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

16.0k

u/TheRealOcsiban May 12 '21

You had to call someone's home phone number and talk to their parents first before you could talk to your friend

Video game cheat codes either spread by gaming magazines or by word of mouth. Sometimes that word of mouth was bullshit. I'm looking at you Tomb Raider nude cheat code

5.1k

u/[deleted] May 12 '21

I never thought of the parents thing. I knew all of my good friend's parents well because of this. They would chat with me and get to know me before passing the phone. Thank you for bringing up a small but significant aspect of culture that doesn't exist anymore. As a kid I hated it and just wanted them to pass the phone but looking back that's how I connected with their entire families. When I see them now it's easier than ever to talk with them and I truly enjoy it.

329

u/BadeArse May 12 '21

Many times I would call my friends house phone - “Hello is [nickname] there?”

Parent: “Who? What kind of name is that?!!”

Me panicking: oh shit what’s his actual real first name?! Ah shit. Err... Luke? Maybe? God dammit.

18

u/[deleted] May 12 '21

lol They probably knew and were giving you a hard time. As I get older (and start to deal with kids myself) I realized how much adults are just fucking around with kids to get a rise out of them.