What did people do when they did not have computers? What information did they get?

People lived in smaller social circles. The social circles defined what information they got. The information they got from a central far-away source was mostly through television and newspaper media. There were 3 channels on the TV to get centralized information from. Newspapers were a little different but not THAT different. Churches told them what to believe and how to deal with their inner lives. In many communities, the beliefs were enforced through coercion by the elders. This is not good or bad, it is just how things worked.

People grew in their education by first going to local schools, then distant schools. Perhaps a child would go away for high school and meet foreigners with different ideas (very exotic). Then colleges. The information available at colleges came from professors and libraries. Ways of believing came from the college culture and social group.

What is different about the internet? We have a lot more choices of what information we can pay attention to and, in a sense, what we believe is now up to us. If we don't like the local cultish belief system, we can find other mind-communities on-line. The problem is that there may be nefarious organizing forces controlling the communities that we are not aware of. In fact, it is likely that there are nefarious forces because the internet is a faceless place and it is so easy to pretend that you are not harming people who you don't have to interact with. Facebook CEOs, politicians, other CEOs are insulated from the consequences of nefarious actions on communities. If people are hurt by their activities, they typically don't have to deal with it. They have enough money to build walls and security guards.

These are just some thoughts. My point is that we have a lot more options now in how we train our minds. I don't think that most people have the intelligence or filters to deal with the information. Smaller social groups and cultish local communities used to help deal with mind-training. Now, there are many holes to fall down and no local help available (given that the locals are in the same information-overload situation).