The ’80s and ’90s were filled with everyday sounds that once seemed impossible to escape but have now almost completely disappeared.
Dial-up internet connection
Before Wi-Fi on demand, going online was an occasion. You clicked “Connect,” and your modem performed a triumphant robotic opera of screechy whines, crackly static, and timed blips that filled your home with the news that your internet access was loading and nobody could use the phone until you were done.
The typewriter bell
Before computers were common in offices and homes, rooms were filled with the clacking of typewriter keys. But the most distinctive sound came from the little bell that dinged when you reached the end of the line. That told you to hit the carriage return and start on the next line. If you learned to type on a manual typewriter, you probably still remember that happy little ding.
The video game cartridge
If you grew up in the late 80s and early 90s, starting a video game meant hearing the click of inserting a cartridge into your system. When the game refused to launch, the usual fix was to take the cartridge out, blow on it, and try again. You weren’t supposed to blow into them, but that didn’t stop anyone.
The telephone dial
Before everyone had touch-tone phones, rotary phones made a clicking sound anytime someone dialed a call. You inserted your finger into the correct hole and turned clockwise. Then you’d listen to it return all the way back to the listening position. Dialing a long number could take some time, especially if you happened to make a mistake toward the end.
The microwave ding
Older microwave ovens announced the end of cooking not with electronic beeps, but with a single mechanical bell. That high-pitched metallic ding meant dinner (or hot cocoa) was ready. Some people still associate that ringing bell with midnight snacks and early TV dinners. Mechanical- bell microwaves haven’t totally gone extinct, but they are becoming rare.
TV static and white noise
When broadcast networks signed off late at night, they didn’t show a black screen or app loading spinner. TVs showed a wall of white noise roaring onscreen, along with snowy black-and-white static. Analog televisions even emitted a high frequency electric hum the moment they were turned on. This was a quiet static buzz you could feel in the air itself before the picture would even come on.
Rewinding a VHS tape
Renting a movie on video tape meant you also had to endure the loud buzzing sound of the VCR rewinding it once you were done watching. Whether it was obnoxiously loud high-speed whirring within the cassette or the thunderous motorized thunk of a dedicated external rewinder, shaped like a sports car, you knew that noise signaled the end of the movie.
The photo booth
Vintage photo booths have a distinctive series of clicks, hums and buzzes as they get ready to snap your photo. Once you inserted your money, the machine clacked, whirred, and buzzed as it moved the film or camera mechanism into position.
Then the flash would fire, and you waited while your pictures were developed. To adolescents cramming into a booth with friends, those mechanical sounds were part of the fun.
A dot-matrix printer at work
Before there were silent laser printers, printing something like a school report or a banner was an industrial-strength racket. Dot-matrix printers built letters by slamming little metal pins through an ink ribbon at high speed. It went zzt-zzt-zzt-SCREEECH for every letter of every line of text. The noise was high-pitched enough to pierce your ears.
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12 things from the dial-up era that kids today will never experience
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Growing up in the age of dial-up internet will make you relate to these 12 things that today’s kids will never understand.
12 things from the dial-up era that kids today will never experience
