If the internet didn't exist, what would you be doing with all the time that you are now spending on the internet?

Same stuff I used to do a few years ago; tabletop gaming, getting shitfaced drunk at least once a week, a little creative writing… basically the same things I still do offline, only more of it.

Curing infectious disease, ridding the world of corruption, feeding and clothing the poor, planting forests, learning multiple languages, training for the Olympics…

Just my regular hobbies, reading, games and horror movies. I might actually go for more walks, too. I also wouldn’t be any more social than I am now, because I never was long before I knew what hentai was.

Mario Kart Wii. They’d have to make the CPU much smarter, though; racing online is the challenging bit.

Yep, the usual I already did before the internet. I’d probably read more books instead of reading so much online, but I still do both. I’m 52, and lived a lot of years pre-internet in my life. ;-)

Reading, drawing, eating cookies.

Sleeping, or watching tv or working on some word puzzle or reading or working out again.

Reading, playing boards games and card games, and watching tv.

I hope I would be reading and watching TV. Or if I were being productive, maybe I would be writing something, although I have no idea what.

Although, no internet I guess means no usenet groups and no arpanet and gosh that was a long time ago. It really means no computers. It means we are using typewriters. Probably I would be writing lots of letters to various people.

Probably watching mind-numbing TV shows.

I would read, that’s what I primarily do with my free time anyway. and I’d probably watch more tv… internet really replaced tv for me

reading, sewing, watching movies, talking on the phone

I used to have a large network of correspondents with whom I exchanged actual paper letters folded into stamped envelopes and mailed. Some were relatives and others were friends. I probably spent some time on correspondence nearly every day. If e-mail weren’t so easy and so nearly ubiquitous, I’d probably still be writing and receiving a lot of letters.

I wish I could say it amounts to the same thing, but it doesn’t, any more than getting an electronic greeting is the same as receiving an actual birthday card that was touched and signed by the hand of someone you love.

I’d read more than I already do (which would make my book collection even more out of control), watch more TV, make more stuff and play backgammon.

@PurpleClouds: Thanks for reminding me about the phone. Before the internet, I would talk to a few good friends at least once per week. Now, almost never on the phone at all. If someone calls me, or I call them, it’s usually because we have something quick or urgent to say. I have an aunt who calls me and it’s kind of annoying.

Random, meaningless shit. Time flies.

I’d be reading newspapers from different cities, doing crosswords, reading and re reading books, talking on the phone all night and dreading my 10+ hr night shifts.

Watching TV.

housework

Lots and lots of reading.

@jca I won’t talk on a cell phone; I hate those. But I still use my land line a lot. I was on the phone four hours today between talking to my sister and my daughter. We live thousands of miles from each other.