off-topic What’s a skill you learned as a kid that’s completely useless today?

[Pete Griffin]

I was thinking about how much the world has changed since I was a kid, and it hit me: there are so many skills we learned back then that are absolutely useless today.

For example, I grew up in a small town near Leeds in the ’70s and ’80s, and one of the weird skills I picked up was repairing cassette tapes with Scotch tape. If your favourite mixtape got chewed up by the player (which happened all the time!), you’d have to carefully unwind the tape, cut out the damaged part, and splice it back together with tape. It was like performing surgery on your music collection! These days, with streaming and digital music, I doubt anyone under 30 even knows what a cassette tape is, let alone how to fix one.

What about you? Did you learn something as a kid that’s totally obsolete now? Maybe it’s something like dialling a rotary phone, programming a VCR, or even memorizing phone numbers. Let’s hear your most useless (but oddly nostalgic) skills!

 

[arunima]

I can't remember one right now. But yes, this was definitely a skill during our growing up years. And though it is no more of use anymore, the lesson of repairing before discarding is a great lesson that still is valuable. So, afterall it was not completely useless. It does bring so many nostalgic memories.

 

[Shawn]

Cursive.

My signature isn't even proper cursive. I've adjusted it over the years to help mitigate fraud. My bank knows special marks I use and if they get one without those, they know the signature is false and I get a call.

However...

Cursive is like learning another language. It's important to keep teaching it even if we never use it. Why? Because that requires brain power and memory and makes a child smarter. We are letting technology do everything for us. If we quit using our brains and memories because of tech, we'll lose it faster when we're older.

Schools should even teach sign language IMO. That would be very helpful and stimulant to the brain.

 

[Shortie]

One skill I remember learning that I don't have any use for now and probably will not have any use for now would be how to fix up a bicycle.

I remember my dad teaching me and my brothers how to fix certain things including punctures and such on a bike but I have never needed to use it since I grew up.

 

[Shawn]

One skill I remember learning that I don't have any use for now and probably will not have any use for now would be how to fix up a bicycle.

I remember my dad teaching me and my brothers how to fix certain things including punctures and such on a bike but I have never needed to use it since I grew up.

I had to learn all that on my own after getting a bike as an adult, LOL.

As a cyclist though, it helps me to know that since it's less expensive for me to fix it myself!

 

[lens]

Yes, you're right! Repairing cassette tape is what we do these days. I can relate to that! Back in the day, I had a skill that has become totally useless today. It's how to read physical maps. I mean, with the sophisticated technology now, who needs somebody who will read map symbols to them when they have Google maps right in their palm.

 

[eyes2c]

How to sharpen a knife with wet stone. How to walk on stilts, how to make a bow and arrow. How to build a bivouac to name a few...

 

[Pete Griffin]

Cursive is like learning another language. It's important to keep teaching it even if we never use it. Why? Because that requires brain power and memory and makes a child smarter. We are letting technology do everything for us. If we quit using our brains and memories because of tech, we'll lose it faster when we're older.

This is a really good point here, Shawn. It's like the argument of many kids, "why are we learning calculus?" Treat the brain as a muscle. You work out in the gym to keep your muscles honed. You should give your brain a work out too so as to remain sharp.

 

[Shawn]

This is a really good point here, Shawn. It's like the argument of many kids, "why are we learning calculus?" Treat the brain as a muscle. You work out in the gym to keep your muscles honed. You should give your brain a work out too so as to remain sharp.

Yep, our brains are just like our muscles.

If we don't work them out, they will be weak and it will be harder to strengthen as we age.

If I would have got into serious cycling as a kid, I'd be a pro by now LOL. But waiting until adulthood has made it a challenge to enhance my performance.

 

[Jason]

Running your breath over a video game cartridge to make it work, lol.

 

[Shawn]

Running your breath over a video game cartridge to make it work, lol.

Oh man.

I remember those days.

Funny story: Not too long ago, my SD reader on my computer wasn't recognizing my SD cards. I'd take them out and blow on them and put them back in to see if they would work LOL. Maybe I got it from doing that? It didn't work. I actually needed to update some drivers LOL.

 

[NatureFreak]

I learned how to light a fire by striking two rocks against each other. That's almost 3 decades ago and I was in the village then. Unfortunately, that skill is pointless now