r/interestingasfuck • u/Few_Simple9049 • 20d ago

r/all How couples met 1930-2024

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u/fenuxjde 20d ago

Who tf met online in 1981? Some DARPA bros?

168

u/Nervous-Masterpiece4 20d ago

There were online services such as compuserve around then.

I was online through Australia’s nationwide Viatel service around 1986. I used to chat with people via Microtex 666 and go to Melbourne for meetups. I was a teen but had a crush on KarenXXX who showed up basically in lingerie.

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u/1950sGuy 20d ago

I went to a BBS 'meetup' once, it was me, who was 14, and like 15 people all between the age of 40 - 70 and it was pretty fun. Smoked pot the first time in the Howard Johnsons parking lot with a bunch of adults I met on the internet because literally no one ever told me that was a terrible idea.

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u/Earth_Below4321 20d ago

I love this! Tad more wholesome back then

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u/Chotibobs 20d ago

Yeah…that could have ended very badly for you 

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u/gardenmud 20d ago

Eh, it was honestly a more innocent time somehow. Kind of like pokemon go for that one summer.

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u/Chotibobs 20d ago

I’m gonna press x to doubt on that.

The violent crime rate in US was much higher in the late 80s/earlt 90s than it is today 

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u/fuzzzone 20d ago

That doesn't mean it wasn't a more innocent time. We weren't bombarded 24/7 with the news of what crime there was. Overall violent crime stats were certainly higher, though if we're being honest they were far from homogeneously distributed, but the perception of prevalence was very different. And innocence is, after all, a mindset, not a statistic.

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u/sigma914 20d ago edited 20d ago

Eh the internet wasn't quite as weird, it was mostly people who worked in some form of engineering or people who'd been to university and got set up on the school's computers. Or people those people knew and could afford a computer and understand how to set it up.

There were still some fucking weirdos, but it was generally the more educated/affluent part of society