3. The myth of celebrity intelligence
Celebrities use Twitter to instantly communicate their thoughts, hopes and dreams to their global fanbases. Unfortunately that doesn't always mean they've got anything worth saying.
4. Waiting for trains
The days of picking up a printed timetable to check the time of the next train to Tiverton Parkway are long gone as modern day travellers simply check the next departure from their phone. It doesn't guarantee you'll make it to the station in time though.
5. ...and everything else
Having a wealth of digital information at our fingertips has arguably produced a culture fixated on instant gratification. We're simply not willing to spend time researching the answer to a particularly taxing question when the answers can be supplied so easily by pressing a few keys. An American study into
Google's effect on memory found that participants did not make the effort to remember information they thought they could later look up, which is more than a little troubling.
6. Ed Balls having a quiet day on April 28
Little did Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls know that when he idly searched for his own name on Twitter on April 28 2011, he was creating an internet phenomenon. For he had actually tweeted 'Ed Balls', and failed to delete it because he didn't know you could.
Balls' mishap quickly spread throughout the social network, and to date has been retweeted over 22,000 times.
But no one could accuse him of not having a sense of humour about the gaffe, after he commemorated the date with a retweet earlier this year, to the delight of his followers. Expect this to be repeated for many years, Ed Balls.
7. Ceefax
For years, Ceefax was the only way for millions to access the latest headlines, sport results and weather reports outside of broadcast schedules, all at the click of a remote control button. Launched in 1974 by BBC engineers, the original real-time information network predated the internet significantly. Unfortunately the rise of home computing contributed to its demise, and officials finally pulled the plug on this relic of a bygone age in 2012. Goodnight, sweet prince.
8. Being lost
Also covering maps, atlases and the London A-Z street guides that are now touted only by bona fide tourists, increasing amounts of people use their car's Sat Nav, Google maps on their phones or print detailed instructions from its desktop equivalent to navigate their way around. Last year Ordnance Survey said sales of its paper maps had fallen by 25 per cent since 2005, which may explain why
mountain rescue incidents increased during the same time by 52 per cent.
9. Printed porn
When was the last time you saw somebody buying a top-shelf mag from your local newsagents? The rise of easily accessible internet pornography may be of intense relief to teenage boys the world over, but those longing for the printed editions of by-gone times can buy vintage classics from a variety of second-hand websites. Hmm.
Sealed with a loving kiss: the lost art of letter writing
10. The lost art of letter writing
As illustrated by New Zealand's postal service, it's easy to see why the word 'write' to younger generations conjurs up images of keyboards rather than paper and pen. Though the thrill of receiving a handwritten letter remains hard to beat for many, somewhat confusingly, you can send a letter to a loved one via the internet thanks to
PC2Paper: from email to snail mail. You can even
write a letter to the Telegraph by email these days.
11. Encyclopedias
Once a solemn gift to a child, an encyclopedia represented the imparting of knowledge from one generation to the next, a rite of passage that would be infinitely useful. Then there was Encarta Encyclopedia, a digital equivalent whose 2008 incarnation consisted of more than 62,000 entries. To put that into perspective, Google deals with around three billion search queries a day. Sorry Grandma.
12. Subtlety
The Twitter feed for Channel 5's daytime discussion programme
The Wright Stuff takes the best of British dilemmas and presents them completely context-free.
13. Memorising your best friend's phone number
You may have just about memoried your own mobile number, but remember knowing your best friend's landline number off by heart? Or worse, having to ask their scary dad if they were there to talk? It doesn't bear thinking about.
Even Ned Stark is left disappoined by spoilers
14. Successfully avoiding spoilers
Trying to avoid spoilers for last night's Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad or the winner of the Great British Bake Off final? Better block it from your Twitter feed, dodge all newspapers and news sites and quarantine yourself from all human contact, because in this uber-connected day and age delayed knowledge is VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE to avoid. Ditto sports results and Royal babies.
15. Fax machines
It's unlikely anyone born post 1990 has ever even turned one of these on, but they're missing out on the thrill of a poorly rendered near-illegible document slowly inching out of the telephone/fax handset and curling onto the floor like a mutant scroll.
16. Productivity
With over 350 million photos added to Facebook every day and over 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every day, is it any wonder none of us are getting any work done? A recent survey by Forbes found that
64 per cent of US employees visited non-work related websites daily, the most visited of which was Tumblr, followed by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and SnapChat. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a list of the top 27 pugs dressed as 80s rockers to look at....
17. Blind dates
Thanks to the magic of the web, finding out whether Chardonay, the "hottie" your mate has set you up with is really as stunning as he claims has never been easier. Whilst some would argue this takes all the romance out of finding a soul mate, a third of all US couples who married between 2005 and 2012 met online. Knowledge, after all, is power.
18. Radios
19. Isolation / Losing touch with anyone
In another example of the dual good/evil flipside of the world wide web, we're all connected to each other like never before. Ministers have said that
technological links to the outside world could help to prevent the elderly feeling lonely. Unfortunately, this also makes it increasingly difficult to disentangle your virtual self from the gobby girl you went to school with, the ex boyfriend who broke your heart and the second cousin who won't stop poking you. The block button exists for a reason.
20. Privacy
21. Physical photo albums
Another nostalgic casualty of the internet age, the humble photo album will always have a place in our hearts for documenting our first bath, first day of school and a whole host of awkward haircuts. Now we just post them online to remain in cyberspace forever.
What even is this?
22. The mystique of your friends' lunch
Not that this was ever that interesting, but Instragram has a lot to answer for.
23. How to spell
24. Pub Quizzes
25. Likewise, the drunken debate
The simple pleasures of bickering over who is right or wrong over a pint has been ruined by the internet. Can't we talk it out?
26. Computer game shops
Like music retailers, increased levels of digital distribution and cheaper online pricing hit high street computer games retailers hard when Game and Gamestation owner Game Retail Limited went into administration in 2012.
27. Classifieds
The art of selling odds and ends via the back pages of your local newspaper is no more after being edged out by eBay.
28. Hearing a song on the radio / in a club and not knowing what it is
The great British public can rest assured that never again will they have to frantically relisten to the radio hoping for the DJ to repeat the song name after the invention of a raft of apps including Shazam and Midomi, which requires users to sing or hum their desired tune in order to identify it.
29. Mix tapes
A tragic loss to broken teenage hearts the world over, a Spotify playlist's declaration of love is just not the same as a meticulously-assembled mixtape.
Do not feed the trolls
30. The word 'troll'
Once upon a time a troll was a mythical creature that lived under bridges and ate unsuspecting billy goats. Then it morphed into a funky-haired boggle-eyed fad doll. Now we use the word troll to describe an unpleasant individual who has nothing better to do than make snide comments online. In the words of Destiny's Child,
I ain't gon' diss you on the internet, 'cuz my Mama taught me better than that.
31. Phrenology
Because when was the last time someone studied the topography of your skull to try and discipher your character?
32. Quiet appreciation for pop stars
A fondly-remembered way for fans to express their sheer enthusiasm about a variety of popular culture topics, the humble fanzine has been largely replaced by hysterical Twitter accounts. Below are some of the best of the mind-boggling things some internet users tweet about pop poppets One Direction.
33. Sharing
The internet has changed the concept of sharing from a kind gesture intended to brighten the receiver's day into a burden of distributed videos, links, pictures, songs, soundbites, files, attachments, articles begging for attention. Enough.
34. Keeping moral dilemmas / burning questions to yourself
A quick scroll of
yahoo answers is enough to remind you that no matter how bad your day is, there's someone out there having a worse one, as well as some truly mind-boggling queries. Recent examples include Is blowing nose in public acceptable in your culture [sic], Why do dogs have brains and Can you help me find this bag please??? [sic]
35. Learning foreign languages
Why go to the lengths of learning a foreign language with Google Translate to hand?
36. Expertise
The wealth of medical symptom information now readily available online has inevitably contributed to the rise of the 'cyberchondriac' ; those who spend hours attributing every ache and pain to a dramatic twist of health misfortune. Whilst the internet has done wonders to raise awareness of illness and warning signs, be sure to visit a doctor before self-diagnosing your caffeine withdrawal headache as a brain tumour.
37. Address books / Rolodexes
Bring them back!
38. Calculators
Be honest, have you used a scientific calculator since leaving school? We now use the calculator functions on our phones to split bills in restaurants, and search the answers to particularly fiendish sums.
39. Hiding your past
Because it's hard to convince people you were always this cool when your friends refuse to detag the photos of you decked out in your best '
gap yah' finery (complete with beaded choker) and the time you passed out in Bridgwater town centre with two industrial sized bottles of cider taped to your hands. Employers, look away.
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