Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Nostalgia for things that are obsolete

Many people like to reminisce about the way things used to be and how some things they once used have gone the way of the dodo bird.
The subject has been fodder for many click-bait articles online. (I’ve included a few examples below.) Often they’re presented as a list of changes that “will make you feel old.”
Among the first to mine this territory was Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, with its Mindset List. Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, which provides a summary of cultural touchstones that shaped the lives of students entering college that year.
More recently, YouTube producers Ben and Rafi Fine, aka the Fine Brothers, have made a video series where they expose kids to the technology their parents probably used. (For example, see “Kids React To Typewriters” and “Kids React to VCRs.”)

The following are some listicles about obsolete items:

Update (Sept. 3, 2016): I added a couple new ones:

10 Things That Will Soon Disappear Forever (Kiplinger; July 2016)

19 Forgotten Relics We’re Still Nostalgic For (Cracked; June 16, 2016)

5 Awesome Things That’ll Be Gone Forever By, Like, Soon (Cracked; May 24, 2016)

17 Things From Your Life That Your Kids Would Never Recognize (Good Housekeeping; Nov. 2, 2015)

23 Things Your Kids Will Never Understand (The Huffington Post; Aug. 26, 2013)

11 “Modern Antiques” Today’s Kids Have Probably Never Seen (Mental Floss; April 11, 2012)

Photos:
Hand-cast cement “modern fossils” by artist Christopher Locke of Austin, Texas (top);
Cover of “The Lonely Phonebooth” (2010) by Peter Ackerman (author) and Max Dalton (illustrator). The two also did “The Lonely Typewriter” (2014).


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