Question about how we used to find answers before everything was online

I was helping my kid with a school project and they just typed a question into a search bar. It reminded me of sitting at the kitchen table with a set of thick reference books. We had to flip through pages and hope we found what we needed. Does anyone else think we learned more by digging for info, or is that just me being sentimental?

3 comments

3 Comments

jenny_coleman25d ago

That yearly update volume for encyclopedias is a good point, but I feel like you're mixing up two things. The waiting didn't help us remember facts better, it just meant we often had the wrong facts. I had to unlearn so much from old textbooks. The digging part, like using the card catalog, maybe built a different skill, like patience or knowing how a library works. But being less informed wasn't a good trade-off for that.

the_tessa1mo ago

Honestly, it was mostly just frustrating with outdated info.

lee.kelly1mo ago

My library's card catalog had those little drawers with typed index cards you had to flip through. @the_tessa has a point about outdated books, but I'm stuck on the waiting part. Our World Book encyclopedia set had a yearly update volume you had to order. If your book was from 1992, you just missed stuff. Do you think that slower process, waiting for the new book or tracking down a source, made us remember facts better because it was harder, or did it just leave us less informed?