Sure, the Internet has made life easier for all of us But by doing so, it’s wiped out a lot of habits people were doing for years. Some for the better, some are missed, depending on who you ask (and especially depending on which generation). Here are five things that have been wiped out by the internet.
- We rarely use physical maps. You needed a paper map back in the day to get anywhere. Nowadays, people collect them rather than use them, thanks to the introduction of GPS and Google Earth.
- We never sit down and read an encyclopedia. Yeah, there still are print encyclopedias out there, but are they really used anywhere near as much as they once were? Thanks to the internet, long gone are the days you’d buy or check out an encyclopedia from the library and look up information on what you were looking for.
- We aren’t spreading the Sunday paper out at the breakfast table. There are many who do still read the Sunday paper, but back in the ‘90s, there were about 60 million people who subscribed to it. By 2020, that number dropped to 25.7 million. Now, most people get their news online.
- We don’t rush to our sofas for “appointment TV.” This was when you had to rush to the couch at a certain time to watch your show otherwise you wouldn’t get to see a new episode or whatever was on. Between DVR and streaming services, this is long gone.
- We aren’t writing letters much more anymore. Yup, people used to write long letters to each other and put it in the mailbox for the postman to take. Now, people either text or just send emails to each other.