When you say “before the internet”, I assume you mean the World Wide Web which has only been around since the early 90s. The Internet (network connections, email, bulletin boards, etc.) has been around since the early 70s.
For me…video (computer) games, reading, tv.
I didn’t exist before the advent off the Internet. I was conceived inside the virtual domains of cyberspace and as such my existence is restrained to the digital world. So, as you can clearly see, from my perspective time did not exist before the Internet.
Yoda or Yogurt? A dilemma for the ages.
I used to watch a lot more on video and TV.
Read and write and work out.
Then I discovered SDMB around/before/it’sablurnow when I was pregnant with my son. (After about two years of being totally unimpressed with the internet so-called community. I used it for research.).Lemme say that SDMB is pretty much my only outlet to the world right now. The internet has been a saving grace for me. SDMB has been my savior in a non-denominational sort of way.
Because of where I live ( on the outerskirts of the outskirts of Metro Detroit…one more mile north and it’s mandatory to like NASCAR and sleep with your brother) I have no one really to talk to all day-week-month-year long, except a couple of brain dead neighbors and my holier-than-thou-Martha-Stewart-wanna-be SIL down the street. I’ve lost all contact with former friends and coworkers and the thought of driving anywhere from 25minutes to an hour just to socialize with people is not appealing the least because it throws off the nap schedule (not to forget the dressing kids in winter apparel and the gear involved) and by the time I get home, I am exhausted and the kids are refreshed and ready for combat. Then, naturally, hubby calls saying he is working late and it’s only 3pm and he won’t be home until 10p. Nuff said.
The sense of humor, the wit,the strive to crush out urban legends, the …well…everything…here is what keeps me from going insane some days.
Crap…this is a ramble.
But, the internet is alot like having children. You give up your hobbies, your free time, your waistline and it all blurs by and you enjoy yourself.
That at the fact that when I realize I’ve entered a thread that looks interesting, only to find it duller than squashed bug, I can skedaddle out without offending anyones feelings. IRL, as we all know, we have to stick it out and deal with the conversationally-impaired while the eyes glaze over and we enter the happy place between our ears.
If anyone actually read this manifesto, you must be in worse shape that me/I.
Before getting a computer and getting on-line, I used to do a lot more sewing for myself. Still keep up with the reading, though, particularly the the classics (I’ve rediscovered a lot of books through this board {though I’m still slogging through The Decameron}).
Except now I get up an hour earlier in the morning so I can read the on-line newspapers (now is THAT an oxymoron or what!), especially the comics - ones that our local rag does not carry and still make me laugh.
Mostly video games like Wing Commander 2, Civilization and Ultima 6. Also Final Fantasy 2 and Final Fantasy 3.