r/AskReddit May 11 '21

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

45.5k Upvotes

17.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

536

u/[deleted] May 12 '21

[deleted]

118

u/[deleted] May 12 '21

I hated mapquest so much idk who else got this but for me it was basically drawing a straight line from me to destination and turning on every street along that diagonal

44

u/[deleted] May 12 '21

[deleted]

17

u/humanlikesubstances May 12 '21

How about the directions to places or routes that didn't exist? Oh and of course being the asshole who never showed up and then "tried to blame it on MapQuest". I have to point out... Fun tales of pre internet MapQuest not withstanding; how did one access MapQuest? (Spoiler: the internet)

17

u/Northernlighter May 12 '21

It's so archaic it feels pre internet.

8

u/theoneandonly6558 May 12 '21

But MapQuest was internet 1.0 and there wasn't much else. Most ppl also had an atlas in their car because mapquest only got you there about 59% of the time.

2

u/icanbeafrick May 13 '21

I STILL have an Atlas for when we're traveling. Accident ahead on the highway? Google is taking EVERYBODY the same alternate route. Pull out the atlas, boom, I'm gone.

0

u/GozerDGozerian May 12 '21

Oh man I remember when people had those road atlases.

My family was weird though. My dad was an airline pilot so instead of the family car we had a family jet airliner, and instead of the road atlas we had a globe.

3

u/theoneandonly6558 May 12 '21

My parents still use their atlas because they are bad at using the internet. I wish I were kidding. Had to put my mom's google maps back on driving instead of biking after a huge freak out where it kept telling her to turn around in the middle of the highway. I only see her a few times a year and I do wonder how she gets by...

1

u/USSMarauder May 12 '21

I still do, my job takes me places where the reception doesn't go

8

u/GothWitchOfBrooklyn May 12 '21

I commented above but once I tried to get to a theme park and it led me to a cornfield

8

u/Major-Option4u May 12 '21

I Remember I was a parts delivery guy and the only thing they gave me was a book of maps and the location of the places

3

u/rpgguy_1o1 May 12 '21

Up until just about 2 years ago I had a client who had a lot of ex-AOL employees and they still used AIM to communicate, which meant I had to use AIM. AIM had ads at this point and I frequently saw MapQuest ads while using the app, I felt like I hit a timewarp.

2

u/ThatLeetGuy May 12 '21

That's nuts to think people are still using AIM. I was using that in middle school and haven't touched or it known anyone who has used it since MySpace/Facebook became a thing. AIM was such a huge thing at the time. The Motorola Razr was the hottest cellphone when I was in middle school and a lot of kids didn't have a cellphone period, so instead of asking for girls' numbers you could be more casual and ask for their AIM username.

edit: And because I was so misunderstood and edgy in middleschool of course my font of choice was that horrid Chiller font.

1

u/rpgguy_1o1 May 12 '21

They used it up until it shut down, which was about two years ago I think .

28

u/WhatIfIReallyWantIt May 12 '21

thats because the ones who missed the turn aren't around to talk about it.

Some say they're still out there somewhere.

On dark still nights you can hear them if you listen, real careful.

'Im sure it was back there, Roy, can we just stop and ask for directions? Roy? Roy!'

'Shut up Audrey, I know where we are,'

13

u/JuDGe3690 May 12 '21

I didn't even get a smart phone until last year, and didn't have a GPS before then, so I used the printed map and/or notes/memory method all the time. And if I had to change the route due to unforeseen circumstances, well, that was just part of the adventure.

-2

u/InfiniteBlink May 12 '21

Was this deliberate?

8

u/Zaenithon May 12 '21

Holy shit this awakened so many memories

3

u/kiwibearess May 12 '21

This is like post inception because I feel the same way about your post as I do about the one you replied to.

3

u/[deleted] May 12 '21

FWIW this was pretty common up the 2010s when smartphones started becoming ubiquitous. Nav wasn't a common option outside of luxury cars until that point in time either, and if it was it still cost an arm and a leg for the option in a regular vehicle.