Books before, still books.

Threw rocks at stuff.

Trains, signs, each other,

Peed off of tall stuff.

Ride bikes.

Try to build ramps for the bikes.

Crash the bikes.

Ask your mom for a popsicle cause you have a fat lip now from hitting your face on your bikes handlebars.

Generally dumb things.

Freak out cause the kid s few doors down got his hands on some dry ice.

But the dry ice in bottles.

Run away when that nosy old lady calls the police cause people are "making bombs"

I used to pull a random Encyclopedia off the shelf and find something interesting to read about.

Reading, TV, video games, studying, crafts/hobbies

We also were bored quite much. We also did lots of slightly less boring things like just runnung around, reading half bad books or learning assembler.

Listened to music. Hung out in a diner and had coffee & fries all night with friends. Hung out at the mall. Got drunk. Had sex.

Windows Solitaire. Or, before Windows, Solitaire with actual playing cards.

Read books. Make stuff from said books Show friends the stuff you made from books. Drink beer and watch sports and other hobbys.

Playing outside a lot more, which was really fun. Hit the beach or swim docks and jumped off the highdives. Went camping. Bike adventures, etc. Lots more physical toys like nerf, Lego, beyblades, etc. CD music players, cassette music players, or MP3 music players, depending on the era.

People on the metro buses would read the paper to pass the time, listen to music, or read a book.

Back then, you could rent videos or games at a rental place, and there were many more physical hobby shops (there still are, but for live stuff, like aquariums now). Malls were a lot more alive and were true third places. Though even back then, I found people gorging themselves in a materialistic frenzy rather...distasteful. People still do it, just via Amazon and fast fashion online.

The biggest things I remember were how chill people were, the ubiquity of newspapers, smoking and cigarette holders outside, a lack of really any graffiti, and people being incredibly chill and a bit more open. There were also like, zero bike lanes or rail, so everyone drove everywhere.

Holy shit, I didn't expect that question in , fuck I am old.

You ever stand behind a couple of geezers in line somewhere and they start talking about some random stuff? They didn’t know each other. They were just bored.

Ride bikes, go on adventures in the woods, break sticks, throw rocks in a pond, read books and encyclopedia, talk about wild imaginary adventures, see what can be hit with a BB gun

Read books. Cereal boxes. Ride bikes and fuck around.

Played outside with friends almost every day.

Born in the late 70s, I only recall being bored when my parents made me go to mass, or waiting while they did adult stuff like going to the bank.

Horsing around with my brother or playing with the Casio stopwatch kept us sane.

At home it was TV, Legos, music and bikes

There wasn't so much boredom, because there were no smartphones.

We talked to each other, read books, went on walks…

Also, tv. Lots of tv.

Gameboy and Walkmans

Reading, swimming, hunting, fishing, camping, sports, board games, card games, plain old socializing.

I had a Game Boy, that got a lot of use.

It looks like a fair bit of it was TV-watching, which is now being displaced.

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We were bored.

BMX flatland bicycle tricks. Sometimes even rode a unicycle.

Usually I use my phone when I an sitting around waiting for something. In those times, before I had a phone, I would always think about things I could and should make, and the techniques and mechanics of how they would work.

I'm surprised nobody said wank yet.

I read a bunch, and played a lot of video games. I am on the older-end of Gen z, so smartphones only became a thing when I was older, so most of my childhood was spent on computers running a mix of windows 98, Windows XP, and eventually Linux, where I got most of my books and almost all my games.

Read books.

I read magazines, played videogames, watched TV, went "out and about", browsed the net, etc.

I think I used to eat mud when I was bored.

Child me draws.
Adult me thinks.

You know why we lack philosophy now

I used to buy these little pocket-sized Sudoku books that I'd keep with me, usually play a puzzle or two while commuting to work or something.

Pokemon on Gameboy. Physical books and comics. Sketching.

Shampoo bottles while pooping.

Before smartphones we had snake and Tetris on non smart phones and we liked it. Before that books and news papers were popular.

Music, books and TV.

No one has mentioned magazines or newspapers yet.