[Levitz]

People didn't pull out a magazine while in a group and read an article for 5 minutes. a bus wouldn't be literally filled with nothing but people reading magazines and books, nobody punished their children by taking their magazines away.

We did have, say, "portable entertainment". music players were kinda similar to this too, but yeah there is a massive difference.

[pixl97]

https://brendenmulligan.com/in-1950-i-doubt-anyone-ever-chec...

>I just wanted to share the above photo of a subway car from 1947 where every single person, even though they’re in a confined space together, aren’t paying any attention to each other because they’re reading media on a newspaper. The recent version of this is, of course, cellphones and iPads, yet the same people out there who hate change continue to cry foul.

[danielschonfeld]

Slight difference is that:

1) everybody read pretty much the same content. And not highly curated personalized content. So if you did strike a conversation with someone you’d have some common ground.

2) When starting said conversation the newspaper didn’t keep vibrating in your fingers or making sounds begging your attention back to it and you didn’t experience the FOMO of not giving said attention to it.

In other words. Sense of community was easier to establish and the artificial attention grabbers weren’t there for the social aspect of our beings to come between us as we try to do that social thing our species is known for.

[tocs3]

Also, it was when much content was meaningful. Scientific American was interesting. Popular mechanics had actual mechanical projects. Computer magazines were all adds but even the adds were showing amazing things full of real potential. Now corprat curated content is much cheaper empty calories.

There is great content but you have to dig and sometimes I am just to tired from real life.

[SethMurphy]

When paperback books came out they too were looked at with disdain. Too inexpensive to produce, therefore not trustworthy. Too easy for anyone to read, anytime. They were designed to fit into pockets. Then, even cheaper and disposable comics were created. They were taken away by parents for being junk, a waste of time. Then they got rebranded as graphic novels in order to give them more legitimatcy.

[whstl]

Other people have shown pictures of people reading in the bus, but here's the other thing: it was (and still is!) common to read a magazine or newspaper when you're out in a group for casual outings like a casual coffee, breakfast or even dinner with the family, lunch or coffee break with co-workers in a restaurant. It was often the only time you had to read the newspaper (unless you're were commuting by bus, hah!).

Kids would have coloring books or comics. Disinterested teens would have a book. I remember my grandmother carrying a crosswords puzzle, Stanley-style.

Sure it's not something you would do in an occasion where you're expected to keep conversation, like a social living room visit, a fancier diner, a sales call, a date or a birthday party. But even in special occasions with the extended family would be totally normal to excuse yourself to go read a newspaper or something if the rest of the people were engaged in conversation you're not interested in.

[groestl]

> a bus wouldn't be literally filled with nothing but people reading magazines and books

https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditThroughHistory/comments/1rkhx...

[Levitz]

I'm sorry but I don't care about some specific photo somewhere at some point. I don't even think this site leans young enough to ignore the fact that what is displayed on that photo was simply not the norm at all.

[irrational]

I used to carry a book with me everywhere. If I was standing in line at the store, I read my book, doctor’s office? read my book. And yes, when I was younger my parents would punish me by taking my book away. The phone has just made it more convenient to carry books around with me.

[tacheiordache]

Too many books in ones pocket is for many a curse, ending up reading none. For a minority of with very much self control and determination tough, it probably is a super power to have a library in the pocket.

[Mtinie]

You are mistaken. I distinctly remember attending gatherings with friends of my parents’ when I was a kid (1980s). At some point in the night, usually after dinner, someone would pull out the latest issue of “People” or “Cosmopolitan” and narrate their favorite article(s) to the rest of the group.

Now, this is much more communal than you posited but if that was happening I have no doubt people were sneaking an article or two while out with friends.

[pseudalopex]

I think push notifications and dark patterns would be better examples. A bus in any year could be filled with people reading, writing, playing solitary games, and conversing with people they knew. Parents punished children by taking reading material they disapproved. And denying music, games, and social activities.

[squigz]

> a bus wouldn't be literally filled with nothing but people reading magazines and books

Laughably wrong.

> nobody punished their children by taking their magazines away.

Also wrong, but less laughably so, as this happened to me (well, with books) :P

[ProxCoques]

> People didn't pull out a magazine while in a group and read an article for 5 minutes

Are you being sarcastic? I'm 57 and I recall they absolutely DID do those things in the 70's and 80's. Trains and station platforms? Google some photos!

[Levitz]

While in a group as in, meeting 5 friends and ignoring them to read stuff instead, not as in "somewhere with more people".

[ProxCoques]

I recall it was perfectly common for a group of us to be sat around a table, or on a sofa or somewhere and somebody might drop out of the conversation and take out a magazine or a book, crossword or whatever (in fact Game&Watch and others were a thing back then too) while the rest of us chatted. They might say "I'm still listening", or one of us might bat it out of their hands or something too.

[groestl]

I mean, it's even a trope that a private detective, trying to go unnoticed in a group of people, would pull out a newspaper...