Older Adults Share What Technology Has Made Obsolete

"The newer generation will never know the feeling of slamming a phone down when someone annoyed you on a call, then slamming it two or three more times for good measure."

BuzzFeed Staff

I remember having a little notebook where I would keep all my friends' phone numbers. If I'd lost the notebook, I would literally have had no way of contacting them except if I saw them at school!

—u/DjDozzee

"No caller ID allowed my punk friends and me to do some amazing telephone pranks."

—u/pakepake

—u/DamnGoodMarmalade

"No cellphones at theme parks, or any place of interest, really. So many people nowadays just shoot self-absorbed videos or just get in the way and distract everyone by being annoying with them."

—u/pbrooks19

—u/angryoldbag

—u/SlimChiply

—u/Affectionate_Sky658

—u/Desertbro

—u/DistinctRole1877

—u/newleaf9110

—u/myshirtisonfireagain

—u/Yankee-in-Madrid

—u/KAKrisko

—u/Kobbett

—u/diabooklady

"I kinda miss the computer era of the '80s to early '90s. It was fun to try and figure stuff out without having the internet help you out all the time. Plus, people really figured out how to squeeze some fun games out of those computers. Trading games with your friends was fun."

—u/Frank_chevelle

—u/LadyBug_0570

—u/samarijackfan

—u/chasonreddit

—u/threerottenbranches

"We met so many people while waiting in line to buy tickets. Oftentimes, they became good friends."

—u/KonaKathie

—u/Top-Philosophy-5791

"Back then, our journalists were actually held to a standard and would get fired if they knowingly lied. Yes, there were more gatekeepers, but there was much less divisiveness built into every damn thing."

—u/i_hate_this_part_85

—u/Zorro6855

—u/i_hate_this_part_85

—u/moviesandcats

—u/MissHibernia

"My dad actually worked as a DJ at a radio station that did the school readings. They had a list of passwords given to each school so that when the school called the radio station, they could verify that it was not a prank. The passwords were words, like 'daisy' or some such."

—u/Bidi_Baba

—u/BackItUpWithLinks

—u/bkdunbar

"And meeting them at the gate when they returned."

—u/chasonreddit

—u/Montana-Mike-RPCV

"That whole 'delaying the inevitable' period of time when you knew that your parents were probably already mad because you were late, but you stayed out anyway because they couldn't yell at you until you were home!"

—u/listenyall

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.