Things Gen X Had To Figure Out Without YouTube

Imagine having a problem and not being able to immediately search for a video showing you exactly how to fix it.

No YouTube tutorial.

No step-by-step TikTok.

No Reddit thread.

No stranger on a forum telling you which obscure bit of equipment you need.

If you grew up in Britain during the 70s, 80s or 90s, you probably had to work a surprising number of things out for yourself.

Sometimes you got instructions.

Sometimes you asked somebody.

Quite often, you just had a go and hoped for the best.

Recording a song from the radio

This was practically an engineering project.

You’d put a blank cassette into the tape recorder, get the radio tuned to the right station and wait.

The moment the presenter stopped talking, you hit record.

Except they often didn’t stop talking.

Or they started talking over the opening of the song.

Or your mum walked into the room and asked you a question.

Or the telephone rang.

And somehow you ended up with a recording containing 12 seconds of your favourite song followed by someone shouting from downstairs.

Fixing a cassette tape

A tape came out of the player and the ribbon was everywhere.

What did you do?

Find a pencil.

Carefully wind the tape back into the cassette.

Try not to crease it.

Put it back in.

Press play.

Then spend the next three minutes wondering whether you’d just destroyed your favourite album.

There was no YouTube tutorial called “How To Rescue A Mangled Cassette In Under Five Minutes.”

You just learned.

Setting the clock on the VCR

This deserves special recognition.

The VCR had a clock.

The clock needed setting.

And it seemed unnecessarily complicated.

You had buttons on the remote, buttons on the machine and a tiny display that made you feel as though you were programming a space shuttle.

Once you’d finally set it correctly, there was always a power cut.

Back to 00:00.

Programming the video recorder

Recording a television programme while you were out was a serious technological achievement.

You needed to know:

The channel
The date
The start time
The finish time
Whether the clock was correct
Whether you’d actually pressed the right button

And then you had to remember to put the right tape in.

There was no handy notification saying:

“Your recording failed because the tape was full.”

You found that out later.

Reading a paper map

Getting lost wasn’t solved by saying:

“Hang on, I’ll check Google Maps.”

You had a road atlas.

Possibly a very large one.

You unfolded it across the passenger’s lap and tried to work out where you were.

Then came the tricky bit.

Working out where you needed to go.

There was something strangely satisfying about successfully navigating somewhere using nothing but a map, road signs and an increasingly frustrated passenger.

Using the Yellow Pages

Want a plumber?

Need a garage?

Looking for a takeaway?

You reached for the Yellow Pages.

You had to find the right section, look through the adverts and then make a phone call.

There were no reviews from 4,827 strangers.

You didn’t know whether the business was any good.

You just had to take a chance.

Finding out what was on television

There was no streaming homepage filled with recommendations.

You checked the TV listings.

Perhaps it was the Radio Times.

Perhaps it was another magazine.

Perhaps it was the newspaper.

You found the programme you wanted and remembered when it was on.

And if you missed it?

Tough.

Unless somebody happened to record it.

Finding a telephone number

There was a time when remembering someone’s phone number was normal.

You memorised numbers.

You wrote them in address books.

You kept little pieces of paper with numbers on them.

If you needed a business number, you might use directory enquiries.

Today, your phone knows hundreds of numbers for you.

Back then, you were the database.

Making plans

This was perhaps the biggest one.

You couldn’t message somebody to say:

“Running 10 minutes late.”

You couldn’t send your location.

You couldn’t ask:

“Where are you?”

You agreed on a time and a place.

“Outside the cinema at seven.”

And then you turned up.

If your friend wasn’t there, you waited.

If they still weren’t there, you went home.

It sounds completely impractical now.

Somehow, millions of us managed it.

Finding your way around a new town

There was no sat nav telling you:

“Turn left in 200 yards.”

You watched road signs.

You looked at the map.

You remembered landmarks.

And sometimes you stopped and asked somebody.

Yes, an actual person.

You’d wind down the car window and say:

“Excuse me, do you know where the high street is?”

And the person would give you directions involving a pub, a roundabout and a tree that had probably been removed in 1987.

Fixing things around the house

If something broke, you had fewer options.

You could ask someone who knew what they were doing.

You could buy a DIY book.

You could read the instructions.

Or you could take it apart and see what happened.

That final option had mixed results.

Sometimes you fixed it.

Sometimes you were left with three screws and a horrible feeling.

Learning to cook

There were cookbooks.

There were recipes printed on food packaging.

There were relatives who knew how to make things.

And there was trial and error.

You couldn’t search:

“How long should I cook this chicken?”

You had to know.

Or look it up in a book.

Or ask someone.

And if dinner went wrong, there wasn’t a takeaway app sitting in your pocket as an instant escape route.

Removing a stain

A particularly mysterious childhood skill.

Something would spill on your clothes and an adult would immediately announce:

“Don’t rub it!”

Then came some combination of washing powder, cold water, soaking and an old wives’ tale involving vinegar.

You didn’t know whether it worked.

You just trusted the process.

Tying different knots

Shoelaces were one thing.

But plenty of Gen X children also learned how to tie various knots without an online tutorial.

Scouts, Guides, fishing, camping or helping somebody with a bit of rope.

You watched someone demonstrate it once.

Then tried to remember which bit went over which bit.

Today you can find a 90-second video showing practically any knot imaginable.

Changing a light bulb

It sounds ridiculously simple.

But someone had to teach you.

You worked out which way the bulb came out, which way the new one went in and, importantly, that you shouldn’t be touching anything electrical that you didn’t understand.

No video.

No search.

Just common sense, instructions and somebody saying:

“Turn the power off first.”

Assembling flat-pack furniture

The instructions existed.

Understanding them was another matter.

You laid all the pieces out on the floor.

Found the little bag of screws.

Looked at the diagram.

Turned something upside down.

Realised you’d attached it backwards.

Took it apart.

Started again.

Some things haven’t changed.

Working out what the buttons did

Remote controls were mysterious.

Car stereos were mysterious.

Microwave ovens were mysterious.

Video recorders were very mysterious.

You pressed buttons until something happened.

If you accidentally changed something important, you simply pressed more buttons until you eventually returned to where you’d started.

It wasn’t necessarily the most efficient approach.

But it worked.

Eventually.

Learning from other people

Perhaps that’s the biggest difference.

Without YouTube, there was a much greater reliance on people.

You asked your dad how something worked.

You watched your mum cook.

Your mate showed you how to repair something.

A neighbour knew how to fix an appliance.

Someone at work had figured out how to do something and showed you.

Knowledge was often passed from one person to another.

You didn’t necessarily know everything.

But you knew someone who might.

We weren’t actually helpless

It’s easy to look back and think how inconvenient all this sounds.

And it was.

But there was another side to it.

You developed patience.

You learned to experiment.

You got better at reading instructions.

You became comfortable making mistakes.

You learned how to ask questions.

And occasionally, you discovered that you could actually solve a problem yourself.

Gen X grew up during a period when technology was changing rapidly, but it wasn’t yet everywhere.

We went from records and cassettes to CDs, from landlines to mobiles, from encyclopaedias to the internet.

We had to learn new technology as it arrived.

There wasn’t always a video showing us what to do.

Sometimes we just pressed the button and found out.

And then YouTube arrived

Today, if you want to know how to do something, there’s a very good chance somebody has already filmed it.

Want to change a tap washer?

There’s a video.

Can’t work out the settings on your washing machine?

There’s a video.

Want to learn how to play a guitar riff?

There’s a video.

Need to know how to fold a fitted sheet?

There are probably several hundred.

It’s brilliant.

But there’s something quite satisfying about remembering that there was a time when you couldn’t simply look everything up.

You had to have a go.

And occasionally, despite all the odds, you actually got it right.

What’s something you had to figure out yourself because there was no YouTube to show you how?