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What technologies were ubiquitous ten years ago and are much less common now?
(lemmy.blahaj.zone)
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2025
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10 years isn't far enough in the past. I can't think of a single thing ubiquitous to every day living that doesn't still exist in the same capacity now. 2025 is barely different from 2015.
I am sure there might be plenty of niche or specialized tech that fits. But nothing that was widespread and now just gone.
Thumb drives were a form of currency ten years ago. I go months without using one now, and even then it’s installing an OS for a RPi.
I have an external SSD for backups, but not for sneakernet.
Doing remote tech support for my company, "Just load this on a USB drive."
😕
"Don't have one? Not any kind?"
🫤
This was at a software company.
To be fair, at my last company, you needed a special exemption from my manager up to the CEO to plug in a thumb drive.
Probably for the best.
This drives me nuts. I used to pirate stuff for a fee (still do occasionally) and I would only do transfer with thumbdrives.
In 2015, UK consumers spent approximately £1.5 billion on physical entertainment media, including DVDs, Blu-rays, and CDs.
By 2025, that figure has plummeted to under £400 million, with DVDs and Blu-rays now representing less than 10% of total video spend.
In 2015, streaming was growing but still secondary. Netflix had around 5 million UK subscribers, and Spotify Premium was under 2 million.
By 2025, streaming dominates:
2015: Physical Media ~£1.5 billion, Streaming ~£500 million 2025: Physical Media <£400 million, Streaming >£2.5 billion https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/multi-sector/media-nations/2025/media-nations-2025-uk-report.pdf
https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/Industries/tmt/research/digital-consumer-trends.html
I'm probably an exception, but my interest in physical media has increased this year as streaming services have become increasingly consumer-hostile. It's unfortunate that many movies and shows have incomplete physical media representation. Some have only DVDs. Others lack even those, too.
Yeah, I was going to say zip drives, or optical disks, but you really need to go back 20 years for them to be ubiquitous.
USB-A, maybe? Consumer 2.5" form disk drives?
USB-A is still ubiquitous.