What Exactly Did We Do in Meetings Before the Internet?

Well, the answer to that is that I don't know - because I wasn't sitting in meetings before the Internet. Nevertheless, what DID we do before the Internet? In my house growing up, we weren't exactly technologically advanced. My brother and I used to have to write school papers on an old Comodore 128/64, where you had to put in some weird code, ^#JTUCLSOSVV*#@, just to ge the document to print with double spaces. We didn't have email either, like literally everyone does now. No Internet access. My first exposure to email and the Internet was when I started college in 1995. That is when I had my first email address, at 18, not 5. Then again, I never flew either until I was 21 - but that's another story.

Anyway, I am sitting in a meeting right now, a negotiation actually. We are all hooked up wirelessly, half of us are on instant messenger, we are all checking and responsing to email, some are asleep, a few are on a computer AND a blackberrry, I am blogging, at least one person is looking up something weird on the Internet (I can see over his shoulder), I'm taking notes, every time the other side leaves the room, we play funny sound bits evidencing the utter stupidity of our country's President, I'm talking to my sister in law in Germany, I really don't know what the hell is going on, and I am starting to wonder when we are going to eat again. There is a partner on one side of me and a client on the other making this a very dangerous activity. I am trying to look non-obvious and deeply involved in something important - err, uh, I mean, deeply involved in the negotiation. Termination charge, um, formula - what did I just miss - payment of actuals. Important note to self - YOU ARE THE PERSON DRAFTING THE DOCUMENTS. Oh good - it's time to eat! But seriously, what would we all be doing right now if we didn't have the Internet?