What Did People Do For “Fun” Before There Was TV?

Wait…was “fun” even a thing back then?

For those of you who don’t know, TV stands for — “television”.

Putting the sarcasm aside, it does seem like this generation is really losing touch with reality.

Nowadays everyone is constantly glued to their phones.

In coffee shops, on the streets, and even whilst they're getting down on their partner. People get distracted sometimes, it happens.

I’m not trying to sound like a sad hater or anything because I love scrolling through my phone as well.

But, it’s gotten to the point that now, instead of continuing a chat, many people would literally pick up their phones just to avoid having to fill in the silences in conversation.

It kinda made me wonder, what did we get up to before all this modern tech existed?

I decided to do a bit of research…

First of all, the answer is different depending on how far back in time we look.

So, let’s start at the present and slowly work our way back.

Present

Right now, the most popular form of entertainment we have is the internet.

We’ve got TikTok, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, Netflix, PornHub, etc.

There’s an endless amount of digital media for everyone to access and most of our social interactions are also done through text and images.

Dating has moved from cold approaching to platforms like Tinder where women are constantly spammed with cringe pickup lines.

Kids are hanging out with their friends through Discord servers and many interact through multiplayer games.

And YouTube is now your personal coach, teacher, therapist, and father figure.

The 90s and 2000s

Remember the days of the indestructible Nokia?

Charge it for 10 minutes and it lasts 10 weeks.

Put it on railway tracks and it derails the train.

Drop it on the ground and it breaks the concrete.

Those were the good old days.

Back then, every kid owned a Tamagotchi and we all played on Gameboys.

The rich ones had PSPs:

Yo-Yos were very popular in that era too. I still remember taking a huge chunk out of the kitchen wall when I accidentally smashed mine into it.

Aside from that, the primary form of entertainment mainly came from TV.

These big bulky things had only about 5 working channels and used an electron gun (or CRT) to fire electrons at a fluorescent screen to create images and video.

This is where the old adage “Don’t sit too close to the TV” originated from.

Because of imperfections in the design, it was not uncommon for the electrons to escape from the screen and often shoot right into your eyes.

You won’t notice anything of course, and everything will seem fine…until you eventually get eye cancer.

Nowadays, we use LCD screens that don’t emit electrons anymore so sitting close to a TV isn’t that big of a deal.

Aside from TV, many people also chose to delve into books and magazines.

Mom would spend whole afternoons in the garden perusing into novels, whilst Dad opted to stay indoors with the newspaper.

On the weekends, bars and clubs would be packed with young 21-year-olds partying their asses off, and concerts were filled with people who were actually there to listen to music.

Oh, and talking about music, iPods were a huge hit when Apple first rolled it out. 1000 songs in a device the size of a deck of cards — revolutionary!

Before that, music was primarily played on cassette tapes and there was no feature to skip to a particular song. The only options were play, pause, and fast-forward.

If you wanted to play the last song in the album, you’ll have to wait for the tape to wind all the way to the end.

If you missed a song, you’d have to take out the cassette tape and put it in backward to rewind since the fast-forward button only worked in one direction — forward!

The early 1900s

Ok, we’re finally traveling back to before the television era!

Actually…put aside TV for just a minute.

Consider this — commercial air flight wasn’t even a thing yet!

(At least not affordable ones.)

Although the first working “plane” was invented in 1903 by the Wright Brothers, it wasn’t until the 1950s before commercial airlines became a popular way of traveling.

Of course, there was also World War 1 that started in 1914 and killed around 20 million people.

The San Francisco earthquake in 1906 lasted SEVERAL DAYS and demolished the entire city.

And in 1904, the Great Baltimore Fire destroyed over 1500 buildings in the city in just 24 hours!

But anyway, enough of the disappointments, what was life really like back in those days?

Was there anything that was “good”?

Well…not really.

The life expectancy for the average white American was only 48 years, and for African Americans, it was 33 years.

In 1900, if a mother had four children, there was a fifty-fifty chance that one would die before the age of 5. But at the same time, half of all young people also lose a parent before they reach the age of 21.

Just think about that for a second. Half the kids didn’t even get the chance to enjoy their first drink with their Dad…

Most teens did not attend school. Instead, they laboured in factories or fields.

And the average income in the US was only $3000 a YEAR!

By the way, that’s in today’s money AFTER adjusting for inflation!!!

You’d be literally living off scraps of bread!

The middle and upper class had the privilege of going to theatres, events, and performances.

Men who had more primal tendencies dabbled in shooting and hunting while the more reserved types chose fishing.

Instead of posters, you’d probably see stuffed animal heads hanging off the walls inside a 1900s household!

Circuses were another common place where people gathered to see balancing acts, juggling, wirewalking, and other dangerous acts.

Singing, dancing, and cooking lessons were also available for the wealthy to attend and talks were given by visiting notables, scientists, preachers, and people who had been adventuring in different countries.

These were probably held in large halls that required an entry fee to go in and listen.

Obviously, some of these activities are still enjoyed by people today, but it’s a lot less prominent now than it was back then.

Sure, a circus show might sound like a cool idea, but when was the last time you actually went to one?

Never, I assume?

On the other hand, the poor and working-class had it completely different.

For them, it was a miracle if they even managed to find enough free time to go for a family walk or picnic.

As for the small kids, all they had was conkers and skipping ropes.

Games like hopscotch, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Cat’s Cradle were also trendy as fuck.

The lucky ones may have had a few marbles and chess sets floating about in their neighbourhood area as well.

By the way, if you never heard of Cat’s Cradle, it’s this game my grandma taught me about where you have this loop of string and you hook it between your fingers and create fancy patterns with it!

It was sick!

But yeah, those are basically all the ways people used passed time prior to the digital era!

Honestly, I’ve learned so much about entertainment in general just from researching and writing this article!

In this day and age where everything we see, use, and interact with is beamed to our brains from a smartphone screen, it’s hard to imagine life outside of it.

In reality, we need to realise that the internet and phones and computers are just tools to help us connect and communicate.

The real “fun” comes from the genuine interactions and conversations we have with others.

Anyways, if you enjoyed this article, shoot me a follow and comment your thoughts down below!

If you want to be the first to get notified whenever I post a new article and potentially receive other free stuff that I may give out in the future, consider joining my newsletter here!

Also, if you haven’t subscribed to Medium yet and would like to help support what I do, you can use this link to sign up for it, and a small cut of the monthly subscription will go towards helping me write more posts like this!