Which things seem so antiquated now that were only a few years ago...

[Rosewaterblossom]

Programming the TV to record on VHS..

Ipods..

Renting a dvd from the shop..

Decorating a room and having one colour at the bottom with a paler version at the top separated with a pretty boarder..

What are yours?

@OldPunk

Dial a disc to see which record was playing that week and having to beg my Mother to let me ring because of the cost!

🎵 This is 160 where the music says hello, you’re through to the Woolworth’s Discline🎶

Men actually letting women get on buses /trains rather than just elbowing them out of the way
Men looking where they are going rather than just barging into women and then calling them nasty names
Men (& some women) who only know one adjective and use it to describe everything - "f*cking"

CDs. Fat back tellys

@pastypirate - they don’t do the catalogue anymore 😢. I loved sitting down to go through them (especially the Christmas one). I realised recently that I hadn’t had one for a while (not much spare cash to spend so hadn’t noticed!). Called them up and they no longer produce them - apparently I definitely wasn’t the first to call and be disappointed.

@GoodnightGrandma

I miss silk wrapped baubles.

I'd forgotten all about them! I used to love the paper ones that started out flat then opened up and clipped into place we head a great bell shaped one!

@elQuintoConyo

Sending texts, actual SMS texts, not WhatsApps, and having to count the characters so you didn't accidentally write two messages and be charged twice.

Pagers - an 18yo student of mine recently asked me what one was, as he'd seen it in an "old" film.

Landline. Haven't had one for around 9 years.

MP3 player - I really miss mine.

Foil Christmas decorations you hung from the ceiling.

One fat BIC biro with four different colours - I haven't seen one in years!

@elQuintoConyo I have various foil decorations up (they still sell them every year in Asda/wilkos as I got new ones this year, I love tacky Xmas decs), I'm using a 4 colour pen for my work notes at the moment and still use an MP3 player, landline and often send regular texts (although don't count characters).

I loved my tiny clip-on ipod, a couple of inches square. Sadly it won't charge any longer and I'm told that it's not repairable because it's too old. I hate that about old equipment, including phones, it's so wasteful. I don't want to be constantly upgrading especially when I can't really afford to.

Ha ha we have an old car with a cassette player, I love digging out my tapes from the olden days and winding up the kids......!

Actually, to be fair they have grown up with it. I had a couple which I taped from someone's Readers Digest hits of the 60s (in the 80s, how weird was I?), and so we have some very strange tracks which are the backdrop to some great holidays......

How many teenagers know all the words to Cinderella Rockefella....?

I drove to get a takeaway tonight. There isn’t a shop close enough to deliver.

I have a landline as there is no reception in the house and it remains running during powercuts.

I don’t know why everyone is weary of using contactless?? It’s hardly difficult!

@Rosewaterblossom
It depends on whether your 'pretty boarder' is male or female.
Two years ago, on eBay and feeling a bit nostalgic, I bought a Commodore64 with all the games from a seller in Scotland.
That seller turned out to be the person who bought it from me in 1997.

A previous poster enquired 'why have a landlines?' Last March we had very long (1 week+) power cut, but with generators around the village. But with the power off, no mobile network or hand-held landlines phones would work.....had to have a corded landlines. Can understand that this was an unusual happening, but we keep a corded landlines phone to plug in in case. We are semi-ryral. I think a lot of these examples show totally different expectations between rural and city living.

It's funny about the takeaways, we don't have just eat, deliveroo here so we phone and collect 🤣

I have ceiling foil garland decorations up now,plug into phone earbuds with dangly wire,landline phone,purse with notes and change in my bag,800cd's,250 VHS tapes with a portable VHS TV to play them on! 😁

Watching a TV show at the time it is broadcast.

@Rosewaterblossom

The last time I called Virgin Media for my broadband deal I recall kicking off a bit because "deals" were cheaper if you had a landline too. I said who has a household landline nowadays and why should I have one when I won't use it! Think I got a good deal anyway but definitely wouldn't ever get a landline. What's the point when I have a mobile with all I need?

It counts on your credit record, as does being on the electoral register.

A previous poster enquired 'why have a landlines?' Last March we had very long (1 week+) power cut, but with generators around the village. But with the power off, no mobile network or hand-held landlines phones would work.....had to have a corded landlines

I have two wind up torches, one lives in my handbag, the other lives at home in case of power cuts.

It can be charged with solar power or wind up and has a radio and 2 USB ports as well as a torch.

It's a wonderful mix of high and low tech. CHarging a smart phone via clockwork.

make the most of your powered land lines, BT are moving to VoIP which won't work in a power cut.

Mixtapes - two sorts.

A- a tape taken from that Sundays top 10, with attempts to remove the DJs introductions.

B - a tape filled with songs you either like or want to appear to like to send a message of ‘I really fancy you’ to a certain person you had your eye on.

DH and I met 17 yrs ago and we did a ‘love tape’ each.
The one I made was all love etc. his had Rage against the machines ‘killing in the name of’…. 🥺

Omg yes it's scary how quickly iPods became outdated!

Wii seems to be passé now I remember skinning myself to afford one for dd when they were the in thing!

CDs and dvds defo, also books now all online that's come up in conversation a few times recently in ref to difficult to find Xmas gift ideas these days - hell I can remember being excited to get blank vhs tapes!

Using cash tbh my dd thinks even using cards is rather quaint! she's all about electronic payments (Apple Pay etc)

@Snooks1971 I'm also old enough to remember swiping and carbon copying and hand writing the info on the back for credit card payments

Actually, talking of Alexa.. even coming home and turning on the radio or linking to stereo via Bluetooth to play albums seems old hat now. I just say "Alexa play... "

Same here but I reckon my Alexa prob gets bored as it's usually the same request - "Alexa play absolute 80's"

Plug in earphones.

Whenever I’m out l just see loads of people with little white blobs in their ears.

I got AirPods last year I still don't trust them to stay in my ears as they fall out even when I'm sitting! I got ear hook thingys but I'm still wary as they're soooooo expensive!

One fat BIC biro with four different colours - I haven't seen one in years!

I've got 5! 4 from Amazon when I was doing a stationery order (I'm a bit of a fanatic) plus a purple/pink one from whs

When my ds went on work experience he didn’t know how to use a landline

There's a hilarious series of videos on youtube "kids react..." and they're exposed to old tech! My favourite is the rotary phone one!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XkuirEweZvM

Pondering when will stamps become redundant, only used by collectors and christmas / birthday cards. Waiting for QR codes to replace Stamps

I think it's more than that I think mail altogether will soon not exist

My dd also remembers we used to go blockbusters on a sat (it was closed on Sundays so if you rented on a sat night you got 2 nights to watch for the price of 1!) and we'd get snacks from the shop next door - a safeway!

Walking into a travel agents to book a holiday.

I was discussing this with a former Thomas cook employee just last week. Certain travel companies just really failed to move with the times!

One that's quite Xmas specific - TV guides that you then highlight what you wanted to watch or record (we had one colour for watch and one for record - watch was the ones we all wanted to see record - the ones only one or 2 were interested in)

Military and civil service still use fax machines as they're less vulnerable to hacking

I no longer even own the following:

CD player
DVD player
Camcorder
Tv
Separate camera and personal music player
Diary/calendar
Address book
Calculator
Physical radio

Can you still ring the speaking clock?!

Yes dial 123

@Ericaequites are you meaning a handbag? Are you American? Here in uk purse means a wallet really not a bag

@RoyalFamilyFan Yes the sealed nature of car parts now is a total con!

DS said "why doesn't he just take a photo on his phone and WhatsApp it". Oh my sweet summer child

brilliant! You may enjoy the YouTube series too

Also, I was musing when phones will stop being called phones because they're really not- they're small computers.

I remember my COMPUTER STUDIES teacher telling us late 80s that we wouldn't see voice or handwriting recognition in our lifetime...he did however say tvs would essentially become computer devices pretty quickly

Doctors doing home visits, now they won't come unless you are dying.

Not even then in most cases

and refuse to teleport because there's nothing wrong with the bus.

Love this comment this'll be me!

I was trying to get a new driving licence last year or so, I lost my last one several addresses ago and so can't do it online IMPOSSIBLE to get through on the phone I may try writing to them! There's no bloody email address that I can find. (No car but useful for ID purposes)

@maisie123 I'm 49 and I know how to work wired exchanges - civil service again. Again more secure

Speaking of pens what I did notice when writing my Xmas cards was how little we physically wrote these days! I hardly ever write now! It feels strange when I do

@katienana my mums v rural and if she didn't have sky she still wouldn't be able to get channels 4 or 5 she also can't get a mobile signal - any network so landline crucial!

I've a usb stick I DAREN'T throw out even though I can't use with this laptop cos I have no idea what's on it! And it could well contain financial info

I still like magazines but now I access via prime reading

LOVED bamboozle

@NinaDefoe Here in Scotland recently some old train stock was being used the kind where you slide the window down and put arm out window to open train doors from outside? The passengers were stuck cos they didn't know how to open them

I’m under the illusion that the ‘80s/ ‘90s were last decade!

You're absolutely right! They defo weren't 30/40 years ago!

Paper rail tickets.

Still get those here

I have 4 email addresses I use for different purposes my dd has 1 and hardly uses it! She mainly uses it for registering with shopping sites!

@pastypirate I'm on a prepay meter now (long story due to previous tenant it's a pain!) but paying is easy done through an app (smart meter) last place was temp Accom (period of homelessness) and that wasn't a smart meter it's a kinda usb style stick you top up at certain shops (they advertise with stickers if they offer the service) then you plug in the stick into the meter and the top up is registered then you take it out again - so no longer possible to break into meters for cash!

@Sorka I did the photo lab job at one point too! It is weird that the industry is now defunct

@sweetbellyhigh yes! My dd did THREE IT based courses at school - supposedly! I had to teach her -

How to use ms office
How to use email efficiently
How to write an email (as in letter etiquette)
How to search online and ASSESS THE RESULTS so as to dismiss the hogwash!

Schools really ought to do much better on this!

I remember my mum and dads tv that had buttons on the side for changing the channel that you push in

Ohh you're a young un! I remember our first tv was black and white, had a wire coat hanger for an aerial and you changed the channel by tuning with a dial tuner! If the person tuning did it too fast the rest of the family would be shouting at them "go back you've gone too far!"

@HarrietsweetHarriet You may be interested to learn about "planned obsolescence" which a few countries are now clamping down on

Doctors doing home visits, now they won't come unless you are dying.

Mine still do this.

Almost every time I pick up my kindle I think about a girl in my computer studies class saying she couldn't imagine cuddling up in bed with a computer to read a book.

A festive one - buying spare bulbs for the Christmas lights. Having lights fail and having to check for loose connections. It's all LED now

Having to wait until I get home to turn the heating on.

Calculators.