Makes me wonder what it must've been like for the cavemen. All they had were sticks and stones. Oh… and fire.
Stories. They told each other stories. Probably got a kick out of scaring the little kids with bear stories. Then of course the kids were always doing something dumb that everybody could laugh about. And naturally every tribe had at least one idiot.
The top hunters always had good stories about battling the beasts.
The women were constantly yakking with each other about this and that.
And they had art. Making stone tools was an art/craft. They made clothes. More arts and crafts. And they painted pictures on the walls of the caves.
They probably danced and sang.
And they worked so hard to survive that they were probably pretty tired at the end of the day and slept a long time at night and had lots of dreams.
Oh. Sex. Major entertainment there. And eating food. Sometimes the obvious things get overlooked. :)
It's very difficult for me to be honest. The only reason I DO remember not having these things is because of the fact that my first memory was when I was a year old. That was 1990/91.
When I first experienced these new (and old) technologies I was at the age most kids nowadays are first exposed to them anyway. I wasn't aware that these things were new. I thought they'd always been around and that I was only just finding out about them.
The one thing I definitely remember not seeing or having before was portable mp3 players. I didn't get my first one until I was 14 and even then it was a glorified pen drive even by the standards of the day… Six years ago. I'd been recording my own tapes and programming my own cds for years and I wasn't happy to see those experiences die.
Good thing the latter still has a way to go before it's obsolete.
Oh, and DVDs. Didn't get one of those until '03 or something. Blu ray isn't that much different in it's basic design so I don't count that as anything really new. The same with newer mobile phone models. They're "improvements", not new objects altogether. You can still buy your camera and music players separate. And they take better pictures and store more tracks anyway.
Even with the internet I remember downloading stuff for games in the late 90s and watching flash movies and videos. It's how I found out more information about the millenium bug despite my parents trying to keep quiet about it in case I freaked out. I even used it for research in a school project on Billy Connolly.
Growing up in the australian bush we made our own entertainment, exploring for many miles in every direction, building cubby houses, paddock-bashing in old cars, etc etc.
My dad got one of the first mobile phones available back in the late 80's… early 90's I got a lighter, more portable version (which was about 1kg and you had to carry it around in a specially made bag the size of a large woman's handbag (the handbag I meant, not the woman being large).
For most of the 90's I lived in a big bus, travelling around the country. We used candle power and gas so once again, no TV.
I wish I could live today without a 'doorbell that anyone can ring at any time' (a mobile).
WHile I do love and use the latest technology every day, I certainly do not miss it. Too may people today don't take a break from it.
I hate it when my son (now 20) brings his phone with him when we go on bushwalks… we might be way out in the hills, a hundred miles from the nearest human, enjoying the peace and serenity when 'DINGADANGADOOBADING'… "Hey, man, what's up?" etc etc etc……. : (
To me, that is worse than someone's phone ringing in the movies.
Mind you, he hasn't come on a bush walk with us for quite some time now, he prefers to be inconstant contact with his mates, surfing and partying on (sigh).
Today's tech is brilliant, but I do feel sorry for this generation. They never get any real time to themselves, constantly 'in touch' with friends.
Although I wasn't aware of it at the time, I now remember fondly when for someone to contact you they had to send a letter, or call a landline and hope you were in the house. When you were alone with your thoughts, you were truly alone, with no risk of your reverie being disturbed by telemarketers or friends.
(The first ten years of my life, even our phone was one of those with the little handle that you spun, then told teh operator what number you wanted… now I DO feel old)
Okay… I'm starting to wonder how old you really are, Cartoon Professor. Or maybe television simply arrived later in your area.
I certainly missed the old days when we only had ONE TV. The entire family would gather around and watch a lot of shows. That tradition hasn't died out, thankfully. When I visit my sister and her family we'd sit for hours with her kids and husband in front of the TV (and my "mother in law" from my sister's marriage would join in as well) and we'd discuss the show afterward with a cup of coffee while the kids play the Wii.
And your cell phones can reach far into the desert??? I'm sure it's annoying, but at least it won't be like in the old days when you got in trouble out there and had to hope that an aeroplane could spot you in that expanse. :)
Okay… I'm starting to wonder how old you really are, Cartoon Professor. Or maybe television simply arrived later in your area.
A lot of people didn't bother with TVs just because they didn't like them Lonne. Plus TVs were always fairly expensive in Australia.
And your cell phones can reach far into the desert???
Not generally. Cartoon-professor wasn't talking about the desert I think, probably the forrested bush. Phone towers on the big hills mean the signals have a wide coverage.
In the true desert in Australia you're limited to long range CDMA phones if you're not tooo far from a population centre, or true satellite phones if you are. -That's what the mining companies and surveyors rely on.
Satellite phones are bulky… funnily enough that's for sort of the same reason as why older phones were so large: it wasn't because they were crude and simple or that they couldn't miniaturise the tech necessarily… The biggest reasons for the size was that there just weren't the phone towers about to give a good signal so they had to be more robust and powerful to get good reception and transmit. That required a LOT more power so their batteries had to be a lot bigger. Most of the weight was the battery, that sometimes had to be carried separately. -Batteries also couldn't store as much charge for as long and components drew a little more power generally.
I see. Way back when a B/W TV was pretty expensive. At least by 1970s standards. Color TVs even more so. I remember that the first TV I got to watch was color, somewhere around 1974-5. My father and grandfather worked really hard to save up money for one. And I guess TV wasn't for everyone back then. There were better forms of entertainment besides sitting in front of a tri-electron gun blasting chemicals coating coated glass to make them glow…
heh… I need to remember that when people are talking about "the bush" the term has different meanings. I was thinking about Africa, when they use the term to refer to the savannah or sparsely vegetation covered desert. -_-
My family used to have a working TV in every room from '97 until about 2006. My computer monitor is an HDTV and I play video games on it with the Xbox but to watch TV in my house you either have to the big TV downstairs with the HD Sky or my mum and dad's room for standard freeview. And even though they have that TV we all end up going downstairs anyway to argue over things we want to watch.
We had an answering machine/fax machine once (Requiring an audio tape to record the message to leave to people trying to call you.) and ended up having to give it back.
My family was close to dirt poor in the early 90s. (Close to is because my mum would never live in a dirty house. Lol.) My parents almost gave away our dog at one point. And the only reason we actually GOT a mobile phone and the answering maschine was because of one of my dad's jobs that required them. We even had a laptop at one point but were also required to give that back.
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