What Old Technologies (Or Things) Will You NEVER Give Up

The cheapest Eco-Drive watch on Amazon right now is $81. You can probably find one for less if you look hard enough. I have a somewhat nicer one and it’s been great.

Getting back to the OP, I can’t think of anything right now. I’d gladly give up books; already I only buy physical books if it’s unavailable on Kindle.

Like others have said - books, records.

Glasses. I don’t give a shit how good they say this laser thing is; I’m sticking to glasses (and contact lenses only when I have to).

Fountain pens - someone upthread said this one, too. Computers are okay for some things, I guess, but when I’m writing, I want the feel of my hand caressing the page.

Paper organizers - I get a Moleskine and carry it around with me until it’s completely falling apart, at which point it goes on the bookshelf beside the others. It’s everything - address book, phone book, organizer, journal, insights, deep thoughts, quotations. I had one of those Palm things when it first came out. I got ten skips out of it down by the lake, and that was the most useful thing it ever did for me.

Landlines - I broke my cell phone about a month ago, and the only reason I consider getting another is that they’ve phased out pay phones. Other than that, having no cell phone feels like I got rid of a boil on my ass.

Piano - digital keyboards have their uses, but there is nothing like a real piano.

I have given up on black and white TV sets, but I miss them. The boob tube doesn’t have a quarter of its power to hypnotize and distract if the shiny pictures are in old-fashioned monochrome. No, fiddling with the colour knob doesn’t give the same effect.

In fact, the iPod is about the only new-fangled device I have come to like, and that was a big surprise to me. It takes some fiddling to get a decent sound quality out of it, and it will never sound like a vinyl album on my stereo, but in terms of portable, personal audio, it has been giving good satisfaction. I particularly like podcasts - it’s like what radio was before it got crappy.

To this day, I don’t see any real benefits to an LCD monitor.

I can smell it, too, but that isn’t the reason why I prefer washing by hand. I just love to do it; it is a form of therapy. Also, I am really very good at it…and I have confidence issues, so anything I feel confident in helps.

I have to have a watch on me at all times. I feel weird leaving without it. It just seems right on me.

Like the person with the long name beginning with “Le” said, I prefer a grand piano to an electrical keyboard.

Ah, the fates are such as these…

my bicycle :slight_smile:

?!?!?!?!?!!?!?
sitting on my desk right now I have a 22" and a 17" side by side and soon a 27" will replace the 17"

aside from the fact that there never was a 27" crt just the 22 and 17 alone would probably break my friggin desk due to weight alone, that and the insane depth of the things would put them right in my face, the heat they generate is great…in the dead of winter and the energy use is crazy compared to an lcd.

I dont nor will I ever miss crt monitors.

I own and run a Linotype (well, an Intertype, really. But same thing). Purely for my own entertainment though.

No matter how fanciful the wall-paper get, how many gigabytes of RAM I am able to install on my motherboard, or how how I can stroll through my applications in 3D, no matter how addicted I am to the convenience of Windows 7, I will always have an installation of Windows XP on my other boot sector.

You’re name isn’t Madge is it? :smiley:

Hand tools. Every so often the right tool for the job is a chisel or a hammer or a nice little handsaw and there’s a reason that we’ve been using them for thousands of years.

USPS. For paying my bills. I pay one or two things online but by and large there’s something creepy about signing up to do it - I started to register to pay my mortgage online and after the first couple of intrusive questions and the incredibly long “agreements” that you’re supposed to click indicating you’ve read, printed out, understand and swear to abide by I just canceled the damn thing. Mortgages get bought and sold all the time, I don’t fancy having to keep providing that same info to a new company every couple of years and hoping that everyone will treat my confidential information as confidential.

I was a sheltered child; I was agoraphobic; I used to have bad Social Anxiety Disorder; I had no friends until just before my seventeenth year(19 now), and I didn’t do my schoolwork while I was home-schooled(still got my G.E.D., though!). So forgive me if I am ignorant in asking…

Who is Madge?

The exposition was purely for amusement.

She was the spokeswoman/mascot for Palmolive dish soap, for YEARS. She was the manicurist who soaked everybody’s hands in dish soap.

Edited to add:

Good lord. I’m only 29. Why the hell do I know that?

Books. (Yeah I know, already mentioned)

I hate newspapers, though. Always have. I’m not sorry to see them go.

I hate using those newfangled automatic checkouts at the supermarket, lowes, etc. Give me an old fashioned live clerk.

I don’t know if these fit with the limitations of the OP, but I own a kit car which is basically a 1960 Beetle converted to look like a 1929 Mercedes. I like to drive it just because everything is manual on it. No fancy automatic shift, no electric windows, no power brakes, no air conditioning, and no heat either (of course I don’t drive it in the winter). It’s not quite as clunky as a real 1929, but it’s definitely not a modern car.

I also like to shoot an 1853 Enfield rifle-musket. When I talk to other gun enthusiasts they think I’m nuts. They hate dealing with black powder and all that, especially because I have to spend almost as much time cleaning the thing as I do shooting it. I think that’s the fun of it though, doing things the old fashioned way. It’s kind of a specialized hobby, so again I don’t know if this fits with the OP, but to me it’s a lot like clunking away on a typewriter just because you like doing it the old way.

I’m with emcee2k on this one. Flat screens are higher in contrast, which makes them look prettier to some people, but they are harder on your eyes. Flat screens look horrible in different resolutions. If you only use your monitor in its native resolution then this isn’t an issue, but if you play games and use other software that needs a different resolution it can end up looking wonky.

I really wish flat screens would perform better. I could use the desk space.

Another vote for books,bycycles and newspapers.

Never been much of a T.V. watcher, even as a child. I absolutely loathe commercials and am happy to bury them deep(where they will die of hypothermia. No blankets down there).

We apologise for the inconvenience.

Books have already been mentioned, but I’ll say it again. And the do-it-yourself checkouts really chap my ass, even if one is open, I’ll stand in a long line to be checked out by D’estynee, who’s quite a bit smarter. My old vegetable peeler. I recieved a new one a couple years ago, the blade pivots. You can turn it to be in line with the handle, or perpendicular to it. I was going to town on some knobby carrots, and it turned itself, took off a nice sliver of my thumb. The one I went back to is just like my mothers, and grandmothers, and I’ll buy them for my children when they fly the coop.

Books, manual can openers, rakes have already been mentioned. I’m probably one of the few people who cannot understand and properly operate an automatic can opener. :frowning: I tried when I was at work and they had it, but I gave up in frustration and instead used the cheap manual ones with no problem. I also have one at my house. Occupies less space, less messy, and I know how to use it.

One reason some may prefer rotating dial phones to others is that the former ones are louder. I remember when my family first got one of the newer phones, many calls got missed because they were in the other side of the house and didn’t hear the ring. With the older phone, NOBODY missed that call.

I still pay my bills by handwriting out checks and sending them in in the mail. I just feel more in control of my money than if it gets automatically sent out to various companies.

Books.

Kitchen knives/manual can openers/fan in the window instead of AC (I do use AC, but only when I absolutely have to).

A real, regular fireplace instead of those gas ignition/fake ones–they smell funny to me and don’t seem like real fires.
Reading aloud to children instead of books on tape/DVD for them (not that I don’t see their value for early readers, I just prefer it this way).

Showing kids their world and helping them learn vs all those electronic letterboards and gizmos to “help them learn”. In fact, I prefer toys that do not require batteries for young kids, especially infants and toddlers–I won’t buy light up make obnoxious noise toys for the under 7 set.

You’re welcome in my family any time you like.