Things Future Generations Won't Understand
September 15, 2021
Last updated 21-Jul-2022.
"The good thing about [this flight] is that I don't think I'm going to be interrupted by the telephone."
Gas stations looking up your credit card number to see if it was on "the bad list" from a printed and bound book.
Dialing a number to prevent call waiting beeps from disrupting your BBS/Internet connection.
Rewind/fast-forward buttons
Map books
Shipping software in large cardboard boxes
Non-smoking sections in restaurants
Physical answering machines
"Double albums", or albums in general
Floppy disk icon == "Save"?
Platinum records
Phone line
The Yellow Pages/White Pages ("Why would you just publish all that personal information?")
Cordless phones ("Aren't all phones cordless?")
1-hour photo finishing shops
Library card catalogues
Paying for long-distance calls
The Jetsons (“Why is this futuristic? They make video calls and have a robot cleaner just like we do.”)
The option of returning a book/album/movie for a refund.
Handwritten signatures
Handshakes
1980s Japanese electronics reverence
Newspapers
Desktop publishing ("Why did they call it that?")
Carbon copy paper
Typing pools
Record deal
When your credit card company instructs you to enter your card number using a touch tone phone. "What other kind of phone is there...?" (Fun fact: we used to dial BBSes before we had touch tone dialing on our home phone line, and yes, we had to type ATDP instead of ATDT.)
Why light bulbs had to be made out of glass instead of plastic