There’s a special kind of charm in looking back at the 1980s—an era where simplicity ruled, and technology had a tactile, almost magical feel. These everyday items weren’t just tools; they were part of our daily lives, and we couldn’t imagine living without them. It’s funny now, thinking about how many of these things would completely baffle kids today.
Let’s dive into some of the treasures from the 80s that have been left behind in the dust of modern tech.
1. Rotary Phones
I can still hear the clicking sound of the dial turning and snapping back into place. You didn’t just press buttons; you committed to every single number you dialed. And if you made a mistake? Start over from the beginning! Explaining to kids today that this was how we made phone calls feels like describing an ancient ritual.
I distinctly remember the day we moved to a push-button phone (with an extremely long curly phone cord) and feeling like I had just stepped into the future.
2. Cassette Tapes and Walkmans
Ah, the sweet satisfaction of rewinding a cassette tape with a pencil to save battery life in your Walkman. We didn’t just shuffle songs—we curated mixtapes like personal soundtracks to our lives. Now, if you handed a kid a cassette tape, they’d probably wonder why it doesn’t have a touchscreen.
There is a meme that floats around nostalgia communities all the time that shows a pencil and a cassette tape and says, “I’m this old” or “Kids will never understand.”
3. VHS Tapes and VCRs
Renting a movie meant a trip to the video store and a race to rewind before returning it—“Be kind, rewind!” wasn’t just a suggestion; it was a way of life. Adjusting the tracking on a VCR to fix those fuzzy lines on the screen was practically an art form. Netflix? Please. We had to earn our entertainment.
Also, even if VHS tapes (and now DVDs) aren’t as practical or effortless as streaming, the act of going to a video rental store was an absolute ritual. That is something I definitely miss.
4. Dial-Up Modems
The sound of connecting to the internet—part screech, part whale song—was the anthem of our early digital lives. It took patience, too. Someone picking up the phone in another room could cut off your connection. The concept of waiting minutes for a single webpage would be unthinkable now.
Can you imagine trying to stream on something like that? We could barely load images.
5. Typewriters
There’s something deeply satisfying about the clack of a typewriter key and the crisp “ding” of the carriage reaching the end of the line. Mistakes? No backspace—just a bottle of correction fluid and sheer determination. Kids today may think a typewriter is just some quirky decoration. For us, it was how work got done.
6. Rolodex
Our “contacts app” sat right on our desk, spinning like a miniature Ferris wheel of business cards and phone numbers. Flipping through a Rolodex felt oddly empowering, like having a personal database at your fingertips. Sure, it wasn’t searchable, but it didn’t crash, either.
In the end, this isn’t something I miss at all. They were pretty annoying to use, but I still love in movies from the era when someone rips one of the contact cards out and runs off with it. That’s probably the most fun part of those old rolodexs.
7. Pagers and Beepers
Before cell phones, if someone needed to reach you, they’d beep you, and then you’d have to find a phone to call them back. There was a sense of mystery in seeing a number flash on your pager. Now, kids probably wouldn’t even know what to do with one.
Truth be told, I had one of these when I was in junior high. I swapped the default black case for a glow-in-the-dark case (of course), and no one ever paged me on it because I was a kid.
8. Floppy Disks
We stored entire projects on floppy disks that held 800 kilobytes of data. That’s less memory than most text messages these days. The “save” icon in apps is probably the closest kids have ever come to seeing one of these.
Growing up I remember using a 5.25-inch floppy, and I thought the introduction of a 3.5-inch floppy was incredibly futuristic. Kids don’t realize that back in the day that games would pause and tell you to insert the next floppy disk, like you were turning the page in a book.
9. Boomboxes
Carrying around a massive boombox on your shoulder wasn’t just practical—it was a statement. Whether it was blasting a favorite mixtape or tuning into the radio, the boombox made you feel like the king (or queen) of the block. It was also a bit of a flex that you could afford the 8 D batteries it took to power the thing. Today, a Bluetooth speaker the size of a mug could outshine it, but it won’t have the same swagger.
Some of those old boomboxes go for a lot of money on eBay, like this Toshiba BomBeat 40, which has a $5,000 asking price.
10. Film Cameras
We didn’t take 1,000 photos working out the perfect shot. Every click of the shutter mattered because film wasn’t cheap, and you had to wait days to see the results. The idea of a selfie on one of these cameras? Good luck with that.
I recently had a friend come to visit with their ten-year-old son. I bought their kid a disposable camera, and their first question after taking a photo was, “Where do I see it?” I learned from that and decided to introduce my niece and nephew to analog photography through a Fuji Instax camera, which is kind of a small, modern version of the old Polaroids.
11. TV Antennas (Rabbit Ears)
Nothing says 80s TV like fiddling with rabbit ears, trying to get the picture just right. Sometimes we’d wrap them in aluminum foil for an extra boost, and yes, it actually worked. Streaming may be easier, but there’s a certain charm in having to fight for your entertainment.
I don’t think kids today can ever really grasp that you’d have to adjust the antenna every time you changed the channel (all 5 of them). It wasn’t just about fine-tuning the picture of what you were watching (and it was definitely that, too); sometimes, you would switch channels and not get anything until you adjusted. I guess it made watching TV a bit of exercise.
12. Physical Encyclopedias
When we needed answers, we didn’t Google them—we went to the bookshelf. A set of encyclopedias was the ultimate knowledge source, and they were so heavy they could double as a workout. Kids today have endless information at their fingertips, but they’ll never know the satisfaction of flipping through those glossy pages.
13. Answering Machines
Voicemail was once a physical tape in a little box by the phone. You’d rush home, hit “play,” and hope for something interesting. If you didn’t like what you heard, rewinding was as easy as holding down a button. If someone beat you to the answering machine and erased the messages? They were gone forever. Kids today wouldn’t last a day with such analog drama.
14. Disposable Flashbulbs for Cameras
Okay we’ve already addressed how much taking film photos could be a guessing game of will it come out right or not. And the stakes there were wasting expensive film not to mention the turnaround time for processing. Now, if you’re trying to shoot at night, it means loading your camera with tiny bulbs that give one blinding burst of light before burning out forever. Yeah, that’s right—single use. If you intended to shoot in low light, you’d carry around a pocket full of these things.
15. Card Catalog Systems
Finding a book at the library was an adventure in itself. You’d search through drawers full of little cards, organized by title, author, or subject, and write down the call number. They called it the Dewie Decimal system. Now, libraries have digital search systems, but it felt like solving a treasure hunt back then.
Ready for some more nostalgia?
