Life before the Internet

Twenty years ago...

• If you saw a recipe or craft demonstrated on a TV programme and wanted to try it at home, you had to write in for the factsheet.
• If you wanted to buy a house you had to visit or write to every estate agent in the area you wanted asking what they had on their books which met your requirements, and then keep visiting them all every couple of weeks.
• If you wanted to know what was showing at the local cinema, you had to buy a local newspaper and check the listings.
• If you saw an actor in a film or on television and couldn't remember what else you'd seen them in, you had to live with that torture for years.
• If you were housebound and needed shopping, whether groceries or gifts, you had to find someone to go to the shops for you.
• If you wanted to sell some unwanted goods you had to put a card in the newsagent's window.
• If you needed to do a project for school, or research for a book, you had to go to the library and hope they had up-to-date encyclopaedias.
• If you wanted to buy a product and make sure you got the best price you had to go to all the shops that sold it first to check out their prices.
• If you missed a TV programme you wanted to watch, you had to scour the Radio Times hoping that it would be repeated late at night some other day.
• If you loved writing and wanted to publicly express your views and thoughts on random and diverse topics, you had to ask a newspaper to give you a column.