Things that have disappeared since people got phones

[BePearlKoala]

I'll go first

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

The op hasn’t come back !

We had insane turbulence going over the Bermuda Triangle a few years ago, and looking at the map and seeing Bermuda made me half laugh, half go ‘hold on a second …’😅

Such a good point. I miss having a chat at the bus stop for example. Although it can be useful to have a phone to “get away” from creepy advances. You can’t beat a friendly conversation with strangers.

Just adding another point. I regularly see two school friends (about 9-10 years old) sitting side by side at the bus stop not talking. Just scrolling through tik tok like zombies

IRL meet-ups with people ( not completely but definitely lessened) , I have whattsapp friendships with people now and no one ( on either side) seems bothered enough to actually arrange a meet up outside of that, doesn’t really bother me though

Phones in general have definitely eroded the art of conversation.
I made so many friends at the bus stop years ago and you learnt a lot more by chatting to people.
It’s just different times now. Or people like to wear headphones so people don’t talk to them!

There is a lot of underlying judgement on here. My kids still colour in restaurants and were never given a phone or iPad in the pushchair. My oldest has to make all his telephone appointments and he has a lot and can do that no problem.

Ps in relation to chatting, in the canteen in work you generally have about ten or fifteen people in at a time, all on phones, except one or two. If they so much as look my way I tend to try to start a conversation, have had a laugh and lately a few others have started putting their phones down. I’m hoping to start a revolution 😅

Mental recall of your best mate's phone number

Bugger her phone number. I can't even recall mine any more, because you never ring yourself!

I don't think it's that they are only available online, it's that there's less need for them overall. No one really needs CDs or any hard copy of music anymore. Records might be the exception because there's the retro aspect.

I can still remember my family's first ever landline number, which we acquired when moved into our new home in 1980, and was last used when my parents moved out in '99. By contrast I still have to ask DH what his mobile number is if I don't have it in front of me.

Sorry, but interest in the paranormal and UFOs is just as strong as it ever has been.

BT's excuses whatever they are for not doing time windows that are say two hours long.

Common sense and critical thinking for a lot of people

Physical concert tickets

I've recently read a couple of Famous Five books for old time's sake (don't judge me), and it hit me that so many of their adventures, perils and mysteries just would not have happened - or would at least have played out extremely differently - if the children had had mobile phones in their pockets!

Not quite the same thing, but it still seems so weird on The Apprentice, the week when they have the challenge to puzzle through a list of extremely obscure or ambiguous items and determine what they are, then find and buy them - all whilst having to pretend that the Internet on your phone is absolutely not a thing!

One of my favourites was when they were sent to buy a piece of specialist diving equipment known as an octopus, and they came back with an actual octopus from an exotic seafood supplier!

I am not a student now, but I do recall having a piece of paper on my room door in halls for people to leave messages when I was out. I suspect those are long gone, which is a shame. I still have a few of them and they really make me chuckle. Also used to use post it notes.

Good manners

consideration for others

Braincells

Boredom
Staring out of windows
Conversations with your fellow passenger on the train
Mixtapes
Trying to work out what that song is you heard the other day.
Encyclopedias
Memorising people's phone number
Getting the will and courage to phone up your crush
Looking up silly names in the phone book
Crank calls

The chance, when you are young, to be an idiot and know that there is no record of it.

Nowadays.. someone will have a phone, it will be recorded and it will be online.

Before phones email replaced almost all letters. I had a few from family. Never think to keep emails and certainly not text or WhatsApp in the same way. This may make it harder for future generations to know the everyday stuff. For example often exhibitions or museums tell stories through letters from soldiers. It’s not just what is said but what is missing. I doubt the same will be true for those serving in the Gulf wars or other conflicts here or abroad.

I was going to say all of these things!!

I've seen "paranormal activity" videos taken on phones/cctv.
It's normally a toss up between actually I can see the string that's pulling the stuff or um... something moved in a way that would be consistent with it just falling naturally/wind movement etc or okay, you say that's an "orb", funny how it coincides every time with a car passing or similar.

I find them quite entertaining. It's a bit like playing guess.

And the more dramatic the title (OMG!!!!!!!! I can't believe this!!! I was so scared!!! Watch and you'll never sleep again!!!!) the less impressive it is.

I imagine it's because now everyone's carrying a camera around with them, the fact that nobody's managed to get a photo of a UFO, ghost, fairy etc is pretty good proof that they don't exist.

TheNightingalesStarling · Today 16:40
The chance, when you are young, to be an idiot and know that there is no record of it.

Yes!