# Ubiquitous items from relatively recently youngsters may not recognise **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362 "2023-03-19T15:27:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/1 "2023-03-19T15:27:12Z")
I was watching a video on youtube, and one of the key points was the VHS tape one of the characters was holding. The top comment was “about a third of your viewers won’t recognise the object you’re holding” I don’t think VHS has gone that far down, it’s not used but still very recognisable, but it’s an interesting comment. What else might be better example of something that was truly ubiquitous 30-40 years ago that may genuinely not be recognised at all? The best example I can think of is chequebooks. Outside the US most 30 year olds have probably never written or paid in a cheque and most children/teens won’t have even seen one. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of them couldn’t recognise a chequebook, however they were basic stables of life not very long ago. Any better suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/2 "2023-03-19T15:30:25Z")
My daughter is mid-20s and knew nothing about 8-tracks. But they had a short run I guess. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/3 "2023-03-19T15:38:53Z")
Glass Mercury thermometers. [![](https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/043ac9f9-c5fd-4a3d-9879-5ec2cecd13cc.844f894191913fe439216e2283a28be5.jpeg?odnHeight=612&odnWidth=612&odnBg=FFFFFF) ](https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/043ac9f9-c5fd-4a3d-9879-5ec2cecd13cc.844f894191913fe439216e2283a28be5.jpeg?odnHeight=612&odnWidth=612&odnBg=FFFFFF) Hand boilers. [![](https://www.flinnsci.com/globalassets/flinn-scientific/all-product-images-rgb-jpegs/ap9293.jpg?format=webp&height=880&upscale=false) ](https://www.flinnsci.com/globalassets/flinn-scientific/all-product-images-rgb-jpegs/ap9293.jpg?format=webp&height=880&upscale=false) Radiometers: [![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0030/6207/1369/products/Radiometer1500x1000_1445x.jpg?v=1616443025) ](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0030/6207/1369/products/Radiometer1500x1000_1445x.jpg?v=1616443025) Jumping discs: [![](https://www.grand-illusions.com/Files/123268/Img/20/jumping_discs.jpg) ](https://www.grand-illusions.com/Files/123268/Img/20/jumping_discs.jpg) Fake car cell phone antennas. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/4 "2023-03-19T15:40:21Z")
I once found a stack of old magazines from the early 70s (I was born in 72) and it seemed like half the ads in the back were for hernia trusses. So apparently they were once a big thing? (The other half of the ads were for small cylindrical battery-operated back massagers, but I think people today still have “sore backs”.) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/5 "2023-03-19T15:57:43Z")
Computer punch cards. [![](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/0RUAAOSwWqJgcd6Y/s-l500.jpg) ](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/0RUAAOSwWqJgcd6Y/s-l500.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/6 "2023-03-19T16:20:54Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > My daughter is mid-20s and knew nothing about 8-tracks. But they had a short run I guess. I’m almost 50 and I’ve never seen one in person. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/7 "2023-03-19T16:23:12Z")
I had a few of them, by older siblings had many. My first stereo was a sophisticated bargain that was turntable, receiver, tape player and 8-Track all in one. When I bought my used 77 Camaro, it still had the AM-FM-8 Track player. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/8 "2023-03-19T16:23:17Z")
Antenna balls. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/9 "2023-03-19T16:44:21Z")
CB radios ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/10 "2023-03-19T16:46:19Z")
They’ve migrated to the rear bumper. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/11 "2023-03-19T17:03:41Z")
I’ve heard that some newer housing developments do not have phone lines run to the houses. So I’m thinking there are children who have never seen a (wired) telephone. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/12 "2023-03-19T17:10:10Z")
I grew up in Pakistan and moved to the US in the late 1980s. I’ve seen an 8-track player in an old car, but never an actual 8-track cartridge (?). ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/13 "2023-03-19T17:12:10Z")
Which means they have never seen one of these: [![](https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUXAPlu-fV5oEeNuc421ROAFErVh16yxznKX7YhwG4WLOZ7VtEE1w9Tc_v0t47jAezPu5uoORIng&usqp=CAc) ](https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUXAPlu-fV5oEeNuc421ROAFErVh16yxznKX7YhwG4WLOZ7VtEE1w9Tc_v0t47jAezPu5uoORIng&usqp=CAc) ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/14 "2023-03-19T17:13:16Z")
My daughter (high school age) has never seen a “floppy disk” or “Zip drive” in real life. I had to explain to her what the “Save” icon in Windows-based software is. Then she watched some YouTube videos on them. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/15 "2023-03-19T17:15:54Z")
> [@colinfred](#): > > Outside the US most 30 year olds have probably never written or paid in a cheque and most children/teens won’t have even seen one. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of them couldn’t recognise a chequebook, however they were basic stables of life not very long ago. I interact with a lot of European folks coming to the US for work assignments of 6 months to 3 years, aged 25-30. None of them had ever used checks, or even seen checks used. So I’m guessing that for the last 20 years in Continental Europe checks have been quite rare. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/16 "2023-03-19T17:20:38Z")
I made a referance to the Ty-D-Bol man during lunch with my coworkers last week and nobody got the reference. Not even the 55 year out guy, although I suspect he just wanted to not look old. And yet the 24 year old girl in the group googled it and found that he is still on the packaging, and exclaimed that there is a little skipper in a small yacht riding around in a toliet bowl! ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/17 "2023-03-19T17:25:01Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > My daughter is mid-20s and knew nothing about 8-tracks. But they had a short run I guess. I’m almost 60 - I remember 8 tracks because my grandfather had them but I never did. > [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > My daughter (high school age) has never seen a “floppy disk” or “Zip drive” in real life. I had to explain to her what the “Save” icon in Windows-based software is. Then she watched some YouTube videos on them. Somehow this came in up a conversation with my 33 year old daughter- when someone said she had never seen a “floppy disk” , she insisted that she had, and mentioned the multicolored disks we used to have. She didn’t realize that to people of a certain age, those disks in the hard plastic weren’t “floppy” disks because she had never seen the type that were actually floppy. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/18 "2023-03-19T17:25:43Z")
[![](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/44oAAOSwJOVi~atD/s-l1600.jpg) ](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/44oAAOSwJOVi~atD/s-l1600.jpg) [![](http://www.plombco.com/plombco/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/REGandREGS.jpg) ](http://www.plombco.com/plombco/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/REGandREGS.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/19 "2023-03-19T17:37:08Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I’ve heard that some newer housing developments do not have phone lines run to the houses. So I’m thinking there are children who have never seen a (wired) telephone. My brother’s children are in their mid-20s now but when they were little, we amused them for a few minutes by showing them the dial phone that’s still in my parents’ house (in the basement, next to the washing machine) and showing them how to dial a number. Later, I found an old Dymo embossing label maker at work (the kind that makes [labels like this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embossing_tape#/media/File:Dymo_output.jpg)) and brought it to their house so they could play with it. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/20 "2023-03-19T17:38:06Z")
how about an old staple? The phone book. bonus points for knowing why there were white pages and yellow.pages. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362.md?page=2)