{"id":804944,"date":"2025-12-06T03:38:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T03:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/RCTiseW8zDKwkCCpkDTvjk"},"modified":"2025-12-06T03:38:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T03:38:40","slug":"meet-the-computer-addicts-with-this-bbc-report-from-1983-that-makes-my-daily-pc-habits-look-pretty-dire-by-comparison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/meet-the-computer-addicts-with-this-bbc-report-from-1983-that-makes-my-daily-pc-habits-look-pretty-dire-by-comparison\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Meet the computer addicts’ with this BBC report from 1983 that makes my daily PC habits look pretty dire by comparison"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Back in the days of my youth, by which I mean 1983, literally four years before I was born, BBC's Newsnight released a short report detailing the habits of a new type of person entirely, what it then classified as “computer addicts”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These were the beginnings of home computing, a time when something like the Commodore was just starting to become viable as a home computing platform that ordinary people\u2014or in this case, unnecessarily demonised nerds of the finest quality\u2014might keep in their spare room.<\/p>\n

And now, thanks to the BBC archives, you too can revel in their glory (via Digital Trends<\/a>). The report follows several of these forward-thinking pioneers as they talk about their daily usage of these mysterious “computers”, including the revelation that one of them likes to spend his lunchtimes in the pub.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not to drink beer, like any self-respecting British citizen of the time, however, but to play videogames, even on his lunchbreak<\/em>. You wouldn't catch me doing that sort of thing. No siree.<\/p>\n

Chris Carter, a then operations manager in the computer department of a borough council office, is shown not only using his computer at work, doing useful things for the benefit of society, but also enjoying one in his free time as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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