From Landlines to Tamagotchis

techtrends.com

Kim Goffe recently posted a Pocket Collection of articles that would seem to inspire nostalgia from many seniors, but turns out to reflect a growing love affair with things retro among the youngest generations. Here is Kim;s introduction and a list of articles in the collection. Follow the link to click your way back in time.

Picture this: a teen girl is chatting on a chunky Nokia phone that’s not connected to the internet, taking pictures of her friends with a silver Canon digital camera, and listening to her fave pop star on cassette.

No, it’s not the late 90s or early 2000s; it’s 2023 and old tech is making a generational comeback. Gen Z is embracing the blurry, overlit visual aesthetic of digital cameras and the lessened screentime of “dumb phones.”

The tech we use in our daily lives today barely resembles that of 50 years ago. But some tech you might assume was obsolete never really went away. Floppy disks still power decades-old industrial embroidery machines, many healthcare professionals continue to use pagers, and fax machines remain prevalent in Japanese offices.

It’s hard to predict what sticks and what doesn’t, what will be rescued from dusty attic boxes and resold for many times its original price, and what might just as well have been thrown away. Cassette and VHS tapes may reach the cult status of vinyl records one day, and who knows—in 20 years, all the cool kids might be hanging out at internet cafes.

Explore the surprising afterlives of “obsolete” technologies in the articles below. And if you think you can predict the future of innovation’s past, start stockpiling DVDs, iPods and maybe even lightning cables today.

Go to the full article to follow links on these subjects:

• America Gave up on the Best Home Technology There Is
• We Spoke with the Last Person Standing in the Floppy Disk Business
• Dunb Phones Are on the Rise in the US. As Gen Z Looks to Limit Screen Time
• The World's Last Internet Cafes
• A Decade of Music Is Lost on our iPod. These Are the Deleted Years. Now Let Us Praise Them.
• The Hottest Gen Z Gadget is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera
• The Tamagotchi Was Tiny, but Its Impact Was Huge
• Who Still Uses Pagers?
• The End of Computer Magazines in America
• How to Start a Cassette Collection in the 21st Century
• I've Rented DVDs From Netflix for Half My Life - Streaming Is a Poor Substitute
• Be Kind and Rewind: Insider the Growing Cult of VHS Survivalists
• Japan's Love Affair with the Fax Machine - A Strange Relic of Technology Fantasies