Introverts of our era spend their time on their computers, but what did introverts do before? Like when literacy rates were lower (pre-1950s)? Or before the printing press?

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Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

By “Interoverts”, I’m talking about like people who don’t like talking to other people. How did they spend their time?

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idiomaddict@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Reading books, writing, doing crafts, going on walks, hanging out with pets, gardening, doing chores, cooking, making art, looking at the stars…

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- AstralPath@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I wish that was my life.
  
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  - Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    With the exception of the stars (assuming you live somewhere with bad light pollution, which is most people), all of those things are still achievable. You can even use the internet to learn how to do them; don’t let your dreams stay dreams!
    
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  - TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    You can do my chores for me if you want, I know it’s little but it’s something.
    
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  - birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Minus the stars, it’s my life. It’s pretty good.
    
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- DaniNatrix@leminal.space ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Feeling blessed that this is basically my life, except I do have to go to pesky work Mon-Fri. And work is work, I’d always rather be home, but in the grand scheme of jobs, I have one where I’m challenged and get to learn new things with a decent group of humans on my team and good work/life balance so, yeah, feeling blessed for sure.
  
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oxomoxo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
In 2003 I worked for a small company that was attempting to be an early ebook publisher, before the days of ereaders and smartphones. It was too ahead of its time and closed after our first two publications. One of the books was on an old mining town, and part of my job was doing research and collecting photos and reference materials for the book.

I had the chance to read the diary of a miner from the 1860s. Keeping a diary was one popular hobby, but one thing that stood out to me was how he described a day off he had, it was a Sunday I believe and he spent 6 hours watching a bird and writing down all that it did.

What I gathered is that in the absence of entertainment or chores, humans will find things to fill the void. What seems extremely boring to you or me was very fulfilling to those with no other options.

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- abbadon420@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I’ve worked in factory where my responsibility was to watch a machine that needed intervention at most once per shift. I perfected the art of paper plane folding.
  
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- FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  In the spring and summer, in a park near my home, there’s a three feet-tall crane that makes appearances before sunup, and on the days I can’t sleep, I get up early to go see him. Birds can be really neat.
  
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- False@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Bird watching is still a popular hobby
  
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Infrapink@thebrainbin.org ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Before the printing press, introverted men worked the farm, while introverted women spun thread, made and repaired clothes, cooked, cleaned, nursed babies, and also worked the farm.

this is the same as what extroverts did, because back then, you contributed to the farm and the household whether you liked it or not.

At a celebration or festival, the introverts might gather in a corner to tell stories, but there was no way to avoid being part of the community back then.

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neidu3@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Model trains, stamps, and books. Unless your last name was Cavendish - Then you’d be making amazing scientific breakthroughs and not tell anyone, only to get credit posthumously after someone reads your lab notes.

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- DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  By one account, Cavendish had a back staircase added to his house to avoid encountering his housekeeper, because he was especially shy of women.
  
  💀 This is next level introversion, way too above my level.
  
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jerkface@lemmy.ca ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Before the Internet, I read books. Everywhere, constantly. Haven’t read a book since the 90s, probably.

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Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
A lot of crafts and trades can be done in small teams or solo. Leather-working, furniture making, blacksmithing, etc. If we’re talking before the printing press, being a scribe could be solitary (or at least quiet, if you were a monk). Tending livestock (especially sheep) was often a solo job. Fishing, trapping, the list is long.

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- TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Shepherds are famous for having lots of free time to write religious fanfiction so future generations bicker about it.
  
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Jerb322@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Mountain hermit

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dhork@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Introverts probably had it much better back then. You couldn’t physically take your work home with you. Your news came once a day, to the front porch, and was not constantly bombarded at your eyeballs. When you were home, you only interacted with your immediate family, unless you had someone physically over to visit. Or if someone called in the telephone, which you could always just not answer.

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- hanrahan@piefed.social ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  in the telephone, which you could always just not answer.
  
  Indeed what feesh hell is this
  
  I mostly don’t answer my phone, i have a ringtone for my parter and that’s the onky one i DO answer.
  
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Triumph@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I spent a good deal of time disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling slot cars. Plenty of reading. Climbed trees. Ate wild mulberries. Fixed bicycles.

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miguel@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I can't speak to pre-1950s, but before the modern internet (not counting ARPANET), I spent most of my time hiking trails and reading.

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kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
People used to live in the secluded far edges of the village when they really wanted to be left alone

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pwnicholson@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Spending the day working in a field, in a factory, etc you don’t do a lot of socializing.

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- DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Damn that sounds so sad, I forgot the 5-day/40-hour workweek wasn’t a thing back then.
  
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  - j4k3@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    They often had seasons off back before the industrial age. Like, war was seasonal. Ya had to return your piece of shits to plant their fields or pick them, but in between, they had time off for pointy pointless things.
    
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ruuster13@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Build model trains.

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adespoton@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Before the printing press was before organized timekeeping or most automated machines.

This meant there was plenty of space for introverts doing isolated manual labour that we now automate.

What did they do at the end of the day instead of visit at the pub? Probably collapse in exhaustion.

For those who had more power, there was always religious orders.

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pelespirit@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I think people are painting the past with a little bit of rose colored glasses. There was less support in the 90’s, you couldn’t just look up how to do something, be yourself, or understand the basics about anything. We had a 3 “pedophiles” on our street. Were they? I don’t know, it was a rumor. There was no list. It was great in some ways and not so great in others.

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Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
The mind wonders when you’re doing mundane tasks. A sheep herder would be lost in their thoughts all day.

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yaroto98@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Join a convent/monastary and spend your life in seclusion and take up an oath of silence. Or at least let people assume you took the oath and just not talk to anybody. Spend time ‘meditating’.

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Leather@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Developing Philosophy.

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Hegar@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Humans are social mammals. In many important respects, it makes no sense to even think of us as individuals.

I suspect that in the past people with higher levels of social anxiety probably just spoke a little less than average, and noticably less on the much less frequent times they met strangers.

But i think it's its probably very inaccurate to imagine anyone who we'd recognize as an "introvert" in the much more collectivist cultures that dominate history.

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HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
books.

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