https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/nostalgia-for-the-pre-digital-age-5896335Nostalgia for the Pre-Digital Ageby Jeffrey Tucker
8/6/25
Have you lately watched any movies from the 1970s or 1980s? They are intriguing for reasons that could not have been understood when the movies were made. They reveal a world gone by, one never likely to return, and tragically so.
These were the last days before the advent of digitalization of everything, and before the whole of humanity connected itself to the digital borg with nonstop surveillance and distraction. This was before social media wrecked the young, the smartphone ate up the lives of the professional class, and before the elderly were the daily prey of online scam artists.
They lived real lives in the physical world. They instead relied on trust, learning, and community. People were assets, not useless eaters, and awareness and talent came at a premium.
In these movies, when people drive somewhere, they need to know the way there. If they did not, they would take recourse to a physical map or ask for directions. As a result, they had to be attentive to what was around them and cultivate a sense of direction.
Phones were on desks or attached to walls, and operated with buttons that one would push. This was an upgrade over the rotary dial. When the phone could ring, you had no idea who it would be. This is the source of a great deal of drama. Maybe it was a scary call, as in a Hitchcock movie, or maybe it was romantic as with a Neil Simon play. Regardless, it was always a surprise.
If you were at a restaurant eating, you were away from the phone. If someone knew you were there, they could call the place and the waiter would come to your table and tell you that you are wanted on the phone. You would then excuse yourself to go to a phone booth.
At the phone booths, small enclosed rooms with glass walls, there were sometimes lines and you would have to wait for the person before you to end the conversation. As a result, conversations were rather short. They had to be.
If you called someone outside the city, you would have to pay long-distance charges, either on your bill at home or by putting many coins inside a machine. If you ran out of money, you could not talk. Speaking of money, it was physical as in coins or paper bills. In order to conduct banking operations, people had to go to a bank.
More at URL above...(very nice essay by Mr. Tucker)
