OS took so long to write this one that we already wrote a version ourselves for DOT.

Technology has changed the way you do things around the house. These changes quickly adapt to the modern lifestyle, making it easy to forget the way people did things in the past.

Thermostats

Older thermostats used mercury switches that tilted with a turn of the dial. A bimetal strip responded to temperature differences to cause the mercury to flow to the contacts, and you adjusted the device by hand. Today you can change the temperature at home using your cell phone while at work.

Laundry Appliances

The first electric washing machines reduced the back-breaking task of laundry. In the 1990s, the first high efficiency laundry devices began washing clothes while also reducing household water consumption.

Televisions

Early televisions were almost cubical in order to accommodate the long picture tube. Today, televisions are less than an inch thick due to technology using light emitting diodes. Early sets required an antenna to receive signals, but today televisions connect directly to the Internet.

Telephones

Early cell phones cut the cord from land lines, but older users may remember early bag phones, clumsy units that were much too large to carry in a purse or pocket.

Video Cameras

Recording a toddler playing around the house once required a large video camera and VHS tapes. Today, you do the same thing in higher definition using your cell phone.

Type a Letter

To send a typed letter to family members, you once used a typewriter and corrected mistakes with an eraser. Correction tape lead to better quality typing, but today, you send an email and don’t even use paper.

Computers

Once they filled an entire room. Now, we vastly exceed that memory on a laptop, tablet or even your phone.

Mixing Old and New Technology

Missing older technology? Read here about a company that helps combine the old with the new. Then, let us know what items from yesteryear you long for the most and which ones are you glad to see go the way of the dinosaur.

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