How did you people who were alive in the 80's survive without modern technology?

Question

I just watched a movie from the 80's and everything looked so foreign. There was no internet, cell phones or social media. How did people call someone when they were out and about? How did you book tickets without internet? How did you work without a computer and internet. Looking back was life much tougher?

Answer 1

We lived quite well.  We didn't need technology.  I grew up, in the 1950's-1960's.  We visited with our friends and talked to each other, we went on long walks, we played outside, no one had to lock anything (doors or cars).  Life was extremely easy and fun.

Answer 2

I find it disturbing how addicted your generation is to your "devices". 

The 60s were sports year round for me ... hockey was across the street and the park a block away. I did a lot of reading, had favorite TV shows, board games. The 70s was foosball dominating my spare time. I got an Intellivision set in 1979. Those are still some of my favorite games and I've had 3 play stations. I use this laptop a couple hrs. a day. I get a prepaid cell phone when the weather is good enough to bicycle in case of emergency. Pay phones were everywhere in the past. I'm healthy, retired comfortably and can afford almost anything I want. I hope you have it this good when you get to be my age (I have doubts).

Answer 3

Depending on what part of the 80's, we had primitive versions of almost all that, it's just that it was all so cutting edge that it was financially beyond the reach of most people with kids.  Single yuppies, sometimes two incomes, one apartment, no kids, no pets-- they could actually afford a lot of that stuff.  The precursor to the internet looked something like this: 

http://harvie.cz/bbs/phreak/BOXES/hack.txt  People had electronic bulletin boards that were the precursors of the little web page.  (scroll down to the lunch box, that is actual text that has been recopied over and over in its original form since 1985!)

  Hot shot lawyers were among the early adopters of cellular telephones, then mostly called "Carphones" yeah, I know, and the main place that you're not supposed to a cellphone now, was just about the only place you COULD use one of those brick-like sets; it plugged into the cigarette lighter! 

  Some 80's movies that show feasible hacking and computer use are, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sneakers, maybe the Manhattan project and becoming progressively more fantastic,  Revenge of the nerds, Wargames, and going off in to real scifi/fantasy that was using contemporary equipment; Electric Dreams, Videodrome, Brazil, and Max Headroom!

Answer 4

What we never had or knew we didn't miss

Answer 5

Back then, your blackberry was an actual blackberry. You could eat it. 

Answer 6

We had modern technology - for the 1980s.  I wasn't suffering.  My first two jobs in the library were filing cards into the catalogue of the library' holdings and typing the information from those cards into a computer data base that superseded the card catalogue 5 years later.  I had a telephone, a small tv, a VHS player and tapes, a microwave, a small refrigerator and hot plate, and an adding machine. Outside were the elevators and motor vehicles.  I was technologically ready for the world I lived in, and I felt no loss.

Answer 7

Someone who was raised with the concept of instant communication could not live the way we once did. If you wanted to get a hold of someone, you called them on the phone and if they weren't home, or if you weren't home when they called you, you left messages on answering machines. 20 years before that there were no answering machines and people lived just fine.



People booked tickets by calling venues on the phone and paying with credit cards, or by using Ticketron, which was a computerized reservation system developed in the 1960s.



Before there was (anti) social media, people had to speak to one another face to face. People have grown comfortable in their anonymity saying things that they would never have said to someone's face, to the point that they will not just troll and bully on the internet, they will do it in real life. The deterioration of social discourse has increased rapidly as a result.

Answer 8

they did not. obviously

Answer 9

The only part that was tougher was in the 80's you were bullied face to face.  We could only dream of a time when you would be bullied over the internet and not have to face them.  



No computers and internet in offices meant there was a hell of a lot more full-time  office jobs.  Not like millennials now scrambling around at 2 or 3 part-time jobs.



You booked tickets by phone or standing in line.  It was great, not all your concert tickets were bought up by robo thingies, and real fans could get tickets at regular price, not triple the price.  And like previous point, a ticket company had to hire twice as many box office sellers and staff answering the phone.



Life was fun.  We played outside with all the neighbor kids until dark or dinner time

Answer 10

Life wasn't tougher, just different.



You called someone when you were out and about by using a pay phone.  If they were out and about, you either left a message on their answering machine or with whoever answered the phone at their home.



You booked tickets with a travel agent, assuming you mean plane tickets.  For concerts, you could book tickets over the phone or just go to the venue to do so.



Work was done on paper or with typewriters.  Copies were made on Xerox machines or duplicators.

Answer 11

I grew up in the 1970's. They called someone when out and about with public phone booths, or asking e.g. a shop if they could use their phone and then paying. Tickets would be booked by going to the shops who sold them, or at the gates. 

Everything needed to be researched using encyclopedias, the library, newspapers, and so on. There was also much more post/mail then. One listened to the radio, and bought LP and 7 single/45 records much more, like for certain songs. In short, various other sources were used. And, children also played outside much more. People also visited others more. 

I don't think cell phones are so good anyway, because they have to be charged almost every day. And, most calls and sms messages being spam. The people just being after your hard earned money. Nuisance.

Virtually the only spam calls back then were wrong numbers.     

Answer 12

I'm 15 (wasn't alive in the 80s) and I can answer that. 



They would find a payphone or go inside somewhere and ask to use a phone (I think). These phones were different. No screen to facetime or send text messages. 



They would go inside the place to purchase the tickets manually. 



I'm not sure what you specifically mean by the last one, though.



But I'd agree, life wasn't as easy then as it is now. It wasn't "tough" 

necessarily, but new technology made it easier for sure. 



Also, sorry if this isn't accurate. 

Answer 13

Must things could be done on the telephone.

Answer 14

You coped.  You can't miss what hasn't been invented.  There was a thing called mail.

Answer 15

Only idiots ask such questions.

Answer 16

More borders against masss Muslim migrants

Answer 17

Many of us go back a great deal further than the 1980s. In the 1950s and 1960s when I was a child and teenager, we had one landline phone in the house, and it was plenty. Although TV was available, our family didn't actually have it until 1964.



We wrote letters, we took buses and trains to visit friends; we phoned the theatre to book tickets, and paid in cash (or maybe with a cheque) when we picked them up.

You could turn up at an airport and ask for a 'standby' ticket, which was much cheaper.

In school we sat and listened to our teachers; nobody had anything remotely like a mobile so there were no electronic distractions.

We kept change in our pockets in case we needed to phone someone from a phone box in the street - you know, the kind that Superman used as his changing room.

You don't miss what you've never had.

Answer 18

My God, how young are you? We communicated, used pens and paper, rang booking agencies or went in to them in person, read books. Life was different not tougher and there was no online crap or bullying.

Answer 19

We read a lot back then. I kept tabs on science fiction shows and movies by reading a magazine called Starlog. In it, they gave mailing addresses for fanzines about several SF topics with lots of other fans. Sometimes we would find pen pals, and communicate by mail. In between, we'd go outside and play sports or just enjoy nature. I used to walk in the woods and pretend I was Bilbo Baggins (yes, we had Lord of the Rings back then in paperback books).

Answer 20

"How did people call someone when they were out and about?" You couldn't, unless you knew they were likely to be somewhere with a phone line, so you could try calling them there.  It was once fairly common for bars to get phone calls asking if so-and-so was there.



"How did you book tickets without internet?"  Depending on what the tickets were for, you could either book them by post, by telephoning the ticket office, or just going to the ticket office itself. 



"How did you work without a computer and internet. Looking back was life much tougher?"  Computers have been being used in workplaces since at least the mid-70s.  The internet has made certain aspects of life easier but life certainly wasn't 'much tougher' before it became widespread.  Social media, for example, are far from an unalloyed blessing.

Answer 21

Why today's children are so fascinated by Zombie's is a total mystery to me? 



 The Zombies would all rapidly starve for lack of finding anyone born after 2000 with a working brain!  … and all messages didn't start with, "What cha' doin'?' 

Answer 22

It sucked *** only having 3 channels but as far as the rest goes, we didn't have it so we didn't know what we were missing.

Answer 23

It was different types of technology, but we did the best we could with what we had.

Answer 24

Technically, they DID have modern technology in the '80s, just like we do now. Just different or older versions.



Someone 30-40 years in the future from now might say the same thing about the 2020s, even though it's not true. Just like like your question is not technically true.



The 1980s are different in the sense that the 2050s will be different from right now. It's not that long ago, yet.

Answer 25

Contrary to what you think, there were landline phones, and if you wanted to talk to someone, really talk, not sending text messages in the version of English that make writers like Mark Twain and Walt Whitman spin in their graves.  If you were out and needed to make a call, there were payphones everywhere.  On every corner in mid-town Manhattan there were at least a couple of dozen.  When I was out of the office I would have to call often to check in.



If you wanted to book a ticket you went to the travel agent.  I worked at a travel agency in the mid 1980s while in college.  The tickets were actual paper tickets.  The computer-based reservation systems with terminals in travel agencies were just becoming a thing, so there were still ticket wholesalers with rooms full of agents writing plane tickets by hand.  



We had more face to face contact with out friends.  Arranging something like going to the beach required multiple phone calls (see landline above.)    

Answer 26

Life was simpler, there were shops where you could go to book a concert, or a holiday, you phoned people on your landline.wrote letters, at work you had paper files,it worked very well!

Answer 27

If one needed info, they went to the library.If one needed info about certain products, they went and asked the people who sold them. If one needed tickets, you went in person or called. If you wanted to talk to someone, you planned a time for it or you left messages and played phone tag.  You are right about the internet and being able to find information at ones fingertips. But I preferred it 10 or 15 years ago, there was a lot less fake and or opinion to wade through before getting to factual information.

Answer 28

LIfe was simpler, if we were out with friends we werent' interrupted by someone's tweets, texts, or phone calls,   We had computers to do our jobs, we didn't need the internet to do them. Social media was a poster at the grocery store advertising an event.  People called each other on land lines, wrote letters.   All of the modern conveniences came with inconveniences i e, once fax machines became popular someone on the other side of the world could pile work on my desk while I slept.

Answer 29

Sliced bread & running water were big too.

Answer 30

There is this thing called a telephone. You call up the airline, give them your name, phone number, credit card number. They’ll enter it into their computer. You show up at the airport, give them your name and your ticket is printed. 



You can also show up at the airport on the day that you want to fly and buy your ticket at the airport. 



Social media isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Back in the 80s, you bully someone by beating them up. Now, I can bully someone 3000 miles away. 

Answer 31

I think anyone who's 28+ can answer this because we didn't have modern technology until our mid teens and older. Life was SO much better and more fun to me. I wish it would all just go away. 

Answer 32

Remarkably easily.  I called people when they were out & either didn't get an answer (Oh!  The HORRORS!), or left a message on their answering machine.  Life, you presumptuous, astonishingly uninformed fool, was very easy.  

Answer 33

We lived in a "real" world - not a "virtual" world



"How did people call someone when they were out and about?" - why would the want to/

  people call others on cell phones today but then just jabber on about meaningless trivia - whats the point of that? Is their life so meaningless they MUST talk trivia to somebody to give it meaning?

Answer 34

The wonders of modern medicine and nutrition make it easy to believe we enjoy ... Why the present day could be the best time to be alive ... If you have two children, and one dies before their first birthday but the other lives to the age ... But was that really the case for people who survived the fragile period of ..

Answer 35

In some ways it was tougher, but it seems we took better care of the environment, perhaps because we were in it more instead of being in our houses with our computers.

Answer 36

How did Mankind exist 10,000 years without it?



there WAS an internet starting in the 'sixties. It was just Govt use only until the ninties.  Also Teletype and fax. Fax machine invented  in 1900, it helped break up Butch Cassidy's gang. 



We used the Library, Read, and went to the box office. For some there was Ticket Master. You'd call in and use a credit card.



 I often  yearn for good old days, no cars, radios, kl your own chuck raise own food. .My Grandpa hardly ever r drove. He passed on  in 1962 at 92 years of age.

Answer 37

We survived very well.  We didn't have to pay $1000 for a smart phone.  We didn't have $300 monthly cable bills since most TV was still free.  Our cars were much, much cheaper.  We got to meet and date people face to face and people were more willing to trust strangers.  You didn't have to carry around electronic gear and cords.  And work environments were much more social as almost everybody had to come to the office (not much remote work)....people generally looked better too since we had to dress up more for work in the office.  When we bought clothes they would almost always fit because we could actually try them on in a real store before buying.  We could even arrive at the airport just 10 minutes before flight time and still get on board if we could run fast for the gate.  

Answer 38

There were phone booths everywhere. And cigarette machines. (Cigarettes were healthy back then, and glamourous.) And free matches next to all of the cash registers. 

Answer 39

just like 30 yrs from now there will be more advanced teck. you may not understand or want

Answer 40

life in the 40's would have blown you away, but it was better.

Answer 41

Payphones were a thing back then, I believe they had landlines as well. 

Computers were huge back when my dad was in college. 

I am sure they worked just like we do 

Answer 42

Great Scott!  They traveled back in time to the 1950s in a Delorean, Marty! 

Answer 43

80s people were more independent, technology hadn't taken over peoples' lives. Compare that to today's world, where technology pretty much controls people and people have grown far too comfortable with it.

Answer 44

What's it like to have an interior life and personality and imagination? We just don't know! The internet was a mistake.

Answer 45

You don't Miss whet you never had

Answer 46

Yes, life was much tougher. There wasn't much food around, and you could easily die of simple things like broken limbs due to the primitive state of medicine. The good news, though, was that life expectancy was very much lower than it is today so they weren't miserable for long.

Answer 47

When people needed to call while they were out they used these things called a pay phone, and instead of social media full of trolls they had no choice but to talk face to face, and used type writers to write documents.

Answer 48

People spoke to each other in person, met friends and went out together in person, used their home phone or the phone box and there wasn't a 'social anxiety' pandemic and 'keeping up with the Jones' was about what the neighbours had, not what some non discript, non educated, social media lack of any skills or qualifications person did....life was simplier and people had real friends not social media 'friends' they don't know have never and not ever going to meet

Answer 49

Not only that in 1980 we had a record heat wave with 86 days with the high temp. over 100 degrees with a high of 114 degrees .

Answer 50

very well, thank you ....................................

Answer 51

What we never had or knew we didn't miss

Answer 52

Because if we didn't, we were afraid The 1980 U.S. Men hockey team were gonna beat us with their sticks worse than they did The Russians.

Answer 53

Life was good. We had disco. 

We did not call people when they were out. We left a phone message for them at home. We booked tickets by phone from home, or we went to the ticket office to buy them. We talked to people and met people more. 

Life was better. We got together and talked and joked. These days even when people get together they sit on therir phones texting someone else instead of talking to the people they are with.