People Break Down The Severely Outdated Technology They're Still Forced To Use

Technology advances so fast that odds are the device you're reading this on was most likely obsolete before you even took it out of its packaging. That's okay though, because the world needs new tech to keep up with the new demands.

Most of the time.

Turns out, there's a lot of old, outdated, outclassed tech still floating around out there, and some people are forced to use them every day.

Pity them.


Reddit user, nathan_thinks, wanted to know what tech should be relegated to the bin when they asked:

"What is a severely out-of-date technology you're still forced to use regularly?"

Sometimes, even though the technology might be old or outdated, it works just as well as anything we use today. No need to change what still works at the level it's required. ​

If It Ain't Broke...

"Kinda boring but I guess the oldest thing I regularly use is my alarm clock, same one has been next to my bed for over 30 years. Just a basic 80s clock radio."

BrandonTaylor89

Heavy Audio Requires A Heavy Mixer

"My quarter million pound audio mixer was built in 1998. It runs on Windows NT and a Pentium III with a 256Mb memory stick. We added an SSD a while back and changed all the fans. Our satellite uplink dish runs on two very old Mac's."

John5247

"I have a Wheatstone broadcast mixer in my home studio. I have to run a virtual machine with windows ‘98 to work the software for it. Luckily the software is really just needed to re-configure, and set things up initially. I’m not doing music, so inputs rarely change. It works well though. Each channel strip has a little screen on it that tells what the input is. It’s one of the first consoles that did that, and I just put in a new SAS console in a cluster build and the little screens on it look the exact same as my Wheatstone. Rarely digital stuff ages well, but this has done great."

TravisGoraczkowski

Ever Seen A Movie About Reporters In A Library?

"Wouldn't say forced because I love it but microfilm. Work at a library. Super cool to still have this stuff. Lots of history would be lost without this."

turducken19

"I work in government records. Microfilm is the sh*t. The only thing that really worries me about it is what we’ll do if one of the microfiche readers breaks beyond repair….."

Karnakite

"My state's archivist said that the reason for microfilm as an acceptable archiving material is because all you need is a light and a magnifier. It would suck to lose the machine that makes it easy, but we could still read it."

Available-Love7940

Won't Break As Easily

"I'm way off base from the other comments, but the only thing I can think of is the 'thumb breaking' can opener. The battery ones just don't cut it (hee hee), so I resort to old faithful. It works, but it's a bit hard on the hands. :):)"

MamaKitty28

Sometimes it takes old technology to get the job done.

That would be the only sane reason why you're still tearing small strips of paper off of the sides of your sheet after it's done printing.

Electronic Mail Must Seem Like Witchcraft To These People

"Fax machine"

f-ckitweredoingitliv

"Fun fact: The fax machine predates the telephone."

mprecup

"Swear to God, some of the older people at my work still ask me how to use the fax machine....are you kidding me."

throwingplaydoh

"Fax machines. Dear lord why do we need fax in 2022. Most businesses don’t even have a copper landline. And why pay for an online fax service?"

RoadOk3108

When You Have To Schedule Time In Your Day To Print

"At work we still use a dot matrix printer with the strips you have to tear off. We've been told that when it breaks next time that's it. So we are all waiting on it to die."

Edrock627

"Does it go “SKKEEEEEEEER SKEEEEEEEEER SKEEEEEEEEEER” every time it prints? I gotta admit, I have a lot of nostalgia associated with that sound."

Karnakite

Code: Blue, No Matter Where You Are

"We still have a pager for our on call. It's ridiculous!"

Wiccataz

"I’ve heard the reason that hospitals still use pagers is that they are much more likely to have a signal than a phone in certain parts of the hospital."

ichliebekohlmeisen

And then there's these, tech maybe better suited to be a paperweight than what they were intended for.

So Much More Sanitary

"TP instead of a bidet. I've never used one but the sounds cool and cleaner than TP"

FluffyPancakes90

The Peak Of "Why?"

"How they still charging $100 for the TI-83???"

UndressMyBoner

"I started working for TI at the end of last year and during the info session the first thing they said was “no you don’t get a free calculator”."

"We are actually having a fundraising auction right now to support United Way and tons of employees are auctioning off their rare TI calculators within the company. It’s wild."

kpidhayny

Pray For Those In The Classroom

"My school computers. They have 4GB RAM and Intel Pentium processors from 2012, plus Windows 10 bloated with school security stuff. It takes half an hour to have it running, then the other half waiting to do stuff because it freezes"

Lollooo_

While You're At It, Pray For Those In The Medical Field

"Windows XP on a 20 year old computer. Scientific instrument that we can't upgrade."

Mica_Dragon

"We still use windows xp for our X-ray fluorescence spectrometer 😩. I know the pain"

liberalvenery

Seriously, Does Anyone Use Internet Explorer If They Don't Have To?

"Internet Explorer, I do programming as a mechanic whenever we install a computer on a car and many of the programming softwares need to run on IE to work correctly."

Sergio-14

Laws Keeping Old Machines Running

"In these parts, property titles MUST BE type-written using a REAL TYPE-WRITER. Which means a document that could be shot out of the laser-printer in 6 seconds needs to wait for 43 days while the type-writer person gets through their pile of other documents from 8 other counties."

"There exists some silly statute from colonial times (50 yrs ago) to this effect."

tastes-like-earwax

We're Totally Paperless....Kind Of...

"Paper bank statements as part of proof of address/identity. It’s dumb especially in today's climate."

"I use online banking, my bank has no buildings and doesn’t use paper. It’s all done via an app. My statements are all online and are not acceptable forms of identity/address for some stupid reason, even though my name and address are there along the official bank stamp."

"I was forced to open an account with £1 at a brick and mortar bank and print off half a tree, get this… to take and upload photos of them and send them via email. And this bank is 8 miles away from me so I had to drive there and use fuel."

"What a wasteful and time consuming process."

MeMuzzta

We can only keep working towards the future. Sometimes that's a little harder when seemingly everyone is set on hanging out in the past.

What old technology are you forced to use every day? Tell us about it in the comments!

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I want to know about the inner workings of Comcast!!

I loathe them!

Oh Dear

Jennifer Lopez Smh GIF by American IdolGiphy

I used to work in tech support for Citi Bank. The people working there are not intelligent. My favorite interaction went like this..."

"Banker - How do I type the upside down I?"

"Me - Ma'am, that's an exclamation point."

slappy_mcslapenstein

The Crappy People

"In every CS job I’ve ever had: we will bend over backward to help a nice person. We will expedite any complaint, give maximum compensation, and harass other areas of the business for you."

"We will do the absolute bare minimum to help a shi**y person and if you’re really bad, we will do everything in our power to make sure you get nothing but what you’re legally entitled to and it will be a process to get that."

11catsinahumansuit

"I don’t work in CS but 100% the same for us in IT a nice person will get new stuff while a shi**y person will get questionable secondhand crap that will take 12 months to fix! I will make sure that you wait as long as humanely possible to have anything fixed!"

Sharp-Demand-6614

Go to Holiday Inn

"If you ask for a supervisor calling Marriott you will just get another person who is not a supervisor, but say they are."

cryptnificent

"Yep. I've seen this done numerous times across multiple industries. Usually, it only involves an actual sup if it's a genuine problem or if they want to make a point."

"The last job I had was in towing junk cars. Two of the inside buyers, one male, and one female, would bounce that sup card around constantly. Idk how no one ever put it together. We'd get repeat callers and repeat sellers so I don't know."

ItsBobFromLumbridge

Heartless

"Worked at a contracted call center for Centrelink. The manager told us to deny as many emergency payments as possible and they would back us no matter what. They were actively working towards a culture that despised the callers and churned staff to get heartless right-wingers who hated the poor."

Rizza1122

"I feel ya. My best mate is a quadriplegic. Centrelink denied his disability pension because he wasn’t disabled enough."

Less-Storage

Go to Home Depot

You Are Dumb Patrick Star GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy

"I worked at Lowes. I didn't know anything about anything in the electrical department yet that's where they put me without any training."

Eattherich187

Not training people is not just a Lowes thing.

There are too many unqualified people doing too many things.

Switcharoo

Drag Race What GIF by TAZOGiphy

"Can confirm it's an unwritten policy for deli departments in Coles Supermarkets to change the written expiry dates on their tickets so they can sell out-of-code products at full price."

REDDIT

A Little Sunshine

"I worked at a call center for the billing department of a major internet and cable service provider. We were authorized to give up to $90 credit per customer on their bill but only as a last resort. Always remember to be nice to all customer service workers. You never know just how much they can help with a friendly attitude."

Axel_Dunce

"Former call center employee here. Highly accurate. Use your manners, and well fix your issue. Anything else, just makes us want to take longer, and you won't get a credit. Just because we are authorized, doesn't mean you'll get the credit for being an a**hat. haha. I've been verbally abused a few times for asking them not to swear at me. Lol."

Ok-Ad-7247

LELU

"I worked for a major telco company for many years in something called a ‘LELU’ which stands for Law Enforcement Liaison Unit. This 'unit' is pretty self-explanatory, but it essentially is a team who worked directly with the police/FEDS to monitor people's information for things such as obtaining communications history of call logs, SMS loss, etc."

"However, most importantly, the software we used, we as agents could directly see all your SMS texts, including MMS and their explicit imagery of whatever you were sending. This would include sexting, naked images, family photos, and everything. There were instances where people abused this position by stalking or 'monitoring' their SO’s comings and going’s."

MidniteMischief

Cookies!!

"I worked at a cafe chain called 'The Cookie Man,' 95% of their cookies arrived in cardboard boxes layered with bubble wrap. The last 5% arrived as pre-made dough that we would bake on-site to make the place smell like fresh cookies."

"I also worked at a cupcake shop. It's literally just packet mix that you add eggs and oil to before baking/piping pre-made icing onto. Don't waste your money on these places, 90% of these chain shops are the same and most are severely underpaying their workers (this is for Australia btw). Just purchase some packet mix from the supermarket and call it a day."

Frequent-Selection91

Look in the Back

"I was a Store Manager for a very large grocery chain and I can tell you that 95% of the time when customers complain to the manager, we may be professional and show empathy, and even resolve the problem."

"But then we usually just make fun of or talk crap about the person who complained to the other employees. And when a customer is really rude when we go 'look in the back' for something, we legit just stand around and talk to other employees, and make zero effort to look for the item."

A_Womans_Thoughts

From the Box

Kaitlin Olson Brunch GIF by The MickGiphy

"I once worked at 'the area's premiere day spa'; the mimosas were made with Sunny D and not real orange juice, and the wines came out of a box."

SailorVenus23

Sunny D and champagne?!?!

What in the name of Lucifer?

Who does that?!

Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.