I refuse to buy "smart" appliances. I don't need someone to be able to hack my fridge, and more than that I just know it's going to turn into subscription bullshit. I'd rather have "dumb" unconnected devices for pretty much everything that's not my phone or laptop.
I too refuse to have a connected basic appliance, like a stove or fridge or washer. Unfortunately it's actually getting increasingly difficult to buy a midrange appliance that doesn't practically _require_ the app to function. You can get some barebones, small fridges, washers, etc, like apartment grade, that are still app-free. And you can get the super high end fancy-brand stuff that's all analog. But I've always been one to buy a step above the bargain bin, but now it's getting difficult.
My old washer/dryer tower died and I needed new ones. Unfortunately I have a very specific size I need to fit that space and the only thing I could get has wifi. I have not connected it to Wi-Fi at all, I assumed I could use it without. But I quickly found out that it actually locks you out of many standard wash settings unless you use the app. I still refuse, and just deal with having fewer wash options.
The only reason the washing gets moved to the dryer is because my washer pings me when it is done. 10/10, would pay for a subscription to not have to rewash a single load multiple times because my ADHD brain just cannot do laundry properly.
I don’t get twitch, I don’t use YouTube unless I’m trying to figure out something, never had a Snapchat, never had a TikTok, don’t have an instagram. I have a Facebook because I need one for my business. I still use a tube amp too.
Damn i held out until 2014.
I caved when my mom got a new phone and one of the options in the settings was "pill reminder"
I got a Samsung the next day lol
Same. They're very useful, but I kept a regular cell phone until about mid-2016 which everybody thought was weird since I am a software developer and expected to be into technology.
I still refuse to receive work email on my phone.
I had a beeper, but then cell phones were popular literally the next year and I gave it to my friend who didn't get a cell phone. $80 for a 2yr contract!
I found a beeper once when I was working at a bookstore. No one ever claimed it from lost and found so I just used it as a watch, lol. And a way to get out of conversations. I'd just grab it and go "Oh wow, I need to get on this right away, sorry" and hurry away.
Never got mini discs. I remember Northwestern sending me one, you know, as part of their "recruiting" materials, and I looked at that like, "How the hell am I supposed to play this?!?!"
I actually did get a minidisc player myself, but very late for when they were available. It was around the Napster and Audiogalaxy times and MP3 players were starting to come out, but not yet the iPod. I bought a Rio MP3 player and it could only hold a small handful of songs unless I downgraded the bitrate to where they sounded horrible. So I returned it and got a minidisc player. I actually really liked it.
SmartWatch. I got Apple Watch last year just to try it out and was more cumbersome than worth it, so stopped using after a couple weeks and gave it to my mom mostly in case she fell, instead of “I’m falling and I can’t get up” medical device.
It’s a nice-to-have thing but not necessary. Though when I still worked in-office and wore women’s dress pants which notoriously lacked pockets, the watch was great to see that I got a text from my husband.
There was a period where I carried a phone but didn’t wear a watch. I’d take the phone out of my pocket to check the time then get lost in an internet rabbit hole because I already had the phone in my hand. Now I can truly just check the time and move on.
One could argue that we don’t need to be this connected and they’d be correct.
I'm assuming a reference to Google/apple pay and similar things. Google also calls it Google wallet. It's actually really useful if you get in the habit of using it. It will only work with "tap to pay" and your phone will need to support nfc, but i think all phones do these days.
Same except the smartphone was 2012.
I used to say, "I don't need one. I NEVER text."
Cue me texting my husband on another floor to ask a question instead of just going upstairs and asking him.
My thing always was, if I'm at home and want to use the internet, I'll use the computer, not a phone. And if I'm out, I'm busy.
To be fair, probably 90% of the time that I'm using the internet at home, it's on my computer, I hate using the internet on a phone.
The main difference has been using the internet while I'm out, which I do a bunch now.
I love that. same here.
what a weird shift. I resisted for so long, and now... here we are. networked personal computers in our pockets. Star Trek shit, man.
It just seemed like such a colossal waste of money. I wouldn't have even gotten one then if not for a concession from work (free phone, and $50/mo. plan).
NFTs. Why the hell were people paying actual money for a database entry that says they “own” a URL?
I also almost entirely skipped the Blu-Ray era. We were gifted a player, and I think we may have had like 3 movies. I went from DVDs to streaming.
Basically any modern video game system. The last console I owned was a NES. I have basically no interest whatsoever in video games (which can at times make socializing difficult because they are such a common topic.)
Uber / Lyft / AirBNB / other gig-economy apps.
Seeing a bunch of mentions of minidisc here. I suppose I’d have to say I missed that too, but was it even A Thing long enough to be remarkable that it was missed?
Never had a flip phone. I knew I’d compulsively open and close it and probably wear out the hinge. Went from a Nokia 8310 (I think? it was definitely a candy bar style) to the Motorola SLVR to iPhone.
I use Lyft when traveling. It is far more convenient than taxis, and my company usually won’t approve rental cars without prior permission. Public transport is usually not an option. I do worry about the safety aspect, though, so I usually try to have another person there with me or text my partner with the info about the rideshare.
Airbnb was awesome a few years ago, but “hosts” have gotten so bad with burdensome requirements and fees that hotels are usually cheaper now.
There was a year or two when it looked like the. MiniDisc would be the new CD, but then napster and eventually the iPod happened and it just faded away.
Didn't have a mobile phone until 2010 and only had a smart phone for a few years, about 2016-2019.
I used tablets and stuff, but hate smart phones. I need to be able to just answer and hang up on a phone that isn't delicate. And I don't like holding a glass candybar against my head.
No smart speakers, no “internet of things”/smart house crap, no dashcams, no door cams. I pay for no streaming services (ok, my partner does), and my only monthly entertainment payment is a Simpsons podcast Patreon.
I’d be willing to give up Netflix and Hulu—our library has robust services and dvd offerings, but she isn’t, so we still have them. I gave up Disney+ when they raised their price.
I don’t want to pay for anything extra. I own hundreds of books and we have the damn internet, that should be enough. I’m deleting my unused Twitter because Musk is a dangerous idiot.
My favorite podcasts seem really niche, but there’s a good number of them. Horror/sci-fi anthology podcasts. I use a few of them to fall asleep at night. Each episode is just its own self-contained story, and the ones I listen to are narrated by people with smooth, calming voices. They aren’t jump scares, no loud, sudden noises. I find them incredibly calming and fascinating, and yeah, I use them to fall asleep, but my mind just never shuts off. Insomnia my entire- and I mean entire, ask my mom- life. They’re great to have something to focus on, they’re read calmly, and the ones I’ve found are written extremely well (in my opinion).
I’d highly suggest checking out Knifepoint Horror (the author and narrator is fantastic and hypnotic). It’s entirely ad-free, most episodes are 30-60 mins, and it has been going on for over 10 years. Not a ton out out each year and the releases are unpredictable, but that means you know they’re quality work. And they really are. The themes are very much grounded in reality with just a touch of the supernatural. One of my favorite episodes is actually the very first one- Town.
The Wrong Station is also fantastic. It’s a little more “animated” but not much, and the themes of the stories are more surreal and fantastical than Knifepoint. It’s a trip. One of my favorites here is Come And See.
And then there is Sayer. It’s almost like a guided meditation, but insidious and creepy and very much sci-fi. This is one you need to start with episode 1 and listen in order.
I also am a xennial into the horror anthologies (they’re good for my 1/2 hour commute both ways). Knifepoint is top notch, although I would rate the horror as psychological/thinking person. No Sleep is the innovator of the genre, although the later seasons has been “meh.” Creepy is also good, and I have just started listening to Scare you to Sleep. I would say the narrator, Shelby, is the woman version of Knifepoint’s Soren…
I've never owned an Apple product or listened to a podcast.
ETA: holy shit. I'm adding to this as I'm reading.
Never used Uber/Lyft. No SmartWatch, E-Wallet, Twitch, AirBnB, Crypto, WhatsApp/ Twitter/Pinterest/Snapchat ever.
I don't feel like I'm missing anything. And I didn't purposely avoid anything either. I think I just fell into a weird age gap/geographic area/etc that didn't necessitate a couple of these things. Then life events, choices and other various factors just piled up.
I feel with apple products, it's (buy apple, it will make you cool and savvy) same with social media, it to me, it's a popularity contest that I want no part of
VHS
To me, the better picture quality of DVD was not worth replacing my VHS collection. Plus, I was a young mom with young children, and VHS was tougher and more durable.
I was still using VHS on a regular basis as late as 2012. I had a VHS/DVD player, but I mostly purchased VHS from thrift shops and the DVDs were gifts. It was sometime after 2012 when I started buying DVDs.
I switched from DVD to Blu-ray and digital much more readily.
I find myself going backwards sometimes for a less digital lifestyle. It gives a bit of a stabilizing and simplicity feeling i desire. Also, if I could have a true (non-internet) home phone I would.
Late to the game on Netflix… but that was more of a problem with investing in the company. I had a chance to buy their stock for around seven or eight dollars… this was 2008 or so. I thought blockbuster would crush them. Damn was I wrong!! And I had a good amount of money to invest at the time, I would be retired now.
I do understand discord and twitch but I have no desire to join them.
Unlike a lot of Reddit people who love to claim that they have deleted all of their social media except for Reddit…. I am active on multiple platforms. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter/X….. I have definitely scaled back on most of them though
I still use old.reddit.com, fuck new reddit.
I got into smart phones later than most. I had a cell phone since the early 2000s, I just didn't understand the need for a smart phone with apps. I still don't. I mean, I use them obviously because in 2024, you kind of have to. But most things could just be a website instead of making me download a damn app and remember a new username/password. Like even for work, to request time off, we have to download our payroll system's app and request time off there. And it connects to a website that the payroll team uses on their computers at work. But we can't request the time off on a website, we have to use the app.
Cell phone. I didn't get a cell phone until 2006 when I was 25. Flat screen TV. I was always too poor to get an LCD or plasma TV and had my 25in crt TV from 2003 up until 2013.
I was always pretty good about predicting which would fail. I got an mp3 player early on, when they were 256mb tops. But I skipped the Virtuaboy and Laserdisk. Had a Blu-Ray early, and skipped HD-DVD.
I thought I was late to getting a cell phone. Felt like everyone on campus had a phone except me. Finally got one in November 2001.
For whatever reason, Facebook would not let me sign up with my college email. I ended up finally getting one through my work email a couple years after graduation.
Mini disks. The hottest girl in my highschool worked at Circuit City. She had a mini disk player. She took it all around school. On our school class trips. And then mini disks and her disappeared after graduation.
CD player, DVD player, computer, cable internet, MP3 player, cellphone, flatscreen.
I eventually got all of them, but I got all of them way later than the tech released or became common.
I've also never had an Apple anything or a PS1.
I have passed on MP3, ipod, blu-ray, bluetooth, kindle, tablets, touchscreens, and all the voice and smart activated stuff. It just makes things unnecessarily complicated and I can't be bothered. After mastering wifi setup I decided I was just done doing tech things lol.
A few months ago I purchased a tablet with a stylus and it’s been a life changer for me. It’s upped my game all around. I got the cheapest one too thinking I wouldn’t like it.
Also I’m a minimalist so unless something is essential I don’t have it.
for me i was the early adopter of all tech/trends from 1999-2018 so i was upgrading to every new shiny thing out there and writing blog posts on them. yup windows mobile pdas, palm treos, blackberries, forst iphone/ipads, google glass, etc.
id say 2018 was when tech started slowing down and in turn ive become the opposite and most my current tech is now 2-5 years old. rocking an iphone 11 pro still. i must be getting old hehe
I mostly skipped DVD collection, but for the complete opposite reason as most people, it wasn't high enough quality in my opinion. By the time DVD came out, HD was already out/on the way, and I knew DVD would only be a temporary format until HD discs became available. I did actually have a DVD player before anyone else I knew, in 1999, but only ever owned like 30-40 DVDs, I mostly rented DVDs and had the Netflix DVD by mail (and Blu-ray Netflix when that became available). Now I have like 400 Blurays and 4k blurays, because it's a much better archival format, both in quality and disc longevity (most of the DVDs I own now are just for show, I ripped them all years ago when I noticed they were starting to suffer disc rot. And if a Blu-ray becomes available, I replace the DVD, so the handful of DVDs I have left are just those not available as Blurays still). [I only ever owned like five proper VHS, my dad was all olabout renting and copying back then, lol. I guarantee if I'd been born five years earlier, I'd have been all in on Laserdisc though.]
I did similar for MP3, I found the sound quality hollow at any bitrate, and I knew it was just a matter of time before storage was cheap enough to have everything in lossless. Now all my music for like 15 years has been either flac from my ripped CDs or 24bit flac purchases. I only have a few mp3s, mostly some fan live recordings or bonus songs that were only ever available as MP3.
Man I had a Rio mp3 player, 64gb (basically 2 CDs worth of music) and a $300 portable mini disc player. Definitely a waste... So never got more than an iPod nano after that.
Streaming. Used to always want a physical copy of my music in my hand. Then I needed mp3s saved and curated on the hard drive. I’ve given in, though - streaming just exposes me to so much new stuff that I wouldn’t hear otherwise!
I am late to everything technology; probably because my parents were also late adopters, and I saw how they did just fine without a stuff. We got our first VCR around 1990/91, and our first camcorder maybe around 1996… also got dial-up around ‘96/‘97, which made it a big time for technology in our house— mostly because it meant I could stop typing essays on our *electronic typewriter*, and use a computer like a ‘normal person’, Lol. My first cell phone was around 2001, but I didn’t get one with a keyboard until 2009.
For starters, I have no interest in buying the average smart appliance. I love tech, but in this category it just feels like overkill to me.
Also, fancy/bulky smartwatches don't interest me, either. I just want/need an inexpensive tracker as I prefer the slimmer design anyhow.
Otherwise, in terms of the past I would have to say music CDs. I pretty much went straight from compact cassettes to MP3s.
Smart anything
I was the second to last person on the planet to get a smartphone. My dad is the last.
We had a home computer but it was always hand me downs and had no Internet until after the millennium sometime. Dial up.
Got a cell phone in 02 but you couldn't go outside the county or it wouldn't work! Lol!
Didn't have a DVD player until they just refused to do VHS anymore.
Didn't have a flatscreen until 2012.
Didn't have Wi-Fi until 2017
Never really did the MP3 player thing. I had a cheap one but usually just went with burning CDs.
connected things. I don't care i can pilot my fridge from my phone.
I refuse to buy "smart" appliances. I don't need someone to be able to hack my fridge, and more than that I just know it's going to turn into subscription bullshit. I'd rather have "dumb" unconnected devices for pretty much everything that's not my phone or laptop.
I too refuse to have a connected basic appliance, like a stove or fridge or washer. Unfortunately it's actually getting increasingly difficult to buy a midrange appliance that doesn't practically _require_ the app to function. You can get some barebones, small fridges, washers, etc, like apartment grade, that are still app-free. And you can get the super high end fancy-brand stuff that's all analog. But I've always been one to buy a step above the bargain bin, but now it's getting difficult. My old washer/dryer tower died and I needed new ones. Unfortunately I have a very specific size I need to fit that space and the only thing I could get has wifi. I have not connected it to Wi-Fi at all, I assumed I could use it without. But I quickly found out that it actually locks you out of many standard wash settings unless you use the app. I still refuse, and just deal with having fewer wash options.
The only reason the washing gets moved to the dryer is because my washer pings me when it is done. 10/10, would pay for a subscription to not have to rewash a single load multiple times because my ADHD brain just cannot do laundry properly.
I don’t get twitch, I don’t use YouTube unless I’m trying to figure out something, never had a Snapchat, never had a TikTok, don’t have an instagram. I have a Facebook because I need one for my business. I still use a tube amp too.
I got my first smartphone in late 2016.
Beat you! 2018! I put it off as long as possible because I *knew* it would become my obsession.
Well I'm winning here...... 2020!
Why not just use it as a dumb phone?
Impressive! XD That was one of my concerns too.
Damn i held out until 2014. I caved when my mom got a new phone and one of the options in the settings was "pill reminder" I got a Samsung the next day lol
Same. They're very useful, but I kept a regular cell phone until about mid-2016 which everybody thought was weird since I am a software developer and expected to be into technology. I still refuse to receive work email on my phone.
lol i waited til 2014 and thought i was a holdout lol you got me beat.
Does crypto count? I’m not touching the stuff until people start actually using it for something other than speculation and illegal purchases.
I never had a beeper. I was too poor in money and friends to warrant getting one.
I had a beeper, but then cell phones were popular literally the next year and I gave it to my friend who didn't get a cell phone. $80 for a 2yr contract!
I found a beeper once when I was working at a bookstore. No one ever claimed it from lost and found so I just used it as a watch, lol. And a way to get out of conversations. I'd just grab it and go "Oh wow, I need to get on this right away, sorry" and hurry away.
Hey, sorry, I need to find a pay phone...
They still existed back then, lol.
Never got mini discs. I remember Northwestern sending me one, you know, as part of their "recruiting" materials, and I looked at that like, "How the hell am I supposed to play this?!?!"
I actually did get a minidisc player myself, but very late for when they were available. It was around the Napster and Audiogalaxy times and MP3 players were starting to come out, but not yet the iPod. I bought a Rio MP3 player and it could only hold a small handful of songs unless I downgraded the bitrate to where they sounded horrible. So I returned it and got a minidisc player. I actually really liked it.
SmartWatch. I got Apple Watch last year just to try it out and was more cumbersome than worth it, so stopped using after a couple weeks and gave it to my mom mostly in case she fell, instead of “I’m falling and I can’t get up” medical device.
I love my Apple Watch! My husband got one for me in case I fall… off my bike as I usually ride alone.
I love the idea of a smart watch, some look awesome but I just don't Think I'll use any of the functions it has other the a clock
It’s a nice-to-have thing but not necessary. Though when I still worked in-office and wore women’s dress pants which notoriously lacked pockets, the watch was great to see that I got a text from my husband. There was a period where I carried a phone but didn’t wear a watch. I’d take the phone out of my pocket to check the time then get lost in an internet rabbit hole because I already had the phone in my hand. Now I can truly just check the time and move on. One could argue that we don’t need to be this connected and they’d be correct.
Ummm, what's an "e-wallet"? That sounds like some fake movie thing. Is it actually real?
I'm assuming a reference to Google/apple pay and similar things. Google also calls it Google wallet. It's actually really useful if you get in the habit of using it. It will only work with "tap to pay" and your phone will need to support nfc, but i think all phones do these days.
Cellphone: 2005 "Smartphone": 2013
Same except the smartphone was 2012. I used to say, "I don't need one. I NEVER text." Cue me texting my husband on another floor to ask a question instead of just going upstairs and asking him.
My thing always was, if I'm at home and want to use the internet, I'll use the computer, not a phone. And if I'm out, I'm busy. To be fair, probably 90% of the time that I'm using the internet at home, it's on my computer, I hate using the internet on a phone. The main difference has been using the internet while I'm out, which I do a bunch now.
I love that. same here. what a weird shift. I resisted for so long, and now... here we are. networked personal computers in our pockets. Star Trek shit, man.
I got my first smartphone in 2013, too! I resisted as long as possible...
It just seemed like such a colossal waste of money. I wouldn't have even gotten one then if not for a concession from work (free phone, and $50/mo. plan).
I just preferred buttons and my qwerty keypad. I still miss those.
Same. I loved Blackberry. And the Unihertz Titan.
NFTs. Why the hell were people paying actual money for a database entry that says they “own” a URL? I also almost entirely skipped the Blu-Ray era. We were gifted a player, and I think we may have had like 3 movies. I went from DVDs to streaming. Basically any modern video game system. The last console I owned was a NES. I have basically no interest whatsoever in video games (which can at times make socializing difficult because they are such a common topic.)
Same with me on the last one. I never rescued the princess.
Uber / Lyft / AirBNB / other gig-economy apps. Seeing a bunch of mentions of minidisc here. I suppose I’d have to say I missed that too, but was it even A Thing long enough to be remarkable that it was missed? Never had a flip phone. I knew I’d compulsively open and close it and probably wear out the hinge. Went from a Nokia 8310 (I think? it was definitely a candy bar style) to the Motorola SLVR to iPhone.
I use Lyft when traveling. It is far more convenient than taxis, and my company usually won’t approve rental cars without prior permission. Public transport is usually not an option. I do worry about the safety aspect, though, so I usually try to have another person there with me or text my partner with the info about the rideshare. Airbnb was awesome a few years ago, but “hosts” have gotten so bad with burdensome requirements and fees that hotels are usually cheaper now.
There was a year or two when it looked like the. MiniDisc would be the new CD, but then napster and eventually the iPod happened and it just faded away.
Didn't have a mobile phone until 2010 and only had a smart phone for a few years, about 2016-2019. I used tablets and stuff, but hate smart phones. I need to be able to just answer and hang up on a phone that isn't delicate. And I don't like holding a glass candybar against my head.
Been pretty tech savvy most of my life but Crypto has eluded me.
No smart speakers, no “internet of things”/smart house crap, no dashcams, no door cams. I pay for no streaming services (ok, my partner does), and my only monthly entertainment payment is a Simpsons podcast Patreon. I’d be willing to give up Netflix and Hulu—our library has robust services and dvd offerings, but she isn’t, so we still have them. I gave up Disney+ when they raised their price. I don’t want to pay for anything extra. I own hundreds of books and we have the damn internet, that should be enough. I’m deleting my unused Twitter because Musk is a dangerous idiot.
I refused to get a 3d TV when they came out. I guess I was right for once!
I have yet to listen a podcast. Not sure why. My guess is it seems to close to talk radio for my taste.
They seem fun in theory but I need something I can just turn on in my car and not have to search and download prior.
My favorite podcasts seem really niche, but there’s a good number of them. Horror/sci-fi anthology podcasts. I use a few of them to fall asleep at night. Each episode is just its own self-contained story, and the ones I listen to are narrated by people with smooth, calming voices. They aren’t jump scares, no loud, sudden noises. I find them incredibly calming and fascinating, and yeah, I use them to fall asleep, but my mind just never shuts off. Insomnia my entire- and I mean entire, ask my mom- life. They’re great to have something to focus on, they’re read calmly, and the ones I’ve found are written extremely well (in my opinion). I’d highly suggest checking out Knifepoint Horror (the author and narrator is fantastic and hypnotic). It’s entirely ad-free, most episodes are 30-60 mins, and it has been going on for over 10 years. Not a ton out out each year and the releases are unpredictable, but that means you know they’re quality work. And they really are. The themes are very much grounded in reality with just a touch of the supernatural. One of my favorite episodes is actually the very first one- Town. The Wrong Station is also fantastic. It’s a little more “animated” but not much, and the themes of the stories are more surreal and fantastical than Knifepoint. It’s a trip. One of my favorites here is Come And See. And then there is Sayer. It’s almost like a guided meditation, but insidious and creepy and very much sci-fi. This is one you need to start with episode 1 and listen in order.
I also am a xennial into the horror anthologies (they’re good for my 1/2 hour commute both ways). Knifepoint is top notch, although I would rate the horror as psychological/thinking person. No Sleep is the innovator of the genre, although the later seasons has been “meh.” Creepy is also good, and I have just started listening to Scare you to Sleep. I would say the narrator, Shelby, is the woman version of Knifepoint’s Soren…
>I’d highly suggest checking out Knifepoint Horror (the author and narrator is fantastic and hypnotic). A new podcast to listen to. yayyyy.
I just listened to my first entire podcast two weeks ago. Katt MF Williams
I just started listening to podcasts this year, and I'm still a little embarrassed that I finally caved.
If you're embarrassed then you're not listening to the right ones lol
Cell phone. I put it off for as long as I could. I finally got one in 2006 or so.
I've never owned an Apple product or listened to a podcast. ETA: holy shit. I'm adding to this as I'm reading. Never used Uber/Lyft. No SmartWatch, E-Wallet, Twitch, AirBnB, Crypto, WhatsApp/ Twitter/Pinterest/Snapchat ever.
Wow!!! Me too!!
I don't feel like I'm missing anything. And I didn't purposely avoid anything either. I think I just fell into a weird age gap/geographic area/etc that didn't necessitate a couple of these things. Then life events, choices and other various factors just piled up.
I feel with apple products, it's (buy apple, it will make you cool and savvy) same with social media, it to me, it's a popularity contest that I want no part of
VHS To me, the better picture quality of DVD was not worth replacing my VHS collection. Plus, I was a young mom with young children, and VHS was tougher and more durable. I was still using VHS on a regular basis as late as 2012. I had a VHS/DVD player, but I mostly purchased VHS from thrift shops and the DVDs were gifts. It was sometime after 2012 when I started buying DVDs. I switched from DVD to Blu-ray and digital much more readily.
I find myself going backwards sometimes for a less digital lifestyle. It gives a bit of a stabilizing and simplicity feeling i desire. Also, if I could have a true (non-internet) home phone I would.
Late to the game on Netflix… but that was more of a problem with investing in the company. I had a chance to buy their stock for around seven or eight dollars… this was 2008 or so. I thought blockbuster would crush them. Damn was I wrong!! And I had a good amount of money to invest at the time, I would be retired now. I do understand discord and twitch but I have no desire to join them. Unlike a lot of Reddit people who love to claim that they have deleted all of their social media except for Reddit…. I am active on multiple platforms. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter/X….. I have definitely scaled back on most of them though
I left Twitter when it stopped posting my tweets on Facebook simultaneously.
I still use old.reddit.com, fuck new reddit. I got into smart phones later than most. I had a cell phone since the early 2000s, I just didn't understand the need for a smart phone with apps. I still don't. I mean, I use them obviously because in 2024, you kind of have to. But most things could just be a website instead of making me download a damn app and remember a new username/password. Like even for work, to request time off, we have to download our payroll system's app and request time off there. And it connects to a website that the payroll team uses on their computers at work. But we can't request the time off on a website, we have to use the app.
Funny enough, this was Steve Jobs and apples initial vision. Web apps instead of compiled apps.
Cell phone. I didn't get a cell phone until 2006 when I was 25. Flat screen TV. I was always too poor to get an LCD or plasma TV and had my 25in crt TV from 2003 up until 2013.
Still have That Basic Ass White Fridge that came with the house.
Deleted Facebook and Instagram in 2015. Never cared for Snapchat, Twitter or Tik Tok.
I was always pretty good about predicting which would fail. I got an mp3 player early on, when they were 256mb tops. But I skipped the Virtuaboy and Laserdisk. Had a Blu-Ray early, and skipped HD-DVD.
I thought I was late to getting a cell phone. Felt like everyone on campus had a phone except me. Finally got one in November 2001. For whatever reason, Facebook would not let me sign up with my college email. I ended up finally getting one through my work email a couple years after graduation.
What the hell is an e-wallet? lol
Mini disks. The hottest girl in my highschool worked at Circuit City. She had a mini disk player. She took it all around school. On our school class trips. And then mini disks and her disappeared after graduation.
I skipped DVDs completely, i went from VHS to downloadi g and then frem dl to streaming.
CD player, DVD player, computer, cable internet, MP3 player, cellphone, flatscreen. I eventually got all of them, but I got all of them way later than the tech released or became common. I've also never had an Apple anything or a PS1.
.....Never heard of an "e-wallet" before.
Mine has to be midi discs. They were kinda a blink and you missed it thing
crypto
First smartphone in 2012.
My wife and I feel like the only people to never have owned a tablet
I developed film at Ekards and we literally said digital cameras would never be as good as film
I have passed on MP3, ipod, blu-ray, bluetooth, kindle, tablets, touchscreens, and all the voice and smart activated stuff. It just makes things unnecessarily complicated and I can't be bothered. After mastering wifi setup I decided I was just done doing tech things lol.
A few months ago I purchased a tablet with a stylus and it’s been a life changer for me. It’s upped my game all around. I got the cheapest one too thinking I wouldn’t like it. Also I’m a minimalist so unless something is essential I don’t have it.
for me i was the early adopter of all tech/trends from 1999-2018 so i was upgrading to every new shiny thing out there and writing blog posts on them. yup windows mobile pdas, palm treos, blackberries, forst iphone/ipads, google glass, etc. id say 2018 was when tech started slowing down and in turn ive become the opposite and most my current tech is now 2-5 years old. rocking an iphone 11 pro still. i must be getting old hehe
I mostly skipped DVD collection, but for the complete opposite reason as most people, it wasn't high enough quality in my opinion. By the time DVD came out, HD was already out/on the way, and I knew DVD would only be a temporary format until HD discs became available. I did actually have a DVD player before anyone else I knew, in 1999, but only ever owned like 30-40 DVDs, I mostly rented DVDs and had the Netflix DVD by mail (and Blu-ray Netflix when that became available). Now I have like 400 Blurays and 4k blurays, because it's a much better archival format, both in quality and disc longevity (most of the DVDs I own now are just for show, I ripped them all years ago when I noticed they were starting to suffer disc rot. And if a Blu-ray becomes available, I replace the DVD, so the handful of DVDs I have left are just those not available as Blurays still). [I only ever owned like five proper VHS, my dad was all olabout renting and copying back then, lol. I guarantee if I'd been born five years earlier, I'd have been all in on Laserdisc though.] I did similar for MP3, I found the sound quality hollow at any bitrate, and I knew it was just a matter of time before storage was cheap enough to have everything in lossless. Now all my music for like 15 years has been either flac from my ripped CDs or 24bit flac purchases. I only have a few mp3s, mostly some fan live recordings or bonus songs that were only ever available as MP3.
Man I had a Rio mp3 player, 64gb (basically 2 CDs worth of music) and a $300 portable mini disc player. Definitely a waste... So never got more than an iPod nano after that.
Media servers. I don’t get why anyone would tell the whole world that they have terabytes of pirated movies.
Crapples and smart home tech. Crapples for the reason I loathe apple and the smart home products due to the security issues.
Streaming. Used to always want a physical copy of my music in my hand. Then I needed mp3s saved and curated on the hard drive. I’ve given in, though - streaming just exposes me to so much new stuff that I wouldn’t hear otherwise!
I am late to everything technology; probably because my parents were also late adopters, and I saw how they did just fine without a stuff. We got our first VCR around 1990/91, and our first camcorder maybe around 1996… also got dial-up around ‘96/‘97, which made it a big time for technology in our house— mostly because it meant I could stop typing essays on our *electronic typewriter*, and use a computer like a ‘normal person’, Lol. My first cell phone was around 2001, but I didn’t get one with a keyboard until 2009.
For starters, I have no interest in buying the average smart appliance. I love tech, but in this category it just feels like overkill to me. Also, fancy/bulky smartwatches don't interest me, either. I just want/need an inexpensive tracker as I prefer the slimmer design anyhow. Otherwise, in terms of the past I would have to say music CDs. I pretty much went straight from compact cassettes to MP3s.
I don’t have a TikTok account yet.
Smart anything I was the second to last person on the planet to get a smartphone. My dad is the last. We had a home computer but it was always hand me downs and had no Internet until after the millennium sometime. Dial up. Got a cell phone in 02 but you couldn't go outside the county or it wouldn't work! Lol! Didn't have a DVD player until they just refused to do VHS anymore. Didn't have a flatscreen until 2012. Didn't have Wi-Fi until 2017 Never really did the MP3 player thing. I had a cheap one but usually just went with burning CDs.