I suppose it would be mostly practical skills, cooking, fixing things. Usually had to be done by people themselves.
Maybe also mental things like navigating (with or without paper map) and remembering their daily and weekly agendas.
What other things would be a big difference with the people today?
Depends, are you excluding reading on a screen? The hard numbers are that people do way, way more in text now, and are better readers and writers as a result.
Not OP, but I believe there is a big difference between reading a book or longform article vs 3 paragraphs in a Fediverse thread. I certainly feel it when I sit down to read longform (but i still often read longform).
That hasn’t been my experience. I guess I get more immersed in something longer, but basically, so what? Either will help with spelling and grammar, either can give new insight.
There’s plenty of longform garbage, too. An insightful Lemmy post can definitely be worth more than a Rex Murphy op-ed or the entirety of Das Kapital.
But what are they reading? Being a better reader or writer is only as good as the information exchanged. Is it memes? Clips? How about per capita?
Yeah, it’s possible people are reading more crap now. Although there was definitely less-than-highbrow literature around then, as well.