Printed Boarding Passes
Flying once meant keeping track of another important piece of paper throughout the airport. Mobile boarding passes turned the same information into a barcode sitting on your phone.
Car Cigarette Lighters
Cars routinely came with an actual electric lighter built into the dashboard. As smoking became less central to car design, the socket survived while the lighter itself increasingly disappeared.
Video Rental Membership Cards
A little plastic card once stood between you and Friday night’s movie. Streaming eliminated the trip to the rental store, making the membership card disappear along with most of the stores themselves.
Newspaper TV Listings
People once checked printed grids to figure out what was on television that night. On-screen program guides made the same information available without opening a newspaper.
Film Canisters
Those little plastic containers were everywhere when rolls of 35mm film were everywhere. Digital cameras removed the film, and the familiar canisters vanished right along with it.
Payphones
Payphones once lined streets, train stations, malls, and airports because being away from home meant being away from your telephone. Cell phones changed that one basic limitation, and suddenly public phones had very little reason to exist.
