“What Did People Do Before Smartphones?” Ian Bogost asked in The Atlantic this past July. (I only just came across this essay.) His short answer: “No one can remember.” His longer answer is, well, bizarre. A taste:
A spine-chilling revelation: We couldn’t remember what we did, because there was nothing to remember having done. We did nothing, and it was horrible. Filling the nothingness with activity of any sort became a constant exercise.
…
Television was another way of killing time. We watched a lot of it. Game shows, daytime soaps, sitcoms, the evening news, MTV—television was just sort of on, sort of all the time. In homes, if people were there to watch them. But also in airports, doctors’ offices, and laundromats. Some train and bus stations had tiny, coin-operated televisions bolted to the arm rests of their seats, a reminder of the desperation people felt when confined.
And we scrolled for ambient information by flipping pages, in whatever newspapers, magazines, or catalogs happened to be nearby. Like smartphones do today, these offered ways to see something—anything—that we hadn’t seen before, while waiting for the next thing to happen. Periodicals were spread in waiting rooms, in airline seat-backs, on benches in the park.
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I cannot overemphasize how little there was to do before we all had smartphones. A barren expanse of empty time would stretch out before you: waiting for the bus, or for someone to come home, or for the next scheduled event to start. Someone might be late or take longer than expected, but no notice of such delay would arrive, so you’d stare out the window, hoping to see some sign of activity down the block. You’d pace, or sulk, or stew.
Now, I am not as down on smartphones as some culture watchers are, and it’s clear that Bogost, a videogame designer and a professor of film and media studies, is mounting a very enthusiastic defense of the devices, and of how they have impacted our lives. But it seems to me that he’s bending waaaaay over backwards to cast the pre-smartphone world in the grayest, dullest sort of light. The first thing I thought of in answer to his headline question — “What Did People Do Before Smartphones?” — was this: I carried a book with me at all times. And if there was any danger of finishing that book before I got home, I would carry a second book with me. It wasn’t horrible. Books made my bag annoyingly heavy, sometimes, but then the Kindle (which predates the smartphone) solved that problem nicely. Time to read — on the subway, standing in a line at the post office, waiting for a friend — was wonderful.
Anyway: Do you remember how you filled your time before smartphones? Was it a horrible exercise in stewing, sulking, or despairing nothingness?
I'm 38, and only got my first cell phone (a flip phone) partway through college.
I read. Or listened to music. Or just, like, hung out and looked around at the world. Don't get me wrong, I like my smart phone, I'm typing on one right now, but it's not THAT big of a deal to go without if you aren't conditioned to swipe constantly
I read so much more than I do now. I always had a book with me, like you, until I realized there were magazines I really enjoyed reading, that I could subscribe to for not very much, and then I was a cover-to-cover, every issue reader for years of Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and and Premiere (rip).
I have been working really hard recently to make my smartphone much less a part of my life. I pick it up when I have something I need to do on it, and for the most part these days, I put it down when I'm done. I am so much happier not being (as) tethered to it. I still don't read as much as I did pre-phone, but a hell of a lot more than I had been. mostly though, it's just that I fill my time with intentional acts rather than somewhat mindless and passive scrolling. it's empowering, I have my time (mostly) back.
I grew up without broadcast or cable television access. Once the Internet came along I was immediately addicted, so skipping past that and to the part of my life before the personal computer was set up in my home and jacked to the phone outlet, I watched movies on VHS, read books, and played card games and puzzles when not outside wandering around. I also learned how to deal with extreme, crippling boredom, the type that physically hurt, and frankly I follow the "that built character" approach rather than seeing it as a thing I should have avoided. I learned patience and how to occupy my own head.
I'm 38, and only got my first cell phone (a flip phone) partway through college.
I read. Or listened to music. Or just, like, hung out and looked around at the world. Don't get me wrong, I like my smart phone, I'm typing on one right now, but it's not THAT big of a deal to go without if you aren't conditioned to swipe constantly
I read so much more than I do now. I always had a book with me, like you, until I realized there were magazines I really enjoyed reading, that I could subscribe to for not very much, and then I was a cover-to-cover, every issue reader for years of Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and and Premiere (rip).
I have been working really hard recently to make my smartphone much less a part of my life. I pick it up when I have something I need to do on it, and for the most part these days, I put it down when I'm done. I am so much happier not being (as) tethered to it. I still don't read as much as I did pre-phone, but a hell of a lot more than I had been. mostly though, it's just that I fill my time with intentional acts rather than somewhat mindless and passive scrolling. it's empowering, I have my time (mostly) back.
I grew up without broadcast or cable television access. Once the Internet came along I was immediately addicted, so skipping past that and to the part of my life before the personal computer was set up in my home and jacked to the phone outlet, I watched movies on VHS, read books, and played card games and puzzles when not outside wandering around. I also learned how to deal with extreme, crippling boredom, the type that physically hurt, and frankly I follow the "that built character" approach rather than seeing it as a thing I should have avoided. I learned patience and how to occupy my own head.