Before the age of smartphones and the internet, people had to rely on a different set of skills to get through the day. These skills may seem trivial now, but they were once essential.
A user asked the forum, People born before 1990, what trivial skill do you possess that no one uses anymore? Here are the common responses.
FOLDING A MAP
“I can re-fold a map correctly.”
DIALING ON ROTATORY PHONE BY HANGING THE SWITCH
“I haven’t used this in decades, but I used to be able to dial people on a rotary phone by tapping the hang-up switch.”
PHONE NUMBERS
‘Remembering phone numbers.”
RECORDING TAPE FROM THE RADIO
“Record to tape from the radio. Trying to make sure to not get the DJ/presenter talking or an ad.”
DEWEY DECIMAL
“Using the Dewey decimal at the library.”
DESTROYING SUPER MARIO
“I outright destroyed Super Mario Brothers in almost no time flat very recently on Nintendo Switch after not having played it for probably 30 years.
I did it totally from memory on just the second run-through. I even hit the multiple 1-up glitch on World 3-1. My kids thought I was a god (for just a few minutes).”
PROCESS PHOTOGRAPHIC FILM
“I can develop and process photographic film and enlarge prints in a dark room.”
DIAGNOSING CONNECTION PROBLEMS BY A SOUND
“Diagnosing connection problems by the sound the modem makes.”
HOLDING PHONE ON SHOULDER
“Using your shoulder to hold a telephone up to your ear while doing multiple other things at once. Now, the phones are so damned small I drop them.”
PRINTING NEWSPAPER
“I can put an entire actual newspaper together from scratch right down to plating and printing. Also, my cursive is pretty good.”
TEXTING WITH 10 KEY
“Texting with ten keys. I still have it all memorized and could pick up a flip phone and send paragraphs if needed.”
GETTING SHARP RECEPTION FOR THE TV
“Being able to get the sharpest reception for the TV channel you’re watching by turning the giant dial on the top of the television that rotates the ginormous antenna on the roof.”
STARTING A MANUAL CAR
“Crash starts a manual car by rolling down a hill in second gear with the ignition on, then popping the clutch – cars were not so reliable back in the day!”
WATCHING 8mm FILMS
“I can thread and watch 8mm film.”
WIRING A PLUG
“In the UK. A lot of people of that age (I was born in the 90s) know how to wire a plug because British law didn’t require appliances to have pre-wired plugs, and we were expected to wire them ourselves. I believe it was taught in schools.
Now it’s not a required skill anymore, but if we need to know, we can just Google it.”
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The article was originally published on Mrs Daaku Studio.