People Share 32 Things We May Lose When Older Generations Are Gone

Every generation leaves a few things behind. Some are major cultural traditions, while others are just strange little habits nobody realized were endangered until Grandma became the only person still doing them.

My grandparents knew how to repair almost anything. Meanwhile, I recently considered replacing a lamp because the lightbulb was flickering.

Someone online asked people what they think will disappear along with older generations, and the answers ranged from genuinely heartbreaking to incredibly specific. People brought up fading traditions, forgotten skills, changing technology, and the little routines that once seemed like permanent parts of everyday life.

Some of these things probably deserve to be preserved. Others may already be sitting inside a china cabinet in your parents’ basement. Either way, it’s strange to realize how quickly something can go from completely normal to something you have to explain to anyone under 25.

1. “Strawberry bonbons. Pretty sure those aren’t manufactured in any candy factory — they just spawn in candy jars at someone’s grandma’s house.”

—u/Alien-Femboy

2. “When my great-grandfather was born in the Russian Empire, people moved around the world by coal-powered steamship, coal-powered trains, and horse-powered buggies. Cars technically existed, but only as toys for the uber-rich, and not really as a practical means of transportation; Henry Ford’s assembly line was still a couple of decades out. By the time he died, the Soviet Union had come and gone, and we’d gone from the Wright Brothers inventing powered flight to landing on the moon. I’m not sure any other generation of people saw — or will see — as much change as those who lived across the 20th century, and we’re losing that perspective.”

—u/_-Cleon-_

3. “The art of fixing things instead of replacing them. My generation just buys new; my grandfather could fix absolutely anything.”

—u/RadishRushWill

4. “Good manners and the ability to enjoy meals without staring at cellphones. It’s sad how disconnected we are now.”

—u/Independent-Moose113

5. “I’m pretty sure Harley Davidson is toast.”

—u/AggravatingMath717

6. “I think groups and clubs (think Lions Club, Women’s Club, Masons, etc.) are dying out. All the ones I’ve ever considered joining are full of older people. There are no young people interested. Now that I’m older (60), it’s gotten even worse.”

—u/Glum_Manufacturer232

7. “People who know how to enjoy themselves without having to post it on social media and constantly take photos of what they’re doing.”

—u/Public-Farmer-399

8. “Holocaust survivors are almost all gone. Soon, there will be nobody left to tell their stories.”

—u/PokerisMyLife

9. “China hutches with the ‘good dishes’ that only come out on special occasions (if ever).”

—u/wytfel

10. “People who have never used the internet.”

—u/Successful_Way_3239

11. “Personal knowledge of World War II.”

—u/UnusualActive3912

“Most of the soldiers are gone, and soon, all of us who knew them and were raised by them will be gone, too.”

—u/hairy_colonic_jr

12. “People who have a sense of pride in their work. Anywhere from the fast food joint to the big sales company, people have an attitude of ‘oh, I’m just doing the bare minimum, and that’s it.’ Being friendly and able to hold a conversation is what actually gets you the upsell from a customer. Sure, it may not be in your literal job description, but my god just…just…care. A little. You’ll get the extra tip, the repeat customer, or that deal closed. Heck, you may even get your next job opportunity.”

—u/yea_naur

13. “There will be no one left to keep tissues up their sleeve. 😔”

—u/Due_You_8240

14. “Those magazines that tell you what’s on telly, like TV Guide. My old fella bought one every week, and I must have shown him a million times that there was a guide right there on the telly…he just didn’t care. 🤣”

—u/thebprince

15. “Physical newspapers are in danger of disappearing. My local paper has changed from daily delivery to every other day, and the papers are getting thinner and thinner. Earlier this year, a local pulp and paper mill shut down its newsprint division, ending over a century of paper making at that facility.”

—u/reignoferror00

16. “With this generation, they felt an obligation to care for parents who caused them trauma, made awful financial decisions, were abusive, were selfish, etc. Gen X is coming up, and we are protecting our peace and making it okay to do so.”

—u/mraz44

17. “I went to a graveside burial for a 94-year-old recently and commented that this would most likely be the last time I would be a part of the tradition of burying the dead.”

—u/FriendOnFoxStreet

18. “The absolute peak societal art form that is writing a physical check for a $4.50 grocery bill while a line of 15 increasingly impatient people forms behind you.”

—u/Leading_Parfait1086

“And waiting until everything is totaled out and bagged up to decide it’s time to root around in your 15-gallon purse to fish out the checkbook. And then go back again and repeat, looking for your pen. And then ask the cashier for the total five times. And the store name. And the date. And then still struggling through filling out the darn thing like it’s the first time you’ve ever paid by check. Oh, AND THEN needing to log it in the check register right then and there. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

God bless them, I guess we’ll all be there one day, in some form or another.”

—u/PennieTheFold

19. “The entire extended family getting together for holidays. It seems like the younger generations just don’t care as much.”

—u/Single_Usual_6563

20. “I feel like some of the music from their generation will be lost, like Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Linda Ronstadt, Anne Murray, Ray Charles, Les Paul, Doris Day, The Carpenters, Chet Atkins, and the infamous Lawrence Welk. They don’t get much play now except for specialty stations on satellite radio, and soon, they’ll discontinue those when listenership drops off. It’s great music, and with Gen X and millennial parents not exposing their kids to it, it’ll be something that one would have to hunt for to find. Kind of sad.”

—u/Pattimash1

21. “Writing letters to family and friends. Not emails, texts, messages, WhatsApp, or DMs, but writing a letter and mailing it to someone you want to say hello to. I found a bunch of old letters from over a 100 years ago between my great-great-grandfather and great-great-uncle.”

—u/Famous_Glove_7905

22. “The ability to wait to purchase something while you save money to buy it, instead of paying interest on debt to get it right away. Also, generally knowing how to live within your means so you can save and build wealth, so when you retire, you are comfortable and not dependent on others for financial help. Sure, the older generations splurged on occasion to take the vacation or buy the boat or car or beach house, etc., but it was because they saved and lived below their means and did not keep up with everyone.”

—u/JollyManufacturer388

23. “Cursive handwriting. I’m 29, and nobody else I know under 40 uses it or can reliably read it. Apparently, neither can AI, which I thought was cool. Granted, that means a lot of history might be lost one day simply because the majority can’t decipher it.”

—u/Encyclono

24. “Nobody will remember the original Woodstock, or how it shaped and changed a whole generation.”

—u/weldonce

25. “Landlines, memorized phone numbers, physical address books, and ridiculously huge phone books dumped on doorsteps.”

—u/Stinky_Chees

“We just tore the landline out of my room a few months ago when we were redoing it. It was getting in the way of painting. Honestly, I didn’t even realize it was there or what it was. I always assumed it was an abstract metal piece that didn’t have a function anymore, since by the time I hit the age where I could understand what it was, I never saw it used because it was already obsolete.”

—u/TallWalmartCovington

26. “Hopefully, a lot of generational trauma.”

—u/jbag1230

27. “Buicks.”

—u/lord_flashheart2000

“And Lincolns.”

—u/christmasshopper0109

“And Pontiacs.”

—u/HighlightKey8879

“Oh my.”

—u/Asteroid_Blink24

28. “Mailing advertisements. We still do it for my work because our average customer is like 60 to 80 years old, but we’re watching the numbers die off along with our customers and will likely stop mailing brochures in the next decade.”

—u/beanandcod

29. “Social Security — it’s a math problem. When these programs were created, many workers were supporting a single retiree. That works, and as long as people keep paying into the system, everything is aces. However, in every single Western country, that pyramid has turned into a column and is about to invert so that every worker will be supporting many retirees. This will cause system failure. This has happened for several reasons. People are living longer. The longer people live, the longer they draw. Boomers are retiring, and they are one of the biggest demographics the world has ever seen. People either can’t afford to have kids or feel the world is so awful that it would be morally irresponsible to bring a child into it. In Japan, they sell more adult diapers than baby ones. This will eventually be the case everywhere. Without enough people to pay into the system, the system fails.”

—u/the-whiz

30. “I’m from Memphis and a millennial, and I would be so sad if they closed Graceland due to lack of interest from younger generations. I really hope Tennessee preserves one of its less heinous moments of history (I’m looking at you, Nathaniel Bedford National Park, statue, etc.). I’m so glad the Civil Rights Museum and the Lorraine Motel have been so well cared for and preserved. I obviously know that Elvis isn’t as important as Martin Luther King Jr. or the Civil Rights Museum, but it’s still a part of our culture.”

—u/rabbitp4ws

31. “Hopefully, the last of the silent generation’s mistreatment of women, i.e., the man runs the house, and the woman serves her husband as a lesser partner in the relationship. It’s such a BS way of thinking.”

—u/Cookies_and_Beandip

32. And finally, “I’m hoping we learn from both their mistakes and their accomplishments. No generation was perfect. No generation will be. We learn that even though they came from a different generation and made mistakes along the way with the way the world was then, we also revel in their accomplishments, fighting the fight, always moving forward, not backwards. Listen. Learn from them. Don’t let the good die out.”

—u/Designer_Ad_34