The Eighties and Nineties generation teenagers are now parents of the tech whiz generation.

However, some of the gizmos that we have grown up on will no surely baffle our children.

Here’s going into nostalgia and taking a look at some of the gadgets that we took for granted, that came and went during half of our life span…

Rotary Telephone (where do you swipe on this to make a call?)

Children, we had buttons before we had touch screens. And before that, there were rotary dials. Arranged on a circular dial, each number corresponded to a finger hole, which was then turned until a “finger stop” prevented further rotation. Known as Pulse Dialling, this technology essentially counted the number of pulses made by each movement of the dial, encoding it into a number. A more hands-on approach, rotary dialling also took longer as users had to wait for the dial to reset between each digit.

Typewriters (Oh My God…You are typing straight onto a Printer…and where do you save the file?) 

First invented in the 1860s, typewriters allowed individuals to quickly type documents in a standardised format without electricity, revolutionising professional writing. Honed and developed for just over 100 years, the humble typewriter was no match for the word processor and later now, the personal computer.

Standalone Analog Cameras (Can I take a Video and a Selfie on this?) 

More than just an additional feature, the standalone camera is still a great way of taking quick, high quality pictures. Still used by professional photographers – but now with a digital capturing system – sales of standalone cameras have reduced amongst the general public, replaced by integrated cameras in smart devices.

Video Cassette (Hey Dad…can I download a Torrent Movie on this?) 

The eventual winner of one of the first format wars, JVC’s VHS tape eventually overcame Sony’s smaller, compact Betamax. Most popular in the 70’s and 80’s the VHS used magnetic tape stored in a plastic cassette – storing up to 5 hours of footage. After the rise of optical storage media such as DVDs in the late 90s, the popularity of the VHS reduced.

Walkman (hey Mummy, can this play music from my iPod?)

First released in 1979, the Sony Walkman heralded a revolution in personal audio. Small enough to carry, and fashionable enough to use in public, the Sony Walkman originally played cassette tapes – although Sony still uses the Walkman brand today for audio products.

CRT Computers and Bulky Printers (I need a separate room for these?)

Early TV screens and computer monitors were much boxier, mainly thanks to Cathode Ray Tube, or CRT technology. Comprised of a vacuum-sealed electron gun and phosphor screen, electron beams were fired at the screen from the gun. These beams were then steered by magnetic deflection, eventually striking the phosphor and producing an image on the screen. Thinner and more efficient, OLED, LED and backlit LCD screens have quickly taken the place of CRTs.

Floppy (could this have been used in place of our USB drives?)

Composed of a thin, magnetic disc and a plastic casing, the floppy disc originally came in sizes as large as 8 inches, but soon shrunk to the more widely-known 3 1/2 inch design. Capable of holding 1.44MB of data, the floppy disc soon lost out to formats such as the 650MB compact disc, which could hold around 450 times more data. And now we have the multi GB USB cards the size of a toffee.

…put in any more you can think of and what your children would say to them…

Information Source: Wiki Commons