read books, play video games, or listen to music.”
Robert Lachman / Getty Images, Warner Bros. / Getty Images
—u/o_0kinawa
13. “There was a lot more local media then. You would have two or three local radio stations, a few different local, provincial or national news papers, taking the bus downtown and going to each of the three or four magazine stores and literally standing in the aisles for hours reading magazines about music, or art or history standing there in the store and only buying the best of the 17 or so you looked at to take home.”
Shepard Sherbell / Getty Images
—u/Thadius
14. “TV, books, album covers while we listened to the album, movies, clouds, landscapes, the road beneath my feet while riding my bike, art, streakers, the path between my horse’s ears, whatever is passing by outside the window while driving by in a car, and the moon.”
Aprilsan / Getty Images
15. “I’d walk through the woods near my house to the railroad tracks, put pennies on them, and wait for trains to smush them. I drew pictures and wrote stories. Also, there was internet on the computer that I could only use if no one was using the phone (the landline).”
Nicki1982 / Getty Images
—u/fruitypants
Related: “It Was Really Toxic”: People Are Revealing The ’00s Trends That Were Genuinely Awful Looking Back
16. “When in a car, I’d look out the window and imagine a little man running along while we drove. I’d read books, comics, magazines, whatever. Spend time staring out the window and daydreaming or looking at the patterns on the rugs we had.”
Elena Medoks / Getty Images
17. “They used to put toys in cereal boxes. We’d spend the morning fighting over who would rummage through the Cornflakes to find it. I also used to crochet and paint — still do.”
18. “The family Encyclopedia Britannica.”
19. And as a final comment: “Put down your phone for an hour and see for yourself. Stop thinking it’s purely a thing of the past. Just do it.”
NBC
So, what do you think? Tell me about whatever you used to “look at” before cell phones, down in the comments. Or, you can use this anonymous comments form. Who knows — your example could be part of a future BuzzFeed article!
Also in Rewind: 50 Famous People Who Died In Embarrassing, Nightmarish, Scandalous, Horrifying, Disturbing, Or Even Darkly Funny Ways
Also in Rewind: Here Are 19 Very, Very, Very Common Historical Facts That We All Assumed Were True, But Are Actually Just Myths
Also in Rewind: 12 Mind-Blowing Facts That Sound Totally Made Up By The Internet (But Aren’t)