Technology moves fas — so fast, in fact, that there are some sounds people born after the year 2000 wouldn’t recognize despite once being unmistakeable. Sometimes it feels impossible to keep up with the latest devices hitting the market. But every now and then, something comes along that changes the game completely, nearly wiping out what came before it.
When digital streaming first appeared, not everyone had it; DVDs were still the mainstream player. But over time, digital streaming became the cheaper, easier option. Nowadays, it’s rare to find someone who still uses DVDs at all. And just like that, technologies and the distinct sounds they made have gone forgotten.
Thoughts like this prompted a Reddit thread that asked the question: “People over 30, what’s a sound from your childhood that younger generations will never hear?” The responses triggered a wave of nostalgia, as users reminisced about the long-forgotten sounds that were once the soundtrack to their lives.
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“The sound of a floppy disk being read,” a user wrote, “especially when you’ve got six more to go after this one finishes.” Indeed, that distinct whirring and buzzing as the drive worked was once a normal part of life in the pre-cloud era — one that Gen Z has likely never heard. Back during the advent of the personal computer, every program, from Word to games, had to be downloaded from discs, and it took quite a while.
Disc drives don’t even exist as part of the internal hardware on most computers and laptops nowadays. In fact, by the mid-2000s, you could barely find a floppy disc that served any functionality other than something to show kids to shock them.
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Another user brought up an even older device: “The cassette rewinding faster and faster until that final thump,” they wrote. “And then a whine as it tries to keep rewinding and can’t.” That’s the good sound. The bad one? When you hear the cassette player devouring your tape.
Then came the arduous task of respooling the tape if the player didn’t literally destroy it so it couldn’t be rewrapped into the cassette again. The mass production of cassettes stopped way back in 2002, and CDs, which are slowly going the way of tapes, took over.
Before the ease of finding phone numbers thanks to Google, you had to either look up numbers in the phone book or call 411 and speak with an operator. You’d tell the operator the business or person’s name you were looking for and the city of residence. Then you’d wait for the operator to connect you. “If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and try again,” a user shared. “If you need help, hang up and then dial your operator.” That’s definitely not something younger generations hear when calling from a smartphone today.
As of 2023, AT&T completely did away with 411 operator services. But if you’re really curious, ask some older folks you know about calling collect and emergency break-throughs. Before calls were free and call waiting existed, you certainly had to get creative.
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No one even likes to answer phones anymore, but there was a time before cell phones when landlines were actually cool. Not just cool, but you’d fight to answer the phone when it rang! Imagine that?! You know what else you could do with a phone that just doesn’t translate in the same way today? You could hang up on someone with gusto.
“The sound of someone slamming the phone when hanging up on them,” one user shared. It’s funny how certain changes happen almost unnoticed. These days, you just tap a little red button on a screen, and the call ends. But back in the day, you could actually hear the loud click of an annoyed person hanging up on their caller. There was something seriously satisfying about that hard slam, too.
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Remember choosing the wrong channel and hearing that loud static hiss? The same happened when the antenna wasn’t adjusted correctly. Today’s kids definitely aren’t dealing with that while streaming Netflix or scrolling through YouTube.
Sometimes it was called snow, but the static on a TV happened for a variety of reasons, and it was always jarring, but with constant streaming, it absolutely never happens nowadays. If you’ve ever seen “The Ring,” you’ll recognize what static looks like because it is always on the TV screen before the girl crawls out of it. In fact, stations never go off air at a particular time. You can sort of experience this phenomenon with terrestrial radio if you’re driving and lose the signal.
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Sure, computer keyboards make their own sounds, and some high-end ones are even designed to feel and sound great. But old-school typewriters just had a distinctive noise of their own.
Metallic and crisp, each keystroke echoed in the room. It was a unique sound that couldn’t go unnoticed, which is nowadays silenced by modern tech. What’s actually kind of neat is that there’s so much nostalgia for the old school writing implement that there are some niche companies still making them. What everyone seems to forget is that making a mistake is definitely not in the cards, however.
Nothing beats the sound of an old-fashioned cash register. One user even pointed out that this iconic noise was featured in the Pink Floyd classic “Money,” a psychedelic song that still rocks today.
Younger generations might not recognize the cash register sound, but they’ve probably heard the term “cha-ching.” As an honorable mention in the same category, there was a time when you had to insert your credit card into a manual slide mechanism that contained carbon paper and would make a literal copy of your card and number. You’d have to sign the copy as proof of payment. The sound sliding that credit card machine was hard to describe if you’ve never heard it, but one Reddit commenter used “cha-chunk,” and yup, that’s pretty much it.
According to War Room Inc., a programming advertising company, 94% of Gen Z own laptops. Combine that with the fact that three out of four say their primary free-time activity is spent online, and it’s clear that modern technology completely surrounds their lives. Whether that’s good or bad is another conversation, but one thing is clear: the sounds of the past have been replaced by new ones.
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And in many ways, that’s a good thing! Sure, it was awesome to hear the screech of a modem connecting to the internet, but it is much more enjoyable to have the speed and ease of constant connectivity and instant downloads. Nowadays, everything is right at your fingertips.
You don’t have to worry about CDs and records getting scratched. Cassette tapes no longer wear out. Movies don’t have to be returned to Blockbuster for fear of fines. And you literally never have to answer the phone anymore if you don’t want to. While new technology can sometimes feel overwhelming, if you take the time to get used to it, you might find yourself enjoying it. But if you still long for the nostalgia of a simpler time, there are plenty of companies making everything from Polaroid cameras to record players that can take you back, at least for a little while.
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Matt Machado is a writer studying journalism at the University of Central Florida. He covers relationships, psychology, celebrities, pop culture, and human interest topics.
