Aside from perhaps the industrial revolution, I don’t think the world has changed so much so quickly as it has in the lifetime of someone born in 1980.  Technology has evolved like mad and we’ve all just kept up, because what choice do we have?

This also means that we’ve developed a lot of different skills in our lifetime, and also that a good number of those skills are as obsolete as the technology that required them.

These Millennials are full of amazing skills that absolutely no one needs anymore.

1. Yes!

I can wire two VCRs together to pirate movies onto blank video tapes.

2. Very cool.

I can load slides into a projector for a presentation.

I can also prepare transparent sheets (acetates/overheads) for a different type of presentation.

3. Nothing like it…

Nick at Nite started when I was about ten, and I would stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning watching old reruns.

Every time I turned off the TV, I would sweep the screen with my hand, sparking teal fire from my fingertips. Nothing like it.

4. Proud of it.

I commune with the mysteries of the rotary dial phone.

I once won a radio contest as the 10th caller using a rotary phone. I’m still proud of that.

5. Awesome!

“I can develop and print black and white film.

That smell makes me think of college, because that’s the last time I developed film and made prints manually. I was of the generation that still got taught those techniques, but never really used them in practice.

I still think it was valuable to have that knowledge and gain that insight into analog photography, I hope design schools still have students make pinhole cameras and such. Just not have it taught like it’s a skill you’ll be using in a production context.

6. Do you remember?

Use a pencil to fix my tape of MC Hammer, h**e it when it gets eaten up by the tape recorder.

Also put scotch tape over the holes on the top of the cassette to record over the existing recording?

7. Sneaky.

Lifting the other phone in the house up silently and breathing quietly and not laughing, to be able to listen in on your families phone conversations.

I learned if you unplugged the phone from the wall, then picked up the receiver, then plugged it back in no one would know you are listening in 🙂

8. Can’t grasp it.

I have the magical ability to… MAIL MERGE.

Seriously, no one on my staff can grasp this function.

9. Good memory.

I can remember several landline phone numbers.

I still remember my elementary school best friend’s home phone number from the late 80’s. I called him so many times that his phone number is as indelibly marked in my brain as my own childhood phone number.

10. A good skill.

I can imitate the busy signal tone perfectly.

11. You made it!

Not to brag but I once made it all the way to Oregon without my party d**ng.

12. Love it!

If we go bowling, I can keep score on a sheet of paper.

i can’t believe they tested us on that in PE.

13. I got this.

Start and drive away in a car with a choke.

The truck I drove when I first got my license had a choke like that. It was an 85 F-150 with a 4-speed manual. At a private school in the mid 2000’s I didn’t even take the key out of the ignition because I knew no one else would know how to drive it.