Are you happy you were born before computers were invented?

caramel

caramel

Member
Most people here were born before computers were invented. Because we didn't grow up with them, there was a steep learning curve for some, which may have been difficult, particularly if they were older when they were first introduced to them.

On the other hand, people who grew up with computers don't have the ability to say that they can go without one. How would they know?

Some people say that life before computers was more peaceful and simple. We'll never know how life would have gone without them.

Are you happy that you were born before computers were a thing or would you have rather had the convenience of them growing up?
 

Yes, I am. I think far too many children are being raised on screens. They use screens for schoolwork, then when that is done, they go to another screen to play video games.

If they have cautious, educated parents, those parents are dragging them outdoors to play, bike ride, or be in team sports. Those in-the-know parents with the means are also giving their kids dance and music lessons, or getting them in craft classes - ANYTHING to get away from the screens and out socializing.

But when we were young, cartoons were shown only in Saturday mornings. We didn't even have VCRs yet. Got home from school and there was nothing to watch but talk shows, news and sometimes reruns of old shows. So we'd go outside to play with friends. Or even, heaven help us, READ A BOOK just for the pleasure of reading.

Now teachers have to teach kids that reading can be a hobby too. Nearly every class I've even been in had the D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) time after lunch. 20-30 minutes a day of reading anything you wanted. NO TALKING!

One of the bad parts of our era, IMO, was that our parents were not encouraged to get involved with our extra-curriculars. In our world, parents worked and kids played. We found ways to entertain ourselves. We had toys, but not a ton of them. The usual things - board games, balls and Barbies, Hot Wheels, G.I. Joe, Frisbee, etc. The big thing was to have a bike because if you and your friends had bikes, you could go riding all around the neighborhood.

I think a major portion of our play world was kind of built around being outdoors. Today, so many of kids' play worlds are built around being indoors with a screen. Even many of the toys today are partnered with interactive apps that lead kids to a screen if the parents are not carefully monitoring that stuff.
 

Are you happy you were born before computers were invented?​

Yes, and there seemed more things to do, but when the wheel came trundling past our cave, I knew it was the beginning of the end. 😊
 

I'd say yes when it comes to things like closer family/friend ties we had "back then"... and spending quality time with real people and not a computer or device screen. Also can't beat all that "outdoor time" and our recreation. But when it comes to schooling/learning new things, and having the world at our fingertips with the Internet, it sure would have made things better... at least in my own world.
 
To be a member here I had to have an email address. I have never used it, I can't even remember what it was. My mail is all hand written. All my purchases are made in cash, that's the filthy folding stuff, never use plastic and as for pointing my phone at a bar code, that just makes my head explode. I do have a cell phone and despite all the gizmos on it, all it ever gets used for is voice and text.
 
I am glad I grew up before computers. I see the way children are raised these days with their phone constantly in their hands. Even during a meal in a restaurant I see them on the phone eating mindlessly. But.......I am happy to be this age with computers. I remember my mother being crippled for many years and stuck in the house most days unless someone took her somewhere. She watched television, crocheted, read, drew pictures and directed my father on cooking their meals (that she saw on the cooking network).

For me with limited mobility the computer is my connection to the world. I don't feel that I am stuck in my apartment and bored out of my mind. I look forward to doing the things I enjoy on the computer. I have been on them since 1994 so learned gradually over the years. I think computers make the aging process easier for me because I have something to look forward to every day.
 
I'm pleased that I experienced pre-computer youth. I started with computers in 1989, pre-Windows and pre-Internet. It was all DOS. To this day, I enjoy the access to information and the convenience provided by computers. I enjoy streaming movies, shopping, email, and the ability to bank online. However, I don't enjoy the hacking, scamming, deceit, and fake news that have turned the internet into a minefield. Moreover, I believe it will continue to deteriorate as those with bad intentions gain experience with artificial intelligence.
 
I will say yes because I grew up rual and spent my youth on farms and in the wild running wild. I didn't have a good home life but life outside was pretty good. Even if computers would have been around we wouldn't have had one, much too poor.

When my kids were growing up I refused to buy into the cable TV and video game culture. I told them I refused to spend money on things that encouraged them to sit on the couch all day. We did eventually get a home PC but with no internet and having to use dial up connection it's use never became a problem.
 
CallMeKate said:
I'd say yes when it comes to things like closer family/friend ties we had "back then"... and spending quality time with real people and not a computer or device screen. Also can't beat all that "outdoor time" and our recreation. But when it comes to schooling/learning new things, and having the world at our fingertips with the Internet, it sure would have made things better... at least in my own world.
Click to expand...
I think many kids get a much better education these days. Not all, but many. It depends on the school district and whether its a low-income area or high income. But when my parents raised us, OMG, NO ONE cared what school district the kids attended. You go where you go depending on where you lived. End of story.

Many parents try to be much more attuned to what the local school boards are doing these days. Again, that depends on what area you live in. Some school districts are quite secretive. But others are not.
 
C50 said:
I will say yes because I grew up rual and spent my youth on farms and in the wild running wild. I didn't have a good home life but life outside was pretty good. Even if computers would have been around we wouldn't have had one, much too poor.

When my kids were growing up I refused to buy into the cable TV and video game culture. I told them I refused to spend money on things that encouraged them to sit on the couch all day. We did eventually get a home PC but with no internet and having to use dial up connection it's use never became a problem.
Click to expand...
That is the other thing about technology and its evangelists. Technolgy creates a new line of poverty, just like housing and food do.

Those who can afford lots of technology can better prepare their teens for the future. Just like if your kids never have to experience being evicted or living in a car, that is going to help set your kids up for more successful futures as adults not beset by mental illnesses tied to Adverse Childhood Events.

Oh middle class kids expereince Adverse Childhood Events too, but I think all of life is harder for the poor.

We don't often think of food being a poverty deliniation line, but it really is. I remember my friends' great lunches - those little bag of chips people brought every day that my mom said were too expensive. She was trying to feed six people on $50 a week. That was the goal. Little bags of chips were a luxury item, in her opinion.

I remember a lot of bologna sandwiches and pithy, dry apples. To this day, I treasure a good apple!

The whole Foodie Culture that Pixar was even persuaded to make a KIDS' movie about, Ratatouille, Ratatouille (film) - Wikipedia, is a perfect illustration of how food is one thing for the lower classes (a need, a practicality designed to help people have energy) and quite another thing to the well-off. Food is an experience to the well-off and Foodies can be quite snobbish about it all.

I simply never thought I'd see that in my life - where such a large portion of U.S. society now sees merely eating as an "experience" worth a great deal of money. They have slipped over into the gourmand category, or they identify with gourmands.

I don't mean cooking it - cooking has always been fun to some people whether they are making cheap pancakes or an expensive prime rib roast. I mean even coffee made by others has become an "experience".

Example: I have never had a drink at Starbucks that costs over $3.50. That's my budget. That is a Food Delineation Line, IMO. I do not know what a Caramel Macchiato tastes like. (I'm guessing like milk, coffee and caramel.)
 
Last edited:
I am.

"Some people say that life before computers was more peaceful and simple."

To do research for school or whatever, you had to go to a library or refer to an encyclopedia or interview an expert. To get sports stats and game scores, you had to get a newspaper or find a friend who has the answers. To learn about medications you had to ask a doctor, about home remedies you had to ask your grandma, about your car engine, a mechanic...for any information you couldn't find in a newspaper or didn't hear on TV, you had to physically go to the source.

Not always simple.
 
Neither happy nor unhappy. I was lucky to not have needed computerized medical equipment, diagnostics, etc, but many did and went without. I lived for outside, that was the normal place to be.

I couldn't bear to be without a computer today. Can't play outside anymore.
Can anyone imagine calling a company for assistance without computers? "Hang on while I get your file" hahaha. Imagine having to get up and go to the TV every time we want to change the channel? :giggle:

We can always tell the old "AOL"-ers when they use the term "screen name" instead of "user name or user ID".

So many changes.
 
Simple answer...yes, you betcha....

Even my daughter didn't start to learn computers at school until she was 16.. so altho' she's 48 next week.. she would still know how to live without a computer if she had to.... just..... whereas altho' we're ( us seniors) all used to using them for this last at least 25 years if not more... and it would be an inconvenience to do without them now because the world has changed to accommodate the use of computers ...the fact remains that many many young people will never know how it felt to play out as children, to play on swings, play in the dirt, chase, hide, skip, ride bikes, and so on......

almost all Gen Z's and Gen X's will not know what it's like to go out on a date without first having swiped left or right etc... or find their way from A to B without help from a Bot... or know the answer to even the easiest general knowledge question...

..and most of all we know how to hold a conversation face to face with someone..

WE seniors all have experienced these things in the past.. we can do mental arithmetic in our heads.. we know how to spell without a spell checker... we know how to find our way without a sat-nav...

So I'm just over the moon that I was able to experience all those things before computers came along.. and if computers crash tomorrow, I'm going to be just fine..
 
Last edited:
Murrmurr said:
I am.

"Some people say that life before computers was more peaceful and simple."

To do research for school or whatever, you had to go to a library or refer to an encyclopedia or interview an expert. To get sports stats and game scores, you had to get a newspaper or find a friend who has the answers. To learn about medications you had to ask a doctor, about home remedies you had to ask your grandma, about your car engine, a mechanic...for any information you couldn't find in a newspaper or didn't hear on TV, you had to physically go to the source.

Not always simple.
Click to expand...
No but at least it was almost always truthful..now, we can't trust most of the sources online...
 
I would loved to have had them. All we had was the "Magic Eight Ball".

I think they are a valuable asset for our generation and will continue to be so for future generations. We just have to be careful that we are using reliable sources when we go online for information. Issues caused by unreliable resources online are becoming apparent and will probably be addressed, though slowly. That is starting to happen now.
 
I wish I had been born about 1900 so that I never had to deal with them at all. Looking up the occasional subject in the encyclopedia never seemed like an inconvenience to me. Computers are supposed to make things easier, but to me it always seems like extra bother.

It used to be I could ignore someone just by not answering the phone, but now they know you've seen that they called so you have to call back. There once were plenty of local stores if I wanted new things. Now they are all closed down and I have to order online. Then the clothes come in the mail and don't fit and require a days effort to return.

Today I did go to a store and bought some jeans.
When I went to check out, the clerk turned the card reader toward me and I tried to stick my card in the slot.
She said, "No, you can just touch the screen."
So I touched the screen with my finger.
She said, "No. Touch it with your card."
So I did that with the corner of my card.
She said, "No touch the screen with the chip on your card."
So I did that.
She said, "There wasn't that easy?"
I prepared to leave thinking the ordeal was over.
She pointed to the screen and said, "You need to answer the question,"
It was, "Did you have a pleasant experience shopping today? Yes or No."
I touched the screen where it said "Yes." just hoping to be able to get to leave. Nothing happened.
She said, "You have to type in your answer on the keypad."
I did that and got to leave.

The jeans are way too big but I don't plan to take them back, the return process is probably more than I can possibly imagine.
 
I suppose my perspective is different. Most of my education and career involved computers and software well before mass-market products entered homes and schools, much less the devices so commonly in use today. The other pieces of the puzzle are the Internet, multimedia, and then later wireless data. Then came social media platforms.

I suspect that when people say "computer" now they generally see all of those things as a unified element of society.

But if we take that definition I don't think there is much doubt that it can be a mixed blessing in many different ways.
 
I love computers and all the ways they make life easier, so I guess I would have preferred they existed sooner. Especially for language learning, though maybe that's because I like learning on my own and hated getting up in front of the class to take my turn doing some pitiful French dialog with a random similarly miserable fellow student.
 
Last edited:
RadishRose said:
Neither happy nor unhappy. I was lucky to not have needed computerized medical equipment, diagnostics, etc, but many did and went without. I lived for outside, that was the normal place to be.
Click to expand...
"Outside", me too. Climbing trees, making bird feeders, hiking out to the undeveloped fringes of town, riding my bike. Shooting baskets at the court on the nearby school grounds.

Doing experiments with a chemistry set, at 12 putting together a motorized minibike from spare parts, assembling a transistor-radio kit with the neighbor man next door. On and on... it's how a lot of roots of skills developed.
 
Last edited:
Della said:
I wish I had been born about 1900 so that I never had to deal with them at all. Looking up the occasional subject in the encyclopedia never seemed like an inconvenience to me. Computers are supposed to make things easier, but to me it always seems like extra bother.

It used to be I could ignore someone just by not answering the phone, but now they know you've seen that they called so you have to call back. There once were plenty of local stores if I wanted new things. Now they are all closed down and I have to order online. Then the clothes come in the mail and don't fit and require a days effort to return.

Today I did go to a store and bought some jeans.
When I went to check out, the clerk turned the card reader toward me and I tried to stick my card in the slot.
She said, "No, you can just touch the screen."
So I touched the screen with my finger.
She said, "No. Touch it with your card."
So I did that with the corner of my card.
She said, "No touch the screen with the chip on your card."
So I did that.
She said, "There wasn't that easy?"
I prepared to leave thinking the ordeal was over.
She pointed to the screen and said, "You need to answer the question,"
It was, "Did you have a pleasant experience shopping today? Yes or No."
I touched the screen where it said "Yes." just hoping to be able to get to leave. Nothing happened.
She said, "You have to type in your answer on the keypad."
I did that and got to leave.

The jeans are way too big but I don't plan to take them back, the return process is probably more than I can possibly imagine.
Click to expand...
LOL..that was hilarious.. you should be a script writer...:ROFLMAO:

On a serious note, do take them back.. the return is just a matter of taking them to the customer service desk with the receipt and the same card you used to pay..for gawds sake don't take a different card..:D.. and just tapping the machine with the card when they prompt you, and the money goes straight back on the card..
 
hollydolly said:
No but at least it was almost always truthful..now, we can't trust most of the sources online...
Click to expand...
There are more truthful sources than BS ones. And, honestly, it's very easy to know the difference just by checking the publisher's sources. Which is easy-peasy if you use a computer.

But that probably depends on what kind of info you're looking for. Like, there's probably more BS in the entertainment category than science. At least everything in the science category can support claims with data and studies and stuff....unless it's BS. No references and/or sources = gotta be BS.
 


Back
Top