I keep cutting out things like social media from my lifestyle, but I’m finding it hard to fill the time. Reading can only go so far, there’s never anything on TV, and my friends all live twelve miles away.

So, before we really had social media, what did teenagers do?

  • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
    10·
    2 years ago
    • reading
    • TV / movies
    • video games
    • listening to music (it’s important to remember that this was an active thing to do … you’d listen to an album beginning to end, digest it, read about it etc)
    • playing music
    • Hanging out with friends, either doing some of the above or going here and there on pushbikes.

    Not gonna lie, I honestly think it was overall better. If the internet were just Wikipedia, blogs and casual non-profit social media, the world would be a better place.

  • Preston Maness ☭@lemmygrad.ml
    9·
    2 years ago

    In order:

    1. Reading. So, so much reading. Lots of fantasy (Merlin series, Redwall series, Harry Potter series), quite a bit of non-fiction (How Stuff Works-type books), and foreign language stuff as well. I’d try and line up English and Spanish, English and French, and to figure out the “rules” of the other language and its vocab.
    2. Video games. The Nintendo 64 was my first “big boy” purchase that I made with my own money. I played a bunch of Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie (and later Banjo-Tooie), and GoldenEye (as well as its “spiritual successor,” Perfect Dark). I also picked up a Counter-Strike 1.5/1.6 habit in the early aughts.
    3. Aggressive Inline Skating. At least until I broke my arm right before high school, and then ended up too swamped in academics to spend much time on physical activities.
  • rysiek@szmer.info
    9·
    2 years ago

    Bicycle and generally playing outdoors. But it was easier when I was a kid, because I was a kid and all my kid friends lived in the same neighborhood.

    I would love more non-screen, manual-work hobbies. Crafting, woodworking, etc. But these need space and equipment. Check if you have a hackerspace nearby, that would be a good place to check out. Larger hackerspaces tend to have woodworking, metalworking, electronics and other tools available, as well as some fancy laser cutters and CNC machines.

    • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOP
      3·
      2 years ago

      Thanks! According to the Wiki, the nearest hackerspace to me is in Middlesborough, which is about 80 km away; however, both my dad and my grandad have their fair shares of electrical, woodworking, metalworking, and masonry tools, so I’ll be able to find something to work with if I come up with a project idea.

      • rysiek@szmer.info
        4·
        2 years ago

        That’s the spirit!

        Here’s a crazy, far-fetched idea: there are bound to be a bunch of other people in the area that might be in a similar pickle. Maybe consider starting your own local hackerspace. 😉

        I helped start one 15y ago (still going, but I moved out of that city) and am reanimating another that has been dormant for a while. Pretty good way to meet interesting people.

        • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOP
          1·
          2 years ago

          That sounds like a great idea! I’m still in sixth form for the time being, but I might put out a survey and try to rent out some premises in the town when I’m older. Businesses are moving out left, right and centre (make of that what you will), so there are plenty of places that would make a good hackerspace.

  • Riley@social.audiovalentine.com
    9·
    2 years ago

    I mean the thing that still trips me up the most is that social media and phones still takes away from other tech stuff that I’d enjoy doing more. When I was younger I used to play a lot of Game Boy Advance and then later PSP. Once I got a phone it became just that little bit more difficult to focus on just enjoying playing games!

    • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      5·
      2 years ago

      I would happily do this, but the majority of gen z prefer to text, and my friends have some weird conversations.

  • pingveno@lemmy.mlEnglish
    81·
    2 years ago

    Reading. Really. I was a huge book worm. I could have stood to have spent more time with friends, though. And I wish that I had figured out earlier that I was gay (aka not been in denial) and started dating.

    Video games are fun, but I’m kind of garbage at them so that makes them less enjoyable. Phones didn’t really change entertainment that much. I use them as a more convenient music, audiobook, and podcast player. Most of my social media is Reddit and Lemmy, and those don’t lend themselves to virtual keyboards.

  • Lost_Wanderer@beehaw.org
    7·
    2 years ago

    I mean we still had Nintendos as kids and N64 and Playstations as teenagers. Even early Millennials probably had access to internet as teenagers be it dial up or just at school in the labs or library. But internet was consumed different then. Forums/boards, anonymous chatrooms, and straight up surfing random websites through webrings was the gist of it rather than videos, pictures, statuses, etc.

    A very American thing to do was to go waste time at the mall. Even if you didn’t buy anything it provided a climate controlled people watching place.

  • nachtigall@feddit.deEnglish
    6·
    2 years ago

    Mostly video games, sports and chatting via Skype (both voice and text). Also image boards. Occasionally read a book. At least from a Zillenial perspective, it was not so different from now.

    • n7gifmdn@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      not so much skype, but the number of hours i spent on AOL Instant messenger (AIM) and later MSN Messenger. Trillian became a life saver when I started dating a weird Yahoo! chick.

      • n7gifmdn@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Messenger was the only reason I had a hotmail account, and mostly just because the cute girls from school used MSN and not AIM. After Microsoft bought Skype the combined the two services and your Hotmail account was also usable as a skype handle (complete with @hotmail.com at the end) to this day I list that as my skype handle when potential employers ask for it, and I’ve often had recruiters tell me they think I put my email in the wrong field and I have to tell them they are incorrect. I hadn’t actually used that account in like 10 years, until Edge made it advantageous to do so for some of their features and now I probably use that account more than my Gmail.

  • KnightOfOldEmpire@lemmy.ml
    6·
    2 years ago

    Library (it was fun spotting a book I haven’t read yet), comics (waiting for salles so I could get a bulk of them for cheap), rollerblade (until you discover that the road is bad and the poor wheels just can’t handle it), table top wargames (fun putting models together and doing pew pew sounds one a month with friends). DnD was also occasionally thrown in, but without proper DM the stories are just terrible and teens be doing rather immature things.

    • n7gifmdn@lemmy.ca
      1·
      1 year ago

      @hellfire103@sopuli.xyz if your friends are 12 miles away your local board game store is probably that far too, but most shops have regular game days welcoming players of all ages.

  • PicoBlaanket@lemmy.ml
    6·
    2 years ago

    Basically getting sweaty, and challenging yourself…

    • tromping around in the woods,
    • riding a bike,
    • swimming at a pool/creek,
    • playing sports (and especially inventing new sports).

    Being strong and tough for its own sake.

  • petrescatraian@libranet.de
    6·
    2 years ago

    @hellfire103 Probably none of the things I would do today, but were fun back then while I was a kid.

    We were a group of kids of various similar ages who would play various games outside, among which I can still recall:

    • hide&seek
    • leapsha (I don’t know how to translate this in English, but basically you would all run away from another person, and if that person would touch you and say you are!, you would be the one everyone would run away from)
    • 1,2,3, stand at the wall (where one of you would stand at a wall and say the phrase, then turn around. The others would try to get to you, but if you happen to see someone moving, you’d tell that person and they would need to get back to the starting point)
    • country, country we want recruits (I know it might sound wrong to some of you, but it’s really fun. You split into two groups, then hold each other tight in a line. One of the group shouts Country, country, we want recruits!. The other replies who? and the first one replies with the name of someone in the second group. Then, the person called runs towards the group who was calling, between two of its members. If these persons manage to stop the runner, then the runner will join their group. If they do not, the runner returns to the original group. The side who gets only one person left, naturally, loses)
    • “Lapte gros” or “thick milk” (I don’t quite know the rules by heart myself, but you can read an explainer and see a video here - I never really played it myself, so my limbs are pretty much intact)

    Then I was also watching a lot on Cartoon Network, we had cartoons like Ed, Edd & Eddy, Life with Louie, Scooby Doo, The Cramp Twins, Tom&Jerry, Looney Tunes etc.

    Then some of my friends had bikes and we would compete against each other on a few streets around my neighborhood (that’s how I know that place so well I don’t even need a map to get around, lol).

    I still ride my bike sometimes, but now I live at the top of a 10-floor building and it’s really inconvenient for me to get my bike up&down all the time (I cannot get it into the elevator either). So I mostly prefer to get outside and walk.

    Indeed, for a teenager like you seem to be, it would be more fun to hang around with some friends, so why not just bring them over and play something 😁

    Just make sure you don’t trash your house or something, haha.

    Play safe!