Every generation has its own vision of how technology should cater to their needs, and while Boomers aren’t too crazy about tech in general, and like to keep the number of their gadgets to a bare minimum, Millennials and Gen Z love the ease and comfort tech bestowed upon them.

Since there’s always a correlation between our actual and technological age, we decided to take a walk down memory lane and bring you a list of tech gadgets we once couldn’t live without, and now they’ve completely lost their purpose.

Walkman and Discman

We tend to underestimate the luxury of having your favorite music with us at all times. Not so long ago, portable music was only a dream. Now, we can scroll through an entire music history in just a few clicks. Before Spotify and even MP3s, people were carrying around Walkmans and Discmans. These devices usually wouldn’t fit into a pocket, and we would have to bring whole binders full of CDs or stacks of cassettes if we wanted to change our music. Even though they were highly impractical, we all have fond memories of these gadgets.

Game Boy

1989 was an iconic year in the history of game consoles. Nintendo released its first handheld console called the Game boy, which turned out to be a major success, and in the following years, it showed record sales numbers worldwide. By 1998, when Nintendo introduced Game Boy Color, they had already sold more than 64 million devices. The game console quickly won people’s hearts with its sturdy hardware, excellent battery life, and captivating games like Super Mario, Tetris, and The Legend of Zelda.

Tamagotchi

If you grew up in the ‘90s and your parents wouldn’t allow you to get a pet, Tamagotchi was most likely at the top of your wishlist. These egg-shaped digital pets became so popular and addictive that schools started to ban them, so we used to spend all our breaks feeding, disciplining them, and playing games. They had a ridiculously short life span, and most of us had several Tamagotchis until they faded into oblivion and started gathering dust at the bottom of our drawers.

Floppy disks

Floppy disks became available in the ‘70s, and they were the most sophisticated data storage solution known at the time. Earlier editions of the floppy disks could store only 80 KB of data, while later versions held around 1,44 MB. As our need for storage space increased, floppy disks become obsolete. Their other flaw was their poor durability – for instance, data could get easily destroyed by running a magnet over the disk. Furthermore, any exposure to heat, cold, dust, or humidity could irretrievably ruin your precious data and get you in trouble if you didn’t bother to check your floppy disk before using it. Even though they sometimes caused more harm than good, floppy disks played a critical role in developing reliable data storage solutions we still use today.

Film cameras

If you’re not a professional photographer, you’re probably not familiar with film cameras and photographic processing. However, if you’re one of the lucky ones growing up during the ‘80s and the ‘90s, your family probably owned a compact film camera to capture all the significant but mostly embarrassing moments of your childhood. After shooting a roll of film, the most tedious part was waiting for days, even weeks, to get your photos processed by a local shop. Film cameras were quickly replaced with digital cameras, which also became obsolete as soon as cameras on our phones became advanced enough to catch our brightest moments.

Conclusion

Even though technological advancements make our lives more convenient, sometimes it’s nice to look back and recall all the quirky gadgets that used to make our lives easier and more fun. Regardless of our age, tech has always piqued our interest and encouraged us to develop our skills to keep up with the requirements society, and the workplace has brought on us. However, learning how to use tech isn’t enough. At this moment in time, we’re faced with more cybersecurity threats than ever, and the numbers will continue to grow even more rapidly. Therefore, it’s essential to ensure a sturdy cybersecurity strategy and adjust it to your needs and preferences, whatever gadgets you use.