It seems like just yesterday that we were renting movies from the local video store but the digital age has taken over and videos are a thing of the past. There are also countless other items that once in our daily lives that are now obsolete, as highlighted by 24/7 Tempo in a recent report. Here are seven of those gadgets:
1. Dial-Up Modem
We have grown so accustomed to WiFi that we have forgotten the frustration of dial-up. We previously used our analog telephones to connect to the internet in a slow, slow process!
2. Walkman and Discman
Before smartphones there was the Discman. And before that there was the Walkman. Remember when you had to rewind and fast forward a cassette to listen to a song? Or have to regularly clean discs so that they would not skip or stop playing? Nowadays it seems tedious but back in the day the Walkman alone was so popular that over 400 million devices were sold.
3. Portable TV
Portable TVs may have had limited channels but they were convenient in the 1960s and 1970s. The device, which is now obsolete, was first produced by Sony.
4. Pager
What did people do before cellphones, when they urgently needed to contact someone? They would page them. Every time an incoming call or email came through, the device would "beep" with a number to call. They are still a reliable form of communication but people don't use them anymore. Nowadays smartwatches serve the same purpose, just with more functions.
5. Typewriters
Typewriters made sense when they were invented in the late half of the 19th century. It was quicker than writing with a pen and neater. Nowadays we can simply use a computer or laptop, which comes with the convenient "delete" function. Much easier than having to start all over again on a new page.
6. Boombox
There was a time in the 1980s when a boombox was really popular and it's understandable why. The boombox was the answer to an era where portable music was unheard of. At issue was that the device was heavy and ran on batteries, which needed to be frequently replaced.
7. Transistor Radio
Want to listen to the radio? No problem, just stream it. We are fortunate enough to have countless selections at the click of a button but in the 1970s people had to use transistor radios to listen to music and radio on the go.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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