What's a process where you prefer the old way of doing things instead of how it's done now?

Programming. Telling a machine "build x feature" is nervewracking because I do not know what it's doing and more importantly boring because it takes all the joy out of writing code. Even the LLM completions I do not use because I have seen what it has done to my coworkers' brains. I will think about the problem. I will write the code. I will know what it does. It will be of me, not of some averaging machine.

May the LLM era end in darkness and the gnashing of teeth amen.

You sound like a C developer complaining about interpreted languages lol
Amen

Fixing a car.

I'd much, much rather twist some carburetor screws or replace a fuse than have to try to troubleshoot some encrypted CANBUS acceleration sensor that is required for my suspension to work properly.

I prefer how Nazis were dealt with in the past

Shaving with a double edged razor rather than a cartridge one. The whole process is much more meditative and rewarding when you actually focus on the moment and take the time to do it properly. Gives a better shave too.

I miss physically owning software, movies, and music, not having to pay a subscription for car features like heated seats or more horsepower. I miss getting a complete game that was usually mostly glitch free on day one you got it on CD/DVD.

Socializing.

No social media to distract people. Nobody staring a phones. Nobody recording themselves for streaming.

You memorized phone numbers or wrote them down. You called or got called to meet up at some place and everyone went from there.

True

Ventrillo / Teamspeak > > > Discord

Photography. Film was so advanced, having a layer for each major colour, every film stock has a different feeling. The only downside was cost, but you only took a picture when you were sure it is a good picture. Now we have tons of digital garbage because we take 100 pictures at once.

The old family picture books had so much value, now I can't remember if I ever even looked at any past photos I took with my phone, it's all just digital waste now
I feel the opposite. Film sucked so bad. I love pointing my phone at things and shooting a hundred shots and finding something good there or not finding anything and continueing with my day. Old photography was a pointless torture.
Film is crazy advanced. One of those "how did humanity figure this out?" kind of things. Smarter Every Day YouTube channel did a thorough tour of Kodak and it's pretty fascinating all that goes into it.
The deliberate act of shooting that the financial and time cost definitely makes better photos. You can do that with digital as well but it takes more discipline. Far easier to shoot a dozen and hope one works than to think and come up with the right one from the start.
Both have their place I think. Any time I shoot a race, wedding, or a once in a life trip I'm so glad it's digital! Being able to do a 10 shot burst and nail the facial expression is pretty awesome. Then slowing down and going on a local hike and setting up my 4x5 to take one shot, or a photo walk around town with an old SLR is a blast too.
Maybe I just like photography?

I liked connecting to irc servers and setting up a znc bouncer (also an on ramp into self hosting!) way better than anything matrix and discord do.

We had mumble for voice chat and that was perfectly serviceable.

Japan mostly skipped PCs (outside of offices). Since their phones were ahead of the curve, a lot of stuff was designed for them. That means that a bunch of stuff is either exclusively done through some shitty mobile app, fax, or in person. There was a brief phase where PC versions did exist, but those are almost all being neglected or decommissioned now. I much prefer to do things on a PC with a nice, clear, big screen, especially if I need to use some translation tool since the text tends to expand (learning thousands of kanji for stuff like legal and taxes is hard).

I do miss physically owning media. A lot of physical media still decays, though, so not a panacea.

Software programs that were much more tested and completed before release.

Software development where we think things through, define requirements, define states, etc. before any code is committed. I do think PoCs are fine to throw something against a wall but, if it works, the proper version should go through those design phases before anyone writes a line of code. Cheap components and fast machines and networks have made people lazy which makes software worse in a number of ways quite often. No vibecoding. No AI/LLM shoved into everything. I think they can have uses in certain contexts (rephrasing questions, generating examples/docs in projects with bad/no docs, etc.), but hate how they are being shoved into everything.

An internet not run by corporations. I think a lot of people do see it through rose-tinted glasses (we still had trolls on BBS, UseNet, IRC, etc. and other bad actors), but a lot of things were much better.

Third spaces. Places where people of different backgrounds would interact in some common way. Sure, some were echo chambers just like online communities today, but many were not and let people interact together rather than just being othered to the point of fear and reviling.

I much prefer AD&D 2.5 rules to anything around today (and TSR still existing, but that ship has sailed).

I do miss physically owning media. A lot of physical media still decays, though, so not a panacea.
I prefer digital media that is locally stored. Many complaints I see about digital media revolves around DRM or a service's ability to remove media that you think you "own".
I think locally stored media solves that without taking us back to the days of a shelf of hundreds of DVDs.
I do own some physical media like certain very old PC games but only because there is no good digital option available that's more convenient.
- I use locally stored digital media, but I still love my shelves of DVDs, CDs, and paper books. The CDs get ripped to FLAC and mostly left on the shelf thereafter, but I do still enjoy taking a movie off the shelf and loading it into the player.

I want back my Dumb TVs!! I dont want everything to be connected!

In the 90s, I felt like I knew so much about computers, both the hardware and the software, but I've definitely fallen off from all the improvements in the past 20 years, and I'm so Goddamn lost now. I miss those simpler times when it was more about the physical aspects of a PC and less about the technical aspects.

What do you feel like you're out of the loop on?

It grinds my gears that programs are called 'apps' now. On phones it was normalized immediately, so, sure. Computers run programs, though, god dammit.

Greetings program!!!
Something like 20 years ago, i assumed that every generation that comes after mine, will be so much better with computers, because they grow up with it. So that's not true at all as it turns out. I remember working with 20is year old guys together and they they mostly had iphones. They told me that they are also into computers, gaming and stuff like that. The more i talked to them the more i realised that they have no idea what i was talking about. I explained one of them how to do a thing on his phone and he was super lost. It was worse thN explaining my mom something. He kept asking where he finds the app i'm talking about and i kept telling him that it's not an app, it's something you do on the phone. Yeah i get that, but i don't have the app for that.
Microsoft have been calling discrete computer programs "applications" since at least the Windows 95 era, when Program Manager was replaced with the start menu. They've been inconsistently kinda-sorta doing so since even Windows 3.x, maybe even more, but nobody was closely paying attention back then.
It didn't become the current situation of monkey-see-monkey-do until Apple started using the terminology heavily with the iPhone, as you have observed. But they actually cribbed it from good old M$, much as they've cribbed basically everything else they've done in the modern era from someone else and simply painted it glossy white.
Program is such a funny word when you remember it's an analogy from radio and TV. Radio and TV are just delivery mechanisms for programs, which are the content and point of the medium.
You could define a podcast as an internet-delivered audio program.
- In the UK, "programme" is used for events, TV shows, and schedules, while "program" is specifically used in computing contexts.
I feel this.
Why? What is the functional difference between an application and a program?
- Outside of Unix based programs, probably not a lot.
  In terms of their functionality most programs are standalone applications rather than tools where you modify the programming flow of the data.

I want a phone where I am able to reach the top and the bottom of the screen without shifting my grip. Also being able to comfortably store in a pocket would be nice

And less weight and no camera cluster sticking out making the phone not lay flat when put down would be nice
Yes! Make smaller phones! Why do they all have to be getting bigger and bigger?
- I like the bigger phones (at least however big a pixel 6 is -- that seems about a perfect balance to me). Good to view web pages and videos as well as to use as the nav for my motorbike and still fits in the pocket. I find the smaller phones just too cramped.
- I think we all know the answer to that one.
Pixel 10 Pro or Galaxy S25 both fit that bill
- Those are both big phones. they do not
i'm actually this close to just going back to a dumb phone.
Buy one

Just pop in a magnetic screwdriver bit holder and you have strong power and perfect control.

It countersinks with ease but without the risk of screwing too deep like its electric counterpart all too easily does.

I prefer pressing buttons and turning nobs in the car.

It's actually safer to have tactile buttons, too.
My old civic is so nice.
One of the many reasons I'll hang onto my 2012 Toyota Corolla until I drive it into the ground. It has a touch screen for just the radio and Bluetooth, but it must be some sort of gen one prototype because it's pretty awful. Thankfully, everything else is tactile. I can't imagine giving it up.
- Fwiw, I've just got a '22 corolla and everything has a physical button. I love it.

TV.

I hate the smart-TV workflow, its a terrible user experience: Turn the TV on... wait for the smart-TV OS to load... land on an app menu... navigate around and choose an app... wait for the app to load... select a profile... wait for the list of shows to load... scroll almost endlessly through shows... choose a show, finally... wait for the video to load...

I miss when you turned the TV on and it was just instantly playing whatever channel you last had on, with one single interaction. I miss not having to make the conscious choice of what to watch and feel overwhelmed by so many options. I miss TV programs being a common experience, like an event, that everyone would be talking about together the next day, instead of everyone watching their own thing on their own schedule.

It was truly exciting to look forward to a weekly show on TV.
- Except when you couldn't know in advance when your show skipped a week and they had to play some crappy rerun of a completely different show.
- A group of us used to meet every week to watch Twin Peaks. We’d unplug the phone, drink coffee, and eat cherry pie (or apple for a bit of variation). Then we’d watch the episode again having just recorded it and try to figure out wtf was going on. Happy days.
On the plus side people with jobs other than 9-5 can now be included in the experience.
If you haven't used free Over-the-air TV these days you might be surprised that most cities have a few dozen channels of live TV right now. If your in a large metro area get the simplest of cheapest TV antennas, plug it into your TV, and do a channel scan. You'll be surprised how many channels there are now.
If you're in suburbs or rural, you'll still likely have quite a few but may need a more substantial antenna.
- I do have an antenna and get some decent channels with it
You can still do that by paying for cable.
- I have cable. It doesn't really work like that anymore. I used to be able to click through ALL the basic cable channels, catching a frame or two of every single channel, with zero delay between channels, all within like under a minute. These days every channel change or menu selection has a built-in delay of at least a second or two. Channel surfing just doesn't vibe the same anymore. That form of TV is mostly if not entirely dead.
- You're not wrong, although I think I'd still have to wait for the smart-TV OS to load and navigate the menu to select the Cable input.

I love a manual shift car, feels so much better to drive than automatic. Make bread from just flour, water, and salt, sourdough is an older method than dry yeast but it works better for me.

I also love radio, literal airwaves, works when the wifi goes down, battery radios can work during emergencies but also I just love the tech it is so old and so cool. And getting music curated by humans (we have a local community station) is great.

Community radio is so good. I just discovered it earlier this year but it is truly a breath of fresh air from the repetitive top charts being played on most public radio.

Software engineering.

Back in my day(™), it was an engineering role, where science reigned. Anyone even attempting "vibe coding" would've been rightfully laughed out of the room.

It's a task that should take concerted effort, with specific goals and performance metrics in mind. Just getting the task done wasn't and shouldn't be good enough.

I think the issue is that back then, you only did important things with software. Now there is so much code doing the same simple things. Like how many ways does a person need to input thier birthday... and every tool we use.. if it is good it gets more and more expensive, and more and more cluttered as they try to expand thier market. So now a new cheaper tool that does the same thing gets written. I would bet 90 some % of code is copies of other code with scientifically meaningless difference. But someone has to write it all...
Along a slightly similar vein, I generally prefer CLI and terminal work to GUIs
Uh oh. The ice carvers are complaining about the evils of refrigeration again...
- You do not understand what quality code is if you think the current or previous generations produce anything but shit when it's not a 1-1 copy of someone's project it digested.
- Uh oh, the bad faith AI bros are conflating luddites with anyone that disagrees with them again....

Modern tabletop miniature painting is dominated by contrast paints and airbrushes. This is especially true of small time commission painters.

I personally only use my airbrush for priming, and only use contrast paints for intensely limited purposes like glazing. For the vast majority of my painting I use methods taught in the 80s and 90s.

I personally like the results, and I like to think my methods give my pieces a "voice" that helps me stand out from other local commission painters which deliver interchangeable looking results.

I don't dislike airbrushes (which I know were used by certain niche painters back in the day, but weren't in common use generally) or contrast paints. I know some people take the time to get good results with them, however I think the majority of people applying them do it in a sloppy manner and the effort it would take to prep or clean up the results to a standard I would accept seems like more work than just doing it traditionally.

I got into painting minis back in the day but didn't stick with it. I miss it a lot though.
What types of paints and methods are you reminiscing about? I'm not knowledgeable enough to even know what you're saying you prefer, or how it's different from the off the shelf stuff, even assuming that what's on the shelf today is the same as it was 20 years ago when I painted.
I skimmed your post history and saw a couple OC minis you painted, they look great, but what's different about them? I don't have a trained eye so forgive me I'm not trying to be rude.
- And uh, ignore the Aliens minis and GCPD. Those were self admittedly a rush job.
  Here's some better examples of what techniques I try to apply look like.
- Contrast paints are a new formulation that's gotten popular in the market. They are like a glaze with wash properties. The idea is that you can simply paint them over a white priming and you're done, all the shading is done for you.
  I find the average results I see in real life to be underwhelming. The colors can often be patchy especially if applied to large flat surfaces like for example Space Marine armor. What is more is that contrast paints only contain one shade of pigment and the darker or lighter portions on the model just relate to pigment concentration. I prefer to shade and highlight by adding different colors to the base paint. I find that it offers more control and greater range over the colors. The control relates also to how highlights are placed. Many people either skip them entirely by relying on contrast paint, or they copy the modern GW Box Art style which highlights pretty much every single hard edge rather than trying to give the impression of a light source. I like to give the impression of a light source.
  For traditional touches, blacklining is a practice of tracing a thinned black or near black paint on the borders of different objects of the mini to help give them definition. This can be especially important when painting in bright and saturated color schemes to keep them from assaulting the eyes with too much brightness.
  I underpaint, which is related to mixing for shading but means to paint certain areas a particular color in preparation for another color to support it. For example Caucasian skin is usually a red-brown or purple before the first actual flesh tones go on.
  Sometimes it's just things I consider absolutely basic like basing a mini at all in any way. All I my minis are based with texture in some way (any you see in my history that don't have basing texture were specifically requested such by other people) and have at least basic drybrushing or flock. A lot of people just paint the bases now, or simply just leave them bare.
  I also like putting segmented colors, camo patterns, or other simple freehanding on minis. This draws a lot of attention in real life as many people are so used to just contrast painting that they never learn fine control and as such never even attempt freehand.
  I do have a few paper copies of older painting books I reference along with various PDF scans. All the the exact paint recommendations are out of date, but the general concepts are still valid.
  I partially blame army bloat and the FOMO treadmill in Warhammer 40k for creating unmanageably large armies that cause people to treat the painting as a chore to be finished with rather than something to enjoy and get better at.

many countries need to go back to reasonable inconvenience for superior and ethical product. same-day shipping is accelerating the speed of climate change so no you don't get to have it actually. no, fruits and vegetables are not available 24/7, seasons matter again. etc and etc. we need to go back to all of this. we have to reduce the strain.

mail ! I mean, email is great, but mail is fantastic. It doesn't make a bunch of sense in this isntantaneous world of ours, but if you just slow down a little, and write letters, and WAIT for a reply, you find yourself more attuned to your own pace, if that makes any sense

I learned about postcrossing (.com?) off Lemmy - you might want to take a look!
Okay yes, but only if it could implement the 'unsubscribe' feature from email.

Driving manual (stick). I have an automatic now only because the model/trim I wanted doesn’t come any other way but if I could have got it in manual I would have. This car has less personality than my last one because I operate it rather than driving it. I literally have less of a connection with it.

Playing music on a record player. The ritual of removing the record from the sleeve, placing it on the deck, cleaning it, landing the needle. Listening to an album.

Cooking on gas instead of a halogen hob. Sure halogen is great and super easy to clean but gas is visceral and ‘real’. I also like to cook over charcoal or, even better, wood.

I'm the opposite for cooking. I have a gas stove and would love an induction one. So much waste heat unnecessary pollutants with gas.
Most of your stuff im eh but man if wood fire is just not amazing.
Ngl cook however you want but honestly fuck gas stoves.
Takes ages to heat up water, half the fucking endrgy goes into just heating the kitchen. And it also contributes to higher chance of cancer.
I'll stick with induction.
Compeltely agree on the manual car though.

Would love to pay a mortgage instead of paying rent

Using Windows - before onedrive, online integration, new control panel, telemetry. Using the internet - before tracking, bloated sites, paywalls, cookie boxes and ai garbage. Using my car - before telemetry, beep, driver "aid" systems.

Dating. It's hard to manufacture that initial spark in an app.

Lack of third places has been a real thorn in society, especially third places that you aren't expected to spend money.
- The definition of a third place is that you can spend time there without the expectation of buying something. If you're expected to spend money to occupy space, it's not a third place.
  (Fully agree that the loss of such spaces is killing us, though!)
- Absolutely. Good point.

The sensation of physically holding and reading a book made from dead trees.

Yes they take up space, yes I use my phone as an e reader when at sea or travelling. No I will not give up physical books at home.

There's also not the same feeling of discovery or finding less well-known titles when finding an e-book online as there is just going to the library and looking at the books on the shelves.

This is kind of niche, but I mix concerts for a living and newer consoles and shows are all scene based, every song has a scene, and most of the time every verse and chorus in the song has a sub scene. It is a breath of fresh air to be able to mix with no scenes and have to rely on pure skill and intuition. Those shows tend to have a better feel and be more energetic, albeit less polished. They are also more fun, and a little bit more stressful.

It is 1000 times more enjoyable to actually mix a concert than just click to the next scene.
Cool. I had no idea this was a thing.

Ordering at Subway. I used to be involved in the entire process of making my sub. More jalapenos! More olives! Now, I have to punch in my order on a screen, I don't even know when they're making my sub, and if I go up and police their every move, I'm a jerk. Not to mention for whatever fucking inane reason, all Subways in Korea have removed yellow mustard from their menu. The only sauces that remain are sweet or mayo. Fuck!

You have automated machines? Here in Canada the only place i've seen those is mcdonald's.
- They're becoming ubiquitous in Korea. Restaurants, cafes. We even have unmanned convenience stores here now. Just grab your stuff and pay at the machine. Shoplifting is virtually unknown here.
Subway still tastes good but holy shit the price bumps the last couple of years, I just can't justify it
- Yeah, those are painful too, but it's hardly just Subway. All food has gone way up in price in recent years. It sucks.
- I used to really like Subway, until we tried going with my son who had a food allergy. In hindsight it was a stupid idea that they could control cross-contamination. However they were unwilling to provide the legally required allergen info ….so I haven’t been to one in 19 years
what the fuck? I haven't been to sbubby in a few years, but if they are doing this shit, i won't be returning ever.

I don’t like electric can openers. I strongly prefer to just use a manual one. I just see an appliance that has but one use and requires electricity to be tremendous waste.

I was given a manual one a few weeks ago with no instructions, check out this horror show:
- I open cans with a flat head screwdriver and find it easier
Wow I have never had an electric can opener, are they common in home kitchens?
I love my P-38 can opener. It was made 80 years ago and it's still opening cans like tin foil.
I didn't even know electric can openers were a thing
- Never seen back to the future? One in the opening scene.
Not to mention they’re kind of hard to clean! Electric can openers are the worst. When the top pops off, they often send the contents of the can all over, too.
3000% honesty, you are right. It is a waste, using a good manual can opener is far more satisfying. Like the electricity needed for the electric one is miniscule at best but its still wasted since it rakes 10 seconds to open one with a manual. I get people who are differently abled and need these, but the average person gets no real value from an electric one.
I like leaving the last 2 or so cm of lid attached so the can and lid stay together. Can't do that automatically (well, I could, but that juice isn't worth the squeeze).
Im going to disagree but its a bit situational for me. I used manual but I have a dog that requires this prescription canned dog food and when its that often the electric makes a difference. Its funny because the cans have pull tabe but it leaves a lip and I like to get the whole mass out like the crappy jello like cranberry sauce.

Literally anything involving AI bullshit.

Dating, though i have met my partner online too. Not dating app but a forum.

Data, i LOVE PHYSICAL STUFF. TRY TO TAKE THAT AWAY STREAMING SERVICES!

And politics. Used to actually be honorable and people across the board worked together for the good of their country.

I get you on the last. As lowleek mentioned there was scummy politicians but damn it was nice when they tried to hide it and were ashamed (or at least aped shame) and most had pride in their position and thier institution. I miss the days when senators were senators before republicans/democrats and judges were judges first and the congress would put their own parties president to task for overstepping.
- I wasnt talking about american politics but there too. Though that defenetly has been more corrupt than what i am talking about: german politics. Helmust Schmidt was the last real chancler who cared
Not so sure about the last one as it reeks of nostalgia. Corrupts politicians have existed in the past, honorable politicians still exist. The biggest change imo is how easily the corrupt people can influence their voters and how they get away with everything.
- Yeah politics has always been a cluster fuck. They didn't just work together harmoniously to end slavery, people died for that. Likewise Eisenhower enforced the desegregation of schools at gunpoint with the 101st airborne.

I'm a big fan of manual machining over CNC.

Buying stuff online using a phone or app. I still feel safer and more secure on a desktop browser with uBO.

Big purchase, big screen. Dems the rules.
Good news: Firefox on Android supports extensions, including uBlockOrigin
Though Im in the same camp, much prefer desktop over mobile for big purchases, banking, or anything that feels important

As a software and electrical engineer who has worked in life system critical projects as well as foundational financial systems with strict uptime and performance requirements....

My home is as basic as humanly possible, no automation, manual systems for everything. Anything that must be digital is untrusted, isolated, and has a backup. A cabin in the woods off grid is the only way I feel comfortable

I liked automation until the end of the aughts but software has gotten dystopic. Its still possible with open source but im a bit to lazy now honestly. There are so many things where the benefit just is not worth it. Why would I want any of my appliances on the grid or my thermostat. I mean if I had a robot to load the dishwasher then automation would be great. Same with cooking. Still would not want the fridge and thermostat automated. Lights make a bit of sense benefit wise but its not a huge benefit.

Anything to do with the internet. I'd go back to 2010 in a heartbeat.

I'd prefer to go back to an internet pre-YouTube where the Internet started to become corporate.
Bro, I had dial up in the early nineties...
- I do not miss dial up.

I've never brought a computer/laptop to class in uni except when I needed to do a presentation. I vastly prefer to take notes by hand because I find that I retain info much better. And I'm a massive doodler. I'm pretty pen and paper playing ttrpgs as well.

I am the complete opposite. My notes were terrible in college, such a mess.
I bought a laptop for grad school and took all my notes in outline form. Changed everything. School was easy now. I was super organized and studying was trivial. No crap in the margins, no weird arrows pointing around because the prof added some comments to earlier info.
Just wonderful,clean neat notes.
Also, others wanted copies so I would sell them, wasnt a lot of money, but it kept me in donuts.
Agreed. I have ADHD and need that tactile feedback to commit things to memory.
The only downside is that I can type so much faster than I can write by Hans.
- Tell Hans to pick up the pace, your education/job is at stake
- I've basically developed a system of shorthand-ish where I shorten a lot of common words into a few letters or even symbols and threw grammar out the window lol. I never compared it with my type speed but it works for me

Physically possessing the music that you bought, having the actual vinyl records (or later, CDs and DVDs of shows). That you don't have to keep renewing subscriptions for to continue being able to listen to (or watch), that you can lend out or pass down to your kids or sell to a used record store, where you can buy the ones someone else sold to them. Those were the days.

coffee. specifically, preparation of the drink. simple mechanical devices for grinding the coffee beans by hand, boiling a kettle of water and pouring over the grounds, or preparing in a press, or a moka, or a turkish coffee pot thing. This new keurig pod / nespresso bullshit sucks.

I mean, you're still completely free to do that :) I use a hand-grinder and pour-over for my daily brew. No space for any superfluous gadgets in my little kitchen - even if I wanted them.
I got a metal filter pour over and an electric kettle where the water never touches plastic, only stainless steel. The taste difference is notable.
The only problem is now I struggle to get my daily dose of micro plastics.

I daily drive a clapped out 80s sports car with no AC and a broken radio. The true connection you can feel to a classically engineered machine when there's zero distraction or convenience is hard to describe. You learn every noise, every smell, every quirk of handling and weight transfer, gain intuition about how the chassis will react to every abnormality in the road surface, have the shifter and clutch become subconscious muscle memory where you don't even realize you're doing it, etc. There's a variety of reasons the average person should drive a newer car but I personally love an old hooptie.

As an EV driver, this sounds like someone talking about how they preferred the days when you had to have a feel for the temperature and pressure of your steam engine, hear the hiss of the steam, really feel the heat from the firebox.

I want mobile phones with actual keyboards back. I hate touch screen keyboards with the passion of a thousand suns and I swear they're getting worse.

Give me an LG enV2 with Android and I'll be happy.

The only commercial technological advancement from the last ~30 years I think I would miss if it were all to revert to how it was before then would be GPS navigation. I don’t like the prevalence of technology in classrooms, dating, shopping, and vehicles today.

I would have liked discovering music, film, and events by word of mouth or just playing a tape I borrowed/rented even though a lot of people would probably defend the convenience of having it all readily available today.

I prefer to operate the clutch and shifting on my truck myself.
I'll rather do manual labor than any work that involves sitting on a computer.
I'm chronically online but without a smartphone addiction.
I prefer long-form media.

What was "the old way we did things" before social media?

I'd like to shout from the mountaintop that I do not care what you and your boring family did over the holidays.

I don't remember the last time I logged into any real social media account so I guess I'm kind of living as though it doesn't exist anyway.

Tangentially, I preferred old Reddit.
Not sure how it got so shitty, but eeeeuuuuggghhh.

Mowing grass with a scythe instead of a mower
Splitting wood with an axe instead of an electrical splitter

They both are quieter and calming to the mind and soul, meditative even. And you kind of feel like an NPC in Anno 1602.

I don't think anyone mowed grass with a scythe. At least for me mow suggests ornamental grass.
- English is my second language, but my understanding was that nobody mowed their lawn with a scythe, but tall grass and wheat is something that you would absolutely have cut with a scythe.

Paper boarding tickets and having someone who works for an airline actually be able to help you directly when something goes wrong.

Print the qr code and take it with me as a backup. I get funny looks, but if my phone dies I can still take my trip.
Funny story, my phone died while traveling last year....
You can still do this.
- Depends on the airline.

I like old timey radio (dramas like Twilight Zone, etc...Bob Dylan had a cool modern retro show, also stuff like Coast to Coast with Art Bell) but never listen to modern radio basically ever. Used to be much more magical.

The closest I've found is sound booth theature and the dungeon crawler Karl series. So good.

Paying for things.

spelling it as "catsup" — the other way looks so juvenile, like "nite lite" instead of night light

Catsup and ketchup are two different things.
- You might be confused by the fact that there are many catsups, beyond the sweet tomato kind that's so popular American children. Both spellings are correct, and both are, in fact, fairly old. It's just that when Heinz 57 ketchup became ascendant, most other styles (and spellings) fell out of fashion.

It's still done this way in many communities but the progression of courtship to the families meeting up and giving their approval to marriage to sex to children. I know people will often have sex right after courtship but it's the fact that the other steps still have to be followed and the acknowledgement that this is not just for hedonistic pursuits but for deeper connections and purposes that's sorely missing nowadays (particularly in the West, ofc).