Top 20 Things Kids Today Don't Recognize

It's time for some blasts from the past! For this list, we’ll be going over some of the most popular products from “back in the day” that today’s youth will just never know. Our countdown includes Mail Order Netflix, Phone Books, Wired Video Game Controllers, Dial-Up Internet Access, and more! If there’s something you’re surprised didn’t get a mention on our list, let us know in the comments!
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[@WatchMojo]

If there’s something you’re surprised didn’t get a mention on our list, let us know in the comments! For more retro, check out our 90s playlist: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iaPLfWZ3rsp5hrc

[@80sDisneyFan]

Good God, I really hate when people say "kids today won't recognize this!" Like bruh I have a collection of VHS tapes stfu.

[@olleselin]

Traditional animation

[@longarooni]

3 DAYS AGO??

[@billmurray7473]

Rebecca, How much would a TV Guide be worth on Ebay?

[@MsUltrafox]

Physical Typewriters. VHS/Betamax tapes Phone operator that connected you to who you wanted to call. Vinyl LP

[@Denis-89]

The old KZbin where you could rate videos with stars, there was no like or dislike buttons and no ads in videos. I bet you cant find many kids who remember that..

[@whitedragon1204]

Even so we used to customize our channels with cool backgrounds back in the old old days

[@creatorstory9916]

I sure as hell don't remember that. And I'm 23.

[@Ballerz24]

@@creatorstory9916 that was more than 12 years ago, that’s why you don’t remember 😂

[@xokayb7l2]

With 10 minute time limit.

[@kevinfromsales9445]

@@xokayb7l2 And you had to switch your account to director to upload videos that go the over 10 minutes limit. Which is why many videos were uploaded in parts.

[@ChristoAbrie]

that internet dial-up tone is ingrained in almost every 90s kid's brain.

[@xanethedarkwerehog]

Agreed 🤣

[@TheHistoryPrincess]

Or getting kicked up the behind because you blocked the phoneline by using the Internet all day

[@MikeyBats]

Yup..you knew every sound that it made..all the way to the end..that way, when it reached a certain point you weren’t gonna get kicked off

[@animecatgirl14]

And the little yellow AOL dude

[@samfoley8106]

You simply saying that made it start playing in my head.

[@celinevanruyskensvelde7448]

When a friend's kid heard me mention burning cd's, he asked why we would throw that into the fireplace.

[@ChantzRisse]

Limewire and MP3Rocket were gifts from god.

[@parsifal40002]

I still burn CDs!

[@Succubi.flowers]

My friends who grew up with money never understood why I had multiple stacks of CDs with sharpie written on them.

[@craigjohnson5202]

I used to blow EPROM chips, and was once asked how come I had to breathe on them, hahahaha!!! 😂😱😂

[@jamesodell7678]

Emptying my sister's storage locker I came across a box of CDs. My young niece got a little upset when I said I was going to burn them.

[@lauradaly8020]

I am 64 years old, and I remember test patterns when TV stations actually signed on in the morning and signed off late at night

[@vinyllpreviews9462]

When I was a kid, my mom would tell me cartoons will be on in the morning. I was too young to tell time, I'd wake up, turn the TV on, the test pattern would be on. I'd go get cereal, set on the floor listening to the test pattern until cartoons started.

[@pablofernandez2335]

Test patterns were used until not so long ago, i managed to see them still being used like until the early 2000s, at least in my hometown

[@matthew_natividad]

@@vinyllpreviews9462 when your channel is done for the day it’s only an evening of pain which happened to me with treehouse

[@lisaa8795]

@Laura Daly The further out you lived from a major sized city, the earlier the sign-off at night.

[@slipknot6789]

@@vinyllpreviews9462 ... I'd rather watch the test paytern than most late night infomercials

[@mathieudarroman5521]

The overhead projector and the associated transparents could easily be on the list

[@crazeguy26]

don't forget the smart board!

[@karmabum21]

overhead projectors aren't a thing anymore??

[@ibn1989]

They don't use overhead projectors anymore?

[@aaronj_girv]

Every kid in my school district know what an overheard projector is everything is my school is so outdated.

[@ToniWellons]

Yes

[@Unovakid24]

I'm in that weird age group where I'm old enough to know what these are, but young enough that I didn't grow up with them lol

[@YoSoySrRojo]

Same

[@thomaswagnercz]

Same

[@Christian988.]

1997-1998 kid?

[@AssassinDevil34]

Low key Same but I grew up with some of these

[@AssassinDevil34]

@@Christian988. I’m born in 2002 and I grew up with some of these

[@CheeseGirl91]

Is "Church Key" a term only used in some locations? Everyone I know (including my mom) just calls them bottle openers.

[@michael1234252]

Exactly. My parents had one of these and when I was growing up I never known it as a "Church Key" But it was just a simple bottle opener. At this same time this "Church Key" style of bottle opener is still popular and widely available today.

[@JerryDLTN]

When they said church key,,,I thought of skeleton key

[@mchamber366]

@@JerryDLTN yes skeleton keys could be on this list except for horror movies I have never seen one used and never in real life

[@SithCelia]

I grew up in Maryland and spent a lot of my childhood in the company of beer-drinking adults. "Hand me a church key" was such a standard statement that I STILL say it.

[@dguy0386]

I first saw bottle openers called Church Keys on a list of 1950s slang, i don't know how widespread the term was but maybe even your mom wasn't old enough to know it

[@TombstoneHeart]

I think I can top all of this. My sister was a high school English teacher. One day, she forgot to get all of the lesson books for her class and, unable to remember which ones she needed, she just grabbed a whole lot of old ones from the school storeroom and handed them out to her pupils. Thinking to herself that she had found a task to keep the little horrors occupied for the next 40 minutes, she settled down behind her desk to read a book. After about 20 minutes, she became aware of some restlessness in the class. Kids were looking around and whispering and making "I don't know" gestures to one and other and generally looking very confused. She asked them what the problem was and one of the kids told her. The lesson books she had grabbed were so old, there was a reference in them about how to send a telegram!

[@kittygaillot2286]

Ahhhh yes. The mix tape. Nothing like waiting to hear your favorite song on the radio, and hitting that record button, hoping that The reception remains clear the whole time, and the DJ doesn’t start talking before the song concludes.

[@nytrobros.4810]

I've always wanted a mixtape

[@karmabum21]

I hated when the DJ would talk through the intro to the song lol

[@ELmayberry]

@@karmabum21 yeah... ruined my recording experience

[@kittygaillot2286]

@@karmabum21 it’s just as annoying as when a DJ would start yapping before the song came to an end. Lol

[@ilyakats54]

Fun times 🙂

[@sandragraves1177]

We used to have to learn the "dewey decimal system" in school to find our own books in the library.

[@shawnnoyes2776]

You still do... you just search for that number on a PC now.

[@jjreichner4554]

Stupid and completely useless lol

[@ValleyOfTheKens]

Don't you still do that if you need the actual physical book?

[@ARTPLAYSGAMES86]

Yea I was watching this and got a flashback of those days !! Like a whole class devoted to it lol

[@reeses_unicorn]

We learned about it in elementary school. I was confused by it, though.

[@smurrayworth]

Anyone remember Microfiche? We had it in my high school library in the 90s.

[@johnbgood52]

It was in mine in the '60s.

[@randallulrich]

Microfilm, with the reels and readers, and Microfiche, with the holder and reader. It was a big deal if the microfilm and microfiche readers could also make printouts of the material onscreen. Definitely remember using those in my school library and local public library. I was using microfilm and microfiche in the late '60s and early '70s. Probably the popular use for microfilm/microfiche was for newspaper archives. In college, they were used to look up archived scientific journals.

[@jonnvessel]

Wow! I do! As late as 1995 when I started my career we still used it. I was responsible for researching records. That’s a blast from the past.

[@CarbonTech19]

@@randallulrich I started my career as an aircraft tech in the late 70's. We were using microfilm and microfiche at my airline to look up the necessary info for repair schemes way past 2000. Such a pain in the ass, though the microfiche were slightly better because you could eyeball the individual panels by holding them up and squinting and then get directly to them in the viewer rather than the endless scrolling the microfilm required. It was certainly a game changer when all the material was made available on keyword-searchable computer databases.

[@ChantzRisse]

Fucking microfiches-I still have to deal with those when I need to read old newspapers for my job.

[@JennyZinaTavares]

I still keep an atlas. It's so helpful to be able to see the whole picture when traveling the country.

[@SoManyRandomRamblings]

I still buy a Milepost when I drive cross-country.

[@jorgezaldivar3113]

I still have some of the old consoles from the 90s! Including the N64 and the Playstation!

[@jam5533]

I use to have DeLorme Atlases, it's very detailed.

[@Mogster2007]

Never had an atlas, but I had a glove compartment stuffed full of paper maps. And some NoDoz and Tylenol, just in case.

[@bmaz390]

The Thomas Guide was my go to.

[@schindlerteejay94]

even though being born in 2002 sounds young, you’ll never forget the sound of a VHS player rewinding just to take the rental back to blockbuster.

[@CRAFT7445]

Did you own a separate tape rewinder?

[@bravepigster]

2005 and I still know what that sounds like.

[@joshmatheny5227]

amen my boy

[@night-x6793]

We were watching VHS until 2006 when the local video rental start doing only DVD.

[@Missmagazinebura]

I never been to blockbuster

[@jeremiahhardin4453]

Thanks for the walk down memory lane. Technology is great, but less is more sometimes. The 80's and 90's were a great time to be a kid.

[@SithCelia]

@Catherine Rose I grew up in the '80s, but I entered adulthood in the '90s. That was a great decade, indeed.

[@jenniferburns2530]

When you talked about card catalogs, you said libraries are seeing less traffic these days. Nothing could be further from the truth in my community! We have 4 branches that are always busy with people attending a variety of classes, getting help with technology, borrowing everything from books to musical instruments, laptops, streaming devices, and toys. They provide assistance with taxes and voter registration, and rooms for community meetings. People of all ages use the free wifi and attend book clubs, storytimes, and craft groups. And all of this is in addition the online resources. Libraries are amazing!

[@keltar4071]

Your library is open?. Ours hasnt been open for over a year.

[@jenniferburns2530]

@@keltar4071 it closed for a month. Then they initially were doing curbside pick up, and quickly added virtual programs. They reopened with masking, plastic partitions around the check out & information desk and between public computers, and only allowed a limited number of patrons inside at a time. Next step was outside programming. In June of this year they lifted occupancy limits and out city council ended the mask mandate July 1 (it is now considering reinstating it.) Many people used the parking lots for free wifi. We are a city of about 110K people and our library system is an integral part of our community.

[@nicole_rogue]

Mine is always busy too

[@nocturnal101ravenous6]

Well you can never replace an actual book, sure you have Tablets and such, but the eye strain is legendary still even with the E-Ink displays, its one thing tech cannot replace.

[@JerryDLTN]

I wish there was a library for tools

[@FlyingHangman]

I've never known it to be called a church key.... but pretty sure bottle openers are still pretty commonplace these days

[@Koldphoenyx]

I've never heard the term church key either. I have at least 6 though, one has a magnet on my fridge. Most American drinks have twist off caps though.

[@andreanatsuminadeau5608]

@@Koldphoenyx they're mostly used for some imported beer or by women that don't wanna scratch their palms on a reluctant twist cap.

[@JoeL-yq1iv]

It's not the bottle opener specifically, it's the combination of tools that make up the thing. Can your bottle opener open a can of vegetables that isn't a pull top?

[@FlyingHangman]

@@JoeL-yq1iv yes... hence why I mentioned it's still around

[@teresadixon2899]

I always got excited when the Sears, Penny's, and Montgomery Ward Christmas catalogs came out.

[@Gambit2483]

The Toys R Us catalog was the best

[@RadioLaPrincess]

My grandma worked in the catalog department at Sears so we always got the Wish Book early. It was literally my go-to book as a kid, I would start searching for what I wanted for Christmas as early as September.

[@w8kdzradio113]

oh yes, and the Best Products catalog, I would go through them and circle what I wanted for Christmas with a wide marker so it wouldn't be missed

[@michael1234252]

Remember those days of the mail-in catalog ordering?

[@RadioLaPrincess]

@@michael1234252 Yes! I used to order clothes that way. Back when Cabbage Patch Kids were still pretty popular (though a year or so after Christmas 1983) I even ordered one that way.

[@myrtlemountaineer8857]

Man, I remember having to store all my word documents on floppy disks in 5th grade. I’m only 26 but I remember using a lot of these things in my life and it’s crazy how far we’ve come in so little time.

[@ReunionMediaGroup]

ok I'm 46....and i clearly remember having a storage bin of floppy disks in the early 2000s---was wondering if I was mandela-ing.

[@Paige-pk8dr]

Me too! I also remembered ordering Netflix DVD. Didn't know they still did it though

[@fynkozari9271]

I remember buying 1gb thumb drive in 2007, at the time nobody was using 1gb LOL. Now 256gb drive are normal.

[@dainab2761]

I’m 52 & remember these all the way back to the HUGE 8 inch ones that actually WERE floppy/flexible! I also remember having to upload my Lemonade Stand game onto my Commodore 64 using cassettes (which I thought were crazy fast at the time)!

[@Amelia-vk4jt]

In my 20s and I lived with a teen for a while was surprised when I told them that the save on word is a floppy disk

[@terrylayman1650]

"Why sonny, when I was your age, telephones had to be hooked to the wall!" The lady trying to get the fax machine to work was spot on. I never could remember if I needed to dial a 9 to get an outside line before entering the number. Bills arriving in the mail with the "do not fold, spindle or mutilate" punched card. Cinerama movies.

[@dickfacy6229]

I still have to dial 9 for outgoing calls in my office

[@LamontRustamova]

When I was young and living on the family farm, we had party lines. Where multiple families would share a phone line and the only way to know if the call was for you or not was the way the phone would ring. IE:number of rings...or long and short rings.

[@JonathanLasry]

I’m 27, when I saw my nephew playing with his Switch I told him that at his age I only had a gameboy. He asked me if that existed before or after the war. Yes the WW2 (1939-1945) I think my pride just died with my youth

[@Scamander]

I know this has nothing to do with your story (which actually made me laugh until I realised, that I'm seven years older than you ;-;), but I want to pet that doggo, like real bad. Just fyi, lol.

[@joev3770]

I’ve got an 11 year old cousin who thought that “Scrubs” aired in the 1970s. I was born in 1999 and I remember how popular the show was growing up.

[@soberstoner1152]

I have a cousin who isn't even 10 years old yet and already has an iPhone 10 lol. At her age I was still playing with my PS1 & Sega Genesis & had no idea what the internet even was. Edit: I'm 23 in 5 days (yes when you're poor even living in 2007-2008 you are basically living in the 90s. PS3 came out in 2006, the first iPhone was announced in 2007)

[@Xaviator619]

I'm 15. yet have known what and how to play a gameboy for at most 3 years I think.

[@NK-pr9xy]

I took my family to a Renaissance Festival. My daughter was ~5yrs. She asked if the Ren Faire garb was what I wore when I was a kid in "olden times".

[@Thrillseeker420]

When I was a boy in the 90s, most of these things were still around, and I remember them pretty well. I still have quite a few of them in my apartment today. You know you're getting old when you can remember these things!

[@jonmendelson1104]

Alternatively, you know you're getting old when you can't remember these things.

[@holden2260]

I was born in 2004 and I know how to use or seen about 15 out of 20 things on this list

[@Raven-dc7cw]

In the words of Jamie Lee Curtis from Freaky Friday "I'm old!! I'm like the Crypt Keeper!!" Thanks for making me feel old😂❤️

[@ZP1993]

Growing up in the 90s and 2000s,I know about all of those things and I even had most of them. In fact,I still have two cameras with film, a video camera with small casette tapes, two VCRs and several hundred VHS tapes, some bootleg Walkman and a few dozen audio casette tapes, PS1 and PS2 with wired controllers, CD storage binders, dozens of encyclopedias, a bottle opener, etc. That stuff is my childhood and I don't wanna throw it away.

[@t.castro4493]

I can relate. In my case I'll turn 25 this year so I grew up in the 2000s. I knew about the vast majority of these with exception of library card catalogues (not sure if they were around in my country) and Rolodex (although the name is familiar and PDAs aren't new to me). My siblings are 40+ and my mum is an elder, so they taught me about a lot of stuff. I also own a PS2 with a CRT TV, we have a bunch of old cassettes, and I had the opportunity to use floppy disks when I was younger, albeit only a few times. We have CD binders stored away somewhere, and we still own bottle openers... etc, etc. I think we're getting old, but we had the best childhood. So many great cartoons, games, snacks...

[@crosleybendix97]

Man, there's a lot of Seinfeld clips here. That show is a good time capsule for that era of pop culture.

[@mydogskips2]

Yeah, and it's another thing kids today don't recognize.

[@HearBobbyRoar]

I think Seinfeld's where they got the idea for this video.

[@altoids79762]

The equivalent to the 00’s to 10’s would be Big Bang theory

[@worldsboss]

Growing up in the 90s, I remember most of these and only just realised that modern kids will have no idea about them. That footballer not knowing what an encyclopaedia is though? That’s a little embarrassing considering his age 😂

[@woofgbruk5947]

Footballers are not noted for their intelligence . .

[@youvebeenmungaid1470]

OMG blockbuster should’ve been on the list LOL

[@TheMhalpern]

@@youvebeenmungaid1470 No there's Captain Marvel

[@TheRealTestFry2024]

Us moderen kids are not stupid. i know what a fax and almost everything already.

[@worldsboss]

@BecomingAwomanByChoice I feel like gaming will be one of the things that kids will always be fascinated by, even for those born years after their original release.

[@blue_canyon]

I'm 35 at the end of this year and I still have a "church key" (I've never heard it called that before.) and use it regularly. I also have vinyl records, 8-tracks, and a ton of CDs in storage. I've also used a Rand McNally Road Atlas in the last year.

[@twitchster77]

18:23 I feel like he's speaking directly to my soul. This kid is my spirit animal!

[@MrStGeorgeIllawarra]

Insert Jamie Lee Curtis "Oh, I'm like the Crypt keeper" Freaky Friday gif here.

[@kriscynical]

Most social media platforms make me feel like that nowadays. I saw a TikTok of a kid talking about how old they were because they had an _iPhone 5C_ in _middle school_ and immediately felt dusty crusty old. 😂 (I got my first cell phone for my 16th birthday back in 2000: was the original Nokia with the interchangable faceplates, 1" screen, and text messages that cost 15¢ each if you even had in enabled!)

[@iowa89357]

I was today years old when I learned the term "church key". I had them growing up, but never heard them called that. It was the "sharp(or pointy) can opener". Used it mainly to open the sealed cans of Hershey's syrup (ya, back before the brown bottles. Put that on the list) Fyi: I'm 29

[@CheeseGirl91]

I'm 30, and I'd never heard the term Church Keys. My mom hadn't either.

[@tt121976]

I forgot that about Hershey having that..and I'm with ya on the bottle/can opener never being called that..i have one of those too

[@sedonawaterproofing7146]

@@tt121976 I remember church key being used but only by parents kids didn't know what that was. What about pudding in the cans that we used to take for lunch. You could have killed someone with the sharp lid.

[@thomashinchliff2173]

My parents have one still. I use it to open beers when I go over to their house. I'm 31

[@nocturnal101ravenous6]

Lol you still get them, they completely ignored the fact they are used for opening paint cans and sold at lowes and home depot.

[@talevita]

Caller ID was so cool. I remember how excited I was when we got the box that connected to our phone that told me who was calling.

[@ShadyRK9]

Testing Patten, church Keyes, rotary phones, wired game controllers, CD/DVD binders, cassette tapes, TV guides, encyclopedias, pagers, phone books/booths, Walkman/Diskman, paper Maps, Fax Machines, Dile up internet, Floppy disk, Development Cameras?! (We still have some of those "Church Keys" down in the kitchen but NEVER actually knew what they was actually called until now!) Wow! I actually remember ALL of these on this list VERY fondly! But out of ALL them the development camera part is what REALLY got to me! I remember taking pictures all the time and had like 10 cameras daily and would take alot of pictures. And they only had like 15-20 rolls of film and you had to hope and pray that the pictures turned out good! And once you was done with the camera you had to go to a CVS, Walgreens, or Raid Aid, leave then wait a few hours then come back only to find out that 90% of the pictures was bad! I STILL have some of my middle school pictures from when I graduated as well as some of the old cameras in my drawer in my bedroom! 📸 THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES AND MAKING ME FEEL OLD WATCHMOJO!! ☠️⏳

[@misticadavis]

I'm old enough to know and lived with these. I got one of the first of all of these. It was the greatest time of my life. I miss these times. Today is a hot mess. I both love and hate technology. I'm at the point where I say to my children "When I was a child". I miss the time when we didn't have technology so we had to get to know each other face to face and I could go outside until the streetlights came on and we didn't rely on technology but today I go nuts without my phone but I miss the 80's, 90's and early 2000's. Those were the best.

[@w8kdzradio113]

I tell my kids when I was a child we had an Atari, they are like "what's an Atari"

[@garybradley912]

Yes they were! 😌

[@msp_isyourteacher6139]

Hahaha! When I started at my current district 7 years ago (no, that isn’t that long ago), I utilized our campus’s books on tape. I taught the kids “Be Kind Rewind!” They thought I was a genius and loved it. 😂

[@seantlewis376]

I was born in the 1960s, and got my first computer in 1980. Saving data onto a cassette tape was pretty cool back then. Now around my house, we use 3.5 floppies as drink coasters.

[@t.castro4493]

I'll turn 25 this year and I did have the chance to use floppy disks back in the early/mid 00s. I didn't use them much, however, because I was a kid. At home, my brother was afraid that I would demagnetise the disks or whatever, and we switched to CDs and DVDs pretty quickly. My mum was born in the late 50s and my siblings are from the early 80s, so I got to know a lot of stuff from the past. Old computing is great, by the way. I'd like to own an Amiga or a Spectrum lol.

[@seantlewis376]

@@t.castro4493 My first was a TRS-80vIII, aka, Trash 80. A year later, my dad gave me a Commodore 64+4. I kind of wish I still had them, but I gave them to a tech museum quite a few years ago.

[@twstf8905]

I was the perfect age for all of these things lol we had "Pong" and "Atari" video game systems, before we got our first Nintendo, had a fax machine at my first job, when I was 16, (in 1992 😂) and of course I had a Walkman all the way up until middle school, when I upgraded to a Discman. The AOL dial-up modem sound was part of my early high school background theme music, (if we can attach a certain sound to our everyday life like that,) encyclopedias, pagers, and I still have, (and use quite regularly,) an old record player, sitting on top of my stackable home sound system, complete with dual cassette recorder and central EQ, splitting the sound around the room into two giant wooden subwoofers and three surround sound speakers! I still have CD's in multiple sleeve binders, boxes of empty CD cases, and probably a thousand or more cassette tapes lol I had a pager in 8th grade, (the cool clear plastic one where you can see the circuit board on the inside,) and of course we had the giant 200 pound wood panelled television that required needle nose pliers to change the channel because the knob was missing. I spent most of middle and high school with the cable box that sat on top of the TV, and had posters and magazine pictures scotch taped covering every square centimeter of my bedroom walls of my favorite bands (mostly Skid Row, Mötley Crüe, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, etc.) Of course, the last 20 or 25 years have flown by like a blur, with the technology cruising along so fast there were a few things I missed completely, like the Palm Pilot and Kindle or Amazon digital book readers, but to go from an elementary school perspective in the early 80's, when Tony Hawk was the world's best skateboarder at 8 years old already to now, its definitely been an exciting time to be alive. No question. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! (Again!) 😁👍

[@Dmitch1408]

I remember when Kingdom Hearts came out and my brother and I wait almost 2 hours to load a 2 minute trailer on dail up internet. Oh the days

[@Ocapela215]

Holes everywhere!!! 😂

[@arieljacobsegal]

I did the same with the Lord of the Rings trailers 😉

[@officialWWM]

My 9 year old son saw a phone booth for the first time today. He asked me what it was and was fascinated when I told him 😂😂

[@lorihansen8674]

Tell him it's Superman's dressing room.

[@genkigirl4859]

There’s a stump of what used to be a pay phone in front of a bar downtown here …it looks like it was literally cut off with the jaws of life lol

[@LoneWolf-gz9mr]

I'm shocked there are still some that exist. ALL pay-phones I remember are long gone.

[@officialWWM]

@@LoneWolf-gz9mr here in Australia, the national phone company had a legal requirement to keep some in operation and they must be free.

[@josephsavich2451]

Homeless people used them for bathrooms in Youngstown at one time.

[@wints2000]

I used to work for a company that had a "disc-fax" that allowed them to send/copy floppy discs from the software developers to the production house. This was about the time that if you needed a datasheet for a chip, you used your 56k modem to dial the chip companies BBS (buletin board service) a sort of dial up text based web page. Assuming you had your PC set up correctly, which required you to set the jumpers on each of the cards to make it work.

[@Yippiia]

I remember getting the disk for Netflix onto the wii….. good times!

[@jonathanfesmiresteampunkau6983]

My dad had a set of the Encyclopedia Britanica and it was awesome for the time. We'd have friends come over to work on papers for school. It saved us a lot of trips to the library. Great stuff in a pre-Internet world.

[@w8kdzradio113]

we had Funk & Wagnals which was the cheaper version, I remember the grocery store selling them at a rate of one volume a week

[@lonnieadams7841]

They were in print for 244 years, 1768-2012. I still remember their annoying 80s slogan and that skinny kid with glasses.. "Read the book"

[@kennethwood88]

We had church keys when I was younger. I just called it a bottle opener.

[@chrismathgenius]

I've never heard it being referred to as church keys.

[@kareneide]

@@chrismathgenius I never knew what they were called before either.

[@ValleyOfTheKens]

Yeah I was gonna say, I'm sure kids these days might see their parents use those to open a bottle of beer. So they most likely know what they do, just not their name ( I would've said bottle opener)

[@melaniem2744]

Same here. I'm pretty sure I still do. I'd never heard the term church-key before this video, and I'm on the older side of Gen X.

[@willanbel]

Right they called them openers to open can juice😭

[@rlinwa723]

I have a 5-disc CD changer. It still gets used every year around Christmas as we have a large collection of holiday CDs and my wife just loves loading up the machine and playing them. She knows they are all on line and the modern amp the CD changer is connected to has streaming inputs, but there are memories attached to each of the several dozen Christmas CDs, so that changer will be here as long as we are.

[@t.castro4493]

I wish I had the chance to use one of those. I still use CDs and DVDs here. Born in the late 90s. I think vinyl is the better medium for music, though. While sensitive, it's not as fragile as a CD (I've had to deal with countless scratches and there's also the fact that CD rot can occur). Vinyl also has that analogue, warm sound. You know the one. Cassette is okay, but could be better. Speaking of CD rot, there's a ton of burnt games that my brother gave me and the disks are literally full of spots due to the degradation of the material. It's almost like mold, but it isn't. Somehow these are still playable...

[@andeeharry]

2. Dial up Internet....man that was a pain. You wait forever to get on there, through the noises, and yeah, had to turn it off properly just to use the phone. Saving wasn't much of an option either. If you did get stuff, the computer would freeze and you stuck. Those egg-timers were a pain, loading was an issue. Windows 98 was a huge thing back then...but still. It only held small memory and couldn't be used for much. Storage was weak, and you could only be on there for a few hours at a time.

[@CDeeez94]

Can’t wait until kids start saying “Ah yes I remember the iPhone 12…good times.”

[@xc7156]

I remember dubbing on my cassette tapes when I was young. Had an RCA boombox radio and would sit in the computer chair for hours listening to the local radio station waiting for all of the good songs to play. Lol you had to time when the radio DJ would start playing the song to push record/play and wait until the end of the song to press stop. Making those RnB/Love tapes to give that crush or gf, man it was the best!

[@fishercourt]

Yeah, we used to wait to listen to the radio 📻 for the live caller requests & the dedications to be read to our crushes during my junior high days in the ‘90’s.

[@leelongvideo]

I used the pause button. It was much easier to keep it on record then pause and un-pause as needed.

[@xc7156]

@@leelongvideo You're right, lol trial and error I guess but that's how we learned things.

[@zwenkwiel816]

Piracy was so fun back then. Like you'd buy one cd and the entire neighborhood would have it on tape. Conversely you could dip into their collection to get whatever you wanted. Not as practical as just torrenting it but a lot more fun and engaging....

[@leelongvideo]

@@zwenkwiel816 We used to get records at the library.

[@markfain7128]

Love this video except it just shows how old I am. I have about 350 movies in multiple DVD books or whatever you called them. A few other things I still love and/or use are film, encyclopedias, actual maps, TV Guide. I still have a Walkman and many cassettes and I still have my college thesis and research for it on a couple zip drives as well as two external drives for them. Might be time to clear up some space (but that is never going to happen).

[@Extinguisher10]

56K modem? Someone was a high roller!!

[@dreworyan5652]

I remember when Netflix was brand new. My aunt got some movies ordered to the house for rental, and my grandma thought it was junk and threw them all out 😁😁😁

[@dwane17444]

That’s s rough buddy

[@michael1234252]

Same here. My mom has had her Netflix account since like 2005 or so. But We never had an issue with a family member throwing out the Red Netflix envelop by mistaking it as junk mail.

[@shadyomo3636]

1:56 im 19 and i love using paper maps, its more fun navigating you're rather than the directions being handed to you

[@MsKatieMD]

I have super vintage typewriters still in their cases, a few old sewing machines, record players, records, furniture, old bibles and hymns for mass, vintage home brewing kit with all the old bottles, art work. My grandparents and their siblings collected things and we ended up with a lot of it.

[@emmafrost16]

Card catalogs are satisfying to use. Its like you're finding an important document to save the world. 😂 Yes i have and overactive imagination and yes im lonely. 😭

[@nmcrose]

Lol I totally agree

[@thatquietkid23]

I’m sensing infp vibes

[@zwenkwiel816]

Lol, you're right. Outside of the doctor's office I only really saw them in spy movies and shit XD

[@SustainedFuture]

And when that search leads to an obscure article you can only read on the microfiche machine, you know you've hit the jackpot.

[@nishitaniyumi]

An alternative title for this video could be "Top 20 Ways to Make You Feel Old"

[@Gambit2483]

😂 So true

[@bessdougla]

This countdown carried me down memory lane.

[@MichaelPop72]

I remember years back when I was an OTR truck driver I owned a huge Rand McNally map book, I came across it a few weeks back and my 7 year old wanted it as a “picture book” she writes in now with a dry erase marker. For those that don’t know, the premium versions you found in large book stores and actual truck stops like pilot, Flying J..etc.., all had laminated pages and were on a huge sturdy binder.

[@Bjork4s]

This is where my future kids would be like "I was born in the wrong generation 😭😭😭" I'm sorry for kids next generation who will never experienced these stuff

[@alexiious]

Ye I had CD's and bags for CD's

[@kaciestup5829]

Amen! I feel so privileged, to be able to have seen the evolution of multiple things!

[@averagehuman1462]

I know a lot of these, but I was born in this bad generation where everyone is addicted to there phone

[@m56214]

@@averagehuman1462 True wonder what year people started to be glued to it

[@bedivere2217]

@@m56214 Well, people get addicted to those old technologies and smart phones are literally all of those in one handheld device. It isn't that big of a mystery why

[@NS_first]

Unless I missed it, I was surprised I didn’t see something like “Blockbuster video” (or a similar type place). Now that there’s all these streaming services, it doesn’t happen much anymore, but I still have fond memories of going to blockbuster as a family and renting movies to watch together…

[@zwenkwiel816]

Yeah kind of weird how the effort was part of the fun. Streaming is way more convenient but it loses a lot of the charm. Like pretty soon we'll never have to go outside for anything...

[@PupOrionSirius26]

Blockbuster is an out of date store, not a piece of technology. 8 tracks and LP/45 could make this list, but were mostly dead by the 90's anyway.

[@NS_first]

@@PupOrionSirius26 technically, I don’t think it was stated it’s technology only, it’s more about stuff that “kids these days” wouldn’t recognize.

[@shawnnoyes2776]

Funnily enough there is a movie on Netflix about the last Blockbuster... if you have fond memories you should watch it... also I was a HUGE fan of Blockbusters mailed DVD feature, you could return them to the store, and the next one would ship that day, faster than when you mailed one back (because it had to get there first).

[@videogameguy101]

Parents rent a movie; I rent a GameCube game lmfaoo

[@andeeharry]

20.....never knew about those and this takes me back

[@DyenamicFilms]

I remember all these that kids probably can't even comprehend: When TV Guide was so small it was stapled together. When you had to get up to change the channel on the TV. When there were only around 4 or 5 channels on TV. When there was a glowing 'dot' after you turned a tube tv off. When HBO came on only at night (and HBO was pretty much the only movie channel around). When there were cigarette vending machines (easily accessible to kids). When soda and beer cans had pull tabs (that came off and you had to throw away). When there were 8 track tapes. When there was still a milkman. I was a kid in the 70's and 80's.

[@TheRealTestFry2024]

I am not stupid. they still have these in newspapers in my region. even my brother knows what they are and hes 3

[@orcaman8794]

I still miss turning on the computer/internet and hearing a voice say"You've got mail."

[@uziel900able]

That windows sound was something else lol

[@bash8387]

Or your parents yelling at you cause your on the internet

[@glossylove21]

All i can say about all these things is that it was the coolest thing we had at the time.

[@tabby73]

True

[@w8kdzradio113]

coolest things to this day well with the exception of dial up access which was mostly dialing for 30 to 45 minutes to get online

[@fourhines]

I'm 29 and I have a big collection of vhs, cassettes, records, etc... and I remember almost all of the things on your list including the Netflix by mail :-) When I was growing up I lived in Russia and my parents would send vhs tapes to my grandparents in the days before fb messenger or Whatsapp :-) I even remember teaching my grandma how to use a computer

[@MINGIRL1979]

I still have my yellow Sony Walkman Tape player that I received for Christmas one year! It still works and I still have tapes to play in it!

[@kyan226]

I remember my grandmother using kodaks (or something similar) in the 2000's to take pictures and when she got them developed, half the pictures had a finger in front of the lens XD and because she paid good money for it, they still ended up in the picturebooks.

[@w8kdzradio113]

Kodak 126 film and 110 film existed during the same time, then came 35MM and expensive cameras, my dad has one he bought in the 80's a Minolta, he had the filter rack on the front of the lens, and all that stuff is obsolete, he still has the camera, hard to find film and processing

[@bobbyboyderecords]

That was not a finger. Ask your grandfather

[@johnbgood52]

@@w8kdzradio113 35mm cameras have been around since the 1930s, and pros still use them because there are a few old school publications that still don't accept digital submissions.

[@raventhevelociraptor4372]

I still have an NES that we play often. My 9 year old definitely knows what wired game controllers are.

[@mikefisher4834]

I can’t remember where he got them but in the early 90s my dad had a closet full of NES systems in case the one we were playing stopped working💯😂

[@whynot7479]

GREAT JOB WITH FINDING VINTAGE FOOTAGE TO BACK UP CLAIMS STATEMENTS & FACTS

[@What_Makes_Climate_Tick]

Some of these memories are linked to the senses. Some commenters mentioned how ingrained the sound of the telephone modem linkage was, and the video mentioned the tactile aspect of the rotary phone. I'll add the smell of mimeograph. This was an older technology for copying printed material. One would make a stencil in a wax-coated piece of permeable paper (using a typewriter), then put it in a machine that would put blue-purple ink through the stencil. The smell was strongest from the machine itself, but also emanated from the copies.

[@geraldmartin7703]

My fifth grade teacher had a fit every time she'd distribute hand outs and the class would immediately start sniffing the sheets.

[@MrAce-lm8es]

Of course, I remember the Original Netflix Mail In DVDs.

[@youropinionmeansnothing2825]

I first watched the wire through the Netflix DVD lol slowest way ever to watch a series

[@Christian988.]

I remember being part of a film club when I was at primary school and they would order film DVDs from Netflix depending on what flim won the vote that week or the one time it was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

[@youropinionmeansnothing2825]

@@Christian988. watching the wire we would only get 1 disc at a time and sometimes you'd wait only to get 2 episodes then ship it back out lol

[@MisterE80]

I actually still rent DVDs and Blu-rays from DVD Netflix. I also rent Blu-rays, 3D Blu-rays, and 4K Blu-rays from a company called 3D Blu-ray Rental, Inc.

[@youropinionmeansnothing2825]

@@MisterE80 3D and 4k are expensive so renting them is a good idea.

[@konsextus]

Wow, today I just realised that I'm old! As someone who grew up while all those things were steadily becoming obsolete (but were still in use during my younger years) I envy the kids of today for not having to deal with all the struggles that we had to deal with. And at the same time, I kinda pity them, since things like dial-up and cassette tapes taught most of us patience that you'd need to be meditating in order to achieve! P.S. the amazing voice of WatchMojo seems to be matching perfectly the beautiful lady we just saw! Keep up the awesome work with the voiceover, Rebecca!

[@blazewinchester1309]

This list just aged me at least 50 years.. 😂😂 But seriously, so much nostalgia!! ❤❤

[@sharenread8677]

Phone books are on line now,because at the place where I work,we do paper recycling and our people rip up the pages,the go into boxes,get sorted and remade into cardboard food trays. A staff said everything goes to a place in Edmonton. Cardboard is now compostable and is ripped up when wet,and goes back into the soil for your garden. Tree lives,gets chopped down made into paper,shredded and remade into new products. Then replant seeds. Sharen

[@ChristionGirl45]

Anyone else remember the "Got Milk" ads on the back of the TV guide's? I remember when Blue & Steve and Pikachu were on there!

[@ThePokestopPapi]

Or the old "YahoOooHHooOo" noise of the Yahoo! Website in the early days of the internet 😂

[@jasmyneperryman9629]

Yes I remember those there were a ton of got milk ads they even used the rugrats at one point

[@joshlindig5853]

I just want to say that I always like wired controllers because you don’t have to re-charge them at all or sync them or anything

[@Klaaism]

Ok boomer

[@omegadrive9999]

Wired Controllers will outlive Wireless Controllers in the long term once Battery Degradation takes effect and makes them Wired to Charger to even use them anymore.

[@TheRealTestFry2024]

god they still make em for PS4. Tangling for a kid is bad and im a kid.

[@DirtyMikeandTheBoyz]

Cool! So nice to be able to put a face to the epic voice ❤️

[@talevita]

There are a few things that I remember that are not on this list. The answering machine and the caller id box that was connected to your phone and showed the number, not the name, that was calling (I was so excited to get this!) Not to mention back in the day when the Mtv television channel was nothing but music videos.

[@Allex1991]

I’m so happy being a 90’s kid (bort 91). I grew up watching vhs, and remember the times before smart phones, social media etc. I remember playing cs 1.5 and BF 1942 at the internet café 😎

[@Mangolite]

“You’re an encyclopedia of football.” “Oh, what?” He is not an encyclopedia then, lol!

[@HarryWessex]

Even though he should know what an encyclopaedia is as he was born in September 1995. Knowing what one is wouldn't come under "Encyclopaedia of Football" to be fair... But seriously... he was born in September 1995... he should know what one is.

[@powerviolentnightmare5026]

Nah, he's a pretty stupid guy. Not because of this but for various reasons.

[@powerviolentnightmare5026]

Only an idiot would choose England over Ireland.

[@HarryWessex]

@@powerviolentnightmare5026 England...A country that actually qualifies for Tournaments? The country he was born & raised in... unlike Ireland.. Only an idiot would choose Ireland if they're good enough to play for England.

[@roberw1912]

I think Grealish did not understand the question.

[@andrewbatts7678]

back as a lad, the latest release of encarta(a computer encyclopedia program)was our equivalent of the internet. just as i was waiting for Encarta 95 to be released i got my first AOL account. it was amusing but i still got and used the latest version of Encarta as it was far quicker than the internet. and it didnt stop to "add new art" every 3 minutes. what amazed me most was the chat rooms. the idea of talking to another person with text in real time was mind boggling and the height of internet technology as far as i was concerned

[@nunyabusinesss1476]

lol, I remember this radio station I used to listen to did a parody commercial for a Pager that made Fart noises they called Fart Beep. Never had to deal with a rotary phone but, I do fondly remember my walkman, discman. One of my first jobs was as a Librarian Assist and it fell to me to re organize the card catalogue at the end of the day and even printing out new cards when we got new books in. lol And those old baud modems...good times good times. Oh man I had a bunch of the 5 1/4 and 3.5's disc for my old Commodore 64 :D

[@legendr09]

Thanks for making me feel old WatchMojo 😭 #90’sKid4Life

[@kaciestup5829]

1992! The 90s were the best ❤️ absolutely love the nostalgia in this video ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@evanshannon]

“Pagers have all but disappeared” Me, a healthcare worker

[@knittedfingers4869]

Came on comments to say that hospitals still use pagers to page clinicians as you can’t always have a phone on you but a pager is easy to wear on the waist band. You beat me to it lol

[@nicole_rogue]

Lol I was about to say this same thing. I actually have a gas station franchise that's near my house that has the managers carry pagers too.

[@evanshannon]

@@knittedfingers4869 it’s also mainly because pagers use radio waves and not mobile networks. They work when the power goes out or if you don’t have reception on your phone.

[@stephenkeen5737]

Virtually never knew them in NZ. Some doctors had them and that was it.

[@jameswitherow5149]

I was a 90's kid, so I saw a lot of (and used) what was on this list. With the assorted headaches that came with it. Yes, looking back, Walkman and Diskman players were just that goofy.

[@ElijahRenee]

I remember the dial up days. My family didn't have a subscription to an internet provider but we'll get these aol cd's in the mail that gave us a trial. Funny how times changed, used to have the patience to wait 5 minutes for a page to change, nowadays rage if it doesn't load up in 5 seconds.

[@mistermack4987]

I remember when you could tell how good the internet connection was by counting the seconds between the different sounds

[@silentkilla14]

Who remembers playing the first addictive mobile game called Snake? Man i loved that game!

[@Zappo32]

I know and used most of the stuff on the list. It's interesting that a considerably number of youngsters from the Z/Centennial age group are interested in cassette/tapes for music listening. I like them and still own a few, but some of us Genexers only had them because we couldn't afford CDs and LPs. Cassettes were cheaper.

[@dickfacy6229]

Countless times I've had to crack open a cassette tape and scotch tape the broken ribbon back together. Now you don't even need physical media.

[@geekyfangirl2951]

I remember going into cvs to get my pictures developed 😂 (I was born in 1999 I don’t remember dial up because my families first computer was a dell computer around 2004)

[@southernoregoncatmom6519]

I remember phone books also being used as Boster seats.

[@WatchMojo]

Secondary use!

[@ChickItsAwesome]

And people still call me a kid! I’m 20 and I know a lot of these! Some I’ve even used or seen used! I remember my Mawmaw recording a tape of me talking or when I made my first song when I was little. Yeah, that’s right. I wrote my first song when I was 5 and I still haven’t shared them with the world, even though my skills have gotten better and my songs are occasionally admired. As for Netflix DVD’s… my mom says that that’s the service she got the DVD’s for our weekly family movie nights from. Some family favorites are still available, but for streaming as well.

[@richardfrostell9395]

I had a wireless adaptor for my NES back in the day. You would plug the inferred receiver into the console and plugged the controller into a box that could be set wherever. Loved it. Until someone would stand in front of where the console was. Moooooommmm!

[@joltx9909]

The most important thing kids today don't recognize: good music

[@WatchMojo]

Burn, that's a burn!

[@w8kdzradio113]

yeah so you know why the music was better, because we didn't have skip buttons it meant physically picking up the needle, fast forwarding a cassette, or changing the program, and in the case of 8-Track, it was a continuous loop of tape that spooled from a reel from the inside and wound on the outside, and the pinch roller and capistan had to control the movement, and it usually meant waiting for your song to come back around and if it hit the silver strip it would change the program and if it was on Program four it would go to one and you would have to click very fast before your song started

[@joltx9909]

@@w8kdzradio113 or just mainly because the focus wasn't on dancers, provocative lyrics and cheap vibe overall (referring mainly to the pop genre). Instead the music was about... Well, music

[@esands36]

I still have 2½ wallets of CDs. 🤣

[@intorainbowzOG]

Same. For nostalgia my office cd case is in my desk. Still. No I do not have a disk drive in my computer. Or in my new car.

[@w8kdzradio113]

yeah me too I still keep a small selection of CD's when I DJ just in case the computer crashes

[@garybradley912]

Ahh man....memories. 🙂 Video game discs were mentioned, so I'll add cartridges to the list. Nintendo Switch games are descendants of the original Nintendo cartridges you sometimes had to blow on to get them to work! Also, no online game play - you went to the mall to the arcade or convenience stores to play with and against people you didn't know!

[@travist.7279]

I have a few old bits of tech, that I keep as "collector's items": 1): An old Polaroid "One Step", that took the SX-70 film. Anyone remember those? I forget how I got it. I think someone just gave it to me, as I like collecting old cameras. 2): An early RCA full-size VHS camcorder---complete with all accessories. Remember those huge beasts? It's nearly the size and weight of a car battery. About 15 years ago, at a garage sale, I picked it up for just One Dollar! It was in perfect working condition. I only used it once, just to test it. 3): A new, in-the-package, black rotary phone. Back in the late 80's, the phone company was dumping their stock of rotary phones. An employee snagged a truckload of them, before they went to the landfill. He took them to the flea market, and sold them as collector's items, for $5 apiece. That was too good to pass-up. 4): An old i486 computer, that runs on DOS. Back in '92, I got it practically brand new, at a business bankruptcy auction. I paid $500---which at the time, was a real steal, as these were selling in stores for $2500 or more! Back then, even the cheapest home computer cost at-least $2K. The HDD held an amazing 200 MB! I've held onto it as a novelty. It still works, though I now have to slap the side on startup, to get the HDD spinning. 5): Anyone remember "Zip Drives"? They were a type of floppy that could hold an amazing 100 MB. These were great for mass backup storage, before the days of affordable CD burners. A few years ago, I came across one that was still new-in-the-box. I installed in my desktop computer, so that I could copy some old Zip Disks to CD's. It's still there, though I doubt that it still works. Zip Drives were notorious for cratering after just a couple/few months. Still, it did what I needed it to do. Next computer upgrade, the Zip will likely hit the junk bin.

[@Jose-ht2lw]

Glad to have experienced first hand everything on this list.

[@sahilalombarbhuiya4832]

Hi Rebecca! Glad you're back again... Seriously, I'm a big fan after that interview with Tom Holland :')

[@WatchMojo]

She never left! lol, but yeah that was a great interview!

[@harvey10k]

Is it just me or does rotary phones have one of the coolest dialing mechanisms my aunt has one in her house as an antique and I remember always dialing random numbers just to see the numbers spin in place to register sure it was timely but it's still kinda cool how that phone worked back in the day

[@stephensnell5707]

Well it is even better that they no longer exist

[@christinescreativitycabine280]

Here's my list of things I remember that kids today would not recognize that were not already in the video: 1. Typewriters. Having to write academic papers or resumes on a typewriter. How much fun it was when you made a mistake. You had three choices: 1. using a typewriter eraser that could easily rub a hole in the paper; 2. using correction fluid that could gum up your typewriter keys if you didn't let it dry for long enough; or 3. retyping the whole damn page. 2. Computers that filled up whole rooms and ran on punched cards (and which had less processing power than an iWatch of today) 3. The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (which you used in high school) or Abstracts Volumes (which you used in college) 4. Phone booths. Yes, these actually existed outside of Superman movies. Actually, pay phones in general. 5. Paper zines. 6. Watching 16 mm films or film strips in the classroom, as well as overhead projectors, which somebody else mentioned below 7. Cash registers in stores that required checkout clerks to key in the prices with lighting fast fingers. And the receipts were just long lists of prices--you had to remember what you bought and at which price, because it wasn't on the receipt 8. In the video, they compared CD binders to photo albums. Do kids today even know about photo albums? 9. Glass pop bottles that you had to pay a deposit on to remove them from the store. If you found these in the trash, or thrown out by the side of the road, you could bring them to a store and get the deposits on them. 10. Slide rules You also forgot to mention that, similar to the floppy disc save icon, the icon on smartphones for making a phone call looks like the receiver from an old-style dial phone. Do kids today know what that is?