20 Everyday Products Generation Z Will Never Use in Their Lifetime
Updated: Oct. 28, 2019For some people, these pictures are a walk down memory lane, but for Generation Z, they're practically vintage.
How many of these do you remember?
Millennials, Generation X, and baby boomers remember and recognize using at least some of these everyday products from the past. Generation Z—people born after 1997—won’t find much use for these things today. Click on for a blast to the past that the next generation won’t understand.
Address books
A physical paper address book was the original contact list. In fact, cellphone contact lists now combine both Rolodexes and address books since you can save an address, phone number, and even a picture for a contact.
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Pagers
Paging all kids born in the late 1990s and beyond! Once upon a time, getting in touch with people was a multi-step process. Pagers or beepers are wireless communication devices that display either a short message or a number to call back with a phone. Although many doctors and emergency services still use pagers today because they can be more reliable than cell phone service, the average person won’t be using this device anytime soon.
Payphones
Generation Z will never understand the struggle of finding loose change to call someone from a payphone. Surprisingly, there are still 100,000 payphones in the United States, but phone booths are one of the things that will be extinct by 2030.
Phones with cords
Rotary phones and phones with wires are relics of the past. Almost everything is all about wireless, so there’s not a big chance that Generation Z will tangle with these once everyday things.
Answering machines
Answering machines were not only a sign of independence but of importance, too. People with answering machines are so in-demand that they must never miss a call. You can leave voicemail messages on phones today, but answering machines were slightly different. People were able to tape themselves and their unique voicemail messages and change out the tapes regularly. It was annoying, but slightly satisfying, to come home to a full mailbox.
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Encyclopedias
Writing a research paper seems almost impossible without the help of online databases. It’ll probably be even easier for Generation Z as technology develops, but they sure won’t need to lug any of these books around.
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Paper maps
The glove compartment of your car likely has old papers and maybe your car manual, but people once also kept their trusty paper maps there as well. Road trips were next to impossible without the help of a co-pilot to navigate. Today, it’s easy to plug in an address on one of many different GPS apps for turn by turn directions. These Google Maps tricks will make your drive better, too!
Fax machines
One of the sounds you’ve probably never heard if you were born after 2000 is the dial tone of a fax machine. Along the same lines as dial-up Internet, people hung up the phone before sending a fax because there was only one line. Now, instead of faxing, it’s much easier and almost instant just to scan and send a document instead.
Floppy discs
Generation Z might recognize the shape of floppy discs from the save icon. Other than that, it’s unlikely that they will need to use these discs to save information.
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Cameras not attached to a phone
Cameras have evolved quickly over the last few decades. Generation Z will only use Polaroids because of their vintage flare, otherwise, they’ll likely stick to their cellphone cameras for most pictures. Other cameras, like disposable wind-up cameras and the digital cameras that require downloading images manually, are things of the past for amateur photographers.
Cassettes and walkmans
Imagine having to rewind a tape every time you want to re-listen to a song? That was the reality in the 1980s when the walkman debuted. The instant gratification of digital music downloads today is something most people take for granted, and it’s something Generation Z will, too.
Wall-mounted pencil sharpeners
One of the many things you won’t find in schools anymore are pencil sharpeners attached to the wall. Getting up to sharpen your pencil felt like walking onto a very small stage of sorts because of the loud noise of physically scraping down the pencil in front of the entire class.
Crank windows
Vintage cars might look like the height of luxury, but people were rolling down their windows themselves. Manual window rollers required a bit of elbow grease, and it was easy for these windows to go off the track. Electric windows were strictly for luxury vehicles until the late 1980s.
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VHS tapes and DVDs
Although VHS tapes and DVDs each had their time to shine, digital-everything makes it easy to watch movies right from your device without plugging anything in or rewinding. Much like cassettes and CDs, VHS tapes and DVDs also scratch easily and lose their quality if you use them too often.
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TVs with antennas
Technology shrunk over the last decade. Phones are smaller, computers are slimmer, and TVs are thinner, too. TVs also lost a bit off the top as they no longer need antennas to connect to channels. Adjusting those pointy rabbit ears is a skill that most people don’t need to know how to do anymore.
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Non-digital projectors
If you recognize carousel slide and overhead projectors, you’re probably not part of Generation Z. These non-digital projectors were all manual, but these were once some of the most important technologies in school.
TV Guides
TV Guide Magazine still exists today, but not many people use it to find scheduled TV programming. It’s much more convenient to flip through the channels with your remote and check the digital guide on your TV.
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