Do you remember life before the internet?

~ Veselin
Daily writing prompt
Do you remember life before the internet?

I do, I’m old enough. The birthday of the Internet is officially 1983. I was 3 years old in 1982, a first-year kindergarten kid. My parents lived outside of Sofia because of permit issues – socialism regulated who lived where and they didn’t have permission to stay in Sofia. We lived in a rented bungalow in a village nearby that had running water but no bathroom. I was banned from visiting the toilet because my parents were afraid I’d fall in. We had flowers, trees, and a manual water pump. I remember that I ate the dandelions. The puddles had frogs. We were told touching the frogs would cause warts, so the interaction was with sticks and stones (no frogs were harmed). We had a small hill that was good for sleds in the winter. A train line was not far, and we had to walk by the tracks to reach the kindergarten.

The Web was invented in 1994, birthing a prototype of the modern Internet and many supergiant services. I was already hooked to computers by 1994. We had 8-bit computers at school, and I studied programming with Basic (ignore the first paragraph on that post). We also had computer clubs where kids could watch how other kids played, which was almost as good as playing yourself. Smoking was permitted inside so you could cut the thick gray air like cheese. I spent my summers around the chess bridge club in Stara Zagora which had 20-ish XT and 80286 computers.

Both milestones I associate with the freedom to roam around and having lots of free time away from my parents. Sofia and Stara Zagora had fewer cars, and it was considered safe to let your kid play on the street with other kids without supervision. I was allowed to go to school by myself from 1st grade when I was 6, a right my kids are deprived of by law. Culturally, we got our highs from books, VHS videos, and audio cassettes. The influencers existed but spoke from the TV, rather than social media.

I’d say, life was simpler and not necessarily better or worse. I like my hot water and inside toilet, the Macbook Air, and the WIFI but playing football every day was also great. And can we get rid of the cars? That was such a civilisation-level mistake.

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22 thoughts on “Do you remember life before the internet?”

  1. Hey! have you read Edward Snowden’s “Permanent Record”?!! In that book he too had explained same kind of stuff. Simple life is definitely always more beautiful.

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      1. Some of my half remembered memories are here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Re-Building-Ruined-Places-journey-childhood-ebook/dp/B0BLZW16V6/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1QXRTOLF21980&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.YwMTDnbxZ_9NVq_HL427SmiawuV9DxsbW_eKX3gjo1l7aM7SuGj6ah4tprwE_kFYTjMqp64J00Ge6otminyUq8CVDP6JlwM9idxp-mj2BQtBUzUr-v2uvwSDIHf7onYD52pevkAHl2Hx-AF2REsULA.C7tgfN0Z3JE8fwcbwBrD6ao2381MCM8Sg0mnfqfFK5U&dib_tag=se&keywords=Lorraine+Cavanagh&qid=1716897820&s=books&sprefix=lorraine+cavanagh%2Cstripbooks%2C110&sr=1-2

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      2. That lack of availability gave birth to lots of interesting memories as well 🙂 I should post about Karl May, for example. Karl May was semi-permitted because he would show the rotten capitalism of the wild west.

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      4. Yes, thanks! Lots of books are just one click away from my Kindle. I try to buy paper books to encourage the publishers because I don’t trust Amazon for sharing enough of the revenue with them.

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    1. Cars are easier to rust than houses. These locks age like milk. They pretty much rot, move people around, and clutter the streets. And rot the sidewalks, the city plan, and people’s arteries.

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