I mean, if you want an answer to that you could just stop using your smartphone for a few weeks and see what your brain comes up with. Here's a short list of some examples that were popular when I was a kid and smartphones did not exist yet:
Magazines, the daily newspaper, books, going out and exploring, shopping at malls, doing a hobby or craft, personal projects, television, chit-chatting with friends or even strangers, video games, puzzles, play with your pets, exercise, play sports, sitting quietly and being alone with your thoughts.
I was getting my vehicle worked over recently. At the time I was listening to a podcast. A couple other people, probably early 50s were chatting. The old dude in the corner, likely around 70-80 was just sitting there hands empty, looking around, reading nothing like some kind of psychopath.
For 40 minutes.
He did nothing.
It was honestly rather impressive.
In addition to reading ….
As a kid, we were constantly outside. In the summer, spend all day in the pool. Three seasons, in the woods. Any time, playing with neighbor kids. Winter, skiing, sledding, snow forts
Without doom scrolling, we had time for actual activities. Marathons of Risk or Monopoly. Assembling and painting scale models. Building, fixing, or repairing whatever needed it
Read books, play videogames, go outside and beat each other with sticks...
I used to draw anytime there wasn't something to do, which was most of the time. Now it's my job
When I was about 13 I downloaded a lot of the Simpsons or sort on my phone, which was not a smartphone but still could play videos and songs. Had a lot of great time with that little device.
I'm pretty sure no one knows this phone because I think it was for South Korea only but it had dedicated touch button bar at the bottom for media control. It was so good. I wish that is still a thing..
Read.
Having sex. Maybe.
Don't judge me, it's all about statistics.
Same thing I do now. TV, video games, find something to do with friends.
Listen the ringtones and play games I have on my Nokia cell phone
Television was actually fun to watch. Magazines were actually fun to read. Video games were actually fun to play. Hell, playing outside was fun. Playing with toys was fun (even as an adult). Spending time with users on early internet forums was also very fun. Music was much more aesthetically pleasing to listen to (at least the hits of the 00s were, imo). We fidgeted with literally anything we could think of. Pens, rulers, balls (it's not what you think), toys, even our own fingers.
It was really easy to get bored back then too, but at least it was really easy to escape boredom back then.
I watched a lot of TV and browsed the Internet on my desktop. Now I can just do these things while I'm on the go lol although I still do it just the same at home too
Comic books. And those weird bathroom readers.
We also were bored quite much. We also did lots of slightly less boring things like just runnung around, reading half bad books or learning assembler.
Over the last two decades we have reduced the amount of time spent to get many of the items we need. Since we can now order online from our homes we don't have to go out and get them, this frees up a reasonable chunk of time.
Also, over the last 50 or so years we have lost many 3rd places. A 3rd place is where you would spend your time that is not work or home. A bar, community center, an arcade..ect. those were a common place to spend time socializing.
Finally, items like reading and watching TV filled a lot of time. From reading the newspaper to getting the local news. Channel surfing was a big thing for a while. You would cycle through channels until you found something you wanted to watch, you could cycle channels for a while before finding something, so that took up a large chunk of time.
Read books, read newspapers, chat on the land-line phone for hours.
Before the cliché of everyone being with their faces in smartphones there were clichés about husbands who do nothing but read newspapers all day, or teenage daughters that massively inflate the phone bill because she's talking with her friends for hours, or children with square eyes watching brain rotting cartoons all day.
- Work more.
- Go to church.
- Go to a witch burning.
- Participate in a crusade.
- From which century are you asking?
Born in the late 70s, I only recall being bored when my parents made me go to mass, or waiting while they did adult stuff like going to the bank.
Horsing around with my brother or playing with the Casio stopwatch kept us sane.
At home it was TV, Legos, music and bikes
Some tropes of the 80s and 90s: Teenagers ignoring their family while listening to a Walkman. Dads reading the newspaper and ignoring their family. Moms talking on the landline phone with friends and neighhbors. Nerds reading comic books. Dads playing golf. Mom shopping. Teens just "hanging out" at some random place like a parking lot, near a lake, under a bridge, behind the band hall, etc. Smoking. Crossword puzzles. Jigsaw puzzles. Cards.
Ride bikes, go on adventures in the woods, break sticks, throw rocks in a pond, read books and encyclopedia, talk about wild imaginary adventures, see what can be hit with a BB gun
Reading, TV, video games, studying, crafts/hobbies
We were bored.
I had a Game Boy, that got a lot of use.
I read magazines, played videogames, watched TV, went "out and about", browsed the net, etc.
Reading, swimming, hunting, fishing, camping, sports, board games, card games, plain old socializing.
Cross-section books.
Threw rocks at stuff.
Trains, signs, each other,
Peed off of tall stuff.
Ride bikes.
Try to build ramps for the bikes.
Crash the bikes.
Ask your mom for a popsicle cause you have a fat lip now from hitting your face on your bikes handlebars.
Generally dumb things.
Freak out cause the kid s few doors down got his hands on some dry ice.
But the dry ice in bottles.
Run away when that nosy old lady calls the police cause people are "making bombs"
Playing outside a lot more, which was really fun. Hit the beach or swim docks and jumped off the highdives. Went camping. Bike adventures, etc. Lots more physical toys like nerf, Lego, beyblades, etc. CD music players, cassette music players, or MP3 music players, depending on the era.
People on the metro buses would read the paper to pass the time, listen to music, or read a book.
Back then, you could rent videos or games at a rental place, and there were many more physical hobby shops (there still are, but for live stuff, like aquariums now). Malls were a lot more alive and were true third places. Though even back then, I found people gorging themselves in a materialistic frenzy rather...distasteful. People still do it, just via Amazon and fast fashion online.
The biggest things I remember were how chill people were, the ubiquity of newspapers, smoking and cigarette holders outside, a lack of really any graffiti, and people being incredibly chill and a bit more open. There were also like, zero bike lanes or rail, so everyone drove everywhere.
Listened to music. Hung out in a diner and had coffee & fries all night with friends. Hung out at the mall. Got drunk. Had sex.
I think I used to eat mud when I was bored.
Read a book, play card/board/video games, watch movies, listen to radio, go to a public space in your community (parks, squares, etc.)
Read books. Make stuff from said books Show friends the stuff you made from books. Drink beer and watch sports and other hobbys.
You ever stand behind a couple of geezers in line somewhere and they start talking about some random stuff? They didn’t know each other. They were just bored.
Played outside with friends almost every day.
Read books. Cereal boxes. Ride bikes and fuck around.
Gameboy and Walkmans
We talked to each other, read books, went on walks…
Also, tv. Lots of tv.
Usually I use my phone when I an sitting around waiting for something. In those times, before I had a phone, I would always think about things I could and should make, and the techniques and mechanics of how they would work.
I read a bunch, and played a lot of video games. I am on the older-end of Gen z, so smartphones only became a thing when I was older, so most of my childhood was spent on computers running a mix of windows 98, Windows XP, and eventually Linux, where I got most of my books and almost all my games.
I had seventh generation game consoles before anyone I knew had a smartphone.
Pokemon on Gameboy. Physical books and comics. Sketching.
Shampoo bottles while pooping.
Child me draws.
Adult me thinks.You know why we lack philosophy now
Read books.
I used to buy these little pocket-sized Sudoku books that I'd keep with me, usually play a puzzle or two while commuting to work or something.
No one has mentioned magazines or newspapers yet.
Books, same as I do now as well.
I take your point but I'd like to say I can't remember being bored since I was a kid and that was because you were forced to and I'm 57 now.
Before smartphones we had snake and Tetris on non smart phones and we liked it. Before that books and news papers were popular.
Dream about the day we could install Windows on our cell phones and carry our computers with us everywhere. And play snake on our dumb phones.
What did people do when I was bored?
They were doing fun things that I didn't want to do. Maybe play sports, or experiment with drugs? Lol
