Anyone miss life before smartphones?

Oh hell yeah! I remember the tomfoolery my friends and I got up to before smartphones. We went out to play football after school (the real sport, not the safe rugby version played in North America), jumped off our rich classmate's yacht during weekends, went fishing and held barbecues on the beach, and my favorite activity was stretching out my legs inside the living room and just reading away into the night on Fridays. Even thinking about this makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I just look at my cousins now, the ones that were born in the mid-2000s and I just can't see anything special about them. They were born in the era of high speed Internet and smartphones. They seem to have the same interests (most of the time it involves some metrosexual YouTuber), have no personality, no social skills and don't have the patience to sit and learn anything. Ten minutes with them and I'll be ready to tear my (remaining) hair out due to the sheer stupidity of their conversations.

As for people my age, smartphones and high speed Internet came a lot later in our lives. For an example, I acquired my first smartphone when I turned 22, because everyone appeared to be using social media platforms such as Viber or WhatsApp to communicate, and I felt left out of the loop on many occasions. I never really got to meet my former classmates too often, but when we did, you can be sure that half of them will be glued to their phones, at least two will be taking photos of the food we ordered and one will be forcing "hilarious" memes on the rest of us.

 

Yes, I really miss those times!
I didn't get a smartphone myself until five years ago and I don't regret introducing it so lately into my life.
Before the smartphones were a reality, people didn't seem to obsess so much about their phones as all you could do on them was to call and text. Today, it feels so sad when almost everyone is so disconnected from reality, just looking hollow-eyed into their phones for a quick and instant dopamine-release that makes the small things in life meaningless in comparison.
I am probably the only person at the gym (amongst a handful) who can focus 100% on the workout, get everything done there without even bringing the phone with me. I get twice the amount of exercise in half the time compared to most people since I don't have the distraction that the phone brings.
The people who can't even exercise for a measly 1/2 hour without being plugged in do really have some work to do in regards to strengthening their frontal lobes. I have no choice but disconnect as I am training for 1/2 marathons and marathons where I must be 100% present in the moment during these tough and long-lasting races. It also helps me staying away from distractions in everyday life as well.

 

One of my cousins uses a smartphone. She's fat, depressed, and tired. Another group of cousins that I have doesn't use a smartphone(due to financial) and they are so full of life and optimism.

 

I think there this guy named Sebastian Junger, I believe. He went on the Joe Rogan Experience to talk about how smartphones are destroying Gen Y and Gen Z.

 

It's funny to hear you guys reminiscing about the good old days back in the early 2000s. I grew up in the 1980s. I had a bike with a banana seat. We had bike gangs and spent all our time outside until mom called us in for supper. Those were my best years. It's interesting to see how new generations grow up and how they adapt to the speed of new technology. Even more interesting that everyone seems to miss the days when things were more simple.

 

It was like this even in the 1990s for the most part. I would spend all day outside and I would go inside once it started getting dark.

 

You’re lucky to have had that experience because by 2011 the smartphone/social media revolution was in full swing.

 

I guess things have changed the most over the past decade. My niece and nephew don't spent much time outside since the iPhone/iPad took hold of them. They're 11 and 13. Too bad because I only catch a glimpse of them experiencing real life from time to time. You can see the difference when they do get away from it.

 

Honestly if you want to get down do it the social media revolution really started in the late 2000s with MySpace but it exploded in the early 2010s with Facebook and Twitter and it hasn’t slowed down since. I actually got my first smartphone in 2010 when I was 21 but you’re right, it took a few more years before pretty much everyone had one. And now in 2019 it’s ubiquitous. Computing technology slows down for no one. You guys think the amount of technology we have now is nuts? Give it 5-10 more years and you’ll be in disbelief.

 

my iphone broke a couple months ago, i did not want to spend money on another one, honestly i love not having a phone, before all i would do all day is be on it, i feel like i have freedom now and no obligation to have to text people.

 

oh trust me its way to late, the future will be dominated by technology, thats why books are going extinct and everyone like ebooks, its convenient, the future will be all about convenience thats why i refuse to use things like voice commands on phones or computers, its beyond lazy and disgusts me, honestly the movie walle is super accurate, man will have destroyed earth and the last of them will be living in some big compound obese and useless, dependent on technology.
https://futurism.media/how-pixars-wall-e-predicts-the-future