Fading Skills: Nothing Lasts Forever

If you have reached a point in your life like I have – middle-age – you may have noticed that certain feats that we all once performed with skill and ease now take extreme effort and serious concentration. 

Toe-touching and reading a menu come immediately to mind.

Still, most of us eventually accept our physical decline in stride, readjust expectations and set new, more realistic goals. Acceptance is harder for some of us than others, but ultimately most of us end up in the same place.  Those people who can’t probably opt for cosmetic surgery.

This means I am now satisfied with touching my knees and getting bifocals. Eh, so be it.

Recently, however, I have noticed that not just individual skills, but once common everyday occurrences are fading from existence. They aren’t fading because minds and bodies are falling apart. Instead, they are disappearing simply from lack of use. The first time I became aware of this, I was startled. And then the truth became clear.   These disappearances are the result of the introduction of new technologies into our ever-changing world.

The 21st century is just like any previous period of history in one key respect; human innovation leads to the replacement of old technologies. The past is always littered with “the way we used to do things.” The Stone Age. The Bronze Age. The Iron Age. The Machine Age. Each great leap forward meant something was left behind. We would be naïve to think our time is any different.

Even the last 100 years have been witness to the widespread disappearance of skills and ways of life that would make our grandparents shudder. Sewing, gardening, canning food and baking bread - mostly gone. Riding a horse, (something every American once knew how to do) over.

But it is this amazing age we live in – the Computer/Digital/Information Era –that I have become increasingly aware of many, once-necessary skills that are disappearing from our cultural landscape. They are in the midst of a long, slow fade-out and they aren’t coming back. My short list includes:

1.     Reading an Analog Clock. If you are 35 years or older, don’t worry; this skill is eternal. Nonetheless, the wrist watch is now jewelry.  Household clocks are primarily decorative. When you ask someone for the time they look at their cellphone. Need I say more?

2.     Cursive Writing. I have used a keyboard for so long that when I try to write more than a few words in cursive my hand cannot keep up with my brain. What was once natural now requires me to pause, straining to remember what certain letters looked like on the alphabet poster above my 2nd grade teacher’s chalkboard. I'm sorry Mrs. Duffy.

3.     Balancing a Checkbook. Honestly, I was never very good at this skill in the first place.  Online banking has saved me a small fortune in overdraft fees. With apologies to Deluxe Corporation, good riddance to the checkbook.

4.     Making a Mixed Tape. Anyone who was conscious in the 80’s knows what I am talking about. A mixed tape could usually be categorized two ways: pre- and post-breakup. Bitter and sweet. Then again, iTunes has made organizing personal music preferences pretty slick. Still, how can you tell someone, “Hey, I’m gonna make a mixed MP3 playlist and upload it to a flashdrive for you.” Huh?

5.     Slamming Down the Phone. A good old satisfying phone slam has been on its way out for a few decades now. I can’t remember the last time I smashed the receiver (now there’s an ancient phone term) down on its cradle. The sound and feel of that moment was disturbingly pleasing, right up to the split second after when pain coursed through the finger or two that had been trapped between both ends of this archaic device. Ah, the memories.

6.     Reading a Map. As a geography teacher, I have personally mourned the death of map reading. It was a sudden and violent death. Between the affordability of a GPS, the inclusion of one in every smart phone and the addition of such technology as a standard option in many new cars, Rand McNally never had a chance. Gone forever is the joy of watching your road trip companion struggle and curse, attempting unsuccessfully to correctly fold that state map for the umpteenth time. Sniff. Tissue, please.

These are just a few skills that have found their way into the trash heap of history. Feel free to add your own to the list. And while you're doing that find comfort in this knowledge - today's wonders will also be tomorrow's relics. After all, nothing stays the same for long. But sometimes - for a middle-aged man - it's hard to keep up.