69 Times People Asked Strangers Online “What Is This Thing?” And Weren’t Disappointed

There are millions of objects on the planet, so it would be impossible to know what every single thing does. Even if you own a toaster and use it every morning while making your breakfast, you might be surprised by what a toaster from 80 years ago looks like. And if you’re from a country that feels like summer year-round, any tool that’s used for managing snow and ice might be extremely foreign to you.

But finding unfamiliar items like these is part of the fun of shopping in thrift stores, perusing estate sales, and sifting through online vintage shops. So we hope this list will inspire you to step outside of your comfort zone and start searching for uncommon objects too! 

If you’re curious about some of the unique items that used to be much more commonplace than they are today, Love to Know has compiled a list of vintage objects that have become obsolete over time. Now, some of these items were still in use 20 years ago or less, such as answering machines. But there’s a good chance that kids growing up today won’t ever have to own one.

Another popular item from the past is the magazine basket. Many people had these in their homes to store all of the magazines that they would peruse when they were bored or needed to unwind for a few minutes. Meanwhile, something we no longer see when we’re out shopping is a credit card imprinter. Before you could simply tap to pay, you’d have to wait patiently while a cashier ran all of your information on the credit card imprinter.     

Something else that was all the rage for a while but seems to have completely disappeared is the water bed. I remember being thrilled as a child when I would encounter one of these bad boys in a hotel or a family member’s house. But for the past two decades or so, I haven’t seen a single one. Over time, people realized that there’s actually nothing better than memory foam, so water went out of fashion. 

When you go to work, how do you clock in? Do you have to scan something when you enter the building? Or does your boss just trust that you’re there for the 9 hours that you say you are? Well, back in the day, we had to use physical time cards. And if you forgot to stamp your card at the beginning of the day, there was no faking it by typing in the correct time later.  

Something else that has become completely obsolete with today’s computers and smartphones is the Rolodex. Any kid today might be extremely surprised to find out that their parents (or more likely, their grandparents) had to keep physical records of friends' and family members' phone numbers and addresses. You couldn’t even look up a business on Google Maps, so if you needed to call your local pizza joint to order Friday night’s dinner, you might have kept their number in your family’s Rolodex too.    

Just because an item isn’t a necessity nowadays, though, doesn’t mean that we can’t keep using it. Recently, there’s been a revival of physical media, as people are tired of paying subscription fees to massive, corrupt companies. Instead, many are choosing to buy old VHS tapes, cassette tapes, vinyls, CDs, film cameras, and more. LA Times says that Gen Z, in particular, is interested in keeping physical media alive, even if they never had it growing up.