iPod Do you feel old? My kid and her friends had never heard of iPods.

[CyberDavis]

I used to use my iPod Classic all the time whilst travelling, it was great for music, TV and films.
At the time a real step forward from a portable DVD player!
Then Apple got me again and launched the iPad, travelling on business got a whole lot easier.

It is interesting to look back and see how much tech has moved and evolved in a relatively short time.
Even a few years ago if you had said I'd simply be wearing a watch to listen to music and record my stats whilst running I'd have laughed.

Back on topic though my daughter did have an iPod as well when she was younger, and really loved it.
It only fell out of favour when she went to secondary school and got a smartphone.
I wonder what tech my granddaughter (only 18 months old) will think is old fashioned or wont even know about?!

 

[lostPod]

The best part about kids now is that the gesture of a phone with your hands has completely changed too. Now, I also wonder what the hand gesture for rolling down your window is now. I dont think any base model cars have roll up crank windows anymore except or maybe race cars lol (could be wrong)

 

[VirtuallyInsane]

I used to use my iPod NaNo (and sometimes shuffle) in the old gym I went to because it was so easy to use, and I didn't have to carry around my phone in my pocket, and I might go back to using something small again, but one with Bluetooth earphone capabilities because I have these Bluetooth earbuds I like (they cancel noise very well), and the new gym I (try to) go to has shoddy WiFi at it. I was thinking of an older iPod Touch, or else an iPod Nano 7th Gen.

 

[Richard8655]

The iPod Nano was one of the best portable player devices I ever owned. I think Apple made a big mistake by eliminating most of the iPod line. Yes, they may not have been stellar sellers like iPhone, but there was a lot of spillover enthusiasm from iPod enthusiasts to other Apple products.

 

[ian87w]

I have friends that are only 4 years younger than me, and they are not even familiar with 5.25" floppy disks. Heck, kids 10 years from now probably are not familiar with CDs nor DVDs to listen to music/watch movies.

This is why for someone like me who grew up through all these tech transitions in media, is very fascinated when visited Japan. They are so advance yet so traditional in keeping many traditional medium. Many Japanese music are still sold in CDs and bundled with DVDs for extras. They still have CD/DVD rental shops in the age of streaming. Of course, they still use fax machines as well... Definitely a fascinating place to visit especially for kids today who are less exposed to physical media in their home countries.

 

[EugW]

I have friends that are only 4 years younger than me, and they are not even familiar with 5.25" floppy disks. Heck, kids 10 years from now probably are not familiar with CDs nor DVDs to listen to music/watch movies.

This is why for someone like me who grew up through all these tech transitions in media, is very fascinated when visited Japan. They are so advance yet so traditional in keeping many traditional medium. Many Japanese music are still sold in CDs and bundled with DVDs for extras. They still have CD/DVD rental shops in the age of streaming. Of course, they still use fax machines as well... Definitely a fascinating place to visit especially for kids today who are less exposed to physical media in their home countries.

Hmmm... That reminds me. I still have a fax number, with an active fax machine, that I haven't used in months for faxes. But I guess I'll keep it, because my alarm system is wired phone line based. I could get a cellular add-on but it would cost me hundreds of $, plus extra for the cellular plan. So I'll stick with the "landline" for now.

 

[ackmondual]

Tell your kids about the primitive history of phones.... start with this cartoon below:

View attachment 2025102

Kids have asked why phones in the 80s and 90s (and prior) had cables/cords connected to the walls

I got mine specifically to start running with and it was the first Apple device I ever owned. Problem was, I regularly panicked that I'd lost it when it wasn't in use because it was so light that you couldn't feel you had it on you.

I got one again recently out of nostalgia and I still love that thing.

That's pretty much one of the main reasons I still carry my iPod Touch 5 with me... it's very slim, light, and small that it fits in my pocket very unobtrusively. Other reasons include..
1) It's a glorified flashlight, stopwatch, and calculator app
It may behoove me to bring a mini-flashlight for that part, but flashlights tend to not be THAT slim! I have a phone with a torchlight, but I like having a dedicated device for that to have the option of keeping it tucked away
2) My 9th gen iPad still uses lightning
So that one cable can still cover multiple devices.

I expect nothing less from the generation that thinks floppy disks are the 3D printed save icons. Although iPods are a bit younger.

Some of them actually have no concept of manually saving stuff since apps, games, and other software from the last decade would do that for you automatically!

 

[ackmondual]

You'll definitely "get hit with old" when you read articles like "remember when 'x' came out 30 years ago!?", and you were 10, or definitely much younger than 30 when you were using that. I doubted as much, but then did the math... 2021 minus 1991... "Oh, it really has been 30 years!".

I also still use a Palm OS PDA.

A late night show did an interview with the child actors from Young Sheldon. It first came out in 2017, but time period for that show is the 90s. They asked them if they knew what various things were, including a 5.25" floppy disk, a VHS cassette, and a rolodex. The younger kids didn't know what that was to the surprise of the host. Host asked they didn't notice that similarity of feature on their phones, where they replied the actor who plays the older brother (high school age) has a phone. They (around 10yo) don't.

Last but not least, a coworker told me his kid discovered a new band. Great, "vintage" music. He asked his dad if he's heard of them since they've been around for awhile. They're called The Beatles.

 

[EugW]

You'll definitely "get hit with old" when you read articles like "remember when 'x' came out 30 years ago!?", and you were 10, or definitely much younger than 30 when you were using that. I doubted as much, but then did the math... 2021 minus 1991... "Oh, it really has been 30 years!".

We are now closer to 2050 than we are to 1990.

BTW, maybe that's one reason I like the movie Captain Marvel more than a lot of other people. One of the scenes near the beginning of the movie is actually set in a

Spoiler

Blockbuster

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

A late night show did an interview with the child actors for Young Sheldon. It first came out in 2017, but time period for that show is the 90s. They asked them if they knew what various things were, including a 5.25" floppy disk, a VHS cassette, and a rolodex. The younger kids didn't know what that was to the surprise of the host. Host asked they didn't notice that similarity of feature on their phones, where they replied the actor who plays the older brother has a phone. They don't.

I get the “asking if they know about XYZ” but at the same time… 5.25” was very firmly on the way out when I had my first computer in the early 90s so I’d say if the kid doesn’t know, it’s no big deal.

What struck me recently was how dismissive some kids were of old tech in a “teenagers react to …” video and how much they ridiculed it.
That made me sad. But maybe I was just always too much into tech myself. When my das showed me floppies even bigger than 5.25” I thought that was fascinating. When he showed me his ZX81, I thought that was awesome - even as a kid of idk, 8 years or something.

But hey, I regularly stop to think how wild it is that a run of the mill smartphone has more horsepower than the computers used to send people to the moon 😬😅

 

[ackmondual]

I like telling kids these days that those who were born in the 40s, 50s, didn't even have computers, let alone smartphones, media, and kickass video gaming options! That always gets a reaction!