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From Landlines to Tamagotchis, Love Letters to Obsolete Technology

The last man standing in the floppy disk business, the benefits of a landline, and why dumb phones and digital cameras are on the rise.

Kimi Goffe

Read when you’ve got time to spare.

Picture this: a teen girl is chatting on a chunky Nokia phone that’s not connected to the internet, taking pictures of her friends with a silver Canon digital camera, and listening to her fave pop star on cassette.

No, it’s not the late 90s or early 2000s; it’s 2023 and old tech is making a generational comeback. Gen Z is embracing the blurry, overlit visual aesthetic of digital cameras and the lessened screentime of “dumb phones.”

The tech we use in our daily lives today barely resembles that of 50 years ago. But some tech you might assume was obsolete never really went away. Floppy disks still power decades-old industrial embroidery machines, many healthcare professionals continue to use pagers, and fax machines remain prevalent in Japanese offices.

It’s hard to predict what sticks and what doesn’t, what will be rescued from dusty attic boxes and resold for many times its original price, and what might just as well have been thrown away. Cassette and VHS tapes may reach the cult status of vinyl records one day, and who knows—in 20 years, all the cool kids might be hanging out at internet cafes.

Explore the surprising afterlives of “obsolete” technologies in the articles below. And if you think you can predict the future of innovation’s past, start stockpiling DVDs, iPods and maybe even lightning cables today.

Image by luplupme / Getty Images.

America Gave up on the Best Home Technology There Is

The death of the landline was premature.

We Spoke With the Last Person Standing in the Floppy Disk Business

Turns out the obsolete floppy is way more in demand than you’d think.

Dumb Phones Are on the Rise in the U.S. As Gen Z Looks to Limit Screen Time

A resurgence in dumb phones in the U.S. may be tied to concerns about the mental health impact of smartphones, especially among younger generations.

The World’s Last Internet Cafes

For a quarter century, internet cafes connected the world. Now they’re vanishing into history.

A Decade of Music Is Lost on Your iPod. These Are The Deleted Years. Now Let Us Praise Them.

From 2003 to 2012, music was disposable and nothing survived.

The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera

Young people are opting for point-and-shoots and blurry photos.

The Tamagotchi Was Tiny, but Its Impact Was Huge

It’s been over a quarter of a century since the little device first hit store shelves, but its simple brilliance lives on in today’s most popular games.

Who Still Uses Pagers?

Though they’ve long since been replaced by cell phones, beepers have more uses today than you might realize.

The End of Computer Magazines in America

With Maximum PC and MacLife’s abandonment of print, the dead-tree era of computer journalism is officially over. It lasted almost half a century—and was quite a run.

How to Start a Cassette Collection in the 21st Century

The most unlikely of music formats is staging a return. Part novelty and part nostalgia, here’s how to dive in.

I’ve Rented DVDs From Netflix for Half My Life – Streaming Is a Poor Substitute

The slow extinction of physical media is bad news for movie fans. We’re told that “everything’s streaming now”, but it’s simply not true.

Be Kind and Rewind: Inside the Growing Cult of VHS Survivalists

While Netflix leverages nostalgia for a format it helped destroy via the sitcom ‘Blockbuster’, cinephiles from Liverpool to Los Angeles – and notably former video shop employee Quentin Tarantino – are heralding a newfound appreciation for the VHS tape.

Japan’s Love Affair With the Fax Machine—A Strange Relic of Technological Fantasies

Despite its cutting-edge image, Japan has a soft spot for the decidedly 20th-century machines.