Sagittarius Soul Trails

Wandering the world with a sagittarius heart!

Do You Remember Life Before the Internet?

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by

TANISHA DASH

Hmm… a little bit, maybe. But not much.

Being a 2003 kid, I didn’t even know what phones or the Internet really were until around 2011. And even then, “phone” meant those chunky keypad mobiles, not the sleek screens we swipe today. 📱 I still remember playing Snake and Ladders and Sudoku on my Nanu’s [grandfather] phone—it felt like the coolest thing ever.

Back then, people (or at least my family) didn’t use the internet the way we do now. Phones were mostly for calls, maybe taking those blurry photos that we now proudly label as AESTHETIC. 😄

Funny enough, I got my first touch-screen phone when I was pretty young and used it until 2023! Yep, that same old device until I finally upgraded to my first iPhone. So, if you ask me whether I really remember life before the internet…
My honest answer is: not really.

I didn’t experience those offline childhood years deeply enough to miss them, but I’ve heard stories—stories about carefree evenings, handwritten letters, and face-to-face talks instead of texts. And from what I’ve heard, I believe that life before the internet had its own quiet magic. 🌿

Maybe I didn’t grow up without it, but I still love listening to those stories…it feels like catching a glimpse of a slower, softer world.

With love,
Tanisha Dash
Sagittarius Soul Trails 🌍✨

Comments

38 responses to “Do You Remember Life Before the Internet?”

  1. Gary D. Smith Avatar
    Gary D. Smith

    I grew up in the 70’s before the internet, and I agree, it had a quieter, more magical atmosphere.

    Reply
    1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
      TANISHA DASH

      That sounds so lovely!!✨ I can only imagine the magic of those quieter days. 💛

      Reply
  2. Kate@athousandbitsofpaper Avatar
    Kate@athousandbitsofpaper

    I connected to the internet st the same time as I began writing .i wish I hadn’t had it in some ways – but i am trying now to return to slow writing and even slower posting. The urge to think create and post is endemic and creates rushed publishing. There is so much to read now. And the internet is both a wonderful thing and an awful thing. It’s leaning into the wonderful and withdrawing from the awful. It’s discernment

    Reply
    1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
      TANISHA DASH

      Totally agreed! slow writing feels like a breath of fresh air these days. And yes, it really is all about that balance and discernment. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! 🌿

      Reply
      1. Kate@athousandbitsofpaper Avatar
        Kate@athousandbitsofpaper

        A pleasure 😊

  3. fabledacacia Avatar
    fabledacacia

    I’m a 2000’s kid and got my first phone in 2018! I still use it and have hardly adjusted to the digital lifestyle. It’s hard trying to learn, I miss old tech and sites like this where we read and communicate more with our thoughts and feelings rather than just visuals in short-form brain-rot content.

    Reply
  4. Loku Avatar
    Loku

    Good old days 😂

    Reply
    1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
      TANISHA DASH

      🤣

      Reply
  5. David Pearce Music Reviewer Avatar
    David Pearce Music Reviewer

    My youngest is a 2000 baby so she doesn’t have any memory of life before the Internet. Her oldest sibling from 1993 only has the vaguest memory. For me, growing up in the 1970s it really is a different world now. The plus points were the ability to properly switch off, though my god Sundays were awful (!), and the fact that school bullying was only between the hours of 8.30am and 3.30pm. The negatives were the number of people you completely lost touch with and the feeling that the world was restricted to what other people decided for you in terms of what you read, what you watched and what you did. I often look back to the 1970s in my blog if you are interested. Would I go back there? On balance probably not as the Internet has opened so many doors for me including writing my blog and reading yours. That said I would love to go back to the simpler times of 3 TV channels and closedowns and test cards. 24 hour TV is far worse for us than limited hours.

    Reply
    1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
      TANISHA DASH

      Loved hearing your perspective…crazy how much has changed across generations. Definitely checking out your blog too! ✨

      Reply
      1. David Pearce Music Reviewer Avatar
        David Pearce Music Reviewer

        I am finishing full time teaching after 34 years. I started out with blackboard and chalk and I now quite happily use ethical AI. Now, that is crazy!! 🤣🤣

      2. David Pearce Music Reviewer Avatar
        David Pearce Music Reviewer

        If you want a blog post about pre-internet days, perhaps you might enjoy this featuring a cassette recorder! Now there’s some old tech. https://davidgpearce205.blog/2022/10/28/revisiting-christmas-1974-re-play/

      3. TANISHA DASH Avatar
        TANISHA DASH

        Surely, I will be checking out!!!✨

  6. Adam France Avatar
    Adam France

    Lol… it was a different world for sure.

    We had to use libraries and dictionaries to look stuff up. Books!!!

    There were three or four TV channels (in the UK where I grew up).

    Video and video games came in slowly. I still remember getting an Atari console that played only Pong – and we were blown away by it. My uncle sat behind us while we played on it Boxing Day 1978, repeating ‘that’s amazing, that’s amazing’ under his breath.

    My nephew asked me the other day how long I’d played video games, to which I replied ‘since they’ve existed’. ;P

    Chunky keypad mobiles – try a dial phone on the wall of your parents’ hallway. Mess up dialling one number, you have to put down the receiver and pick it up and start from the beginning all over again. Your conversations having to be made in the hall…

    A different world. A different world. 🙂

    Reply
    1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
      TANISHA DASH

      Haha I loved reading this! 😂 So different yet so cool…definitely a whole other world!

      Reply
      1. tampete Avatar
        tampete

        Born in 1957, my childhood entertainment was books and play time with friends. It took me weeks to write my school project on Japan which involved library visits and writing in long hand.

        Leaving aside the negative aspects of the internet, it’s a fabulous tool for research and communicating with like minded people.

        Thank you for including me and I am enjoying your posts very much.

        Stephen

      2. TANISHA DASH Avatar
        TANISHA DASH

        Thanks!

    2. Luna Avatar
      Luna

      I am a 1982 born.. so my childhood was without internet. We used to play on the fields, role playing, singing contests, hide and seek, lots of name-place-animal game. Internet came only when I was a college student.

      Reply
  7. Alan Andersen Avatar
    Alan Andersen

    I was born in the very early 60s and grew up and had a family of my own before every hearing of the internet. The first I heard was a series of tv commercials advertising the new coming soon information super highway. That was long ago.

    Reply
    1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
      TANISHA DASH

      Wow, that’s incredible! Must’ve been wild to watch the world shift from no internet to everything online. Thanks for sharing!✨

      Reply
      1. Alan Andersen Avatar
        Alan Andersen

        It was a very different world. As a child in the 60s there was more black and white TV than color…no cell phones or internet ..no cable tv. I never even imagined the world we have now. So much that’s common place now was non existent or brand new then. Scooby, Sesame Street, the Muppets were new. The Beatles were still together. Led Zep was popular and Black Sabbath was our intro to metal.. 60s, and early 70s, were cool 1969 is a theme in some of my blog posts. It was a wonderful time and a nightmare all at the same time. It was cool, way, way different than it is now. I love the tick tock reels that feature things from that era. I loved the good stuff but the bad scarred me. I still love Scooby and because of him I love ghost stories and movies. Adams Family we had them and now. It was fun to be a child in the 60s and a teen in the 70s. But now I’m old and playing catch up. But I like my phone and I find lots of old stuff on it.

  8. jespah Avatar
    jespah

    I grew up in an era of hi-fi, not wi-fi
    and tethered phones with dial tones
    when copy and paste meant real paper waste
    and the Germany that was best was the one in the west

    When doctors really tried
    but cancer meant you almost always died
    when folks would drink in a bar
    and get behind the wheel of a car

    The good old days weren’t always carefree
    today isn’t always bad
    and in twenty years, I guarantee
    you’ll be nostalgic for what you had

    Reply
    1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
      TANISHA DASH

      So true! Every era has its highs and lows…what feels normal now might be tomorrow’s nostalgia✨

      Reply
      1. jespah Avatar
        jespah

        I find it so weird when people are nostalgic for stuff that was kinda considered to be dreck when I was a young whippersnapper. But I do kinda miss earth shoes.

  9. Candace Avatar
    Candace

    That is what I am all about, Tanisha!

    Reply
  10. vermavkv Avatar
    vermavkv

    Nice write up and, Yes, I remember life before internet.😊

    Reply
    1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
      TANISHA DASH

      Thank you ✨

      Reply
  11. Lee Lucas Avatar
    Lee Lucas

    Being born in 1959 I obviously remember life before the internet, and although I have been using the internet just before you were born, there are good and bad things about it. For example, it killed the music business with how most music could be obtained freely. But on the other hand, it is great for resourcing information. I also watch YouTube more than the TV these days.

    Reply
    1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
      TANISHA DASH

      So true! Internet’s a mix of wins and losses. And yup YouTube over TV any day! 😄📺💻

      Reply
  12. kaitiscotland Avatar
    kaitiscotland

    I’m now retired and much prefer the mobile phone/internet/VR/GPS age. Life has become easier, more entertaining and educational. We are less sociable with people on our doorsteps, but more sociable with people from all over the world. Some things are worse of course. Many town high streets are deserts. We don’t play board games like we used to, and we visit in person less frequently. Now my children are grown up though, I can speak to them daily on video calls if this suits us. This just wouldn’t have been possible before.

    Reply
  13. Mack Thomas Avatar
    Mack Thomas

    your Blog good and nice

    Reply
    1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
      TANISHA DASH

      Thank you ✨

      Reply
  14. chameleon15026052 Avatar
    chameleon15026052

    📼 “Ah Yes, Life Before the Internet: A Time When Screens Were Furniture”

    Dear Tanisha,

    Thank you for bravely peering back into the Jurassic Era of landlines and leg cramps from rewinding VHS tapes. We, the Ancient Ones, salute you.

    Before the internet, phones were tethered to the wall like misbehaving pets, and if you wanted to “stream” something, it meant a literal body of water and a paper boat.

    Back in my day:
    • “Cloud” was just weather.
    • “Swipe” meant theft.
    • And “following someone” got you arrested, not endorsement deals.

    We survived without Google Maps, Tanisha. We used paper. Called atlases. Some of us even dated without the help of algorithms. Terrifying.

    But here’s the real kicker: We actually got bored. Like… truly, mind-numbingly bored. And in that sacred boredom, something strange happened—we thought. 😱

    So yes, keep listening to those stories of a slower world. And maybe, once in a while, put your iPhone in time-out and let your brain buffer naturally. Trust me: even loading screens had their magic.

    Welcome to the club, young sage. The past is weird, but you’re weirder for wanting to go back. We love that for you.

    Reply
    1. Benjamin Avatar
      Benjamin

      It was a different world—one that moved a little slower, and maybe, just maybe, held a bit more grace.
      We had real conversations at the dinner table. Friends talked on the telephone—not in a rush, not distracted, just talking. We wrote letters to relatives and friends in other cities, taking time to share our thoughts in ink, hoping for a reply that might come days or weeks later.
      It was a time when people seemed more willing to see each other clearly, to listen and understand, even when they didn’t agree. Fewer people fought over differences while traveling or shopping or voting. There were fewer lines drawn between us.
      The world has changed, of course. But sometimes I wonder what we lost along the way.

      Reply
      1. TANISHA DASH Avatar
        TANISHA DASH

        Beautifully said… There was something so warm and grounding about that slower pace and deeper connection…Totally get the nostalgia ! 😊

  15. Benjamin Avatar
    Benjamin

    Very

    Reply
  16. Sebastian Hirsch Avatar
    Sebastian Hirsch

    Born in 1996, I’d also count myself among the group of younger people who remember life without the internet “a little bit”. As a younger kid, I was allowed to browse the internet on the “family computer” for an hour or so per day, back when unlimited high-speed internet was far from a real thing. While growing up as a young teenager, my first phone was a Motorola flip phone handed down to me by my dad, which I used to make occasional calls and texts (that were so awkward to type on the number pad keyboard). That being said, I don’t know what adult life was like without the internet, working, traveling etc. While I certainly appreciate the convenience of the connected world we live in now, I can imagine that things might have seemed slower paced and less stressful in the days before the internet, when one was not always reachable by phone or messaging.

    Reply
  17. 80smetalman Avatar
    80smetalman

    I was born in 1961, our TV only had three main channels, plus the UHF setting where the signal was always dodgy. The computer was something Batman had in his Batcave. I have seen the progression in technology with both pleasure and pain.

    Reply

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