The Steve Rubel Stream

I'll say you're 40%, maybe 50%, correct here.

Enjoyed this very much (as usual). Those are great examples. One thing that occurs to me though is we use phrases today without really understanding the origin...dressed to the nines, bite the bullet, flash in the pan... So even though your great examples may not make sense to the next generation, they may still be used. Will be interesting to see which ones stick!

What about "It's busy, I'll call back later"?

very good :)

I think you're on the money for things like the pay phone, but as Katy points out, some of the phrases are sayings that may outlast common knowledge of their meaning (maybe the broken record?).

For example, people often say "too many cooks spoil the broth", but how many of them actually make or eat broth, or even know what it is?

You think signatures on legal documents are going away?

I wonder if we will continue to say "google it" should there be a new search engine that outranks Google...

These sayings really make me feel old. Kids born in the 90's will have no clue what any of these mean. Crazy..

These are quite right. I often think of the companies that own or USED to own pay phones. It WAS a cash cow. They probably never imagined that there would no longer be a need for a pay phone. Talk about taking innovation for granted.

I always stare when I see someone on a pay phone...I also stare when I see someone using a portable cd player on the subway. What's their deal?

Down our way, we still talk about "Hoovering the carpet". Everybody I know has a Dyson, but the phrase lives on!

DJ--you are soooo right about the busy signal. I recently referred to my cat's purring as a busy signal and my 12 year old didn't have a clue what I was talking about! LOL

We now have an entire generation who hasn't "dialed a telephone."

Nice. "A walking Encyclopedia" could become "a walking Wikipedia"...

I wonder if the next generation will tell their kids they had to walk to school 10 miles uphill, in the snow, both ways! Or will they say things like 'I had to go to the library and find a book, on a shelf, and it may or may not have been checked out! Wait, the kids already stopped doing that.

I remember when rotary phone were the norm and you didn't buy phone, but rent them from the phone company. {sigh}

Cute, but very informative. I know you getting ready to launch something very big-What is it?

Hi Steve.
Well, I know some people that may be a little bit upset of not having their 'pen pal friends' in the future. They are called 'postcrossers'. You can check for yourself at this website: www.postcrossing.com.
Yes, Steve, I still keep my pen pal friends!!
Greetings from Rio de Janeiro.
Ah, and hope you can make it to come to the Olympic Games 2016!

These are great. Too bad I can't think of anything witty to share...[insert wittyness here]

Steve, thinking about a similar list -- technology that mimics "the old school." Examples:

- Digital cameras that make a shutter sound
- Album artwork and liner notes in iTunes
- The little white dot that disappears into the center of the screen when you shut down Joost software client, like old tube TVs
- And of course analog clock faces on every screen in my house!

Yikes,now I feel old - thanks! LOL :)

Oh man.. I am feeling really old.... I remember these things. My digital camera produces that synthetic 'shutter sound' that 'boikej' mentions!. Oh.. brother.... the pace of change accelerates!

Something I've thought of recently: "He's all thumbs." We use thumbs for everything now!

How about that rite of passage of making a "mix tape" for someone you have a crush on in jr high school? haha

Occasionally, mortifyingly, I refer to my iPod as a "walkman".

The encyclopedia one might just turn into, "she's a walking Wikipedia!" (Though with internet access everywhere, that might be more a disclaimer about the person's phone than their knowledge!) lol

I like these! I'm not sure if the expressions will vanish, we still talk about "hanging up" the phone.

Good news from the UK Liz Phillips - the term 'mix tape' is still in fact used in trendy young-ish muso circles! It's one of those phrases, like many of them, which has transferred itself to the new technology even if it is not 100% semantically true.

Steve Rubel: why is 'excuse me do you know the correct time' possibly threatened with extinction? The time is shown as a default on our mobile phones; laptops, notebooks, iPhones; PDAs; PCs, Macs etc. . .which so many of us carry around all the time - and sometimes more than one of those devices at a time.

What might be a more interesting point here though, is why was the word 'correct' ever even inserted into this phrase?

Wow these make me feel old. Another question going the way of the 8-track (yes I had one at one time!) "Do you have a pen I could borrow?"

@Mel you answered the question. There's no need to ask for the correct time if it's everywhere.

#Mel Poluck, I think you answer your own question. Why would we "ask" for the time when we carry so many devices that tell us?!?

How many school kids know what a cassette tape looks like? Anybody tried to buy a cassette player lately?

the reason he talked about the time, was becasue people used to have to wind their watches and clock. now, everything is digital.

The reason "correct" is in the phrase regarding time is because everyone's time is different, even on their digital devices. Right now I'm looking at my blackberry which shows 2:51, the phone shows 2:50, and the computer shows 2:49. Do you have the correct time? Or is that close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades?

What about "Put the needle on the record"...

love it :) I'm sure there's dozens more

Vinil is still hot, and remains selling very well.
and amateur radio will last for much longer, as long as there is free radio spectrum

Personally, I confuse people my age when I say things like that. Maybe I'm just not the norm, at twenty.

My husband drives me crazy when he talks about turning on the "HiFi" (stands for "high fidelity," which preceded Stereo).

Talk about obsolete terminology: what about "bcc" (Blind Carbon Copy)...? Former office workers, like me, know what bcc means, but others don't; and when sending e-mails, it's nonsensical.

What about: "Let's stop at the next gas station to fill up the tank"

Well, here in Brazil, for cultural-historic reasons, orality still prevails over literacy, so I think people will still keep stopping and asking for directions for a long time.

Try this--my students don't know what I'm saying if I say I want a Xerox of a document. Poor Xerox.

As to the bcc comment -- even cc is outdated, who still uses carbon paper to make a carbon copy? (for that matter our students may not even know what carbon paper is) We went from cc (carbon copy), to xc (xerox copy), to pc (photocopy), and now just c (copy). I guess you could make an argument for cc to stand for computer copy.

How about the dial up on old computers. Do you remember how annoying that sound was as the internet loaded and the dial toned screeched for thirty seconds?