Land our homes are crammed with devices ready to help us. Our TVs are smart, full of features and now super smart. Our telephones are now mini exchanges that manage thousands of operations in just one second. And, in short, technology is part of our daily life. In every sector. But who remembers what the line was like to call in the phone booths? And the romance of listen to our favorite songs directly from the walkman? To give the so-called “final blow” to all of us nostalgics, Facile.it has carried out a survey on vintage technology, drawing up a ranking of the objects that, however obsolete, we miss so much. And, yes, there is also the phone booth.
What items would you like to use again?
The survey was commissioned to the research institutes mUp Research and Norstat and gives us a list that, for those nostalgic for the eighties and nineties, will be a real blast from the past. That looking at the old photos in the cellar would be nothing in comparison.
And in the first place of the “vintage” technological objects that we miss the most phone box (33.3% of respondents), evidence of a time long gone, where tokens determined the duration of our conversations. Paradoxically, it is the younger ones who express this nostalgia more. The percentage rises to 36.1% for the under 24s and 36.9% for the 25 to 34 age group. A segment of the population that, perhaps, has never had the pleasure of queuing up to wait its turn.
In second place, with 26.9%, is the mp3 player. What teenager of the 2000s hasn’t poured on his mp3 player (maybe his own the Apple iPod, true cult object) disappointments of love and moments of euphoria? Among other things, this device – in addition to changing the way music is used – has in fact also contributed to changing the recording industry itself, pushing it more and more towards digital.
The last place on the podium goes instead to Gameboy. 21.1% of respondents spoke precisely of the Nintendo device which in 2003 became the best-selling portable console ever, with over 100 million copies worldwide. Here the nostalgia effect is heavy. An example? The percentage of Gameboy nostalgics jumps to 47.4% for the 18 to 24 age group.
The ranking continues. There are also the Walkman and the floppy disk
19.7% of respondents spoke of Walkman, Sony device (arrived on the market in 1979) whose name has come to be associated directly with the portable cassette player. Soon after, the cassette player (18.8% of preferences) and the VHS recorder (18.6%).
The latter in particular has revolutionized the world of the use of video content in the home. Before streaming services colonized all our devices, in fact, using a VHS recorder was the only way to enjoy a good movie with family or at home with friends. Among other things, many original videotapes are now truly worth a fortune: there are many collectors around the world willing to shell out good money for the older ones.
An employee of Sony Corporation shows a new floppy disk, October 29, 1997. Credit: TORU YAMANAKA/ANSA/TO
The ranking of Facile.it ends with the slide projector (18.3%), the little radio (16.7%), lo Thought harp (Nintendo’s “Game & Watch”, with 9%), the pager (7.7%), the floppy disk (7.3%), the Blackberries (7.1%) and the CRT television (3.4%).
The devices we still use but already outdated
Facile.it also wanted to analyze the devices – still on the market and, above all, still used – which they risk becoming obsolete, overtaken by new technologies.
At the top of this sad ranking is the inevitable USB pendrive. It is still used by 58.4% of those interviewed, despite the diffusion of new storage methods (see the cloud). Then the Tabletwhich however has not yet been replaced by the smartphone (56.2% of the people involved said they use it).
55% of respondents still use the fixed pc. The percentage drops to 54.4% for the corded headphones and earphones for mobile phones.
The list of devices that may become obsolete continues on calculator (still used by 45.5% of respondents), the landline phone (45.5%), the digital camera (43%), thestereo system (29.1%), the clock radio (27.5%), i CD players (23.6%) and DVD (22.7%).
It ends with the music CD player (20.4%), the home video DVD player (18.5%), the recorder (14.1%), the satellite navigator (17.3%), the record player (13.2%) and the digital frames (8.7%).
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