Vitamin We #27: Where Did People Gather Pre-Internet Age?

(1625 words)

Hello, creative souls!

Where Did People Gather Before the Internet?

While the internet has become almost as important as electricity for society to continue operating, have you wondered (or do you remember) where people gathered, built connections, and formed communities back when the internet didn't exist? 🤨

Before we ask where and how, we should ask, “WHY do people gather?” 

There must be some intentions, outcomes to achieve, and needs to be met on the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual levels, right?

And to meet the RIGHT people to fulfill those intentions and needs, there has to be a space/venue where:

• It’s easy & convenient and requires the lowest effort for people to reach, gather, meet, and perform the needed exchange of needs regularly

• For an exchange to happen, there has to be enough people from the two sides e.g. providers vs consumers, buyers vs sellers, performers vs audience etc

• The structural set up in physical form, i.e., the architectural design, can facilitate common interests, beliefs, or identities, e.g., libraries and churches.

Throughout histories across cultures, these are the most common places where people gathered:

Structural Common Venues Where People Get Together:

1. Markets: for commercial exchanges of goods and information 

2. Workplaces: to produce collectively in exchange for wages/exchangeable units to sustain one’s familial livelihood

3. Neighborhood & Clan Town Halls: where groups with shared bloodline and/or geographical roots gather to discuss, resolve disputes, share resources, organize co-ops, celebrate, grief, perform spiritual rituals etc

4. Churches/ Temples/ Mosques: where religious gatherings were hosted to grow a connection with a Higher Wisdom with peer support

5. Library/ Schools/ Museums: for learning and intellectual explorations

6. Restaurants/ Bars/ Cafes/ Salons/ Galleries/ A Friend’s Home: for people with common interests or ties to catch up with lives, sit, eat, drink, smoke and chitchat

7. Sports Stadiums/ Concert Halls/ Theatres/ Circuses: for entertainment, games & tournaments, athletic training, art & music, and storytelling

8. Casinos/ Night Clubs: also for entertainment

9. Central Parks & Plazas: multi-purpose public spaces where everyone is welcomed

10. Transport junctions/ Flights/ Trains/ Cruises: where you get stuck with strangers for hours (or days), and serendipities might happen (think the Titanic?)

11. Assembly Places for Political Aims, e.g., elections, recruiting soldiers, distributing supplies, riots, etc

Next, let’s travel back in time with some pictures + our imagination ➡️➡️➡️

50 years ago = 1974

New York has always been busy and congested - look at the road signs, the crowded crossroad, how they dress, and their neutral facial expressions😎

This photo below captured Pink Floyd 🎸 hosting a free concert in Hyde Park, London - Wondering how the word spread to gather such a massive crowd before the internet! The craze of music fans couldn’t be less enthusiastic than those of Taylor Swift today 🤭

This is a crowded neighborhood in Hong Kong where you can see shops and households forming tight communities to serve and sustain the livelihoods of one another — there were shops and stalls, clinics, and even a college (high school)!

100 years ago = 1924

Exactly a century ago, the Olympic Games were held in Paris, France! Aside from attracting many reporters and being the first Games broadcast over the radio📻, according to the official Olympics website, “Paris 1924 proved a success with the public, with a total of 625,000 spectators turning out to watch the events.”

A group of women assembled telephones in a London factory following the introduction of automatic telephone exchanges, eliminating the need for human switchboard operators to complete the connections required for a telephone call. Almon Strowger invented the exchange in 1888, but it only gained widespread use in the early 20th century.

Is this timeline from technological innovation to mass adoption indicative of the internet and AI today?

The photo below was taken in June 1924 at the Bond Lake railway station, Toronto and York Radial Railway, Canada - it seemed like some school activities were happening.

150 years ago = 1874

Have you ever used a public bath?

Running water was uncommon in the poorest areas of New York City. Therefore, public bathhouses were integral to tenement districts for health reasons. Life was so fragrant back then 😵‍💫

Below is a painting of a visit to an exhibition hall at the Paris Salon in 1874. You can tell the exclusivity of the target audience for sure - the literate women from the bourgeoisie consulted the Salon booklet or passed by chatting while their husbands looked attentively at the works presented on the walls.

Cape Coast Castle is one of about forty "slave castles" or large commercial forts built by European traders on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana). It is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List because of its testimony to the Atlantic gold and slave trade.

200 years ago = 1824

Here’s an illustration of an episode from the Dutch novel The Rose of Dekama, which reveals the engagement between the noble host, the general spectators, and the players at a tournament game at Haarlem.

Smithfield – or London Central Markets, was a large open space outside the city boundaries. In the Twelfth Century, it was a vast recreational area where jousts and tournaments took place.

By the late Middle Ages, the area had become the most famous livestock market in the country. Today, it is not only the largest EU-approved wholesale meat market in the country but also the oldest.

One of Ludwig van Beethoven's most celebrated pieces of music, Symphony No. 9, was premiered in Vienna in 1824.

It is said that he had to be turned around to face the audience after his premiere, as his hearing loss was so acute that he couldn’t hear🦻 their rapturous applause…

The final movement of the Symphony expressed Beethoven's message of universal brotherhood, peace, and freedom to humanity based on the "Ode to Joy" theme in the choral finale - a very relevant message that our world needs today 🫂!

Summary - Times before the internet:

• People need to WAIT for everything to happen at the right time - nothing happens in an instant, nor ad hoc changes are expected

• People don't know too much about other people's lives outside of our circles - less comparison, less anxiety and self-shaming, and less inspiration and confidence to go beyond what is deemed possible within our immediate circle.

• People must make an effort to come together regularly with social conformity—like showing up on time as agreed on the mailed letter—or they will be abandoned when unreliable.

Takeaways - What are the common patterns that are still applicable today?

1. Without a structured, common venue or platform, whether physically or virtually, people won’t come to meet consistently and gather organically unless a host keeps sending out invitations one after another!

2. The paradoxicality of creating a community - people come to a place only when there are other people here already! So how do you get the first group of people to gather in the first place?

3. The space design influences HOW people interact and defines social consensus - For example, everyone inside a public bath would share the water equally 🏊, while the concert audience wouldn’t utter a word until the performers on stage had finished their delivery. The space design defines the size of the crowd, where the attention is to be directed, and the level of participation for everyone inside the space!

4. Multi-purpose sharing of intel happens naturally whenever a crowd gathers - For example, in the markets, besides exchanging goods, one would gossip or even spread rumors; in churches, besides praising God, people would also share resources; in train stations or on flights, you might meet your next client, your next mentor, or the love of your life while staying stuck for 10 hours at a seat. Segregation of platforms (like the very similar social media platforms today with different owners) is not cost-effective: if you need to invest time and emotional labour (aka transaction costs) to get along with other humans and understand the unique social consensus for each, then why would anybody expect just a one-off transactional exchange?!

🌟We are curious - what are your takeaways from these old pictures?

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~Reserached + curated with Love by
Editorial Team @ We Stories~