re: I know I'm young...but how did college social stuff work before cell phones?

quote:

---

Did you just make plans to meet somewhere via a landline and just hope everyone showed up? Were people more reliable back then

---

I have brought this up a few times. We did exactly that. You called landlines, used payphones, etc. Some had pagers. But another trick was to learn how to check your answer machine messages from a payphone.
Kids today have it so easy to have fun, get laid, change party plans.

Approaching ladies on campus was a lot easier. Nowadays broads have their cellphones glued to their ears, while trying to initiate conversation. Answering machines was a must in the dorm rooms.

I doubt dorms now even have landlines. Mine did, but this was after cell phones were ubiquitous but before smart phones existed (and people didn't text all that much). I remember the land line actually rang a few times and me and my roommate just looked at each other thinking "WTF...should we answer it?" It usually ended up being an Army/Navy recruiter or something.

quote:

---

I had to go to Middleton Library once, and photocopy some magazine article, to win a bet w my roommate that Yvonne Goolagong was an Aborigine.

---

quote:

---

People had to be more reliable. Couldn't text an excuse or warn someone you were running

---

This. I'm under 30, but I feel like my generation is wholly unreliable in almost any circumstance. Like you said, I feel like cell phones have made it worse because people can cancel at the last minute. My wife and I find ourselves legitimately surprised when our dinner or event plans actually happen and don't get cancelled by people flaking out at the last minute for whatever BS reason.

quote:

---

You enjoyed the company you where with much more then than you do know. You made plans, stuck to them, then didn't ignore everyone your were with by keeping your head down playing on a damn phone.

---

This annoys the frick out of me. I'm always shocked when I see families at a table somewhere and everyone is on their phones and no one is talking.

Mid to late 90's at LSU...we had standard go-to places for different days. The only way to have a decent social life though was to actually be on campus a good deal...our social lives revolved around organizational meetings, etc. Like the Chimes after the SG Senate meetings or co-rec flag football games and things like that. But it was pretty standard week to week what we would do in terms of hanging out Monday through Thursday.

The weekends were more planned than I imagine they are now cause you had to get the word out. And if someone didn't show up, you usually knew exactly why because you'd already talked to them about it.

I had a 1 gallon zip lock bag full of Bev Naps with first names and phone numbers on them.

It was called Rebel's bag o numbers.

That was all the social media we had.

A land line. That was all we needed. People called each other and said "we are meeting at Robs apartment or house around 8 pm. Call so and so and let them know." The people they called would call others. Everybody ended up at the same place somehow or another. Then everybody would pack into vehicles and go out. One car load might tell you they were stopping by somewhere else first but everybody knew the main destination. Often times, a group would show up and let everyone know that the party was better at a place they had just left and everybody would bolt to that location. It was a simple time and to be quite honest....the surprise and/or anticipation of not knowing exactly what the hell the night had in store made it more exciting. And the best thing was that nobody was distracted by their devices and paid more attention to those they were with.

The unannounced drop-in was great. A few friends, usually already drunk, would show up at an apartment and pester people into joining them or they'd just hang out until their beer ran out.

You'd go from bar to bar and see people you knew at most of the stops. If you liked the scene, you'd stay. Otherwise, you'd get in the car and go somewhere else. And then you'd see your drunk friends after 2:00 at Pedro's or the Tigerland 7-11.

I guess there was a lot more impaired drivers then but the BAC limits were more liberal and I don't remember any great slaughter on the roads.

No cell phones, no voicemail, no caller ID, no internet, no problem.