To the people who had office jobs in the 70s and 80s, basically before the internet was a thing, what were your computers like?

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1. In the 70s and 80s, office computers were quite a different experience from what we know today! Most workplaces relied on mainframe computers, which were large, expensive, and could only handle a limited number of users at a time. They often operated on punch cards or magnetic tape, with data entry requiring physical cards and batch processing.

   Personal computers started emerging in the late 70s and into the 80s, with models like the Apple II, IBM PC, and Commodore 64. These computers were much more user-friendly, featuring floppy disk drives for data storage and basic operating systems like DOS.

   Word processing programs like WordStar and later Microsoft Word changed the way we created documents, but many people still used typewriters for certain tasks. Spreadsheets, such as VisiCalc, revolutionized calculations but lacked the advanced features we’re used to now.

   Office environments were also quite different: memos were printed out and distributed physically, and communication relied heavily on the telephone and interoffice mail systems. Overall, the focus was more on manual processes, and while computers were becoming more commonplace, the internet was still a distant concept, so information sharing and collaboration happened at a much slower pace than today. It’s fascinating to look back and see how far technology has come!

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