Was just thinking about how nuts it was before the Internet and mobiles. Like, if you had to go pick someone up from the airport you’d have to phone the airport (from your landline) to find out if the plane was on time, or delayed. And then you’d get into the car and put the radio on to find out (sometimes too late) whether there was traffic on the way. And there was no way to find out whether that person was actually on the plane, or if they got delayed coming off the plane. Or to let them know that yes, you were still coming to pick them up, or that you were waiting for them. Nothing. No way to communicate with them at all. Just basically winging/YOLOing everything. Mental.
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yeah but life was less hurried, less rushed, less immediate
if you had to sit and wait for an hour or two for something to happen then that was life. we didn’t know any other way and it was absolutely fine
instant gratification for information and events is not necessarily a good thing (and i say that as a career tech…)
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Yep, everyone just did it and got by just fine… as that was peak travel at the time. Imagine the days of no phones, cars, planes and radio!!! Now how did they cope?
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Less than half the traffic on the roads too. No one driving like they’re late for their funeral.
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Looking at a map and remembering junction numbers etc. then pulling over next to random strangers to ask for directions.
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I still do that. Never use a sat nav. I like to make an adventure out of it. If i’m with the kids I make a list of things to look for and have them navigate.
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I suppose it was fun sometimes, depends where you’re driving maybe, a lot of the time it was just stressful.
My Dad (a retired geography teacher) point blank refuses to use the inbuilt satnav in his car and instead uses an A to Z road atlas when traveling somewhere new
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I like him
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i remember when i sold my first shitty car i emptied the glove box and it was filled with printed out AA directions. that was a step up from just using a road map and it was kinda fun
Me too. Never used sat nav. in a car. I even have a compass in the car and have opened the sunroof to use the sun or stars to find directions…no, honestly, I really have.
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I use sat nav, I also use a toaster to brown my sliced bread, and we have a pressured water system that “flushes” the contents of the toilet into a local sewer system. All good innovations that make life easier.
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Sat navs are one of the best inventions ever created by humans. Why the absolute fuck would you not use them? Whats the prize of not using them? Sitting in traffic you could’ve avoided?
There’s a romantic idea of pre-phone times but it was mainly a pain in the arse.
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I was very late to the phone game because I felt I was fine without one. Then everybody started not turning up at the place/time we had arranged to meet and I’d be the only one sat in the pub wondering where the fuck everyone was. It was a case of if you can’t beat em, join em so I got a phone and started nopeing people by text message and changing plans last minute like everyone else.
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Fully agree about navigation specifically, but also firmly of the opinion that in so many ways smartphones have been a global shit show.
It’s a desensitisation of in built direction and navigation that Sat Navs cause.
If you’re just following orders you’re not taking anything in, you haven’t learned the route in order to do it again.
I was a passenger for 44 years and most of that driving around random places looking for spots. Sense of direction is trained.
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Sense of direction is useless when you’ve got to get through a city you’ve never been to before and there’s an accident on the M42
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Innit, also how you gonna use your sense of direction to reroute to the nearest Tesla Supercharger when you’re on 5% 
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its the poor wife getting shouted at for missing a junction on the map i feel sorry for.
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The good old days of knowing everyone would be at the town hall on a Monday at 7 and Sainsburys on a Weds or in M’Boro at 11 on a Sunday morning like clockwork. So even if a few people dropped out they’d still be skaters there but if you were really late everyone might of met up already and gone on to somewhere else without you and you’d have to skate on your own.
