Let me explain. So imagine this tv show with the plot taking place about like a few decades before the internet was invented. If I see that, I suddenly feel some sort of anxiety as in: “Damn, how did people even get information?”, like I suddenly imagine myself, there, as a child, and not having access to this seemlingly unlimited access to information that I currently have, and not to mention, entertainment content. So like, that feeling of feeling like I’m in the past (as in: I’m imagining myself being in the past), but not have access to the internet just gives me a very bad feeling. Idk how to describe it. As an introvert, I’d hate the pre-internet era.
For context, I’m Gen Z (I mean like birth year around 2000-2005), and I grew up reading a lot of Wikipedia and educational Youtube videos, and variety of news articles, and reading through a lot of internet forums. I hate imagining a world where I didn’t have that. Like Growing up 100 years ago, I would feel even more lonely and isolated, I’d probably have ended my own life out of boredom, if it weren’t for the endless amount of information I am able to obtain.
What is this weird feeling that I’m feeling?
Reverse-Nostalgia?
History-Phobia?
Techno-philia?
(Am I being weird? 🤔)
You would naturally have more friends because you’re not on the internet all the time. You would probably have a third place. Go to parks and what not. I’m an introvert as well and I grew up in the 90s, you’d be fine. Lol life finds a way. You would be surprised what you would be willing to do when there is nothing else.
90s kid introvert here.
I would hop on my bike of a Saturday morning, explore the town for an hour, hit the library, come home a few hours later with as many books as I could fit in my backpack.
I’d stay up late learning to code from paperback manuals, save my games to floppies and swap them with friends at school or make my brothers play them.
I ran a year-long pen-and-paper fantasy wargame with my friends from the Scouts, I’d spend an hour every week tabulating the results of everyone’s orders and updating the map.
I’m you from the previous generation. I lived too far away from the library to reach it on bike, but parents worked near it so they’d bring me books on their way home and returned by read ones at the same time. For me those games were written in BASIC for Commodore 64 along with rampant game piracy. Our made up pen-and-paper games were also made up but were mostly based on Cold War and Middle East scenarios.
yisss I was also jamming on the C64, a hand-me-down from a cousin
Eventually I had read all the books I was interested in at the local library, and the second nearest library, and the downtown library, and I was riding eight miles each way to get to the far side of town. As long as I was back by dinnertime!
Welp I had a brief time in elementary school to middle school like right before the smartphone era really began (think like 2012-2016), there was nearly zero phones in school at that time, I can assure you I still had near zero friends and everyone that I do talk to, I only considered them to be an “acquaintance”. Everyone talked to each other, I was the loser making origami stuff and being a loser in the corner by myself with barely anyone to talk to. So yea I kinda hated my life during that time period. Perhaps seeing tv shows portray pre-internet era triggered these subconcious memories and cause those fears to resurge?
Not having anyone to talk to for a few years in grade school doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have managed in a world without the internet. Its perhaps unfortunate that smartphones enabled you to be insular and never develop more socially (in regards to your original question)