What Things From The Past Did Generation Z Miss Out On?

My daughter thinks I’m from the ‘stone age’.

Photo by 은 하 on Unsplash

Thinking about my childhood brings back so many memories. A wave of nostalgia washes over me. The other day I was sharing some recollections of my past with my teenage daughter. There were things she wouldn’t understand even if I explained in detail to give her a picture. She had this confused look on her face as if I was speaking an alien language.

Technology and the internet have transformed every aspect of our lives. Generation Z expects wifi and 4G as a basic necessity, the same way older generations expected running water and electricity. They cannot imagine their life without a smartphone. They have it easy!

Need to research something? Do it online. Need to find your way? Use GPS! Hungry? Want a ride? There’s an app to help you out.

There are so many things that teens today will never know or experience.

Entertainment

• VCRs were the ‘cool’ thing. You had to go to the movie store physically to buy or rent a movie. Not to mention the agony of rewinding the VHS tape if the store owner hadn’t done so.
• Teens today will never know the art of rewinding or forwarding an audio cassette with a pencil.
• Walkmans were the gadget to have if one wanted music away from home.

Telecommunication

• There was one landline known as the ‘home phone’ for everyone to use. The fun part was that there was no CLI (Caller Line Identification), which meant you had no idea who was calling.
• The rotary-dial phone was fun dialling. Not so much if you were in a hurry; then it was just frustrating.

Photo by Louis Hansel @shotsoflouis on Unsplash

Computers

• Once upon a time, everyone in the family did not have a personal laptop. The family computer was a clunky machine which operated on DOS (Disk Operating System).
• Floppy disks were used for data storage. For kids today, the floppy disk is simply the ‘save’ sign.

Internet

• Our whole world turned upside down with the introduction of dial-up internet. Who doesn’t remember the screams of the modem connecting? The strange, echoing sound followed by the ‘ding-dings’ that indicated you were connected to the internet.
• One couldn’t use the telephone while using the internet. Remember shouting your lungs out to make sure your younger sibling didn’t pick up the phone receiver, otherwise, your internet would disconnect.

Photography

• ‘Selfies’ were unheard of, you didn’t have the liberty of choosing the best picture and discarding the rest.
• You had to bear the agonizing wait while the picture film developed; only then could you see how your photos had turned out.

Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash

Life, In General

• Remember reading dozens of books for a research project? The torture of consulting a dictionary or thesaurus every time you came across a complex word.
• The painstaking process of reading and using a map. Learning to fold an actual paper map the right way required patience and determination.
• Whiteboards and smartboards have made traditional chalkboards redundant, kids today will never know what it was like when your fingernail scratched the board. (As I write this, I can still recall how it sounded and how people reacted to that unpleasant sound.)

In this age of technology, social media and Netflix, kids are spending more and more time with gadgets. They are so caught up with these that they fail to appreciate the simple pleasures life has to offer. We, as adults have this responsibility to teach them what really matters in life.