By “Introverts”, I’m talking about like people who don’t like talking to other people. How did they spend their time?
Model trains, stamps, and books.
Unless your name was Henry Cavendish - Then you’d be making amazing scientific breakthroughs and not tell anyone, only to get credit posthumously after someone reads your lab notes.
He conversed little, always dressed in an old-fashioned suit, and developed no known deep personal attachments outside his family. Cavendish was taciturn and solitary and regarded by many as eccentric. He communicated with his female servants only by notes. By one account, Cavendish had a back staircase added to his house to avoid encountering his housekeeper, because he was especially shy of women.
By one account, Cavendish had a back staircase added to his house to avoid encountering his housekeeper, because he was especially shy of women.
💀 This is next level introversion, way too above my level.
Reading books, writing, doing crafts, going on walks, hanging out with pets, gardening, doing chores, cooking, making art, looking at the stars…
I wish that was my life.
With the exception of the stars (assuming you live somewhere with bad light pollution, which is most people), all of those things are still achievable. You can even use the internet to learn how to do them; don’t let your dreams stay dreams!
Time isn’t free.
Any time spent on here is also time that can be spent on other things. The habit of scrolling isn’t something you have to be bound to.
For much of America, going on walks isn’t a pleasant experience. Most people live in car-centric areas, where you will have the noise, fumes, and dangers of cars at all times
I live a couple of blocks off a freeway exit, I’m very familiar with that. I still go walking in the rich neighborhoods, because they have nice trees and can’t stop me.
You can do my chores for me if you want, I know it’s little but it’s something.
Feeling blessed that this is basically my life, except I do have to go to pesky work Mon-Fri. And work is work, I’d always rather be home, but in the grand scheme of jobs, I have one where I’m challenged and get to learn new things with a decent group of humans on my team and good work/life balance so, yeah, feeling blessed for sure.
In 2003 I worked for a small company that was attempting to be an early ebook publisher, before the days of ereaders and smartphones. It was too ahead of its time and closed after our first two publications. One of the books was on an old mining town, and part of my job was doing research and collecting photos and reference materials for the book.
I had the chance to read the diary of a miner from the 1860s. Keeping a diary was one popular hobby, but one thing that stood out to me was how he described a day off he had, it was a Sunday I believe and he spent 6 hours watching a bird and writing down all that it did.
What I gathered is that in the absence of entertainment or chores, humans will find things to fill the void. What seems extremely boring to you or me was very fulfilling to those with no other options.
I’ve worked in factory where my responsibility was to watch a machine that needed intervention at most once per shift. I perfected the art of paper plane folding.
In the spring and summer, in a park near my home, there’s a three feet-tall crane that makes appearances before sunup, and on the days I can’t sleep, I get up early to go see him. Birds can be really neat.
Mountain hermit
People used to live in the secluded far edges of the village when they really wanted to be left alone
Build model trains.
Developing Philosophy.
Before the printing press was before organized timekeeping or most automated machines.
This meant there was plenty of space for introverts doing isolated manual labour that we now automate.
What did they do at the end of the day instead of visit at the pub? Probably collapse in exhaustion.
For those who had more power, there was always religious orders.
Introverts probably had it much better back then. You couldn’t physically take your work home with you. Your news came once a day, to the front porch, and was not constantly bombarded at your eyeballs. When you were home, you only interacted with your immediate family, unless you had someone physically over to visit. Or if someone called in the telephone, which you could always just not answer.
I think people are painting the past with a little bit of rose colored glasses. There was less support in the 90’s, you couldn’t just look up how to do something, be yourself, or understand the basics about anything. We had a 3 “pedophiles” on our street. Were they? I don’t know, it was a rumor. There was no list. It was great in some ways and not so great in others.
The mind wonders when you’re doing mundane tasks. A sheep herder would be lost in their thoughts all day.
A lot of crafts and trades can be done in small teams or solo. Leather-working, furniture making, blacksmithing, etc. If we’re talking before the printing press, being a scribe could be solitary (or at least quiet, if you were a monk). Tending livestock (especially sheep) was often a solo job. Fishing, trapping, the list is long.
I spent a good deal of time disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling slot cars. Plenty of reading. Climbed trees. Ate wild mulberries. Fixed bicycles.
I can’t speak to pre-1950s, but before the modern internet (not counting ARPANET), I spent most of my time hiking trails and reading.
