Living in the 21st century, it is hard to imagine life without our 4G LTE high speed wireless communication, our free Wi-Fi around every corner, and our uncanny ability to capture the world on convenient devices known as smartphones.

In light of this, most of us would be borderline horrified to know how many items which we consider ‘outdated’ are not only in use, but creating significant revenue from their sales. Here are 8 of the most fantastic pieces of old-school tech which modern advancements have not been able to phase out:

• Pagers: According to laptopmag.com, Americans spent $7,000,000 on pagers in 2012. Although technically these devices are unnecessary due to the capabilities of the modern phone, they can be used to avoid phone conversations/real social interaction while still remaining reachable. A worthy cause indeed.
• PDAs: To really get an idea of how well these handheld dinosaurs are still doing, search ‘Handhelds & PDAs’ on Amazon. Not only are they still in existence, but they are thriving. With prices around $300-$400 (includes free stylus and backlit keyboard), it seems as though this industry hasn’t found it necessary to lower their prices to retain their sales.
• Pay Phones: The American Public Communications Council website states: ‘According to industry sources, there are less than 500,000 payphones in the United States; independent payphone service providers operate roughly 450,000 of these payphones. Payphones process 1.7 billion calls per year, indicating that they are still valued by many people in this country.’ Let’s restate that: 1.7 BILLION calls. We get it – sometimes you have to rebel against modern culture and not use your personal cell phone.
• Landline Phones: To all those out there who don’t know what these are, this is a phone which is connected to a wire. It is typically on the wall of a house. It cannot be moved, put in your pocket, or used to search for the ‘fact of the day’ on the web. The only function of this phone is to make calls. It was quite the thing half a century ago, and although people are trying to phase it out, DigitalTrends.com says that a solid 40% of houses still have them.
• VHS and Cassette Tapes: Aol.com says that your old VHS and cassette tapes can sell for $10,000+ on sites such as eBay. Although culture says that these modes of film and music are ‘dead’, the average sales price would say otherwise. Just imagine: there are people at home right now watching a good old-fashioned tape on their VHS player.
• Rolls of Film: According to laptopmag.com, 35 million rolls of film sold in North America last year. It seems as though the youth are moving away from the high-end digital cameras, and toward the more inconvenient option of film cameras.
• Floppy Disks: The U.S. Airforce of all organizations is still using floppy disks in their nuclear studies. They have an excuse though: the method is tried and true, but more significantly, this method is unhackable. It is somewhat comical that floppy disks are so outdated that most people are not able to obtain the information on the disk, even if falls into their possession.
• Phone books: One of the oldest forms of technology, the phone book is the paperback equivalent of the modern-day search engine. These are still quite the fashion, as opposed to popular belief. The reason for this? As the Coloradoan states: Their producers don’t make as much money from advertising as they used to but still enough to keep the books being placed on your doorstep.

Although technology is constantly expanding and older technology is dying out, some people aren’t interested. What can you say? Sometimes, the tried and true methods are the best.