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?
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. A helpful Lemmy post can definitely be worth more than a Rex Murphy op-ed or the entirety of Das Kapital.