Some skills that once seemed automatic are becoming less common as technology, convenience and changing routines take over.
1. Reading a Paper Map
GPS has made getting lost harder—and traditional navigation less necessary. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found 72% of U.S. adults use Google Maps, while digital navigation has become standard for everyday driving, walking and travel.
2. Writing in Cursive
Cursive has steadily disappeared from American classrooms. A 2024 Pew survey found only 17% of U.S. adults say they write in cursive regularly, while many younger adults report rarely using handwriting beyond quick notes or signatures.
3. Memorizing Phone Numbers
Contact lists have effectively become external memory. A 2025 YouGov survey found 39% of Americans could not recall their own phone number without checking, illustrating how much basic information is now stored automatically by devices.
4. Basic Sewing
Replacing a button or fixing a small tear used to be ordinary household knowledge. A 2024 survey from the Craft Industry Alliance found more than half of younger crafters had learned sewing or other fiber crafts within the previous five years, suggesting the skill isn’t disappearing so much as moving from necessity to hobby.
5. Cooking Without a Recipe
Recipes have become easier to find, but improvising remains a different skill. Research from America’s Test Kitchen found more than 70% of home cooks use recipes at least some of the time, while younger cooks are particularly likely to discover recipes through social media.
6. Doing Mental Math
Calculators and smartphones have removed much of the need to calculate quickly in everyday life. A 2025 Numerade survey found 62% of Americans say they rely on calculators or apps for basic calculations, even for tasks that previously required mental arithmetic.
7. Remembering Directions
“Turn left after the gas station” is increasingly being replaced by turn-by-turn instructions. Pew found that more than 8 in 10 smartphone users use their phones for navigation or directions, making spontaneous route memory less necessary than it once was.
Sources:
- Pew Research Center, smartphone and navigation usage
- YouGov, 2025 technology and everyday-skills surveys
- Craft Industry Alliance, 2024 crafting research
- America’s Test Kitchen, home-cooking research
- Numerade, 2025 mathematics survey
