life before internet was best

Life in Canada Before the Internet .

Once upon a time in Canada  before Wi-Fi ruled our lives and memes were a thing — life was… slower. Quieter. Maybe even a little weird. But it had its charm!

Instead of scrolling TikTok for hours, kids rode bikes everywhere. If you wanted to meet up with your friends, you didn’t text  you knocked on their door and hoped they were home. If not, you just wandered around until you found someone. Yes, it was basically hide-and-seek, but in real life.

Music? Oh, you had to buy it. On cassette tapes. Or CDs. Want just one song? Too bad! You bought the whole album and learned to love the weird bonus tracks. And when your favorite tune came on the radio? You raced to hit record on your boom box. You’d end up with a mixtape full of half-cut songs and random DJ chatter, but it was YOURS.

Need to know something? No Googling. You either asked your parents (who might guess), flipped through the Encyclopedia Britannica, or waited for the library to open. Bonus points if you remembered your library card.

Long-distance calls? Not free. You kept it short, or you’d face the wrath of your parents when the phone bill came. And let’s talk phones — they had cords! You’d stretch that curly wire into another room for “privacy,” hoping your sibling didn’t pick up the other line and listen in.

Shopping? Brick-and-mortar only. If you saw something cool in a catalogue (hello, Sears Wish Book!), you’d fill out a paper order form, mail it in, and then… wait. And wait. And maybe wait some more.

But here’s the thing: people were present. Dinner tables had conversation instead of screens. Photo albums were physical. You got film developed at a pharmacy, and half the pictures had someone blinking. But they felt real.

So yeah — Canada before the internet was less convenient, a bit clunkier, but full of spontaneous magic. And somehow, even without GPS, we still found our way.