Things that have disappeared since people got phones

[BePearlKoala]

I'll go first

1. The Bermuda triangle
2. UFO sightings
3. Paranormal activity

Dh and I are definitely not young , but we were ‘ told off’ by an older lady in the GP surgery for both us looking at our mobile phones whilst waiting for an appointment! Made me laugh though.
She wasn’t happy , but not sure would have said anything to a younger person tbh.

@BePearlKoala I don't think the second two have disappeared. I don't hear references to the Bermuda triangle any more but that's probably something to do with what is or isn't going on in military terms.

in 2012, Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock Holmes said "language is evolving, Watson. It's becoming a more efficient version of itself." he was referring to text speak making their communications easier on jobs.

I agreed with him. But I hadn't realised people would stop talking to each other. That's really disappeared.

A classical scholar once said to me that emojis were the modern version of cave paintings. She said she hated them when they first came out, but she had grown to see them differently.

I know what she means, but I wonder what she thinks about the state of things now.

then again, maybe people are just sick of me waffling on with crap like this in real life! 😂

If anything those 3 have become more common. Footage of supposed paranormal activity is rife on social media, along with UFO sightings and other unexplainable things.

The Bermuda triangle gets a lot of in depth videos on YouTube fairly regularly but less so on main social media, I'd probably put this down to lack of any recent accidents or occurrences in the area.

Ceefax and there was another similar one of which I forgotten the name

I miss ceefax. It seemed so high tech in the 90s and I enjoyed doing the interactive quizzes on the channel four version too.

Quality magazines and newspapers

watches

Teletext

& clocks

radios

@Prepositional
That’s it - thank you.

Taking a digital camera on a night out, then plugging it into your laptop and uploading 96 photos of the same night out to Facebook 🤣

I was a directory enquiries operator for a while. I'm now a school librarian.

This is an excellent point.

People seem so less resourceful.

I still buy a tv guide magazine! I don’t always trust the tv guides on the tele or online and I like to read about upcoming shows etc! You do get more information that way.

inane chat in the smoking area, what smoking area.
time tables, just use your phone!

Phone boxes - they haven't disappeared, but there are far fewer of them.
Queues outside phone boxes. They were a feature of my life when I was a student in the 1980s and phoned home every week on the same day at about the same time. I can't remember the last time I saw someone waiting to use a phone box.

I think the scariest thing we have lost is people’s eyes looking at the road when they are driving.

Having to find a ‘phone shop ‘ abroad and pay for an international line to phone home. Cost a fair bit of your holiday ‘ travelers cheques’ you had previously changed up at the bank or hotel lobby.
Most places you stayed in didn’t have their own phones or any other way of letting them know at home you were alright or had got there alright!

The ability to hold a conversation, or at least one that isn't constantly interrupted by the compulsion to inanely scroll through shit. And basically the ability to do absolutely anything that doesn't involve using a phone.

Loved Bamboozle!

We have all become hostage to the use of phones.
It’s so ingrained and been made essential by the corporates who run everything who also seemed determined to stop us using cash for everyday things like parking meters and the odd bus ticket or train fares. Not many people can live without a phone these days it seems.

Encyclopaedias.

Talking to people.
Having a laugh banter without anyone being offended or saying they are so sensitive and getting upset.
Living in the real world seing and doing things in the moment now its get the phone out look at everything through the screen.
Being free knowing you could have a good night out without it plastered online.
Dating meeting people at random and talking not read a profile or swipe left or right.
List goes on.

None of those things have disappeared.