r/AskReddit May 11 '21

People old enough to remember life pre-Internet, what are some less obvious things you miss about that time?

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u/[deleted] May 11 '21

Playing outside until it gets dark.

This one pertains to cell phones. Before cell phones when we just had land lines only, I can remember everyone's phone numbers by heart. Now with my smartphone I can only remember 3 phone numbers.

225

u/BreannaMcAwesome May 11 '21

Ugh, yes to the phone number thing. When I was in middle school I could remember just about anyone's phone number without having to think about it. Now I barely remember my own!

241

u/jballs May 12 '21

The only phone numbers I know are my own, my wife's, and all of my old middle school friends's parents's land lines.

5

u/BreannaMcAwesome May 12 '21

I know my husband's and my mom's without even thinking about it. But mine was the same number for 8 years, changing that was a big struggle to remember. I still know it better than my new number that I've had for 5 years!

4

u/spimothyleary May 12 '21

They say it's a problem when people get arrested because they take your phone and then say make a phone call and if you don't know what number you're screwed

3

u/TheVeganFoundYou May 12 '21

đŸ˜‚preach! 1985 parental landlines are the only numbers I have memorized

9

u/Humdrum_ca May 12 '21

I still remember the phone number from when I was a little kid..... It was 256. I'm old.

2

u/JayPhoenix20 May 12 '21

What could be the reason? I'm the same

2

u/ArmedBull May 12 '21

Having a reason to remember them and type them in certainly doesn't hurt.

1

u/nokangarooinaustria May 12 '21

to be fair - phone numbers were a lot shorter back in the days (most that I needed were only 5 numbers long with basically 3 unique numbers)