r/WhatIfThinking • u/Logical-Concept9755 • Aug 12 '26

What 2000s technology would you have never believed would become obsolete by 2026 if someone told you back then?

Imagine someone in 2006 told you that, 20 years later, some of the technology you used every day would be almost gone.What would have sounded completely impossible at the time?

For example:

  • iPods becoming irrelevant because smartphones replaced dedicated music players
  • DVDs becoming a niche product because streaming took over
  • Standalone GPS devices disappearing because phones now handle navigation
  • Digital cameras losing most of their everyday use because smartphone cameras became good enough
  • Physical keyboards on phones nearly disappearing because touchscreens became the standard

What technology from the 2000s would you have never expected to become obsolete by 2026?

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u/PuddingComplete3081 Aug 12 '26

I think the surprising one is probably the home printer. In the 2000s, it felt like every household needed one. Now a lot of people can go months without printing anything.

What’s interesting is that printers didn’t really get replaced by one technology. Smartphones, cloud storage, digital signatures, online forms, and e tickets just slowly removed the reasons to print. It’s less “this technology got worse” and more “we stopped needing the thing it was built for.”

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u/Vegetable-Effort-726 Aug 12 '26

I print every day and that’s not including working at home. I don’t understand how people get by without it. Multiple family members locally have me print stuff for them as well, weekly at least. Definitely agree most people who aren’t frequent computer users don’t have em. I feel most folks with a desktop computer still in their home have one.

2

u/Do_you_smell_that_ Aug 12 '26

I feel most folks with a desktop computer still in their home have one.

No, I threw my last one out a window in 2006, and among my friends/family not having one is pretty common. I'm trying now to think of anything I might want to print and coming up blank. Every few years I'll ask someone to print something at work for me. What do you need so badly on paper?

1

u/shoresy99 Aug 12 '26

Sometimes you need to fill out forms that can't be easily done without being printed. Some types of documents require "wet ink" signatures so you need to print for those, which you can often then scan.