Remember when life required actual human interaction and your attention span was longer than a TikTok video? Those were the days before smartphones transformed our routines and attention spans, leaving many of us nostalgic for simpler times. Do you ever wonder what we used to do with all that time before our faces were buried in screens?
#1. Memorize Phone Numbers
Remember when brains were used for storing phone numbers, not just useless trivia and song lyrics? People actually had to remember their friends’ and family’s numbers.
#2. Use a Map
Folding and unfolding a map was a rite of passage for any road trip. GPS? Nope, just good old paper that never seemed to fold back the right way.
#3. Go to the Library for Research
Instead of a quick Google search, you had to actually go to the library, use a card catalog, and physically hunt down books.
#4. Develop Film to See Photos
You took photos on a camera with film and then waited a week to find out your thumb was in every shot.
#5. Ask for Directions
Interacting with strangers was necessary if you ever hoped to reach an unfamiliar destination. It was like human GPS with the risk of getting wildly inaccurate directions.
#6. Use Pay Phones
If you needed to call someone when out and about, you used a pay phone—and always had spare change just in case.
#7. Watch TV Shows When They Actually Aired
You had to watch TV shows when they were broadcast. Miss it, and you had to hope for a rerun or listen to your friends spoil it the next day.
#8. Record Songs from the Radio
Making the perfect mixtape meant waiting by the radio for hours to record your favorite song, usually missing the first few seconds.
#9. Send Letters or Postcards
Communication involved actual paper and a stamp. Each message took days or weeks, not seconds, to arrive.
#10. Use Encyclopedias
Encyclopedias were the original Wikipedia, except you couldn’t update them, and they took up half your living room.
#11. Make Mixtapes
Creating a mixtape for someone was a labor of love that required actual tapes, not just dragging and dropping files into a playlist.
#12. Play Board Games or Cards
Entertainment often meant playing physical games with family or friends, leading to either bonding or bitter rivalries over Monopoly.
#13. Read Printed Newspapers
You read news on paper that left ink on your fingers, not on a screen that you could zoom into.
#14. Use an Alarm Clock
People used dedicated alarm clocks, not a phone that disrupts your sleep at 3 AM with notifications.
#15. Have Face-to-Face Conversations
Social interactions required meeting in person and actually talking, not texting or sending emojis.
#16. Use a Phone Book
Finding a business meant thumbing through a massive phone book, not just lazily asking Siri or Google.
#17. Carry a Calendar or Planner
Keeping track of appointments involved a physical calendar or planner you actually had to write in.
#18. Memorize Facts
Instead of Googling every question, you had to rely on your memory or ask someone knowledgeable.
#19. Shop in Actual Stores
Shopping meant going to a store, touching products, and sometimes even talking to salespeople.
#20. Bank in Person
Banking required a visit to your local branch and often standing in line, not just tapping an app.
#21. Take Notes with Pen and Paper
Taking notes meant writing things down manually, and losing your notebook actually mattered.
#22. Enjoy the Moment
Instead of recording every single moment on a smartphone, people actually lived in them. Shocking, right?
Put Down the Phone!
In those days, life was slower, sometimes more frustrating, but arguably richer in some ways. Or maybe we were just better at being bored.
The post 22 Things We Used to Do Before Smart Phones first appeared on Mama Say What?!
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / wavebreakmedia.
For transparency, this content was partly developed with AI assistance and carefully curated by an experienced editor to be informative and ensure accuracy.
