R.I.P., Relics of My Childhood
Movie Rental Stores– You may enjoy Netflix or Redbox more now, but what do you do when you want to rent an old obscure movie that hasn’t made its way to the digital archives?!- Hand Written Letters– Receiving one of these is like a golden packet of sunshine these days.
- Encyclopedias– Not that many people really liked encyclopedias that much anyways.
- Paper Maps– Just wait until your smart phone dies and you have to use one of these dinosaurs to find your way. It’s much harder than you might think.
- Fax Machines– With a couple exceptions, these sending machines for real paper have all but died.
- Bookstores– Remember when the cool thing to do was to spend hours waking through a mega book store? Ok well I do and it was awesome! Too bad Barnes and Noble are really the only ones left.
- CD Shops– Finding new music used to mean exploring the racks of a CD store. It’s weird to think that this is another thing I’ll have to explain to my kids.
- Being blissfully unaware of coworkers personal lives– Oh come on, everyone has worked with someone who, at one point or another, was an overly eager social media poster.
- Photo Albums– The real ones.
- Thinking you’re the craftiest person you know– Thanks a lot Pinterest.
- AOR (Album Oriented Rock)– Maybe I’m showing my age, but living in Nashville teaches you a lot about how the music industry has changed. One element that is nearly dead is album-oriented rock (meaning a focus on the whole album, not just the singles). If you don’t know what I mean, go listen to all of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
- Not having access to all the information all the time– When you’re out with your friends and you’re arguing about which basketball player is taller, which restaurant is more popular or who wrote the best twitter eBook (come on, it’s pretty obvious), you sometimes wish you just didn’t know the answer.
- Pagers– I’ll be honest, pagers are definitely before my time, but man I wish I would’ve had one!
- Home Phones– I remember when there was only one house phone and my friends would call and my mom would tell me not to hog the line.
- Not being in touch– Sometimes you just want to leave and not have to worry about getting texted.
- Not having a TV show spoiled– Before the internet, it was easy to watch your favorite show without fear of it being ruined. But then again, you also weren’t able to record shows so you had to see it live. Either way.
- Getting to know your crush slowly over time– Jasmine gave me the idea for this one and I think the concept is that nowadays people immediately facebook stalk their latest crush to find out as much information as possible. There was once a time when such stalking was impossible.
- Catalogs– I used to look through the toys section of the Sears catalog at least once a week leading up to Christmas.
- TV Guide Magazine– Ok maybe someone misses this, but I sure don’t.
- Gracefully Losing Touch– On the off chance that you know someone whom you’d rather not, this can be a real bummer. Nowadays losing touch must be a very direct and purposeful effort. Thanks a lot social media!
- Phonebooks– I know that online searches are easier, but have you ever tried to stand on your iphone to reach the top shelf? It doesn’t give you nearly the height of a phone book.
- Calculators– One day we’ll all miss real buttons.
- Movie and CD Collections- Remember when your friends had stacks of VHS’s or DVD’s sitting around the house? It seems less and less common as consumers are relying on digital warehouses like Netflix.
- Mix CDs– Getting a playlist on Spotify is easier I know, but it just doesn’t feel quite as personal as a mix cd with your name on it.
- Productivity– “Multitasking” is the trendy new word for “distracted by everything on buzzfeed.
- Privacy– Try as we might, you can’t keep everything off the internet.
- Private Childhood Photos– Just think about what it’s going to be like for the next generation whose whole lives will be digitally documented!
- Trolls (the magical kind under the bridge, not the hateful kind)– Ok so maybe the internet didn’t kill the magical trolls, but it certainly created the anonymous hateful ones.
- Only talking politics when you want to– It’s easy to miss the days when you only had to talk politics when you wanted to and with whom you wanted to. During election season, that Facebook feed is a field of landmines!
- The Music Industry– Record sales are at all time lows.
- TRL (Total Request Live on MTV)– Before being the star of The Voice, Carson Daily counted down music videos on MTV (back when they actually played music videos). It may not be totally the Internet’s fault, but we’re still bitter about losing TRL.
- The Exclusivity of the Fashion Industry– Katie Redmond told me, in making this list, that the fashion industry has suffered mightily from bloggers and photographers who spread runway fashions too quickly.
- Reunion Surprises– Forget about impressing everyone at your high school reunion by showing up with a Porsche. If they’re your social media friends, they already know what you’re up to.
- Getting Lost– Getting lost isn’t always a good thing, but sometimes it’s a nice way to spend an afternoon.
- Slide show party– Feel like inviting your friends over to see a slideshow of your latest trip? You better not upload the pictures to social media first!
- Not knowing the weather– Sometimes you just want to be surprised!
- The 9 to 5 work day– How many people can honestly say that their cell phone, laptop, home computer, tablet, and everything else are turned off when they go home?
- Talking to Strangers– The next time you’re waiting on a train or a flight, or just standing in a lobby—look at the people. Who’s engaging with strangers and who’s staring at their smart phone?
- Memorized Phone Numbers– Bet you don’t know more than 5.
- The ability to properly spell– itz hard to spel propurly with a compyouter.
image credit: potowizard/freedigitalphotos.net 
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