THINGS WE DON’T DO ANYMORE!
People online are talking about the “pre-’90s” everyday skills that they have . . . but are basically obsolete now. Here are the best ones:
- Wrapping textbook covers with a brown paper bag. Textbooks are mostly online now . . . and there’s no need to wrap a Chromebook in a paper bag.
- Unknotting curly telephone wires to get all the curls facing the right way. Landline phones are gone . . . but untangling cords is still useful. For now.
- Giving the TV a “karate chop” to fix the reception.
- Remembering phone numbers.
- The ability to make and count out change for a purchase. That’s even an expiring skill for CASHIERS. One person joked, “The total was $9.91. I gave the cashier $10.01. And you’d think I handed them a live grenade.”
- Setting up a VCR to record a TV show in advance.
- Writing in cursive. And reading it.
- Using the Dewey Decimal System at the library.
- Re-folding a map correctly. And maybe even USING one.
- Developing and processing photographic film, and enlarging prints in a darkroom. (Yes, as an “everyday skill” . . . but as an artistic, analog creative thing, it probably won’t ever be fully obsolete.)