25 Things Kids These Days Will Never Understand

Who remembers all these?

Kids these days. Am I right? With their Snapchats and their selfies. Take a walk down memory lane and see all the things that kids these days will never fully appreciate.

Which ones do you remember? Which ones are your most (or least!) favorite?

Floppy Disks

Once a staple in every tech-savvy home and office, floppy disks have given way to tiny flash drives.

floppy disk photo — Photo by functoruser

Phone Books

To most kids — and a hefty portion of adults — it’s a mystery as to why phone books are still in circulation. While you may no longer use them to look up a plumber or friend’s phone number, there are plenty of way you can put your old yellow pages to good use.

phone book photo — Photo by Jamiesrabbits

Cassette Tapes

If it weren’t for “Guardians of the Galaxy,” kids these days may not even know a cassette tape from Adam. Apparently the Marvel films — with their Walkman-loving protagonist — helped give cassette tapes a retail boost in 2018 for the first time in a long time.

cassette tape photo — Photo by stuart.childs

VHS Tapes

The very last VCR was made in 2016, further cementing VHS tapes’ descent into obscurity.

Speak & Spell

This once ubiquitous Texas Instruments toy is actually still available on sites like Amazon and eBay as a collector’s item.

speak and spell photo — Photo by numberstumper

Listening To The Radio All Day Long Just To Record Your Favorite Song On A Tape

Kids today will never truly understand the joy experienced when you managed to hit record at the exact moment your favorite song came on the radio.

Teddy Ruxpin

Before Tickle Me Elmo, there was Teddy Ruxpin.

Nintendo R.O.B.

Nintendo fans from the ’80s may remember the short-lived R.O.B. — which was compatible with only a couple games on the NES. But the chances of non-’80s kids remembering the R.O.B.? Slim to none.

Making Sure You Don’t Pick Up The Phone So You Don’t Cut Off The Internet

So many wonderful AIM chat sessions were cut short because of this issue. Kids will just never understand.

corded phone photo — Photo by Average Jane

Building A Radio Shack Transistor Radio

The concept of in-home radios is hard enough for kids these days to understand — let alone building one’s own!

transistor radio kit photo — Photo by mightyohm

Crystal Pepsi

While Pepsi’s clear cola had fleeting, promotion-driven returns to store shelves in recent years, many adults will remember Crystal Pepsi’s original early ’90s debut and demise.

Popples

These stuffed animals that could roll up into themselves — and the corresponding TV show about them — debuted in the mid-’80s. There’s a chance kids today may know from Popples, however, as they’ve been brought back to market a couple times in the past two decades — but, as it so often goes, there’s nothing like the originals!

Video Games On Cartridges

Nintendo, Sega, Atari. All the major video game systems had cartridges. Chances are you blew into the bottom of one at least once in your childhood to try and clear up any on-screen wonkiness.

nintendo cartridge photo — Photo by daveoratox

Blockbuster Video

While the Blockbuster brand is now part of the DISH network, kids these days will never know what it was like to browse the aisles of a Blockbuster store.

TV That’s Actually Furniture

While TVs today are designed to be as unobtrusive as possible, TVs used to be styled to fit right in with your living room set. And what a glorious look that was.