What was life like before smartphones, were people smarter?

what was life like before smartphones, were people smarter?

george w bush

No, but idiots weren't given a megaphone, and when anyone said something stupid, it didn't exist forever.

Heh, I remember teens speed texting not even watching on phone. Quite a feat.

Not really, unless you were talking about the time before predictive text. T9 makes it easy as shit.

>predictive text
Really rustles me. Typing is supposed to be you ramming your ideas into the text window unopposed, not constantly second-guessed by some machine butting in and making suggestions.

It wasn't so bad with the RAZR. You typed up the word you wanted, and there was an entire bar of shit that you could just scroll through using the DPad. T9 was admittedly worse, as you need to keep hitting the pound key to scroll through one word at a time, and most of them either had "on," or "no," as an option, but not both.

lolno

Arguments over facts were less frustrating, because people wouldn't bring up fact check sites on their smartphones.

>PANTS ON FIRE
>PANTS ON FIRE
>PANTS ON FIRE
>PANTS ON FIRE

I saved this image on my phone for such a reason.

>a guy wanted a new phone
>he miniskateboarded with a 3210

>what was life like before smartphones, were people smarter?
I would say so, in that people were more driven to seek out knowledge, people used to look shit up - it was a longer and more laborious ordeal to say, contact the gazette for old news articles, or visit the library to research a book/paper.

sure you had internet, but it was slow, the size of a cupboard, viewed as luxury, rather than human right.

Our almost obsessive desire to be connected, everywhere at all times is pure overstimulation because Smartphones have blunted the fuck out of our natural curiosity, we've become entitled little shits, who derive greater satisfaction from simply having access to knowledge than actually applying it.

>got first phone at ~12
>some ericsson brick
>only 2 numbers I knew
>one was my dad's
>told me to only use it in emergencies
>too afraid to use the phone otherwise
>meanwhile older sister racked up $200 bill monthly, mainly from text messages

fast forward today
>pay own bills
>still hardly use phone
>dad complains that I never call him

the only really neat thing about smartphones is the built in gps
no more buying maps

>dad complains that I never call him
You should call him this weekend, user

This

pure bliss, and yes, people were smarter, now it's complete idocracy where everyone is dumbed down and can't think without muh smartphone

what should I say?

Hi dad, I know I never say this but I love you, I don't want to tell you that when it's all over, I'd rather tell you now

OP is 10 years old.

Internet with age restriction when?

as long as I can remember, I never told my dad that I love him.
he'll think that I will do / did something stupid.

but yeah, I probably should call...

Ask him what's going on in his world.
Ask how mom/other family are doing.
Tell him what's going on in your life.
Ask his advice about something? Discuss visiting some time, like for holidays.

I realize you're not girls and therefore need actual stuff to talk about, but a few lines of notes is probably all you need.

What's been happening your world?
What have you been up too?
I've gotta tell you the truth...