I keep cutting out things like social media from my lifestyle, but I’m finding it hard to fill the time. Reading can only go so far, there’s never anything on TV, and my friends all live twelve miles away.

So, before we really had social media, what did teenagers do?

  • Preston Maness ☭
    9•1 year ago

    In order:

    1. Reading. So, so much reading. Lots of fantasy (Merlin series, Redwall series, Harry Potter series), quite a bit of non-fiction (How Stuff Works-type books), and foreign language stuff as well. I’d try and line up English and Spanish, English and French, and to figure out the “rules” of the other language and its vocab.
    2. Video games. The Nintendo 64 was my first “big boy” purchase that I made with my own money. I played a bunch of Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie (and later Banjo-Tooie), and GoldenEye (as well as its “spiritual successor,” Perfect Dark). I also picked up a Counter-Strike 1.5/1.6 habit in the early aughts.
    3. Aggressive Inline Skating. At least until I broke my arm right before high school, and then ended up too swamped in academics to spend much time on physical activities.