These once game-changing creations are now old hats, thanks to the ever-changing digital market.
Fax Machines
No home or office in the 80s or 90s was complete without its trusty fax machine! Many a boomer will reminisce about this piece of equipment!
“You know that one old guy you know that still has that old flip phone and a pocket full of cash? He still uses the fax machine.”
“The medical community still clings to them due to a (generally erroneous) interpretation of HIPAA, though.”
Pagers
Although, again – this tech has its medical devotees.
“Some doctors still use them, bafflingly.”
Landline Phones
“Anytime I’m at my parent’s place, they just let their landline ring. It’s almost always a telemarketer. Everyone who needs to get in touch with them calls their cell phone.”
“I haven’t had a landline in almost 16 years now, but my parents do, and they still use it as their primary phone even though they both have cell phones.”
“My parents are still paying $15/mo for a landline. Why would you do that when you can get a cell phone with unlimited talk and text for $10/mo? Their landline doesn’t even have unlimited long-distance. They pay 3.5 cents per minute for it.”
Blu-Ray
“Blu-Ray has been severely trampled by streaming and torrents.”
“Not completely obsolete yet, but well on its way. What’s really interesting about it, though, is how fast it became obsolete. It seemed like right when it won the format war with HD-DVD, it immediately became old, and streaming/downloading became the new thing.”
“Blu-Ray included the capability for a lot of annoying features. The user should have the right to fast forward, rewind, and pause their movie at will. They got this wrong on DVDs and doubled down on Blu-Ray.”
DVDs
“I feel like DVDs were pretty short-lived. I still love hearing the ‘coming soon on video and DVD’ when you watch the trailers before the movie.”
“DVD isn’t obsolete yet, but it’s pretty far into its journey towards it.”
“I have a USB disk drive and DVD player somewhere. For ‘just in case’.”
CDs
“I haven’t used a CD for close to ten years!”
“Not only does my PC not have a CD/DVD bay, but the case can’t even have front bays at all.”
Printing Presses
“Arguably the most important invention in history.”
Print Media
“Although they will probably die out with boomers or the Silent generation.”
Self-Parking Cars
“Those ‘self-parking cars’ from the 50s.”
“Oh, I need that. The parking situation is actually a dealbreaker whenever I want to go out.”
Airbus A380
“Airbus A380. Incredible piece of machinery and easily the most comfortable plane I’ve traveled in. Sucks that it was created right at the time that the model of travel it was designed for dropped out of favor, and now nobody wants them (aside from Emirates, for now).”
“New airliners are smaller and longer-range, which means massive hub airports are increasingly obsolete as people can now fly direct to any airport.”
“It is definitely the most comfortable plane I’ve traveled in too. I used to check the flya380 website to make sure that the longest leg I had would be an a380.”
Cable TV
“Absolutely! Millions of people are realizing they don’t need to pay so much money for 1000+ channels that they only watch a handful of.”
Watches (To Just Tell The Time)
“I don’t have stats, but it seems smartwatches are becoming more popular. Especially with pedometers and heart rate monitors, and the technology on those seems to be getting better even.”
“People wear watches just for the style; they don’t use them to check the time anymore.”
Network TV
“Streaming services and social media are what the majority of people watch now. I believe the age of the average viewer of Network TV is something like 60-65.”
Flip Videos
“A pocket-sized digital video camera that easily plugged into a computer and let you share videos… that came out in 2006, one year before the iPhone.”
“Would have been a killer product about a decade earlier, instead of virtually dead on arrival.”
“SIL bought it for me as a Christmas gift one time… I think I used it a handful of times, and then it got donated to the local charity shop.”
Minidiscs
Many users over a certain age miss minidiscs!
“By far the best hard format, but it came out too late before digital music. We probably had two great years, and then everything changed.”
Sporks
This divided many online users!
“I wouldn’t call it obsolete. It’s still got niche uses for camping and military use, which was all it was ever really intended for.”
“I eat all my meals with one random metal spork that appeared in my cutlery drawer like magic, lol. The spork shall never die!”
16 ANNOYING PHRASES THAT MAKE PEOPLE IMMEDIATELY HATE YOU!
We wanted to know the most irksome things someone can say that turns you off! These online users didn’t hold back!
16 ANNOYING PHRASES THAT MAKE PEOPLE IMMEDIATELY HATE YOU!
OBSOLETE MILLENNIALS: 14 SKILLS THEY LEARNED IN THE 90S THAT HAVE NO PLACE IN TODAY’S WORLD
A lot has changed since the turn of the century – just ask this nostalgic lot!
OBSOLETE MILLENNIALS: 14 SKILLS THEY LEARNED IN THE 90S THAT HAVE NO PLACE IN TODAY’S WORLD
THE FALL FROM GRACE: 12 PROFESSIONS THAT WERE ONCE REVERED, NOW A TOTAL JOKE
These 12 professions that are now obsolete show how much the times have changed.
THE FALL FROM GRACE: 12 PROFESSIONS THAT WERE ONCE REVERED, NOW A TOTAL JOKE
FROM ‘OKAY BOOMER’ TO ‘UGH BOOMER’: 10 HABITS THAT IRRITATE MILLENNIALS
Each generation has its quirks. Most label it as an “old person thing” when asked why grandpa or grandma does something unusual. The defense from the other side is that “it was the way things were back in our day.”
FROM ‘OKAY BOOMER’ TO ‘UGH BOOMER’: 10 HABITS THAT IRRITATE MILLENNIALS
