Riding A ButterTub

We live in the Information Age today. Inventions and innovation come so fast now, that a fad today won’t be one tomorrow. Not only that, but items we think are cool now will undoubtedly become the ancient artifacts our kids tease us about. What did you tease your folks about? Record players? Color TVs? Indoor plumbing? There’s a handful that our generation teases about, but here are the top 25 list that I think our kids will likely say ‘WTF’ to…

1. WTF (What The F***) – Our parents said “far out” and “groovy”. Our kids will mostly likely tease us about this fad of making everything an acronym certainly.

2. MB (Megabytes) – There was a day that Bill Gates thought we wouldn’t need anything more than Megabytes, but Petabytes are coming mainstream and it’s not long before GB start to see less face time; MB my friend, your time is limited!

3. TVs - Laugh now, but seriously cinema is continuing to produce, but how they’re being shown is evolving away from the TV. Flat screens are cool, but they won’t be just “TVs” in the future I’d bet. Youtube is taking over now. In 30 years, we’re not likely going to be entertained with TVs. “Oh Dad, you used to watch shows on an electrical box, that’s so cute.”

4. Cassette Tapes - We barely know what they are now. They had a lifespan of about 10 years succeeding the 8-track (I’m not even gonna go there) which will likely be followed by…

5. …CDs – They were cool also for about 10 years, but mp3′s have dominated them and I’m sure soon I’d be able to throw MP3′s on the list, but digital music will just transform I’d imagine – and I can’t foresee that changing too dramatically in the near future, but hell, I’ve been wrong before…

6. VHS tapes – This goes hand in hand with #3. Media in general is changing and WILL change in the future very fast. I barely remember these, and I’m only 30. But I can assure you we’ll be teased about these hard.

7. Atari/Nintendo/Sega/Your favorite gaming unit - “Oh Dad, you used to use your hands to play video games, that’s so cute as well.” Yea, hate to break it to you, but we’ll be teased at this one like we teased our parents about their hoola hoops. Yea, I know, those were lame.

8. GPS - Yea, it’s a neat fad now since it’s fairly new, but I’m sure that the Garmin that gives us within 15 foot of where we’re actually at isn’t going to be as neat as whatever will be in store for us in 30 years. The technology is fairly new still, and might have a place in the future, but not nearly as off kilter with this “within 50 feet” crap.

9. A rotary phone - Yea, in our day, you used to have to wait a total of at least 30 seconds while they rotary would rotary painfully slowly back to the starting position. Couldn’t they ever have sped up the speed at which these suckers would turn back around? Jeez, I could have taken a small vacation over the cumulative amount of time I’ve waited for those phones to rotate back to the starting position…

10. HTML – Yea, it’s already starting to die now, but our kids will surely laugh at this one. “You used to have to code the stuff you put on the web? That’s funny!” Yea kids, and it was uphill both ways.

11. Cars that get 30mpg – If we even have cars that run on “mpg” in 30 years, they’ll certainly mock us for it, but if they do 30mpg will not go unlaughed at.

12. Cell phones - Seriously, look how much we laughed at even the first generation of them. They looked like bricks, we’ll get teased for those first, but that phone you think is cool RIGHT NOW, yea, you’re going to get teased about it.   Oh, it’s an iPhone? That’s so cool!  Yea, no, you’re going to be teased for it, trust me.

13. Libraries - Yea, even right now I barely know what one is.  With the internet, information is much easier to get ahold of and storing information doesn’t need to be had in a huge building. Right now the only thing they’re good for is free internet I think.  Maybe they’ll still be around, but be used for paintball courts or Walmarts by then.

14. Working in an office building - There was a time and a place for office-buildings. In the 1920′s people needed the typewriters and people chugging along on them for hours on end to meet deadlines and proofread. Now you can have online video conferencing and emailing of documents. 90% of a corporate workforce could be do just fine working from home.

15. Big hair – I already mock my wife for that one from High School and it’s only been 15 years. Imagine it in another 30. We’re dead.

16. A walkman - They were soooo cool in 1985. Who DIDN’T want one? In 2035 they very much won’t be wanted. I’m pretty sure they were very much not wanted in 1993 until #4 came along.

17. Dictionaries, Atlases, and Encyclopedias - Along with #13, these are going to be hand-in-hand.

18. Long distance phone calls – Yea, no.

19.. Hell, home phones in general – I don’t even have one right now, I can imagine my kids won’t. “What? You had to plug it into a wall?”

20. Checkbooks – I barely know how to use one myself. There are very few things I need to pay that won’t take my credit or debit card. This is one of the things that will likely die with the baby-boomer generation.

21. Text Messaging – I read a TIME magazine article today that said the average teenager receives/sends 2200 texts a month. That’s 80 a day! They think they’re cool now, but just wait, it won’t be cool soon enough. I don’t know what it will be that supersedes it, but I can assure you in 15 years, something will.

22. “The Operator” - Back in the old ‘n days there was a magical person that you could talk to by just rotating the rotary phone in it’s longest circle which is the “0″ button on your phone. This person would act as a personal phone secretary if your hands were too tired to dial 8 more numbers. Is this a “technological advancement” or just making more work for ourselves in having to dial all those extra numbers???

23. 5 1/4 floppies – Heck toss in “floppies” in general. You rarely see the square sleeker cousin of 5 1/4s known as 3 1/2s anymore. He got taken out by those fancy zip drives, then jump drives, then online drives, the list goes on, and 15 years from now we’ll really be trekking on that list…