@JeremyMallin@actuallyautistic I spent a lot of my youth in libraries and glued to Discovery channel, etc. So I think you got it. But I also think you're on the track of why the earliest adoption of internet was people deep in special interests.
We didn't have money available for me to buy books, so other than a couple of notable exceptions, my 'interest' was more in knowledge as a general construct, so I'd just trawl the shelves looking for something new and interesting for that moment.
@JeremyMallin@actuallyautistic Libraries and conversations in bookshops, particularly second-hand bookshops. Also the proto-internet: zine culture and small newsletter circulations. For example when I was a trans kid in the 90s we subscribed to a black and white photocopied magazine called Boy's Own for trans men. In the same way that "if you can think of it, it's probably online", if you could think of it, there was probably a newsletter.
@JeremyMallin Mind you, I'm young enough that all my pre-Internet memories are from childhood but when I think about the things that were special interests for me at the time, a lot of them centered more on doing certain things rather than researching things.
Like, I was very into the arts as a kid.... Singing, dancing, arts and crafts, etc... So I was constantly doing that sort of stuff. I took classes, I did it at home... My mom had a pretty extensive arts and crafts supply and a huge music collection, so I always had access to stuff to facilitate the creative process.
I feel like researching things and falling down information rabbit holes didn't really become something I did until after I was online for a few years. My family first went online in '93 when I was 9, and by the time I was 13... the Internet kinda became my special interest for awhile.
@JeremyMallin@actuallyautistic dictionaries and encyclopedias, national geographics, newspapers, libraries. in high school i would spend a lot of time in the uni libraries, usually browsing stacks. searched tymnet and telenet for open databases, also used compuserve's iquest a lot and rang up quite the bill because of it. i went anywhere i could that was open to me.
@JeremyMallin@actuallyautistic I literally read the dictionary and encyclopedias. I loved grey's anatomy and other medical textbooks my mom had. Then I moved on to my parents collection of National Geographic magazines that went back to the late 60s. Then I had a subscription to 321 Contact and Zoobooks. So yeah, I just read everything that came past me and was at all sciency.
Absolutely yes, libraries.
It seems to me that social culture was a lot more tolerant of special interest conversation than it is now in the "why are you bothering me, go google it" age. People were generally able/willing to direct you to a place or person that might have more of the information you were looking for.
@JeremyMallin@actuallyautistic I went to the city’s public library a lot. I’d search through the little card drawers to find a books location back before computers were common lol, or just wander around until I found something.
@ashleyspencer@actuallyautistic
Oh yes. I remember the card catalogues. I hated them, but I was better at using them than I was when the first computerized versions came out. Maybe the first ones just had really bad software? The one that took the longest to adjust to was my university's own system. 🥴
@JeremyMallin@actuallyautistic I don’t remember seeing computers at libraries for catalogs until I was in high school. We had little Mac computers in 5th grade where they taught us how to type without looking at the keyboard. It was a tiny library though.
@ashleyspencer@actuallyautistic
Our high school library did have a few computers but I don't think they had an electronic card catalogue system set up yet. I didn't encounter that until freshman year of college.
Searching the cards drawers lead to a lot of "Oh! That's not what I'm looking for, but it looks interesting!" And I'd note that other book too.
Same as looking up words in a dictionary. I remember pausing often before reaching the word I was looking for because some words I didn't know looked cool.
Now? Searching is very efficient... and very boring.
I remember a lot of photocopied catalogues for things like early personal computers, lead and plastic gaming figures. Special interest magazines (war gaming for me). They got handed around, well thumbed and dog eared.
@JeremyMallin@actuallyautistic many hours in the school library. My family also had a lot of Reader's Digest books, especially on ancient history and supernatural stuff. My and my dad's interests have a good crossover.
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