r/askanything • u/domboy699 • 9h ago
General Question How did people deal with boredom before cell phones?
I'm pretty much attached to my phone all the time. I'm trying to quit but I get jittery and am extremely bored if I'm not on reddit or scrolling on something. It's so bad I even scroll while I'm showering. I'm also gen z so smartphones have pretty much been part of my life for as long as I can remember(except maybe in the 2000s when I was still a little child). I know people had magazines but I feel like I would get bored of reading something as finite as a magazine quite fast. Did people just stare into space and do nothing back then lol?
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u/Velifax 9h ago
Books.
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u/HulaViking 9h ago
Paperbacks were very popular for taking up little room.
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u/FlashyResolution446 8h ago
We always had Readers Digests in our bathroom when I was a kid. Quick little stories for when you have to pee.
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u/upsetwithcursing 9h ago
I had way less boredom before phones.
People actually did things together back then.
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u/capn_starsky 9h ago
And when you didn’t do things with others, it wasn’t boredom, it was relaxing.
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u/RetireWithoutBorders 9h ago
Gen X here.
I used to have to walk uphill 20 miles through the snow just to get to school.
My parents had no idea where I was most of the time.
When it got dark, I suddenly show up for dinner.
When I was bored, I made up imaginary friends.
Those imaginary friends are still with me, but they argue with me all the time.
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u/1useforaname 9h ago
It's 10 o'clock...do you know where your kids are? Remember that on the news
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u/RetireWithoutBorders 9h ago
Yeah?
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u/Much-Refrigerator-28 8h ago
Do you know where you are?
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u/RetireWithoutBorders 8h ago
I’m standing behind your computer watching you
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u/Much-Refrigerator-28 8h ago
Do you know where your bits are?
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u/RetireWithoutBorders 6h ago
I have an 8 bit TRS-80 computer. I’m typing this on a 64 iPhone. I also have a 64 bit computer as well as pad in front of me.
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u/thewNYC 9h ago
Boredom was one of the best things to happen to people, and we’re losing a lot because people are never bored
People would write a poem, paint a painting, read a book, go out and socialize, play a game, generally be involved in the world
Now, instead, it’s straight to the phone because it’s better to be a zombie than to be bored
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u/ViciouslyFortunate 1h ago
its funny how the word boredom has become this boogeyman we all run from. my nan used to say she never remebers being bored as a kid cause there was always some small thing to get lost in, like rearranging her rock collection or counting all the cracks in the footpath. we’ve kinda trained ourselves out of that quiet curiosity
i tried leaving my phone in the kitchen for a whole sunday and after the initial panic i ended up colour coding my sneakers which took like three hours. was it productive? nah. but it felt more human than refreshing the same three apps over and over
i think the hard part isnt finding things to do, its sitting with that uncomfortable empty feeling long enough for your brain to remmeber how to entertain itself again
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u/Right_Wolverine6502 8h ago
We were smart enough to think up things in our heads and play them out. Or we were outside with friends.
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u/fish_perculator 9h ago
Read books, played video games, rode atvs, watched TV, fishing, hunting, target shooting...
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u/cgieda 9h ago
We used phones ( the ones with curly cables connected) and we talked to people. When you were a teenager in the 80-90's with a girlfriend you'd often spend hours talking on the phone. Magazines were way more popular and to u/ThenBike8868 comment, we went outside, rode bikes, played games out in the streets and cruised in cars etc. In general there was more hanging out with friends as opposed to solo looking at BS on the phone.
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u/supergooduser 9h ago
I like when these threads come up. My answer is what we did on breaks at work.
You'd have 15 minutes to kill before you had to go back. Cigarettes were pretty common, but if you didn't smoke, you'd hang out in the breakroom, maybe there'd be a newspaper from that day or a magazine. If you had a break with another person, you'd make small talk. You're both at work and it sucks, so people were generally positive and pleasant.
You might make a phone call to someone you were dating, maybe make plans with friends.
Also, the last ditch of boredom was a book. It's kind of gone by the wayside, but we used to have celebrity authors, Stephen King being the most notable, but also Michael Crichton, John Grisham, Tom Clancy. Everyone tended to have a mass market they carried around, you might only read one book a year and it was your go to for "I might have more than 10 minutes of waiting" so basically your cell phone.
In the 2000s iPods and the DS were QUITE popular and if you had a proto cellphone you still might use that.
I lived in NYC when the DS came out and it was interesting to see lots of adults rocking it in the subway.
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u/ZephkielAU 8h ago
We'd also head to the park and kick a footy around, throw a vortex, set up a tarp and hose in the back yard with some soap and slide on it, climb trees, ride bikes, write stories, try and tame wildlife, make stuff, find creeks, swim in them, build treehouses, stargaze, go camping, lay in hammocks, imagine all sorts of things, and philosophise.
Boredom was the mother of invention and creativity. I'm sad younger people don't get to experience it.
My child was raised in the dirt, and if I have any more kids they'll be raised in the dirt too.
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u/Apart-Assumption2063 8h ago
We had landline phones, called our friends and actually spoke to each other…… we would meet in bars and night clubs, read books, go over peoples houses and apartments and hang out, etc.
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u/deucemtn666 9h ago
They knew that being bored wouldn’t kill them and let themselves be bored sometimes.
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u/Silly_Author_7330 9h ago
We did shit, started bands, went swimming, hung out, talked, made things, developed our imaginations.
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u/CloneWerks 9h ago
...tore down and rebuilt a 350ci engine, replaced more than one transmission. I don't know how many exhausts. Learned simple blacksmithing from the old neighbor dude. Wandered a lot from here to there just to see what might be going on "over there". My sister became a serious gardener in her early teens just because she was bored and then found she really liked it. Both my sister and I learned to knit and crochet from my grandmother (who thought it strange that a boy would want to learn but taught us both anyway).
SOOOO much time in the local library! SOOO much time laying on the creek bed doing..absolutely nothing.
And a LOT of splitting and stacking wood whenever I was stupid enough to say "I'm bored" around my Dad.
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u/Silly_Author_7330 6h ago
Now tech bros would pay $18,000 a week to do the same thing while being yelled at, called Alpha Training.
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u/DietNarrow8275 9h ago
I had the double whammy of no cell phones and a black and white TV with just four channels, and nothing one the big three channels on weekday mornings except soaps.
We mostly played with the neighborhood kids, and I also liked playing in the woods behind the house by myself.
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u/Growing_Trash_417 9h ago
We spent less time doing unnecessary things to pass time and more time doing what needed done to pass time. Bored? Surely something around the house needs done. That was our thought process.
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u/Lanracie 9h ago
Hobbys, we called people and visited them, read books, actually watched movies and books, played cards, went outside. Its was actually way better.
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u/Asleep-Caregiver6739 9h ago
We actually went outside and played in the sun. We rode our bikes around the neighborhood. We had pinecone fights. We’d go to the pond to go swimming.
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u/ghoulthebraineater 9h ago
Went outside and on adventures. When I was a kid that involved riding my bike 20 miles a day just exploring. When I was in my teens it was a lot of underground punk shows. First going to them, then setting them up. Made zines. (Zines were kind of like a webpage for whatever random shit you were into but on paper) Learned how to play bass. Taught myself how to do makeup. Rode the rails like hobo. Drugs, lots of drugs. Lot more concerts. I did so much stuff. It was a blast.
I feel bad for your generation.
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u/Healthy-Brilliant549 8h ago
Yelled at clouds. Jk. Talked with other humans if around. If not thought about thoughts
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u/anguscatawesome 9h ago
I read other shit, menus pamphlets and books I brought with me. Otherwise I stared at random shit trying to figure it out.
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u/turtle882 9h ago
You know how back in old timey pictures people are gathered around a radio and staring at it like they just knew that one day a TV would be invented and give them something to really stare at? Kind of like. We just sat there twiddling our thumbs with the certainty that we should be doing SOMETHING with our hands to kill the boredom.
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u/LyricaRidge 9h ago
They talked to strangers, like small talk was not just polite it was entertainment.
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u/NotAnAIOrAmI 9h ago
I always carried a book with me. Or just sat and thought.
Goddamn, the greatest invention of the last 50 years wasn't the cell phone, it was the Kindle.
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u/The_Se7enthsign 9h ago
The internet still existed and was arguably better. You just used a computer instead of a phone.
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u/Tiny-Albatross518 9h ago
You would carry something to read. A newspaper, a magazine or a book.
You can also just look around or sit quietly in thought. That’s good for you.
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u/Written_in_Silver 9h ago
As a kid, I read, watched TV, built LEGO, teased my little brother, and explored outside.
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u/4inchesAtBest 9h ago
We’d go outside with our friends and we lay basketball, or ride bikes. Or kick the can, tackle football, baseball.
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u/ohhhbooyy 9h ago
Read magazines, talk to people, picked a hobby/sport, etc
As a kid we used our imagination for a lot of stuff. Car rides I used to pretend someone was doing parkour on building with my fingers, or had a race between raindrops on the windshield, pretend the floor was lava and I would hop from couch to couch, etc.
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u/superrich2turbo 9h ago
A lot of watching tv, playing video games, reading. Playing outside, some kinda sport or hobby and listening to music
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u/Cool-Coffee-8949 9h ago
I used to do things. I would iron my pillowcases. I kept a journal. I wrote letters to friends. I read constantly, mostly books. I played solitaire with real playing cards.
I was a much more interesting person 25 years ago.
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u/CloneWerks 9h ago
I spent a lot of time taking my nephews out camping and teaching them how to "be still" and let nature happen around them.
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u/HeyaShinyObject 9h ago
Read books, jigsaw puzzles, go to movies, ride a bike, crochet, knit, or build things. Play board games with friends.
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u/HeyaShinyObject 9h ago
Read books, jigsaw puzzles, go to movies, ride a bike, crochet, knit, or build things. Play board games with friends.
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u/MadAstrid 9h ago
We read books. We wrote books and stories and poems. We made music and art. We bonded with other humans with words and laughter in person. We cooked and ate and entertained. We walked and ran and swam and played and danced.
Some of us still do. I recommend it.
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u/itsallinthecomments 9h ago
Played with cards, coins, buttons, string, rope, color, draw, paint, trinket toys, puzzles of all kinds, crochet ect that's just inside.
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u/Correct-Avocado5426 9h ago
There's a reason I know every word to nearly all 80s rock songs that were played on the radio.
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u/Much-Refrigerator-28 8h ago
Books, newspapers, puzzle books, handcrafts like knitting, crocheting, embroidery.
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u/Shiny_Green_Apple 8h ago
Boredom is fertile ground for the imagination. I haven’t heard many imaginative ideas lately.
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u/tinapanics 8h ago
Gameboys and computer games, riding scooters with friends outside, sitting and talking on the trampoline.
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u/SgtSausage 8h ago
See that's the thing you dont understand - we were literally NEVER bored.
There's always something to do.
100 different things a day.
So many to do we could never squeeze half of 'em in on the day and they'd spill over into tomorrow.
You've just become so Screen Dependent ... it's actually fried critical systems in your brain to the point where Failure Of Imagination is the default.
Try harder, Hoss.
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u/Mackey_Corp 8h ago
When I was a teenager in the 90’s we met up places, parks, restaurants, concerts, people’s houses etc. We got stoned, listened to music, talked about life and the world and our places in it. We got drunk, we hooked up with people, we stayed out late and sometimes did really dumb shit. When I was a little older we would go to bars, more concerts, festivals, road trips to more festivals. Also we had internet access but it wasn’t like it is now. It was slow, social media wasn’t really a thing yet, it was more to look stuff up and send emails. Sometimes we would spend hours just surfing the web or playing video games but we did a lot of other stuff besides that. Now I go to work, come home and stare at my phone. It’s sad honestly.
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u/groovymama98 8h ago
There used to be these things we called conversations. People would be in the same space or on the phone, use words and convey ideas, rants, hopes and dreams. It really was quite uplifting.
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u/Gysburne 8h ago
We gone onto the fields and pushed cows over... and howdy pardner i tell ya that the yeeehaw was going on once they got angry.
Ok bad jokes aside... and plese don't go pushing cows... they are absolute beasts.
I was outside a lot, mainly in the woods, following the traces of animals, building hiding spots where i could sit in silence, read comics or watch animals. I even slept over in the woods sometimes.
Or playing hide and seek with bikes, the whole neighbourhood was our turf for that.
And yes also searching for abandoned places and inspect them.
Being bored was something good. It helped build up initiative to do something.
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u/ThickSwordfisher 8h ago
As terrifying as this is for a lot of people, we would just be alone with our thoughts. You would just sit and there and think about stuff. Or sometimes nothing.
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u/grambell789 8h ago
Sit around and dream about how perfect life will be when cellphones are invented.
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u/ConvivialKat 8h ago
It was the 70s. We went outside and enjoyed it. I live in far NorCal and the weather is very nice for much of the year. I spent a lot of my time at the lake hanging out on floaties, smoking weed, and laughing with friends about life. We always socialized face to face (and very frequently body to body). We listened to music together and danced. We read books. We threw parties. We went to huge concerts (think Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Who, etc) and there were always good movies (the drive-in was epic). My memories of my younger years are mostly of hanging out with friends and laughing. Oh, and sex. Lots of sex. Such good times and fabulous memories.
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u/OkPerformance2221 8h ago
Oh, I know this one: the answer is All of Human History and Culture, All of Literature, Performance, Science, Cuisine, Fashion, Visual and Tactile Arts. Also, Every War or Petty Squabble. Oh, and Religion.
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u/Quirky_Professor8628 8h ago
There are these bound things called books.
We also had portable radios.
And, is a crazy worse case, we would strike up a conversation with another human nearby.
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u/No-Proposal2741 8h ago
We talked to each other. Went outside. Played games. Got in to trouble. Got out of trouble. Avoided trouble. It was great.
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u/Extension-Couple6801 3h ago
If it is a short wait they probably just read a magazine or newspaper. For longer times, they probably just take a nap. Thats what i do last time anyway.
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u/winnibunni 2h ago
Make my Barbie’s fight when my parents were yelling cus it was like they were doing the voices for them
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u/Ricky_Martins_Vagina 2h ago
We'd just be bored....
End up lost in thought, maybe daydream a bit
Overthink mundane stuff, over-plan trivial activities
Glance around, notice what people are doing, wonder if they know they're doing that
Rank the hottest people in the room and wonder if they'd rank themselves the same way
Rank people in other ways
Just sit there drumming your fingers or patting your hands on your lap
Pick up a newspaper or magazine
Draw dicks all over the newspaper or magazine
.... That kind of stuff 🤷🏻♂️
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u/Ascender141 1h ago
He means like the last 12,000 years of human history? Seriously? Get a fucking Hobby, read a book, go work out, go outside, go actually talk to someone.
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u/Natural-Compote4096 29m ago
I went outside and climbed trees. I read books. Did art. Explored the streets. Looked for cool rocks. Hell I still do this
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u/Reasonable-Emu6159 9h ago
We read books, newspapers, listened to music, actually talked to people, visited neighbors and family, talked on the phone. Kids went outside and played all day long. We rode bikes, roller skated, built first, set up lemonade stands, played hopscotch and jump rope, played jacks or board games, pickup baseball games, watched tv. I'm 74 and don't recall feeling bored very often back before cell phones. You can't miss what you've never had.
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u/Sidney2150 6h ago
We were literally bored. Which can be a good thing. It’s the empty space where deep thought can express itself. Boredom has a bad wrap. We shouldn’t constantly externally stimulated.
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u/ThenBike8868 9h ago
They went outside...