How Did We Function Before Computers?
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (128824)
Gainesville, Florida
March 4, 2016 6:52pm CST
I had a strange day at work today. When I arrived at the office this morning, my plan was to spend the day catching up on computer work...finishing reports, responding to emails, updating monthly data numbers, creating marketing pieces for upcoming programs, etc.
But much to my surprise, when I turned on my computer, it froze up and became unresponsive. After trying several times to start and re-start the computer, I just couldn't get it to work (our offices are closed on Fridays, so there was nobody from the I.T. Department to assist me).
I was at a complete loss as to what to do! I realized that every single thing I had planned for the day required the use of my computer to accomplish! It made me realize how much we depend on computers and technology, and how helpless we are when that technology is not available to us.
I sat there and thought back to the early days of my career, before computers were as prevalent as they are now. How did we function then? I couldn't even remember!
With no way to access any of my files or work assignments without the computer, I decided to take the opportunity to get out of the office and visit several of the facilities I oversee.
It's kind of scary how much we depend on technology, and how clueless and helpless we seem to be when it is not available to us!
14 people like this
18 responses
@pgiblett (6524)
• Canada
7 Mar 16
To answer your question we functioned perfectly well before computers. We have become very reliant on the machine often to our disadvantage, that said computers are here to stay, trouble is just because more people are more knowledgeable doesn't mean support should be cut, but corporations often forget the basics.
2 people like this
@pgiblett (6524)
• Canada
7 Mar 16
@moffittjc I get where you are coming from, but I think most of the trouble people have with computers comes from the fact that they are not taught how to use them properly.
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Mar 16
@pgiblett I think part of learning how to use a computer is learning how to troubleshoot them when something goes wrong. I've picked up quite a lot of useful tidbits over the years watching our I.T. guys at work fix our computers every time something went wrong.
1 person likes this
@pgiblett (6524)
• Canada
8 Mar 16
@moffittjc I agree that people need better instruction, but the cat is out of the bag. People are using complex machines they don't fully understand.
@VivaLaDani13 (60812)
• Perth, Australia
18 Apr 16
Filing cabinets, pen and notebooks...smoke signals, carrier pigeons, message in a bottle ( wouldn't recommend that one to be honest ).
Nah I know what you mean though. Technology has it's pros and cons. I am not liking how technology and these friggen robots are taking over. Taking people's jobs away. Us depending on technology to get work done. We are lazy now.
Nah I know what you mean though. Technology has it's pros and cons. I am not liking how technology and these friggen robots are taking over. Taking people's jobs away. Us depending on technology to get work done. We are lazy now.2 people like this
@Daljinder (23193)
• Bangalore, India
14 Feb 17
@VivaLaDani13 ...and when there is an apocalypse, we all will be fu*ked coz moany of us are not used to manual labour.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502165)
• Italy
5 Mar 16
@moffittjc Yes, this would be a very bad situation, scary!
1 person likes this
@JESSY3236 (22199)
• United States
10 Mar 16
@moffittjc You need to see the show Revolution. It was like that.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
5 Mar 16
It is scary to think that our own government is requesting that tech companies give them unfettered access to all of our phones and computers. Your experience Friday just makes that even more frightening.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
It is pretty scary. My one soothing thought about the whole situation is, that with 320 million citizens (all using multiple technology devices) it will be overwhelming to the government to try and closely monitor all that information and data on so many people.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
@ElizabethWallace Probably even having this discussion right now on myLot is triggering their software to alert them to monitor us more closely! lol
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
5 Mar 16
@moffittjc Sure, but that means we have to guess at the keywords their software is searching for and avoid using them. Sigh.
I was stalked for eight years by an ex. I sure wouldn't want my government to do that to me. But, are they really interested in what retired school teachers are doing in their spare time?
1 person likes this
@GrannyGee (3517)
• Louisburg, North Carolina
6 Mar 16
It's a scary thing in today's time when computers aren't working for whatever reason. I prefer having computers than to 'go back to before'. I can't imagine not using one now.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Mar 16
We sure would have to work much harder. One thing's for sure, computers have made our lives easier, faster, and more convenient!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Mar 16
@GrannyGee There's no doubt that the benefits of technology outweigh the negatives. Computers and other technology have allowed the human race to advance farther in the last 20 years than in the last 2000 years combined! That's got to be a big plus, right?!
1 person likes this
@GrannyGee (3517)
• Louisburg, North Carolina
8 Mar 16
@moffittjc Yes! That's got to be a plus!
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
5 Mar 16
Without elaborating, we got along quite nicely without computers thank you. Now we live in a world totally connected to the internet and one glitch, one false step, one power outage and we are crippled. Not to mention identity theft and scams and all the other crap because of the computer.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
This is why the whole world is going to collapse one day soon. As soon as terrorists figure out how to take down our power grid or our technology grids, we are all in trouble. Society can't function manually these days!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
@JohnRoberts I think it just crept up in our lives over time. We don't realize how much we depend on technology until it is taken away from us!
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
5 Mar 16
@moffittjc I could not agree more and it is our fault for becoming so dependent and allowing technology to dictate our lives.
@MGjhaud (23228)
• Philippines
5 Mar 16
true. when i was in college, i felt useless without a computer cause i was studying IT. even now, its so easy and faster with technology. last night we had a power outage and ran out of candles. so we were all in the living room stuck while waiting for it to come on.
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
Back in 2004, three hurricanes struck my area all within weeks of each other. There was massive damage. Where I was living at the time, we lost power for three weeks. It was challenging, but I grew up in the great outdoors, and so I knew how to survive and manage all that time the power was out. I was prepared with food, water, and other emergency supplies, and was ready with plenty of activities to keep the family busy and occupied. We came through just fine, but there were a lot of other people that thought the world had ended, as they were completely unprepared for the crisis.
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
@MGjhaud It's never fun having to deal with those powerful storms! Glad to know you will be prepared next time one hits! Hopefully, you won't experience a typhoon anytime soon!
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
5 Mar 16
This is all too common a scenario these days. When I was working we always had plenty of computers, but our business introduced SAP to run the business by.
The system was accessed via a network to the head office, so if the telephones went down or the server crashed we could not access it. The majority of staff came to an immediate standstill whenever that happened.
I was one of the very few who could survive without access to the system. I would hand write delivery notes, manually create paperwork for stock transfer and so on. I saved all the paperwork at one side and updated everything onto the system when it came back online.
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
I normally would have plenty of manual work to do to keep me busy until such time as the computer problems could be fixed. But in this case, I accomplished all that work during the week, and saved all the computer work for today, since I knew the office would be closed and I could get a lot accomplished since it would be quiet.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
5 Mar 16
@moffittjc I sometimes called into work on Saturdays for that very reason. You can make so much progress when you can work without constantly answering the telephone or responding to queries from other departments.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
@Asylum That's why I love going in to work on the weekends. I'll often flex my schedule during the week so I can take off weekdays in exchange for working some weekend shifts. Not a single person around to interrupt! I find I got twice as much work done!
1 person likes this
@suzzy3 (8341)
•
5 Mar 16
I agree completely. When i worked in an office {a while ago now} we had paper files and everything we needed was at hand. power cut is all you need and the whole world would come to a grinding halt. Personally I find this terrifying. I always commit everything to paper as well.
@CaptAlbertWhisker (32760)
• Calgary, Alberta
5 Mar 16
I was a 80's kid and I managed to survive without computer until the year 2004 came because that is when I have my own computer. Tasks use to be more complicated before I had a computer.
I remember the withdrawals I went through when my computer got broken. Lucky for me I have gadgets to compensate.
1 person likes this
@CaptAlbertWhisker (32760)
• Calgary, Alberta
5 Mar 16
@moffittjc I just had a nostalgia watching an episode of "fresh of the boat" a sitcom set in the 90's. They have an episode that focuses with the early days on the internet. I love how during those times, restaurant owners are more threatened to have a negative review from the news paper over a negative review from the internet.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
I was an 80's kid too, so I learned how to manage just fine before computers took over. I feel sorry for kids nowadays, because they don't know anything about life without computers.
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
5 Mar 16
I remember doing accounting on the old green ledger sheets and writing journal entries on two column journal pages, left column for debits and the right column for credits, and using a calculator with a paper tape for adding everything up.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
That's how I learned in my accounting class at college! I remember the green ledger sheets very vividly!
2 people like this
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
5 Mar 16
@moffittjc I still have bad dreams about doing a manual trial balance. I keep adding up the numbers but they just won't come out right and I can't figure out why. When I took the CPA exam back then, one of the problems on the practice section was completing a manual trial balance. 
2 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (91013)
• United States
5 Mar 16
We've become so dependent on computers & long gone are the days of being able to do work by hand or having hard copies for backup. Guess it's progress on one hand but scary that all our info is on the computer.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
And over the past couple of years we have really gotten away from having hard copies of anything, in order to reduce paper waste and storage space. A lot of good that does you when you can't access any of your files when your computer is down! lol
1 person likes this
@dianadee (1778)
• South Africa
6 Mar 16
@moffittjc Moving to a paperless society. Hand written is going out of fashion.
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
5 Mar 16
Truly we have become totally reliant on these infernal machines and when they hiccup, we are at a loss.
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
In my personal affairs, I can do just about everything I need to do right on my smartphone, so if my desktop or laptop at home goes down for any reason, I still can be productive through my phone. But at work, we have secure servers that I cannot access through my smartphone, so when our computers go down, my work comes to a standstill. There is plenty I could do without technology, but in this case I had already gotten all the manual stuff done earlier in the week. No biggie though, I just got an earlier start to my weekend than I had planned! lol
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
@JamesHxstatic I definitely wasn't complaining! Well...I was complaining about not being able to get the work done I had planned, but definitely not complaining that I got an early start to my weekend!
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
5 Mar 16
@moffittjc That is not a bad thing either!
1 person likes this
@JESSY3236 (22199)
• United States
10 Mar 16
I know. I always freak out when the power goes out because I can't get on the computer.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Mar 16
That's why I always like to keep my laptop and cell phone fully charged, so I have a way to connect to the outside world if the power goes out.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
I still do quite a bit of writing by hand! Although I love using computers, to me nothing is better than having hand-written notes you can carry around with you and refer to as needed!
@ricki_911 (21625)
• Toronto, Ontario
5 Mar 16
I completely agree. I heard this on the radio as well a few days back. I grew up in a time before computers, and got my first computer while in my teen years. We depend on them so much, we use to go out more, and what did we do on rainy days. I think younger generations just sit infront of computers, and don't go outside or crafts.
@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Mar 16
I definitely have a good balance between my computer/indoor time and my outdoor time, so that's not as big of an issue for me as it might be for some people. I like to get outdoors as much as possible. What really got me was that I lost a day of productivity at work simply because I couldn't access my computer. That's just crazy that we've become so dependent on machines to do our work for us!
@lilnana1111 (2305)
• United States
6 Mar 16
Yes, it is scary how dependent we have become with computers.
@dianadee (1778)
• South Africa
6 Mar 16
Businesses blame their computers a lot for lack of service delivery. We ordered a part for a car and it only came three days later. The order was made over the phone and the person at the other end got the serial number wrong and of course the wrong one arrived.
