Do you remember life before the internet?

I do.

I’m the right age to have had an analogue childhood and digital teenage life.

A nostalgic 80s, where things like house phones were still not common place, and then everything rapidly changing through the 90s and later, to the point now where we have all the worlds knowledge in a device in our pocket.

I’m wary, I know I could indulge in the nostalgia, a wonderful haze of analogue memories. Big blocky computers with giant floppy disks, loading computer games via cassette tape, excitement when the phone rings, and the joys of post.

There’s always that temptation, to think of times before ‘The Internet’ as generically better. How fun was post, when it wasn’t always just bills? How exciting was a phone call when you barely communicated with folks you didn’t see each day. How simple was it all when you didn’t know what was happening beyond your local horizon. How disconnected it was when you needed support.

I love a odd wonder into melancholia. It’s like a really rich pudding, something to savour and enjoy. But not something one should take too much of.

I do remember a time before the internet, and I miss some of it. Cameras that didn’t need to load and were litterally point & click, days without being contacted, post that was fun.