10 Old School Devices Kids Today Don't Know How To Use

Each generation in turn has its own standards of what is high tech and what is antique. Kids who grew up in the 50′s, who previously had sat around the family radio listening to their favorite shows, witnessed the introduction of television. The next generation couldn’t imagine life without TV. So what about today’s kids? What contraptions that used to seem futuristic to their parents, do modern kids think of as dinosaurs? Here are ten old school devices that kids today don’t know how to use:

1. Slide Rule – A device that may as well be lumped together with the abacus and cave drawings, it was not so very long ago the de facto calculator of its time. We’re embarrassed to admit that we learned to use one in high school shop class.
2. Typewriter – Sure, the QWERTY keyboard is still here; but it’s no longer attached to a 30-lb. behemoth with an ink ribbon and enough mechanical linkages to put Transformers to shame.
3. Record Player – Precious few youngsters are familiar with the audio fidelity that made this gizmo a staple among audiophiles. Compressed digital sound has replaced the analog sound of LP and stylus; but the good news is that vinyl is making a comeback.
4. Compass – Modern navigational aids are all electronic, so the very concept of magnetic north is but a distant memory for many, and an antiquated concept for others. (Pro tip for old schoolers: No GPS on-board? You can also determine direction by checking satellite TV dishes on rooftops, which always face south.)
5. Rotary Phone – The very idea of turning a dial for anything seems archaic to us now, from changing channels on a TV to placing phone calls. Kids today could probably use the exercise. As a side bonus, your family’s phone bill would likely be cut in half overnight.
6. VCR – We recall a time when we had to train our parents how to use these gadgets, and get that confounded 12:00 to stop flashing. Ironically, now they would have to teach their techie grandkids how to use them. Ah, the circle of life.
7. Push Mower – We’re not talking about this kind of push mower, we mean one of these. Believe it or not, back in the day, it was the high tech alternative to swinging a grass whip. Now it looks like some medieval torture device. Come to think of it, it seemed like that back then too, while we were laboring in the fields.
8. White-Out – We wonder sometimes whether anyone even writes anymore, much less corrects typos on paper with this stuff. Seems like everyone in our family just posts updates on Facebook.
9. Walkman – The great-grand-daddy of the MP3 player, this Sony icon was at one time so ubiquitous that the brand name became the standard moniker (a la Band-Aid, Kleenex, and Velcro) for all similar products – in this case, personal audio cassette players. Can you imagine having to mechanically fast-forward or rewind through an entire reel of tape just to “jump” to another song track?
10. 35mm Camera – Likewise, the art of feeding film onto the take-up reel of a 35mm camera was not for the squeamish. Lining up those notches and setting up that first photo frame took some skills.

Taken From Nanny Flower