How Many Can You Recognize from These 4 Pictures? Only Those Born Before ’95 Can Nail It

Take this picture, for example. That’s a cassette tape—maybe even younger folks have seen one. Back in the day, we listened to music on these, and you might remember the huge pile your parents or older siblings tossed out when moving. But what’s that pencil doing there? It sounds crazy, but after the tape played, you had to rewind it manually to listen again. Sure, some tape players had rewind buttons, but you couldn’t listen while rewinding. So when a tape finished, we’d pop in another, hook a pencil into the little gears at the end, and rewind the tape by hand. The coolest kids could spin the pencil fast—way quicker and way cooler-looking. I never mastered it, but I admired those who did. Oh, and the pencil trick was also a lifesaver when your precious tape got jammed inside the player. You had to carefully, gently pull the tape back without creasing or tearing it. That was a rare win without lasting damage.

Not long ago, I was explaining to my niece—who’s about half a generation younger—that some foreign words become part of Hungarian, and their spelling adapts over time. For example, I definitely wouldn’t write nejlon as nylon anymore, but a few years back, that wasn’t so clear. I also told her that this "integration" has a transition phase—some people write words the Hungarian way, others stick to the original. Like kapucsínó or cappuccino, and even fájl. Her eyes widened, and she asked, “Why? How else would you spell fájl?” That’s when she realized fájl and the English file are the same word—she never saw fájl as foreign. She didn’t have to learn it artificially later; as a digital native, it felt like a natural Hungarian word. You should’ve seen her face when I explained what the save icon actually shows… And that the file was once king of data storage devices.

Sending an SMS is a snap today, so it’s no wonder we share everything with our people. But it wasn’t always that easy—there were times when writing an SMS was serious work, and every letter took effort. I recently saw a YouTube video where kids were handed old mobile phones. They struggled just to open or slide them apart, and all agreed that living with that tech must have been pure torture. And we haven’t even talked about the panic when accidentally hitting the “internet” button—who could afford that luxury back then?!

Kids today have definitely seen CDs, but they don’t know what to do with them. I admit, recently at a press event, I got photos and documents on a CD instead of a flash drive or cloud. I smiled and thanked them, but inside I wondered, what am I supposed to do with this? My computer doesn’t even have a CD drive, and it’s not a bad machine—it’s my work tool. Considering all this, I’m sure those born after ’95 might have seen a CD, but they don’t know the pain, despair, and helpless rage when your player could only say this much about your favorite album. Hit like if you almost hear the hi-fi’s whirr and feel that flutter in your stomach wondering if it’ll recognize your hundred-times-played burned CD!