22 Obsolete Technologies That People Thought Would Last Forever

We live in an era of accelerating technical change , and with it , speed rates of obsolescence . Here are 22 archaic technologies that are actually quite young — and which mass cerebrate would be around for much longer than they were .

1. Folding Maps

The coming of GPS has all but killed the humble printed single-valued function . Just verify you have one of these handy for after the apocalypse . figure : Paper Pastries .

2. Dial-up Modems

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3. Cigarettes

Thanks toe - cigarettes , the ceremonious cigarette is , for all intent and purposes , disused . Because — let ’s present it — it only ever served as a nicotine pitch gimmick .

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“ Culturally speaking , I imagine it ’ll be the most troubled technology of the next five class , ” says Jayar LaFontaine , a Foresight Strategist at Idea Couture . “ Traditional baccy companies , Valley start out ups , pharmaceuticals — everyone is looking to vapor technologies . As Frank Underwood once state in House of Cards , ‘ It ’s dependence without the consequences . ' ”

4. Print Media

Though paper and printing technologyare over 1,000 year erstwhile , the slew production of print books dates back to the 19th one C . And the printed newspapers and clip of that “ modern ” era are now passe . With the Internet at our fingertips , we no longer have any economic consumption for phone Book , print catalogs , and encyclopedias , either .

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The death of print media like newspaper goes beyond touch how you scan about today ’s events . Classified ads , long a method acting for masses to connect up or advertize token for sale , have died out with newspapers .

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5. All Sorts of Data Storage Media

Many formatting that were once ubiquitous have now travel the way of the dodo , such as floppy disks ( including 8 - in , 5 1/4 - inch , and 3 1/2 - in ) , zip disks , and jaz platter . A strong case can be made that CDs and even DVDs are also done . Image : Wikimedia commons .

6. All Sorts of Graphical and Video Media Storage

We once ridiculed the dying of Sony ’s Betamax video recording cassette format , but VHS has also gone to all in data formatting heaven , as have ungainly optical maser disc . Other deceased formats admit analog slide ( along with playground slide projectors and deal - held slide viewers ) and analog moving-picture show ( including photo development , cinema splice , disposable celluloid cameras — and Kodak , for that thing — photograph albums , and blink cube ) .

As graphic designer Benjamin Moogk evidence me , “ It took some time for CMOS sensors to exceed the power of chemical film , but we ’re here . Digital was commodious for a recollective metre , but was confine in active range . cut short in the highlighting and shadows was common . I remember the first Hot Docs where digital movies outnumbered those shoot on 16 mm . Just calculate at how the iPhone is killing the level and shoot market for cameras . ” Image : romish Samokhin / Shutterstock .

7. All Sorts of Audio Players and Media Storage

As noted , CDs ( include portable CD players ) and DVDs are fundamentally dead , but so are 1/4 column inch cassette tapes ( strangely , my 16 - year - previous Word think these are cool , but he ’s struggling to infer why he can only listen to Side B vitamin when he ’s reached the end of Side A ) , walkmans , vinyl records ( except as gewgaw items and for disk jockey … okay , maybe vinyl is not so obsolete ) . The DAT ( digital audio recording tape ) is also done . And , of path , the old - fashioned record book is dead and buried .

This situation has affected a raft more than the item you habituate to record media . An entire industry commit to immortalize store and videocassette / DVD renting has fallen aside as older media memory board formatting have become obsolete .

Image : Wikimedia Commons .

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8. Various Computer Ports

The Universal Serial Bus ( USB ) has for certain lived up to its name , carry off ports for such external gadget as printing machine , mice , and keyboards ( for example RS-232 & PS/2 port ) .

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9. Pulse Telephone Networks and Rotary Phones

This telecommunications signalling technology was first made irrelevant in 1963 follow Bell ’s dual - tone multi - frequency ( DTMF ) technology , and then later on with the initiation of Voice over Internet Protocol ( VoIP ) . simulacrum : BrAt82 / Shutterstock .

10. Landlines

Fixed habitation phones that use a solid medium telephone set line , such as a metal wire or fiber eye cable television , are still used by over a billion indorser . But both you and I know it ai n’t think of to last .

11. Answering Machines

Pretty standard in all mobile speech sound now .

12. Cathode Ray Tube Televisions

The introduction of plasma and light-emitting diode sieve finally put an remainder to these ridiculously deep television sets . But they’renot totally useless .

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13. Dedicated MP3 Players

Like so many item on this list , it ’s not so much that these engineering science have become disused as they ’ve evolved or become integrate within other technologies . The MP3 player , which is now stock on any mobile equipment , is a prize example .

14. Dedicated Wristwatches

Yes , wrist watch still exist today , but their power to tell time is now secondary to their elemental mathematical function , like GPS and biometrics .

15. Public Pay Phones

Ca n’t find one ? I ’m certain the somebody next to you has a mobile phone .

16. Phones That Allow Neck Cradling

older phones were awing because you could really cradle them in the crook of your neck , leaving both of your manpower free — and you did n’t have to put the person you ’re talking to on pestiferous speaker telephone set .

17. Typewriters

Absolutely , entirely dead , dead , beat .

18. Analog Radio Transmissions

Replaced by digital radio ( like Sirius Satellite Radio ) and streaming sound ( including services like Rdio and Last.fm ) .

19. NTSC Broadcasting for Television

And thank good for that . Long go high - definition idiot box ! Today , most countries have swap to New digital television standard .

20. Pagers

They were also called beepers , but they ’re now advert to as token of the past tense .

21. Traditional Design Tools

Thanks to CAD / CAM ( Computer aided design and figurer help machining ) , desktop reckoner conception applications , and robotlike manufacture , we can now say adios to ink , skirmish , gouache , rule pen , draft table , and hitch - down letter .