12 Things That Became Obsolete This Decade (PHOTOS)

Originally posted by SpartanKingLeonidas
I have to say I agree with the majority of your list, tothetenthpower.

A few other things that are obsolete, as far as I see, or almost.

1) An Honest politician - Almost extinct, unless you've found a Do-Do lately.

2) Common sense - Basic human thought of how things work.

I get yelled at when I tell people they have no common sense, I still have mine!

3) Real intelligence - Based on unbiased thoughts, without looking something up online, lack of knowledge of history falls into that category as well.

My use of Wikipedia for references on ATS, is for everyone else, not me, I'm accessing my brain to remember everything I studied throughout my life, so everyone else can look into the reference links below the original article.

4) Person to person connections - Real connections, like going to a friends house, and spending quality time, instead of the false connectivity of electronics.

Met my boyfriend of a year and a half the old fashioned way......at a bar, laugh out loud

5) Real service - Food service, Service Stations, almost any other part of the service industry.

Cannot agree more

6) Maps - Everyone is now relying on Tom-Tom or some other generic G.P.S. device.

We take a map on all our camping trips, I like to highlight the route and take back roads just to see what small towns have to offer such as yummy hole in the wall restaruants.

7) Real communication skills - Slang, E-Talk (LOL, OMG, WTF), lack of content, context, and intent within language, and Ebonics have taken over.

I remember when ebonics was the craze, now things are going way too far

8) Common courtesy - Rarely do I see a man hold a door for a woman anymore, it happens, but it is not common as it once used to be.

My guy has a fit when I open the door for myself. Maybe there is something to be said for cowboys. Now THEY shoud be on the list of obsolete!

9) Opening doors - At almost any corporate chain, the electronic eye has separated you from opening their door, and the Wal-Mart greeter is a senior there to make you feel welcome.

The hotel doorman is almost extinct as well.

10) Actual street skills - People have become so "connected" via the online world, they have lost street skills, unless they are an idiot thug, gang banger, or drug-using punk.

Don't know anyone here on ATS who has street skills, but I do, so if you, great, teach it to someone so the skills are not lost on a "connectivity" world.

11) Actual and real pay - The generic paycheck, with a 5 cent, or 10 cent raise, lack of corporate loyalty to you when you're loyal to them.

12) The Family Unit - Nowadays, the family unit is dieing not because of a lack of effort, but because of the false electronic "connectivty", the downfall of the family unit through lack of real leadership, ethics, morals, and real beliefs are slowly following as well.

My family unit is a goofy mess of people, and while it's not the nuclear family, it's a unit. That's for sure.

13) Cook books - So much more people are not breaking out Betty Crocker cook books, but instead the ready-made cake-in-a-box, Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper, or some other generic food.

I can't make chili without my Betty Crocker recipe.

The art of cooking is being lost, and instead watching it on televsion on "Reality TV".

The are actually cooking a meal through growing your own vegetable, and making a meal from the from scratch recipe.

I tired my hand at a garden this year, my dog ate the peppers, my pumpkins never got bigger than a softball, and only managed to get one cantalope, it was a good one though.

14) Living life - American Idol, "Reality TV", "Big Brother", "The Real World", and sit-coms instead of breaking out a board game of Monolopy, Sorry, or Life.

We break out the board games once a week. Just played candyland and chutes and ladders on Christmas. On Friday nights when the kids are in bed you can find us having beers and playing a mean game of Monopoly. But Joey is a cheater, so he always wins.
Long dieing are hiking, mountain climbing, exploring the world for yourself.

This summer we camped every other weekend. Want to go camping for New years eve. If the extra money is in the budget that's what we will be doing at Table Rock Lake in Branson, MO.

[edit on 27-12-2009 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

Originally posted by EnlightenUp
reply to post by Seiko

 

I don't know about #5. I still like CD's. Online, overly-compressed music is no substitute unless lossless compression like FLAC is offered that is identical to the CD tracks, but that seems exceedingly rare.

I agree -- most mp3s these days (such as 128 kbs music) sound awful when compared to a lossless CD. I keep hearing about lossless mp3s being widely available someday, but most on-line retailers such as itunes don't yet offer a lot of lossless music (if any).

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Analog recording and playback (a la vinyl or acetate) is as real sounding as anything you'll ever hear. That's what we gave up for digital.

We were sold on perfect recording and reproduction and got the lifeless crap we have today.

Digital broadcast television is even more of a scam. I was at a restaurant watching a football game this evening and the atmospheric interference made the program impossible to watch. With an analog signal, there would have only been some static in the picture. With digital it's a complete break up into a pixelated mess and an intermittent dark screen.

LMAO this is the most stupidest list I've ever seen, at my office we use almost all of these products on a day by day basis and also provide services for other people regarding alot of these items... they are most definitely still in use... be surprised how much dial up internet can save your business when your dsl, fiber, cable or t1 goes down...

#12--Hand-Written Letters

I agree! My hand writing now really is incomprehensible. You'de think I'm some brilliant doctor writing out prescriptions if you looked at my notes.

I was actually thinking about improving my handwriting yesterday.. hahaha... synchronicity indeed.

In any case I've heard newspapers are in trouble due to the Internet and namely RSS.

Tape walkman is gone. I remember having hundreds of tapes in our living room.. Had to use a Ball pen to rewind Barry Manilow. Rewind button is broken.

Ahh dial-up.. thank goodness that's over and done with now. Downloading at 1.5 kb per second was the norm for me, and just when you are about 99 percent download completed, some guy would call disconnecting the internet! and I was downloading GoZilla you know the software you use to resume a download when disconnected. Jeez the irony thanks a lot guy..

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


I think I may have finally found the definition to my question, "What is western culture"

Oblivious consumerism and the mass production to support it seems to be the key. Thanks!

CRT computer monitors , all lcd and plasma now.

Soon a thing of the past personal letters from the postal service I guess, why send someone a letter when you got an email.

3,5 inch diskets I loved those, to boot up win 98 system.
I have not used one in years.

Oh yea the typewriter..
What to do with a typewriter when you got fancy ms word, excel and so on.

Would paper for writing, pencils and pens become a thing of the past?
I'm just saying, writing is more of a skill and does not take a lot to learn for someone to write with a pen. You do not get more inteligent by learning to write with an object in your hand, as in moving your hand
up and down to create characters on paper. Since everyone now has a keyboard I'm guessing soon this art is going to die.

Nice topic OP.....it's good to reminisce of days gone by.

But in my house, after 25 years of marriage, it's the sex that's obosolete.

I spend my time writing letters and reading encyclopedias....

reply to post by SlinkyDFW


Haha, well I certainly have heard about those times later in marriage, luckily I"m not that far in lol

Thanks for the replies everyone it is very nice to talk about things that seemed the norm to us 10 years ago, or still kind of do today, yet others see them as outdated.

I have one other.

DOS

I so miss it however.

~Keeper

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Funny how these websites claim "top ten" this, "top twelve" that. I can't remember voting for any of this.

I still use everything mentioned in the OP, the old ways were the best. Only thing I am interested in is the coming of the Petabyte external hard drive and faster internet.

There is one thing I dont use on that OP, dial-up but I know a lot of people who use dial up in my area. Dial up modems are also on fax machines so it is still needed, especially for doctors and police.

The fact that hand written letters is on there makes me sad.

I love real letters, nothing will ever replace them for me. I had a girlfriend in Memphis once (I'm in Oklahoma) and the only thing that kept us together as long as we were was the letters we wrote eachother, not nearly the same as a text message.

Oh man, I feel so young.

I can't remember anything before 1997, which shows you how young I am. For the past few weeks I've been thinking how different things are from back then, this thread just drove the point home to me.

Just one thing, and be frank about it. I promise not to cry (not that young). Is my generation really that horrible, and are we dooming civilization? The way I hear you old fogies (sorry) speak, it seems to me that everyone under 20 is "bad."

Here's a few quotes for you guys.

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
-Socrates, possibly Plato

I mean such things as these: ? when the young are to
be silent before their elders; how they are to show respect to them by
standing and making them sit; what honour is due to parents; what
garments or shoes are to be worn; the mode of dressing the hair;
deportment and manners in general. You would agree with me? ? Yes.
-Socrates

What is happening to our young
people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They
ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions.
Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?
-Plato

I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on
frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond
words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and
respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise
[disrespectful] and impatient of restraint
-Hesiod (8th century BCE)

The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of
today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for
parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as
if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is
foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest
and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress.
-Peter the Hermit (c. 1300 CE)

Maybe I'm too optimistic, but while I do believe there are people who are too reliant on technology, too rude too others, and just too useless for society, give us a chance. We're not all bad, and many of those who are will grow up and become JUST LIKE YOU.

You can't be old and wise if you were never young and foolish.
-Unknown

I unfortunately still have dial-up internet, so I still must use a couple of them things on the list like the yellow pages, just because the inconvenience and time spent looking things up on the internet.

reply to post by pepsi78


Formal handwriting is becoming less common as we become attached to electronic methods of communication, but handwriting will never disappear because there are too many situations where a pen and paper get the job done more efficiently.

However, I don't make a shopping list on paper anymore, because I put it in my cellphone.

I do find that writing out longhand those things that I am trying to learn makes that task easier. One would think that typing would be as good, because you are combining mental and physical activities with both methods, but for some reason handwriting is more effective for me.

Paying into Social Security.

Paying into that monetary wasteland has become an obsolete part of life. I could sure use the money now, but I know that it won't be there anymore when it's time to collect my own fair share of it.

I wish the pop ups on ATS would become obsolete. Man they are a pain. BTW, I prefer my hard wired phone in case of emergencys. And I have all of my hair (thank god) Know what I miss that went away a while back but needs an honorable mention?

The dimmer switch on the floor-board of vehicles...I miss those. AND they never failed either!

[edit on 27-12-2009 by mikelee]

Originally posted by unicorn1
Men in their late 30s with hair. Sorry but where are they all going? Or should I say 'it'.

[edit on 27-12-2009 by unicorn1]

Hair or not actual men seem to be out of style.
And I kinda miss em

reply to post by Ladon


Sorry that kind of talk about the young is hurtful. It is for the most part true, but the fault is not that of the young, its of the generation that raised them. If the young today seem to lack things in morals, understanding of personal responsibilty, work ethic, manners etc etc it is for the plain and simple reason that the older generation failed in their duty to teach.

Yeah.. sometimes I actually miss the sense of just being disconnected you know? That when I go onto a trip I could go not bothering about my cellphone or whatever..

I remember being a kid in the 80's, life was much simpler then for me. Then again I was a kid. A new Pez candy dispenser would always blow my mind hahaha..

My brother and I trade our Game & Watches.. oh and brick game.. that sure was a hit..

In the 90's yeah DOS, we were thought about the commands way back now I couldn't remember much.

The teacher would always tell us to bring along our diskette, you know the big one that you tape over the side to "Lock" it.

Games were Dos based (I think) like Doom and Duke Nukem etc. No such thing as a Sony game console (at least to me) Nintendo, Sega and Arcade is the only thing we knew.

Ahh good times good times..

Originally posted by ADVISOR

Then again, common sence was never very common....

I wonder if people with common sense can spell common SENSE??????
Ahemmmm.