The post reflects on how technology has changed everyday activities like watching TV shows, making mix tapes, and using landline phones. It highlights the shift from physical media to digital ones.
With Recollection Road's recent video clip, we take a nostalgic walk down memory lane, examining the ordinary things of yesteryears and how technology has left some practices behind. Here's a closer look at then and now.
Remember Missing TV Shows? If you ever missed a TV show back in the day, your only hope was a rerun or clever bathroom timing during commercials. Now, streaming services and DVR have made waiting a thing of the past.
Before cell phones existed, parents would drop their kids at the mall, arranging to meet at a specific time and place. It was a trust exercise that's become obsolete in instant communication.
You might still remember making mix tapes. This thing involved hours of carefully selecting and copying songs. Now, digital playlists can be assembled in mere seconds. The intimacy of the mixtape era is something missed by many.
MTV may have been one of the biggest things in the 80s. It exposed us to many bands that we may not have known otherwise. Moreover, kids today would never understand what it means to feel bored on a long car ride. Long before movie players and cell phones, we had nothing to do except stare out the window.
Joining fan clubs via mail was a thrill, with newsletters, pins, and buttons arriving in the post. It indeed made our day. Now with social media, the magic has somewhat faded, although fan clubs continue to exist to date, and people do have idols they cherish. If you like traveling, you surely know how to read paper maps.
They were once the guiding force for travelers. However, GPS and digital maps have replaced them, making navigation instant and hassle-free. Nowadays, video stores have been replaced by online streaming or OTT platforms.
And memorizing phone numbers has given way to digital contacts. Even Address books are now digital. At the same time, concert tickets are mostly purchased online. Encyclopedias have made way for online resources like Google.
While Caller ID is now a standard feature on every mobile phone, we used to use films such as 110 or 35 millimeters for photography. Working with a camera required us to bring it to our faces and squint through the little viewfinder. However, nowadays, most of us who are not professionals just look at the screen and take a picture, and it is all done.
From TV shows to fan clubs, maps to photography, we've come a long way in how we do everyday things. The shift from then and now continues to shape our lives, making the familiar into the pages of history. Yet, these changes also bring about a yearning for simpler times. Who knows what will become a nostalgic "then" in the future?
