This morning I checked out a digital camera to a middle schooler. The only one we had left was one of the old ones that stores the pictures on a floppy disk. I explained this to my student. Her friend overheard and asked, “What’s a floppy?”
The first student’s answer? “It’s like a USB drive, except older.”
(The friend continued to be baffled by such questions as, “But how do you read it?” I showed them both the disk, and they agreed they’d never seen one before.)
Consign another one to the Museum of Useless Junk, I guess!
5 responses so far ↓
1 Arun // Jan 13, 2009 at 6:45 pm
What’s a CD? What’s a DVD?
The first question will happen in about 10 years. The second, 12.
2 Hilaria Rex // Jan 13, 2009 at 10:48 pm
that makes me feel SO OLD
::shakes cane::
3 Sam // Jan 14, 2009 at 9:26 am
Arun: Your predictions have been duly noted! I will report back.
Hilaria: I know, right? Back in *our* day, a floppy was a viable storage device for the only copy of your dissertation!
4 Spike // Jan 14, 2009 at 8:40 pm
I’m still cranky that 3.5 inch disks are called “floppies”. Their predecessors were actually, you know, floppy.
5 Martha // Jan 15, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Having just spent half an hour with tweezers getting a 3.5er out of a drive in pieces, I only wish they were MORE obsolete!
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