The other day, my grandson asked me how we looked up information before Google. I told him we used encyclopedias at the library. He looked at me like I’d said we carved messages into stone tablets.

It got me thinking about just how different childhood was when I was growing up in Ohio in the 1960s and 70s. Not better or worse, necessarily. Just different in ways that are hard to explain to someone who’s never experienced it.

My grandchildren have grown up with smartphones, instant communication, and information at their fingertips. They’ve never known a world without the internet, without GPS, without being able to reach their parents at any moment.

I sometimes wonder how they’d handle the world I grew up in. Not in a judgmental way, but genuinely curious. Because there were aspects of childhood back then that required a different kind of resilience, a different tolerance for uncertainty and discomfort.

Here are nine things my generation endured growing up that I think younger people would genuinely struggle with today.

1) Being completely unreachable for hours at a time

When I left the house as a kid, I was just gone. My mother had no way to contact me. I had no way to contact her.

I’d head out in the morning, ride my bike around the neighborhood, play in the woods, visit friends. My only instruction was to be home when the streetlights came on.

No cell phone. No way to check in. No way for my parents to track my location or make sure I was okay.

If plans changed, too bad. If I got hurt, I had to figure it out or find a nearby adult. If I got lost, I had to find my own way home.

My grandchildren can’t comprehend this. When my grandson goes to a friend’s house three doors down, my daughter texts him every hour. She tracks his location on her phone. She expects responses within minutes.

The idea of being truly unreachable, of your parents having no way to contact you for eight hours, would terrify most kids today. And honestly, it would terrify most parents too.

But for us, it was just normal. You learned to be resourceful, to make decisions on your own, to trust your own judgment when no adult was available to consult.

2) Waiting days or weeks to see photos you took

I remember taking photos with our family camera on vacation. Carefully rationing the 24 or 36 shots on the roll of film because film was expensive.

Then we’d finish the roll and wait. Sometimes weeks. We’d drop it off at the drugstore, they’d send it away to be developed, and eventually, we’d pick up a packet of physical photos.

And sometimes, most of them would be terrible. Blurry, or too dark, or someone had their eyes closed. But you wouldn’t know until it was too late to retake them.

My grandchildren take hundreds of photos a day. They see them instantly, delete the bad ones, retake shots until they’re perfect, and share them worldwide within seconds.

The concept of taking a photo and then waiting two weeks to see if it even came out? They can’t fathom it.

That delayed gratification, that acceptance that you might not get the perfect shot, that tolerance for uncertainty, that’s something that’s been completely erased from modern life.

3) Having only three or four TV channels

When I was growing up, we had maybe four channels that came in clearly. If the weather was bad, maybe three.

If nothing good was on, too bad. You either watched what was available, read a book, or found something else to do.

You couldn’t pause. You couldn’t rewind. If you missed your favorite show, it was gone until the rerun. If you had to use the bathroom during the good part, you missed it.

And commercials? You watched them. All of them. There was no fast-forwarding, no streaming services, no watching on demand.

My grandchildren have access to essentially infinite content. Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, and a dozen other services. They can watch anything, anytime, and pause whenever they want.

The idea of being limited to whatever happened to be broadcast at that exact moment would feel like punishment to them.

We learned patience. We learned to appreciate what we had. We learned to entertain ourselves when nothing was available to entertain us.

4) Dealing with boredom without screens

This might be the biggest difference of all.

When I was bored as a kid, I had to figure out what to do. No phone to scroll through. No games on a device. No videos to watch.

I’d build things. Wander around outside. Make up games. Read whatever books were lying around. Sometimes I’d just sit and think.

Long car rides were brutal. Hours in the backseat with nothing but the passing scenery and maybe a book if the motion didn’t make me sick.

My grandchildren have never experienced true boredom. They’ve never sat in a waiting room with nothing to do. They’ve never endured a long car ride without a screen.

If their tablet battery dies, it’s a crisis. The idea of spending a whole afternoon with nothing but your own imagination? They don’t even know what that means.

And I’m not saying this to criticize them. It’s just a completely different reality. They’ve never had to develop the skill of entertaining themselves without external input.

5) Looking things up in actual books at the library

I spent so many hours at the library as a kid. Not by choice, necessarily, but because that’s where information lived.

Need to know something for a school report? You’d go to the library, search the card catalog, find the relevant books, and read through them looking for what you needed.

Sometimes the books you needed were checked out. Sometimes the information just wasn’t available in your small-town library. Sometimes you’d spend two hours looking for something and come up empty.

It was slow, often frustrating work. But you learned research skills. You learned how to search, how to evaluate sources, how to synthesize information from multiple texts.

My grandchildren ask Siri or Google. They get instant answers, usually in the first result. If they can’t find something in thirty seconds, they get frustrated.

The patience required to do real research, to sit with physical books for hours, to accept that answers didn’t always come easily, that’s something most young people today have never had to develop.

6) Being stuck with mistakes you couldn’t undo

When I typed papers in high school, I used a typewriter. If you made a mistake, you could try to fix it with correction fluid, but it always looked messy. If you made too many mistakes, you had to retype the entire page.

No backspace. No delete key. No cut and paste.

You learned to think carefully before you typed, to plan ahead, to accept that things wouldn’t be perfect.

The same went for so many things. If you called someone and left a message on their answering machine, it was there. You couldn’t take it back. If you wrote something in pen and mailed it, it was permanent.

Young people today can edit everything. Delete texts, unsend emails, take back messages. Mistakes can often be undone.

We had to live with our mistakes. We learned to be more careful, more thoughtful, because we knew we couldn’t just hit undo.

7) Navigating without GPS or cell phones

Getting lost was just part of life.

We used paper maps. We wrote down directions. We called ahead from payphones if we were running late. We pulled over at gas stations to ask for directions when we got turned around.

I remember my dad driving around lost for an hour, refusing to stop and ask for help, my mom getting increasingly frustrated in the passenger seat.

Young people today can’t get lost. Their phone tells them exactly where they are and exactly how to get where they’re going, turn by turn.

The spatial awareness you developed from reading maps, the problem-solving skills from finding your way when you were lost, the ability to ask strangers for help, those are skills that aren’t really needed anymore.

But there was a kind of resilience that came from knowing you might get lost and you’d figure it out anyway.

8) Enduring physical discomfort without complaint

Cars didn’t have air conditioning, at least not the ones my family could afford. Long summer drives meant sweating in the backseat, windows down, hot air blowing in.

Schools weren’t fully climate controlled. We’d be freezing in winter, sweltering in early summer.

No one had water bottles everywhere they went. You got thirsty, you waited until you could get to a water fountain.

Restaurants had smoking sections. You’d sit there eating while people smoked at the next table.

We just accepted physical discomfort as part of life. You dealt with it, you didn’t complain too much, and eventually it would be over.

Today’s kids have grown up with climate control everywhere, water always available, smoke-free environments. They’re used to a level of physical comfort that was simply unavailable to us.

The tolerance for discomfort, the ability to endure unpleasant conditions without it feeling like a crisis, that’s something that’s been lost.

9) Having limited access to your parents during the day

When my mom went to work, she was just gone. I couldn’t call her unless it was an emergency. She couldn’t call me.

If I got sent home sick from school, I had to let myself into the house and wait for her to get home. If something happened, I had to handle it myself or ask a neighbor.

Parents today are in constant contact with their kids. Texts throughout the day. Video calls. Schools can reach parents instantly for any issue.

My grandchildren can reach my daughter anytime, anywhere. If they’re scared or uncertain or just want to tell her something, she’s available.

We had to develop independence by necessity. We had to solve problems on our own, make decisions without parental input, handle minor crises because our parents simply weren’t accessible.

That forced independence built self-reliance. But it also meant we dealt with things alone that probably would have been easier with parental support.

Conclusion

I don’t tell these stories to suggest my generation had it harder or that we’re tougher than young people today. That’s not the point.

Every generation faces its own challenges. My grandchildren deal with pressures I can’t even imagine. The constant social comparison of social media, the anxiety of being perpetually reachable, the overwhelming amount of information and choices they face daily.

But there were skills we developed by necessity that aren’t really required anymore. Patience. Self-reliance. Tolerance for uncertainty and discomfort. The ability to be alone with our thoughts.

Sometimes I watch my grandchildren and worry they’re missing out on something important. The quiet moments. The boredom that leads to creativity. The problem-solving that comes from not having instant answers.

Other times, I’m grateful they have tools and safety nets we never had. That they can reach their parents anytime. That they can find information instantly. That they don’t have to tolerate as much physical discomfort or inefficiency.

Different times require different skills. The world I grew up in required one kind of resilience. The world my grandchildren are growing up in requires another.

But I do think there’s value in understanding what came before. In recognizing that convenience comes with trade-offs, and that some of the struggles of the past built capacities worth preserving.

What do you think? Would you have thrived in the world I grew up in, or would it have been too much?