The Top 11 Inventions That Have Become Obsolete in the Last 50 Years

Between IPads and IPhones, the latest technology has truly revolutionized the entire world. The latest gadgets have changed the way we obtain information and communicate with one another. Not to mention the fact that we are able to do such things so much faster than before. So, it’s no wonder that many of our favorite 20th century inventions have been disappearing from store shelves.
But, for nostalgia’s sake, here are 11 inventions that have become obsolete over the past 50 years:

1. Payphones

Remember the days of standing at the payphone and depositing a quarter to make a call? And then when the limited time was up, having to deposit another quarter before getting disconnected? Or, how about having to wait in a long line to use a payphone? Well, thanks to cellphones, the days of pulling into a gas station to find a phone booth are long gone.

2. Landlines

How about those old rotary phones that were connected to the wall? How ‘old school’ was that? Remember how the cord would get all tangled into a wad? Now, with wireless service, people are using their mobile phones and Internet voice services as a primary source of connection. As of June 2009, one-fifth of American households were already wireless, so it will come as no surprise when the landline is completely obsolete in the next few years.

3. VCRs

Remember the days of having to rewind VHS tapes before returning them to the movie rental store? Well, those days are also long gone. In fact, in 2002, VCR’s were officially outsold by DVD players. Now, with the digital movie industry and the invention of DVR, VHS is an archaic tool of the past.

4. Encyclopedias

Remember sitting in a library, reading through Encyclopedia Britannica, researching information for a history paper? Well, now we don’t even have to leave our homes, thanks to the Internet. In fact, it’s hard to imagine life without Google, Bing, and Wikipedia.

5. CD’s

CD’s are another music relic of the past fifty years. Now that we have digital music and the IPod, who needs to carry around those cumbersome mini albums, anyway?

6. Movie Rental Stores

Remember the Friday nights of heading to Blockbuster to pick up a movie? Between Netfix and Video-On-Demand, visiting movie rental stores is no longer necessary. Now, we can simply choose a movie at the click of a button without even leaving the couch.

7. Floppy disks

Remember the days of carrying floppies around in our book bags and heading to the computer lab to work on an assignment?Thanks to tiny hard drives and thumb drives, these guys are needed no longer.

8. Record Stores

Other than for nostalgia purposes, vinyl records have been obsolete for quite a while. Now, Internet and ITunes are the hottest music stores out there. And the best part about them? You don’t even have to leave the house to buy your favorite music these days.

9. Maps

Thanks to smart phones and GPS, we no longer have to pull out those big, bulky, paper maps to figure out where the heck we are going. We simply plug in the address and ‘voila,’ the GPS does all the work for us.

10. Film Developing Centers

Remember the days of dropping off film at a developing center and having to wait a few days to pick up your pictures? Well, those days are no more as we have pictures on demand right from our smartphones.

11. Classified Ads In Newspapers

The days of reading the newspaper classified ads are a thing of the past, thanks to the online sites like Craig’s List and Facebook.