Technology has changed the way we do almost everything and because of it there are a lot of things that used to be commonplace that most people just don’t do anymore.
For example, when was the last time you actually memorized a friend’s phone number? Heck, there’s a good chance you don’t even remember your own at this point.
Some of the others include:
- Use a phone book to find a company to do things around the house – Remember the yellow pages? Well, folks under twenty probably don’t, but before technology that’s how you found a good plumber or painter.
- Figure out math in your head – Since pretty much everyone has a phone with a calculator who needs to learn math anymore?
- Tell time by hands on a clock – A lot of people these days have stopped wearing watches, let along know how to read them, thanks to their phones, which easily tells them the time.
- Make a photo album – Remember when you couldn’t wait to get your roll of film back from being developed so you could look them over and put them in a beautiful book? Well, thanks to photo sharing services who needs it.
- Call a theater to get movie times – Before Google and movie apps, folks who wanted to make sure they caught a movie on a Saturday night actually made a phone call to find out what time their movie started.
- Record your favorite movie on tape – If you wanted to catch a show when you weren’t home you had to make sure your VCR was set at exactly the right time with enough room on your tape. What a hassle. These days it’s much simpler to watch shows you missed thanks to not only DVRs, but streaming services.
- Look up the spelling of a word in the dictionary – That’s right, before autocorrect and spell check, you actually had to make an effort to make sure everything you wrote was spelled correctly.
- Use a phone booth – Before everyone had a phone in their pocket, phone booths were good for more than just Superman changing into his superhero costume. Along the same lines, who carries change just to make phone calls anymore?
- Use a travel agent – While they haven’t gone away completely, these days thanks to airline and hotel websites, not to mention discount travel sites, most people can simply handle their own bookings in a matter of minutes, rather than pay someone to do it for them.
Source: USA Today
photo: Getty Images North America