[bluedino]

I can remember that. A group of us who go to whoever's house had just gotten a new game, piece of hardware, etc

When we left we'd always say "see you on the roadhouse!", which was a multi-line board that we'd all dial into when we got home

[geoelectric]

Those multi-line chat boards were a total vice of mine late 80s, early 90s. That grew into a GEnie flat-fee chat account, which grew into AOL/IM (while maintaining a proper shell account on the side, mind you). Then there was IRC, forumnet/icb, etc., anything I could hit with a modem. I wasn't digital-native, but I was digital-to-analog-to-digital-native.

Nowadays, 47 and crustier, I can hardly be arsed to answer a Facebook message, and all the avenues for social connection have become kind of overwhelming. I can't imagine how it is for people my age or older who picked this all up late.