History Main / TechnologyMarchesOn

[[UsefulNotes/{{Television}} TVs]] have changed a lot and tropes that applied to analog black & white models don't always carry over to the digital HD and 4K multipurpose display devices of the present. Satellite radio and streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music / Podcasts have changed the landscape for radio in similar ways.

* The advent of the DVR and On-Demand services (along with streaming services like Creator/{{Netflix}}, Creator/{{Hulu}}, Amazon Creator/PrimeVideo, Creator/DisneyPlus, Creator/ParamountPlus, Creator/HBOMax, Creator/{{Peacock}}, and, to an extent, [=YouTube=]) changed things in a lot of ways. Nowadays, kids (and even some adults) will struggle to grasp the concept of only being able to watch TV shows [[AppointmentTelevision while they were actually airing]]. That being said, a ''new'' problem has emerged: Streaming services can only afford to have so many shows available, and some will inevitably get removed from the service due to a variety of reasons ([[ScrewedByTheLawyers disputes]], lack of viewership, [[OvershadowedByControversy controversy]], and so on). As some shows are available only through streaming, once these shows are removed from the service, [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes their availability will drop drastically]]. The decline of AppointmentTelevision has also made many feel that [[UsefulNotes/{{Ratings}} the Nielsen ratings]] have become obsolete, since those only measure viewership of live broadcasts and Nielsen has resisted counting streaming in their ratings since those do not feature the same advertising as on broadcast television and they are stuck using measurement standards that were last updated in ''2006''.

* Getting information from a UsefulNotes/PEGChannel. Previously, if you wanted information on the goings-on in your community, or were attending a CorrespondenceCourse, you would watch these channels. Nowadays, all that information and that classwork are all online. As for people who want to make and share videos about...well, just about ''anything'', they can do so through video-sharing websites such as Platform/YouTube or Platform/{{Vimeo}}. (Without needing to take any classes on how to produce television.) However, PEG channels offer an advantage over these video-sharing sites: when you record at their studio, or using their camcorders, you are using actual TV recording/editing/etc. equipment. (Which is something your average Website/{{YouTube}}r might not have access to.) And they ''can'' be a good place to start if you're hoping to get into TV production as a career.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/NedsNewt'' episode "Et Tu, Newte?", Ned mentions that, while sleeping over at the Plucks' place, he and Doogle rented "Frankenstein Goes Head-Curling Part 2: The Final Bonspiel" on DVD, then Doogle spent the rest of the night trying to figure out how to rewind it. This was due to the fact that the UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} format was new at the time, and most people still owned [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} VHS tapes]].

* In a combination of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, {{Zeerust}}, and this, the episode "The Big Goodbye", from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''[='=]s first season in 1987, has the Enterprise starting off on a mission to meet a race of mysterious insectoid beings with strict expectations for adherence to punctuality, as well as respect for their language and customs. Any deviation from their standard greeting is met with hostile action, which is [[NothingIsScarier not expanded upon]]. Data, when conversing with the senior staff, mentions the last '''tape''' [recording] of the ship that lasts tried to meet with the insectoids, and this is in a series that later establishes that recordings could either be transmitted across space, uploaded and displayed from a ship's computer core, or transferred using isolinear chips (a type of storage object that's implied to be a hologram, laser, or light-based recording in a crystal or plastic medium).

* Barely 10 years after the series premier in of ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' 1996, younger viewers seeing the show the first time would wonder what exactly Helga's father, the "Beeper King" of "Big Bob's Beepers", was selling. Even during the show's original run acknowledged pagers were becoming obsolete for everyday use, later episodes calling the store "Big Bob's Beepers and Cellphones". ''[[WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie The Jungle Movie]]'' goes in the opposite direction, showing Bob still ''[[SeverelySpecializedStore only]]'' sells beepers even after ComicBookTime has made smartphones omnipresent, his [[DiscoDan refusal to get with the times]] putting him in financial dire straits.

* Barely 10 years after the series premier in of ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' 1996, younger viewers seeing the show the first time would wonder what exactly Helga's father, the "Beeper King" of "Big Bob's Beepers", was selling. Even during the show's original run acknowledged pagers were becoming obsolete for everyday use, later episodes calling the store "Big Bob's Beepers and Cellphones". ''[[WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie The Jungle Movie]]'' goes in the opposite direction, showing Bob still ''[[SeverelySpecializedStore only]]'' sells beepers even after ComicBookTime has made smartphones commong, his [[DiscoDan refusal to get with the times]] putting him in financial dire straits.

* Barely 10 years after the series ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' aired, younger viewers seeing the show the first time would wonder what exactly Helga's father (the "Beeper King" of "Big Bob's Beepers") was selling. Lampshaded in ''[[WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie The Jungle Movie]]'', where thanks to ComicBookTime smartphones and Bob's unwillingness to get with the times have put him in financial dire straits.
** One of the reasons a lot of kids thought Arnold's room was TechnologyPorn was the presence of a CD player. CD players ''did'' exist in TheNineties, but dedicated units were ''quite'' expensive (almost $330 in TheNewTwenties, and that's a ''cheaper'' sound system) so they would ''not'' be a common sight in the room of a fourth grader; most kids would've instead used the audio CD function on a Platform/PlayStation.

* Getting information from a UsefulNotes/PEGChannel. Previously, if you wanted information on the goings-on in your community, or were attending a CorrespondenceCourse, you would watch these channels. Nowadays, all that information and that classwork are all online. As for people who want to make and share videos about...well, just about ''anything'', they can do so through video-sharing websites such as Website/YouTube or Vimeo. (Without needing to take any classes on how to produce television.) However, PEG channels offer an advantage over these video-sharing sites: when you record at their studio, or using their camcorders, you are using actual TV recording/editing/etc. equipment. (Which is something your average Website/{{YouTube}}r might not have access to.) And they ''can'' be a good place to start if you're hoping to get into TV production as a career.

* The "UsefulNotes/{{Sega|Genesis}} tapes" of ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner''. Like a lot of elements in the series, this is deliberate parody of this trope.

** The standard archiving software of UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}}, which has been a part of the OS since 1979, is "tar" - because it was originally intended to write to a Tape [=ARchive=]. Magnetic tape ''is'' still used for bulk storage of data in enough places that tape drives and media are still being manufactured[[note]][[https://www.zoro.co.uk/shop/computers-and-electronics/home-and-office-phones/q2078a-lto-8-ultrium-tape-30-tb/p/ZT2123809S?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=pla%2B%7C%2BComputers%20%26%20Electronics&utm_term=ZT2123809S&utm_medium=pla_css_2&targetid=pla-1659555539998&loc_physical_ms=1006764&dev=c&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2eilBhCCARIsAG0Pf8uULaYP_gbM-e3dNIhwXNrVXYrxbIJfx6Y7kO3_izGh31bs-iZh4lYaAp7WEALw_wcB here's]] a 30TB LTO cassette, for example[[/note]], but the vast majority of tarballs created by tar will never go anywhere near the storage medium that the software was originally intended to work with. Some people, on hearing the name, assume that it's called tar because it sticks stuff together.

** That being said, if you ''do'' still happen to have one hanging around your house and it still works, it ''is'' [[https://www.lifewire.com/analog-tv-dtv-transition-1845700 still possible to use it]]. You just have to be aware of its limitations, and you ''probably'' won't want it as your main TV in your living room (maybe in a bedroom or something). CRT televisions have in fact taken on a second life among the retro gaming community for a number of reasons, all based around the fact that, prior to [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames the mid-to-late 2000's]], console video games were designed with these older monitors in mind thanks to flatscreen [=TVs=] being either rare & expensive or outright nonexistent depending on the game's age. Among other features, [=CRTs=] have faster refresh rates that allow for considerably smaller input lag, can properly process the [=240p=] signals that the vast majority of retro games were built around[[note]][=480i=] didn't become standard for console video games until [[UsefulNotes/TheSixthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames the sixth generation]] and was only mildly experimented with during the [[UsefulNotes/The16bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames fourth]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheFifthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames fifth]]; [=240p=] meanwhile was mainly used to provide a clean and even display for the low resolutions of graphically limited game consoles by messing about with a [=480i=] signal in ways that cause most [=LCDs=] in the absence of an external upscaler to either misinterpret [=240p=] as [=480i=] and try to deinterlace it (to noticeably detrimental results) or just reject it outright[[/note]], and tend to handle lower-quality analog video signals much more cleanly, the latter of which was key in making a number of visual effects work with limited graphical capabilities (most notably with the use of dithering to fake gradient shading and translucency over muddy RF and composite signals). [[https://www.tumblr.com/hive-heart/655479661581762560 Observe.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster'' has the VillainSong (of sorts) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu_Eag_NbVU Cutting Edge]] where a bunch of new (at the time) appliances gloat about how advanced and trendy they are compared to the "obsolete" titular Toaster and his friends. The hilarious part is Toaster and his friends, a lamp, electric blanket, upright vacuum, and radio are all still in common use to this day thanks to their SimpleYetAwesome timeless usefulness... while the "cutting edge" appliances like the boombox, an UsefulNotes/{{Apple II}}-ish pc, land-line phone, and canister vacuum are dead-in-the-ground obsolete nowadays.

** One of the reasons a lot of kids thought Arnold's room was TechnologyPorn was the presence of a CD player. CD players ''did'' exist in TheNineties, but dedicated units were ''quite'' expensive (almost $330 in TheNewTwenties, and that's a ''cheaper'' sound system) so they would ''not'' be a common sight in the room of a fourth grader; most kids would've instead used the audio CD function on a UsefulNotes/PlayStation.

Related to SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale when it comes to population growth; many of these examples have populations in the low billions and treat it as catastrophic overpopulation, not merely in terms of agriculture but in terms of population density. For comparison to many of the numbers below, Earth's population is 8 billion and climbing[[note]]though the rate of climbing is slowing[[/note]] as of 2022.

Another thing to note is that even today there's still debate on whether we've hit overpopulation. As noted above those who say yes point to dwindling natural resources and say that we can't sustain this level of food production forever, while those who say no indicate that mathematically there is still enough land to grow food for all 7+ billion people today ''and'' give each of them a few acres to live, and the issue lies more in logistics. (Those who say yes will retort that one can't just dismiss the whole thing because a model that assumes everything is run perfectly optimally says so, and need to take into account real-world factors.)

Can be justified by the world's agricultural breadbaskets having been contaminated by drought, pollution, radiation or disease, leaving too little viable land to farm even hyper-productive crops ''on''.

* Cue HilariousInHindsight moments for those who remember when said tech was either very common or [[ThisIsGoingToBeHuge hyped as the next big thing]].

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', Psycho Mantis's television-breaking powers imitate the Video mode on a specific brand of '90s Sony CRT [=TVs=], making the holdover quite odd when they reappear with Mantis's ContinuityCameo in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidGroundZeroes'', a game released on consoles made primarily for [=HDMI=] output.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' has Mr. X give Raiden a phone, described in its description as an ordinary cellphone. However, it's an ordinary (good quality) cellphone as would be in 2001; by the real 2009, phone technology had gone in a broadly unexpected direction. The script actually notes this: ''Raiden stares at the cell phone (a current, therefore old, model).''

* On ''Series/{{Rescue 911}}'', the prevalence of carbon monoxide poisonings looks weird to modern audiences because carbon monoxide alarms are about as common as fire alarms. Possibly a case of SeinfeldIsUnfunny, as said poisonings were what led to demand for the development of an alarm that would detect carbon monoxide.

* Music/LeeBrice's single "Upper Middle Class White Trash" includes the lines "You ain't seen nothin', if you ain't seen, UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} on a 50-inch plasma screen." The song was released in 2008, when TVs that big where still seen as a luxury.

*** Several shows also offered an "'''entertainment center'''" – basically a stand with several dividers, which went along with the TV, [=VCR=], audio equipment, connectors and remote control – whose components today would be worthless (except for perhaps the audio components, even though there's virtually no market today for cassette tapes and even compact discs are declining in share).

* When you pull up next to someone in traffic and motion to them to roll down their window, what do you do? That's right. You motion like you're rotating a lever, despite the fact that a vast majority of cars on the road these days have ''buttons'' to roll down windows... not levers. Still, everyone knows what you mean, presumably because levers are recent enough that everyone driving today can remember the days when they were common and also lever controlled windows are still included on vehicles (mostly base-model trucks and very cheap subcompacts) without power windows installed.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': Zigzagged.

* Film/JamesBond

* ZigZagged with ''Film/HighFidelity''. Rob Gordon runs a used record store and struggles financially. He also sometimes offers to make mixtapes for people when they ask him for playlists. On the one hand, cassette tapes have gone the way of the dodo in favor of [=CDs=] and digital, but vinyl made a resurgence in the decades following the film's release.

* In the original ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'', one of the items required to get the best ending is an "MO Disk" to be used in the high tech laboratory underneath the Spencer Mansion. This was a storage medium used by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magneto-optical_drive magneto-optical drives]]. These were available at the time and had been in use for over a decade prior, but only ever really became a popular storage medium in a few nations, most prominently Japan. In the United States where the game is set, magnetic-optical drives never gained popularity and by the late 90's were largely supplanted by CD-ROM drives.

* In the ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'''s third installment, ''The Never War'', [[FishOutofTemporalWater Bobby Pendragon]] makes the mistake of asking his local counterpart Vincent "Gunny" Van Dyke where the TV is in a 1937 hotel suite. Naturally, Gunny has no idea what he's talking about, but notes that there is a radio around there somewhere when asked about it.

* There's an episode of ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' that goes around Al's desires to watch his favorite John Wayne movie ''Hondo'' that, according to him, airs every 17 years, and of course as [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption he's Al Bundy]] he missed the film after getting trapped in a store due to a computer malfunction and then after getting knocked off by said computer. When he awakes he hears the channel advising that they schedule the film to be presented again... in 2011 (the episode aired in 1994). Nowadays modern audiences will have problems grasping the concept of not being able to watch a movie whenever they want.
** In fact, the joke was ruined almost immediately: ''Hondo'' got a VHS release a few months afterwards.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': A particularly glaring example of Technology Marches On occurs in the episode "The Tape Recorder". Walter Denton causes trouble by purchasing an outrageously expensive tape recorder ($385 in 1950 funds!) for Madison High School -- in the grips of Mr. Conklin's latest economy drive. [[http://www.prestohistory.com/Presto5.html A circa 1950 tape recorder, incidentally, isn't a small device, but one of the huge reel-to-reel affairs seen here]]. HilarityEnsues as Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin are forced to explain the purchase to school board head Mr. Stone. Even more HilarityEnsues when the records Walter Denton made are played back in a mixed-up state.

* The ''WesternAnimation/KevinSpencer'' episode "Blow Job" had the Spencers getting a HDTV as a result of Percy getting his dick shredded off by a paper shredder. Near the end, the TV gets blown away by a hurricane and the rest of the series has them use the CRT television they had since the beginning.

* When a work requires background music to suddenly end for humorous purposes, nine times out of ten they'll STILL put on [[RecordNeedleScratch the sound effect of a needle skating across a vinyl record.]] This even applies to kids' shows, where it is otherwise assumed that the audience won't have a clue what vinyl records are and need it explained every time they're mentioned.
** Also the phrase "you sound like a broken record".

** This is lampshaded in ''What We Do in the Shadows'' (the movie rather than the TV show) in that the main three vampires draw each other pictures of what the others look like when getting dressed to go out, but once they meet Nick and Stu (one a newly-turned vampire and the other his IT-guy friend), they are delighted to find that digital cameras and even webcams work for them.

** Data's data storage capacity is also subject to this trope: in [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E9TheMeasureOfAMan "The Measure of a Man"]] it is given as a large-sounding number: eight hundred quadrillion bits. In modern computer terms that is 100 petabytes. While it is much bigger than the storage capacity of even today's personal computers, it is the capacity of 66 000 of the largest available microSD cards (as of 2023). Their volume is only 22.87 liters, around 20 times the volume of a human brain. Following current trends, by the 2350s Data's entire stated storage capacity could fit into one of his teeth.

* In ''WebVideo/TheVictorianWay'', a cooking show set in UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain, the recipes for frozen desserts are complicated for obvious reasons, and the host Mrs. Crocombe makes several mentions of the ice house on the property, and made a half-joking comment saying that the delivery man must have gone to Alaska itself for the ice because he's so late. In those times, the only way to procure ice outside of winter would be to go all the way to the Arctic for it, and ice-selling businesses were a booming enterprise during the summer months. "Artificial" ice produced in factories didn't become a thing until the early 20th century, and it took a few decades for refrigeration technology to reach the point where people had refrigerators and freezers in their homes, at which point "natural" ice from up north became the bigger hassle.

* Another example involving Dreamer. On the 2007 HalloweenEpisode of ''[=WWECW=]'', Dreamer dressed up as [[Wrestling/PaulHeyman Paul E. Dangerously (Paul Heyman)]] for his match with [[Wrestling/LittleGuidoMaritato Nunzio]], who was dressed as Franchise/{{Dracula}}, and hit Nunzio with a cell phone, much like Paul E. had done as a manager from the mid-1980s until 1995. However, because of this trope, the phone Dreamer used was much smaller than the big bricks Paul used during the 1980s, which qualifies as BadassDecay.