Asklemmy

The internet in it's heyday, when it was a genuinely thrilling place to find information, and quite a lot of weirdness, and before it was swamped by corporate interests.

I remember starting out with gopher and a paper print out of 'The big dummies guide to the internet' which was a directory of almost every gopher and ftp site (pre web) along with a description of what you'd find there. Then the web came along and things got really good for a while. Once big corporations got involved it all went down hill.

Not having all the silly teenager / young adult bits of their lives documented in videos for all to see.

Bugs hitting the front windshield in extraordinary numbers.

Doing stuff with friends, undocumented.

Not all, but most don't seem to have adventures. When I was a kid I'd go off into the woods and build a den or climb a tree, we once spent a whole week trying to dam a stream, god knows why. None of my friends kids go anywhere by themselves, a lot of them do 'forest school' where they'll be taken by adults to a sanitised woodland and taught how to build a teepee with pre cut wood, and it's just not the same thing.

Home ownership

Getting static shocked by the TV screen.

Livable planet :)

Winter

Rushing to the boombox when you hear your new favorite song, to record it to cassette

Cleaning out a ball mouse.

My 14 year old son recently picked one up out of this big pile of old computer treasure I was given by a client and said "What's up with this mouse?"

1. Privacy

2. Peace & Quiet

The nightmare PS2 dirty disc screen, and mainstream multiplayer games without anticheat rootkits

Edit: mainstream

the feeling of not being spied on 24-7

Regular police officers not wearing full body armor and tactical gear.

Not contacting a person until you meet them again at a location you planned the day before.

Not knowing where you are, locating using literal maps.

It boggles my mind how much safety we have today.

Snow days

Burning themselves on a light bulb!

And the classic.

Why it's called "Roll down the window".

I cannot reply to a previous comment, due to it not federating here, but the children of 2020s will literally be online from day one!

There are countless parents that are posting pictures of their newborns on social media, on Instagram or Facebook, straight to a server in California, so imagine that every single person whose parents are like oh, I don't care about privacy, I got nothing to hide bro will have at least one photo there.

And it's not only that. They'll just never get to experience how life goes with no computer in sight, with no smartphones, not even cellphones at all. No computer, and more importantly, no internet, just cartoons on TV such as Life with Louie or Courage the Cowardly Dog or the Looney Tunes series. And even more importantly, no social media. None at all. Nothing to distract you from actually living.

Finding a nudie mag in the woods

The 1900s

Using the internet without everyone and their grandmother spying on them and blocking access to stuff the busybodies don't personally like.

Calling your friends house, and asking if they were home and could talk.

"Smoking" chewing gum cigarettes.

Exploring the internet by going through a physical "100 coolest websites for kids" book.

Okay, something simple. Being annoyed that you forgot to rewind the video cassette the last time you watched a movie.

The French revolution.

June 11th 1894

Walking in to an honest-to-god Toy Store as a small child.

R.I.P. Geoffrey

Being able to chalk off the often embarrassing or cruel lessons of childhood as something personal, rather than something someone saved in video, to hound you with for the rest of your life.

A world where 'literally' was the only adverb people know.

Clean water, air, and food. There’s plastic in everything. I don’t think any of us will ever get to experience any of this ever again.

Wait till the perfect second to hit record on the radio to make a mix tape

Dial-up internet (and I'm only in my 20s!)

Rewinding a VHS tape.