The question on reddit was this: Older generations of Reddit, who were the “I don’t use computers” people of your time?
But it wasn’t just the older generations of reddit that answered. Over 19,000+ peeps decided that they wanted to share, and so we get these 21 amazing answers as to what people think is just too much technology.
1. Frickin lasers!
My grandmother didn’t like to use the remote control for her television, because she was afraid it would break somehow and function as a laser dangerous enough to set things on fire.
2. She doesn’t know how planes work…
My dad once told me a story about his grandmother refusing to fly in planes because she didn’t want to get her hair all messed up from the wind.
3. Color TV
When they became common in the mid-60s a lot of older people believed they emitted harmful rays.
When Mom finally got one circa 1972 it was kept in her bedroom and we were ushered in to watch it only on special occasions.
And we had to sit at least ten feet away.
4. Adulthood
My grand-aunt still believes that 15 is the age of adulthood, that schooling isn’t necessary beyond that point.
She grew up in a time when literacy wasn’t a given.
5. Digital clocks
They’re lazy!
My grandfather insists that if you can’t tell time by the minute and hour hands, it’ll make you dumb.
Okay grandpa…
6. Optional car features… like life.
When I was a kid (late 50’s early 60’s) seat belts in cars were an option. Lots of people thought they were unnecessary and refused to pay extra for them
Heaters and windshield defoggers were likewise optional.
My parents bought a new 1964 Plymouth Valiant and didn’t get the option.
7. The “web”
My senior year of high school, I had a series of newspaper articles in the local paper explaining how the web wasn’t a fad, and wasn’t going away.
Nobody but one guy at the paper believed it. It was 1995.
8. Hot decaf coffee
My grandmother drinks only hot decaf coffee. Every meal, every day.
95 degrees with 100% humidity? Hot decaf coffee.
Feeling parched after a day of hard work? Hot decaf coffee.
“When I was growing up, we never had ice. That was a luxury. Cold drinks aren’t good for your stomach.”
9. Sexy computers…
I have a coworker about 52 yo.
He absolutely refuses to use a computer because he caught his wife sexting in a chat room on their computer.
So he destroyed it.
10. The reading conspiracy
“I don’t read novels.”
My grandfather thought they were a plot by the elites to both ruin our eyesight and keep us locked away in a fantasy world.
11. Adorable!
My Mother In Law.
When she wanted me to look something up for her, she would ask me to check “your friend, the net.”
12. sh^tting inside
Some people still had outdoor toilets and were laughing at those who had them installed.
Why?
Because “they are sh^tting their own houses”.
13. Calculate this!
I was told constantly in school that I “won’t have a calculator around all the time”.
14. Bold prediction!
I never wanted touchscreen phone because I thought they’re unreliable and will break easily.
One of those things was true.
15. That’s cold…
My grandparents refused to get air conditioning.
They were convinced it would only make people sick.
Fast forward 30 years and their daughter ended up in the hospital for weeks with legionaries disease from an a/c unit.
16. Why u no Insta?
I’m 22 and people definitely think something’s odd when they ask for my Snapchat or Instagram and I say I don’t have one.
WHY ARE PHONE NUMBERS SO FORMAL ALL OF A SUDDEN?
17. The times have changed, and so has mom…
My mother (now 80) was practically a Luddite.
She didn’t want an answering machine for the house phone for years “if it’s important they will call back”.
Now she has an iPhone and surfs the net nonstop on the Linux pc I set up for her.
18. This is amazing!
When remote control TVs came out, I suggested that my father buy one, and he said said, “It will be a cold day in Hell when I’m too lazy to tell one of you boys to get up and change the channel.”
It was such an amazing sentence that I committed it to memory, and I still remember it word for word 50 years later.
19. Fresh food only!
An acquaintance of mine told me her grandmother doesn’t own a refrigerator because refrigerators are harmful and for lazy people that don’t want to cook fresh food.
That must have been one busy grandma!
20. She is always listening…
I’m still 100% against having an Alexa in my house.
I just think as it as bugging my house.
Can’t trust anyone now a days.
21. This is insane!
My mother told me some old people from her neighborhood in the 60s didn’t have washing machines because they said those were for lazy women.
Decent women wash by hand on a rock by the river!
What tech do you think is going too far?
Personally, I think it’s cloning.
Not because of any spiritual thing, I just think DNA can’t be replicated without retaining the age of the DNA. So the clone is likely to suffer a much shorter lifespan, which isn’t fair to them.