Categories: Science and Tech

I was just websurfing, and I found an article so interesting I had to share with you. It features a list of obsolete tech skills, and I found it quite amusing. The full list is on ObsoleteSkills.com. It reminded me of my childhood in fact. Most I agree with, a few I don’t. See how many you relate to. 

  • Changing the ribbon on a typewriter
  • Rewinding audio or video cassettes
  • Adjusting the rabbit ears on your TV set
  • Checking your beeper
  • Formatting a floppy disk
  • Having to put www in front of every URL
  • Loading film into a camera
  • Using a darkroom
  • Licking stamps
  • Paying with a check
  • Using a pay phone
  • Looking up a business in the Yellow Pages
  • Switching from TV to Game Mode on the box behind the TV
  • Blowing into a dusty Nintendo cartridge to make it work
  • Using the Dewey Decimal System to find a book
  • Winding your watch
  • Long division (other than for school)
  • Calling the radio station to find out what song that was
  • Ripping the trim with the holes off the sides of computer paper
  • Calling someone collect
  • Replacing tape in your answering machine
  • Threading a filmstrip
  • Popping popcorn with hot oil
  • Heating a “TV Dinner” in the oven
  • Getting up to manually change the channel
  • Repairing a television set
  • Sharpening a razor blade
  • Adding water to car batteries
  • Riding a single-speed bike
  • Setting the time on a VCR
  • Downloading music from the original Napster
  • Putting tape over the punched-out holes on a VCR tape so you can use it again
  • Using correction fluid
  • Putting a nickel on the tone arm of a record player to keep it from skipping
  • Placing the needle at the beginning of a song on a vinyl record without making a scratching noise
  • Popping in a flash cube
  • Using a choke
  • Cleaning a vinyl record
  • Defrosting the refrigerator
  • Refilling a fountain pen
  • Using carbon paper to make copies
  • Changing tracks on an 8-track tape
  • Taping songs off the radio onto a cassette tape
  • Sniffing freshly mimeographed tests
  • Sending a handwritten letter
  • Writing in cursive
  • Mowing the yard with a non-powered push mower (May be coming back, though …)
  • Milk deliveries
  • Manually entering prices into an old-fashioned cash register
  • Cleaning the head of your VCR
  • Crawling under the door of a pay toilet