Life Before Smartphones: Late 90s and Early 2000s

Before the advent of smartphones, constant connectivity simply did not exist. The late ’90s and early ’00s had their own rhythm: a slower, more physical and more local one. In this post, I want to document my memories of life before the iPhone changed everything, so that these moments are not forgotten. Even if the post is a bit chaotic.

Late 90s to early 2000s

Communication

• The landline phone was the main way to communicate.
• Incoming calls had no caller ID. You would just pick up the phone and say ‘Hello’ to find out who was calling. You could pick up the receiver at the exact moment it rang and connect instantly. It was sometimes confusing and funny at the same time.
• Public payphones were everywhere, and you had to pay to make a call. If you didn’t have any money but had an agreement with your parents, you could still call home just to let them know you were okay. When they picked up, the public phone would automatically disconnect the unpaid call, but you would know they had answered. We had a system of “two missed calls”: if I called twice and the connection dropped both times, they understood that I was safe.
• Telegrams and handwritten letters were still part of everyday life.
• Later, pagers came into use.

Internet

• Modems and dial-up defined the online experience.
• FidoNet. For me, it was a network of people I knew personally. Later, when we abandoned it in favour of the Internet, I found it a bit strange that I had to communicate with strangers.
• Internet access was sometimes bought with prepaid cards and traffic limits.
• Email clients had an offline mode because being connected constantly was expensive or impossible.
• Most of the images online loaded line by line, from top to bottom.
• Translation software were weak, so paper dictionaries still mattered.
• Instead of Wikipedia, there were paper encyclopedias.

Computers

• CRT monitors were standard.
• Backups were often burned to CD-R.
• Operating system updates were rare and sometimes paid (like for macOS).

Media

• Music used to be stored on CDs or cassettes. Looking back now, I miss CD quality, I think it was better than Spotify.
• TV was the main source of entertainment.
• Printed TV schedules were normal.
• Black-and-white static on TV was still if no channel found.
• Radio, including wired radio outlets, was part of everyday life, and even during power outages, radios and telephones could continue to function independently of the main power line.

Photography

• Photos meant film, developing, and printing.

Everyday life

• Printed phone books were useful.
• In our apartment building, there was a sign listing residents’ names and apartment numbers — something that later disappeared, likely for security reasons (or maybe just out of laziness).
• Most ads lived in newspapers.
• Shopping was offline and cash was standard.
• A thermometer outside the window and the weather forecast on TV were enough.

Social life

• In-person communication was the default.
• Visiting friends happened often and without much planning.

Early to mid-2000s (about 2003-2006)

Communication

• The landline phone was still dominant.
• Caller ID usually showed a number, not a name.
• We get used to remember phone numbers.
• Taxis were ordered by phone.
• Email was still relatively rare for many people.
• Online chat was becoming a thing, by using ICQ and clients like Adium on macOS or Trillian.

Internet

• Internet access was still limited.
• Email was still used to be switched offline, after you synced with the server.
• There was no cloud storage.
• There were no password managers.
• Files and photos were kept locally.

Computers

• The computer was the central hub for movies, music, and games.
• DVDs and flash drives slowly entered our life.
• Wacom tablets to draw in Photoshop.
• The transition from CRT monitors to flat screens had started. Now I’m missing CRTs especially for gaming.

Games

• Most games were offline.
• Sharing games with friends was normal.
• PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2.

Media

• MP3s existed, but mostly as offline files.
• CDs were still widely used.
• The iPod changed how people carried music, but wired headphones were the only option.
• MTV still mattered.
• Radio was still widely used, including call-in radio shows. I liked the fact that you call call to the radio and chat with the DJ.
• Artists that strongly fit the atmosphere of that period include Limp Bizkit, The Prodigy, Deep Dish, and Bloodhound Gang.
• Video still meant DVDs and television.

Photography

• Early digital cameras existed, but they had low image quality and tiny storage cards.
• Moving photos from the camera to a computer was inconvenient.

Everyday life

• Almost nothing needed charging! Oh, I missed it now too.
• Many devices ran on replaceable batteries.
• Magazines still shaped hobbies, from interior design to games to sewing patterns.

Social life

• Social networks existed, but they were not dominant.
• Most communication still happened face-to-face. People tended to talk on the phone rather than text or chat online. Some phone calls had amazing sound quality. I remember being on the phone to my grandpa once and realising that I could hear him so clearly that it was as if he were sitting next to me. I feel sad now when I have to use AirPods for phone calls. The microphone on the AirPods is very poor. I’m also experiencing frequent connection drops during cellular calls.

2007, right before the iPhone changed everything

• Even in 2007, daily life still felt much closer to the early 2000s than to the smartphone world that came after.

Communication

• Phone calls were still dominant as remote communication.
• Skype was intented.

Internet and mobility

• Mobile internet was not widespread.
• There were no cloud ecosystems or seamless syncing.
• Going outside often meant losing internet access completely. You had no connection to anyone. If you needed to meet someone, you first had to call them to agree a time and place.
• It could also mean having no immediate way to contact someone.
• Maps were usually paper-based.

Photos and data

• Everything was stored locally.
• There was no Apple Photos library and no cloud photo sync.

Social life

• Social networks already existed, but they still did not define daily life.
• Most communication was still in person.

Media and culture

Movies and games already looked modern by the standards of the time, but today many of them feel strangely naive in a good way. The atmosphere of that era is still strongly associated with titles like The Matrix, Fight Club, Terminator 2, RoboCop, Alien, and The Animatrix.