Millennials and early Gen Z of Lemmy, what did you do for fun before phones became such a huge part of our lives?
I keep cutting out things like social media from my lifestyle, but I'm finding it hard to fill the time. Reading can only go so far, there's never anything on TV, and my friends all live twelve miles away.
So, before we really had social media, what did teenagers do?
listening to music (it’s important to remember that this was an active thing to do … you’d listen to an album beginning to end, digest it, read about it etc)
playing music
Hanging out with friends, either doing some of the above or going here and there on pushbikes.
Not gonna lie, I honestly think it was overall better. If the internet were just Wikipedia, blogs and casual non-profit social media, the world would be a better place.
Library (it was fun spotting a book I haven't read yet), comics (waiting for salles so I could get a bulk of them for cheap), rollerblade (until you discover that the road is bad and the poor wheels just can't handle it), table top wargames (fun putting models together and doing pew pew sounds one a month with friends). DnD was also occasionally thrown in, but without proper DM the stories are just terrible and teens be doing rather immature things.
I mean yes, we also hung out sometimes, but I wouldn't say it's more often than I hangout with friends nowadays. Technology was still part of my life, just in another form.
@hellfire103 Probably none of the things I would do today, but were fun back then while I was a kid.
We were a group of kids of various similar ages who would play various games outside, among which I can still recall:
hide&seek
leapsha (I don't know how to translate this in English, but basically you would all run away from another person, and if that person would touch you and say you are!, you would be the one everyone would run away from)
1,2,3, stand at the wall (where one of you would stand at a wall and say the phrase, then turn around. The others would try to get to you, but if you happen to see someone moving, you'd tell that person and they would need to get back to the starting point)
country, country we want recruits (I know it might sound wrong to some of you, but it's really fun. You split into two groups, then hold each other tight in a line. One of the group shouts Country, country, we want recruits!. The other replies who? and the first one replies with the name of someone in the second group. Then, the person called runs towards the group who was calling, between two of its members. If these persons manage to stop the runner, then the runner will join their group. If they do not, the runner returns to the original group. The side who gets only one person left, naturally, loses)
"Lapte gros" or "thick milk" (I don't quite know the rules by heart myself, but you can read an explainer and see a video here - I never really played it myself, so my limbs are pretty much intact)
Then I was also watching a lot on Cartoon Network, we had cartoons like Ed, Edd & Eddy, Life with Louie, Scooby Doo, The Cramp Twins, Tom&Jerry, Looney Tunes etc.
Then some of my friends had bikes and we would compete against each other on a few streets around my neighborhood (that's how I know that place so well I don't even need a map to get around, lol).
I still ride my bike sometimes, but now I live at the top of a 10-floor building and it's really inconvenient for me to get my bike up&down all the time (I cannot get it into the elevator either). So I mostly prefer to get outside and walk.
Indeed, for a teenager like you seem to be, it would be more fun to hang around with some friends, so why not just bring them over and play something 😁 Edit: you can also buy a ball if you can find one at a store.
Just make sure you don't trash your house or something, haha.
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