You see them everywhere. Everywhere!

On virtually any and every sidewalk. In cars. In bars and restaurants and in church. You see them in the salad bar line, at the basketball game, at school, at work. You see them in the park and on the couch. In the gym? Yep, you see them there, too.

The problem is, they don't see you.

They're too busy looking into that little screen in their hand. They're addicted. Oh, they'll never say they're addicted, addicts rarely do. 'Oh, I could lay this thing aside anytime I want to!'

'.I just don't want to.'

The internet. Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. Tik-Tok. Social Media. Whether you love it or hate it (or both), for most of us it's become a way of life, at work and at home (or anywhere and everywhere else for that matter). And for many, yes, it's an addiction.

Hard as it is to believe, there actually was life before the internet, before social media. Somehow we old codgers were able to bumble and stumble our way around the planet. Somehow we were able to drive without texting, walk without texting, and we actually visited and....gasp....talked! Mail began with a capital 'M', not an 'E' and we snuggled up with a book, not a Kindle. We got our news from...well, the news.

What else did we do waaaay back there in the olden days? Well, the website Only In Our State Dot Com decided to see what we, in South Dakota, did.

Remember the library? When we wanted to look something up, we didn't Google. We stopped at the library, and maybe even met friends there. When we wanted to watch a movie or two we went to the video rental store. And maybe even picked up a VCR to play them on. We read the newspaper and maybe stopped to use a payphone.

The old days. Not all that many days ago.

So here are ten of the things we did in the great state of South Dakota before the internet and technology took over our lives.

Oh and no, gee, I'm not addicted.

Ten Things We've Stopped Buying

 

 

 

More From KXRB