I'm fairly convinced that having to do things as you described was better for mental health as well. The always on, always connected lifestyle has big downsides.
Driving with a map was better than how it is now? We're 10 years from having the damn thing drive itself for us.
I suck at directions, I can imagine without the internet I would just avoid drives to places I wasn't familiar with and miss out on a bunch of things.
Yeah, you have to use a map but your kid only has to interact with the school bullies at school and you aren't temped to reach out to your college fling behind your wife's back beacuse you never see her bikini photos.
Things have gotten better, but in lots of ways they have gotten worse.
Have no argument with you there, I'm not saying it was all a win.
Mental health problems seem to be increasing and the internet is part (but probably not all) of the problem.
