45 Things That Used To Be Obvious 15 Years Ago, But Confuse People Now

Punctuation and grammar.

Seriously, it feels like even the basics have eluded a lot of folks today. I don't claim to be perfect, but I've struggled trying to translate what should be basic sentences lately.

I think I’m just becoming a grumpy old woman but social awareness. Like blocking the whole sidewalk, speakerphones in public, that kind of thing. It’s always been a problem but I feel like the pandemic stunted an entire generations social growth and they’re just oblivious to their effect on others in any given space. It’s stunningly annoying tbh.

If someone doesn't get back to you right away, it's OK, they're not home.

Sometimes people would lose their cool in public, we just never knew about it because not everyone had a smartphone in their hands at all times. Now, one person's bad day can become a public spectacle that follows them for the rest of their lives.

Remembering phone number of friends and families. Even to this day I can still remember some of my friends number from over 15 years ago.

Paper maps and how to use them.

I'm a teacher and the kids think it is some mythological world where children leave the house, go on adventures, and return home before the streetlights go up.

How to hold a phone up to your ear and mouth rather than holding it in front of you to shout into the mic at the bottom, apparently.

The relationship between a cassette tape and a pencil ✏️.

Cash... We were away for the weekend last year. Had an all day drinking session and at around 9pm went to a chippy.

I was served by a young lass, maybe 17 years old.
My order came to £13.40. To avoid a pocket full of change I gave the girl £23.40 to get a £10 note in return.

Well, it was like I had completely fried her brain. She just stood there staring at the money in her open hands for far too long.

I said "I just need a tenner change". Nope, it didn't help.
She just couldn't fathom what the hell was going on.

Eventually a her greasy gaffer reached over her shoulder, pressed the button on the till and pulled a tenner out.

Why the save button icon is a floppy disk

Edit since of people aren’t understanding my point: I didn’t say people were still using floppy disks 15 years ago, I meant that most people at least knew WHY the save icon was represented by a floppy disk. Many Gen Alpha kids seem to have no idea, which a what OP asked.

You shouldn't bring your parents to a job interview.

That being constantly tracked, surveyed, and recorded isn’t good.

Needing to ring the doorbell at your friends’ houses to see if they’re home and if they wanna play outside.

That phones are unnecessary when eating something.

Remember having to develop film rolls at a photo lab. Instant photos are so convenient now!

Thinking. The ability to be bored. Context.

Downloading music off dodgy websites just so you could have a "cool" phone ringtone. Or burning CDs...

Millennials seem to really know this well, but kinda lost in Gen Z and younger: Troubleshooting your own computer. They don't even know how powerful the Task Manager is.

What the sound of a busy signal means.