How did anyone function before the internet

Tech info came from magazines or word of mouth.
Phone calls were made on landlines.
Music came from the radio and media du jour.
Spellcheck was done via the dictionary.
Pictures were taken with a 35mm camera.

Sometimes I miss all of this.

You paid attention and took notes.Then, there was trial and error. If that didn't work, you asked around until you found an answer.

Search for something.....find it.....read the reviews.....then don't know what the hell to do!

yella71 said:

wow some of the questions I see on forums just blow me away.........what did people do befor the internet. where can I get this , how do you do that, what is this, how does that work?

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Shows how dumb folks are....

44070dart said:

I thought there were a lot less ignorant ******** on earth before the internet.

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slimt said:

Well now you have access to all of them.

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On a daily basis it would seem.. It's like a train wreck, you just have to watch

I do remember some family members having to walk ten miles to school one way . now with the internet they can find a bus that can takes them there quicker.

Glenwood said:

Or they tell you how you should do the work! Adjustable rates apply

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I need one of those shirts Glen

In the old days before the internet, people could get away with pretending they had a car....and everyone believed them.
Now, it's a case of put up, or shut up........

I did just fine, before the internet came along
in many ways I was way better off, than many of my peers
I actually learned by doing, getting my hands dirty, even if I didn't know
& bought a lot of service manuals
made lots of buddies, because of cars too, learned from my elders

it's not the same today

it is convenient for some information & especially shopping
but you really need to cipher out all the BS, or even many opinions
you can't believe everything you read, especially on the -www-

the newest generations (not all, but I'd say most) is hooked on it
they depend on it, they have a phone or device of some sort
in their hands, when ever they are awake (that's the sad part)

many (not all) in my generation have a fallback system,
that they can use, old school ****, old car guys, old books, basic knowledge
that don't need (or have to use) the internet, still to this day

But we do enjoy some of it's conveniences too...

you will learn to work smarter, not harder, with age

like my signature says
"Fill your library, before you fill your garage"

Budnicks said:

I did just fine, before the internet came along
in many ways I was way better off, than many of my peers
I actually learned by doing, getting my hands dirty, even if I didn't know
& bought a lot of service manuals
made lots of buddies, because of cars too, learned from my elders

it's not the same today

it is convenient for some information & especially shopping
but you really need to cipher out all the BS, or even many opinions
you can't believe everything you read, especially on the -www-

the newest generations (not all, but I'd say most) is hooked on it
they depend on it, they have a phone or device of some sort
in their hands, when ever they are awake (that's the sad part)

many (not all) in my generation have a fallback system,
that they can use, old school ****, old car guys, old books, basic knowledge
that don't need (or have to use) the internet, still to this day

But we do enjoy some of it's conveniences too...

you will learn to work smarter, not harder, with age

"Fill your library, before you fill your garage"

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...and the kicker is, you really did have cars and real experience.

odcics2 said:

Shows how dumb folks are....

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As well as lazy and self absorbed with the mindless mindset of these people about the reality of nothing, that they don't have a clue about anything and everything!!

Hemmings motor news. Want to place an ad? It will be in next month's issue... if you get it in on time, otherwise, two months out. Want to see the run away deals first, you can pay extra to be on the early delivery list.

Toys in Toy World, Guns in Shotgun News.

eBay showed us how many of anything is out there.

Most every home had a set of Encyclopedias. They were produced by researchers who had a huge pride in the accuracy of their books. Unlike Wiki, people couldn't go in and change or delete facts.

kiwigtx said:

...and the kicker is, you really did have cars and real experience.

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Playboy.... oh wait we are talking about car stuff...

Steve009 said:

Playboy.... oh wait we are talking about car stuff...

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I dont think so I think its everything in general.

auto trader was the first internet!

Tinkered with mower engines to learn how things worked and graduated to car engines.

Building yourself a decent enough car to take to the track on the weekends. You made a few friends real quick that would lend you a helping hand and share their knowledge.

Phone calls and writing letters were the only ways to communicate.

Reading books were the window to information.

yella71 said:

wow some of the questions I see on forums just blow me away.........what did people do befor the internet. where can I get this , how do you do that, what is this, how does that work?

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Lets see... Started out with plastic model cars, The "spin welder" cars, magazines, hanging out at speed shops and TALKING to people. Then got some used vo-tech auto mechanics books when I was around 12 or 13. Had a few friends who had older brothers or fathers who had some shop tools and knew a little about cars. My family didn't know anything about cars, and I could not afford to pay someone to work on my <$200 car, so if I wanted to drive I had to be my own mechanic. Bought my first car at 14. It was a '67 Coronet 318, cost me $175. Chiltons books and magazine articles, I though I could fix anything. Then Re-ringed the 318 engine after learning how to break stuff when not using the right tools and techniques. Made a bunch of mistakes, learned from the mistakes. Then came the Factory Service Manuals (FSM), the Direct Connection Catalogs, and the Mopar Bibles (direct connection Engines, suspension and chassis), and requesting parts catalogs (snail mail) from the various vendors / advertisers. Then crusing Main street, parking and BS ing about cars. Getting out to the Drag Strip, racing, and more BS. Combing through many junk yards for parts, and seeing different vehicles and parts. Lets see, up to early 1980s now, and dial-up 300 baud modems on the commodore 64 you can access electronic bulletin boards (pre-internet type forums) allows access to a wider range of car knowledge and **** (if you could call it that, example: Removed before the mods get upset, but think packman graphics. Not sure if Leasure Suit Larry video game was out this early?) Then car clubs and car shows, and finally the internet comes around, BUT the web browser and search engine has not been developed, so still mostly dial up bulletin boards. Then, ta-da finally 2,400 baud dial-up connections, IBM PCs, 1 MB Ram, DOS operating system, Lotus 123, Word Perfect, dot matrix printers, 10 MB Hard drives (an advance over dual floppy disks), and EGA graphics (Likely to set you back easy more than $2,000 around 1990.) Connection speeds were better, and web mail and internet portals like America OnLine (AOL) you could access the internet. Graphics still sucked unless you had really big $$$$ for speciality video equipment and software that really was not commonly supported. Next big thing around 2000 was the Macintoshs, and Pentium Computer, and VGA Graphics, and Windows 3.1. Ram memory was still expensive, as was hard drive space. Skip ahead to 2010 and computers and graphics are better and prices start coming down, and lap tops start being much more popular than desktop computers.
I guess I went through alot to BS about my broken car