Does anybody remember cassette tapes?
For many of us, technology has expanded and improved more rapidly than we couldโve expected within our lifetimes. Though it seems like just yesterday that my parents were getting a new internet hook-up at our house, digital technology has since spread into every aspect of our livesโwe even consume our music, movies and books through the internet.
Lots of people on Earth today arenโt familiar with almost any analogue technologyโespecially kids.
In a clip thatโs going viral across the internet, three kids discover a set of old cassette tapes.
If youโre scratching your head, cassette tapes were a popular format for storing audio on magnetic tape, all encased in plastic and meant to be played back. They were popular from the 1960s to even the early to mid 1990s. Still, that means that many of todayโs children have no experience with them.
The two boys in this video were at their grandparents house and tried to figure them outโall while dad was egging them on.
The kids experiment hilariously with the tapes, trying to figure out how they work.
At one point, the dad asks, โWhere do you put the headphones?โ The boy points to a part of the tape: โIn there!โ But the little girl corrects him. โNo, you put it in a TV!โ she says. Almost immediately, the boy has a reply for her. โThey didnโt have TVs back in those days.โ The father asks for clarification from the kids: are they saying that the world didnโt have TV sets back in the 1980s? The boys confirmโthatโs exactly what they mean.
Although the kids are determined to listen to the tapes, they truly canโt figure out how they work.
Suddenly, one of the kids is struck with inspiration.
One of the boys says that maybe the tape itself is translucent because it plays video that you watch through the casing. The other boy says that maybe thereโs an AUX cord that plugs into the tape which is then watched through the two holes in the tapeโthose are for your eyes, obviously. After a moment of this, the dad asks if theyโre actually serious. โIโm deadly serious,โ one of the boys says.
After all their effort, the kids never crack it! Dad, canโt you step in here?
This funny video is just another reminder of how much things have changed in our lifetime.
While cassette tapes were probably hugely innovative when they first came out, theyโve since been replaced with many digital technologies like Mp3 players, iPods and later iPhones that put all our music right in our pockets. In another 10 or 20 years, all the things we think of as top of the line will probably be obsolete as well.
At any rate, watching kids try to figure it out is good for a laugh!
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