The New York Times recently hailed the official end of television viewing as we know it.

“The television set has started to look at best like a luxury, if not an irrelevance, in the eyes of many members of the wired generation,” Alex Williams wrote.

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According to 2013 data from Australian Bureau of Statistics, children are spending 9.2 hours a week on front of the TV, but a whopping 13.4 hours in front of the computer.

Just as the iPod shoved the Walkman (RIP) to the fringes of popular culture – only to be found in the satchels of the most committed hipsters – so too have a range of household appliances met their maker.

Amongst them, the noble landline.

According to data from the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the decline of the home phone has been rapid. As of 2012, close to 3.3 million Australians 18 and over were mobile-only users.

Sadly, the concept of crowding around a crackling television set for an episode of Get Smart or calling a buddy on a bakelite phone will never truly make sense to millenials.

Here are nine other life-defining things those born in the 21^st century will never understand:

1. Dial-up internet

That irritating, yet somehow intoxicating sound. In fact, Daft Punk should probably make a remix of that endless dial-up tone that permeated pre-wireless households.

2. Camera film

Oh, the sweet anticipation of waiting for your negatives to develop … only to discover that approximately 90 per cent of them are horrifically blurry and/or cut off at awkward angles.

Actually, maybe we’re not too nostalgic about this one after all. God bless the viewfinder.

3. TV antennae

Was there anything more frustrating than the black-and-white static that rudely interrupted your viewing of Mr Ed? Probably not. In order to access any form of television, excessive readjustment would be required. You’d get the perfect reception only to have the snowstorm reappear as soon as you let go of the antenna.

Netflix, it was not.

4. Phone books

First of all, why call when you can text? Secondly, thumbing through yellowing pages for Mr and Mrs Smith is just plain tedious. It’s called Google – use it.

5. Floppy disks

These oversized storage units have long since been replaced by pint-sized USBs and the cloud. While a nude photo leak would be far less likely in the floppy disk age, hacking scenes in spy movies were also decidedly less impressive.

6. Street directories

More than a decade ago, being the designated navigator was a massive task involving extreme focus, much page-flipping and often the breakdown of serious relationships. Now, Google maps not only follows you around, it lets you be really creepy and zoom up into street views of people’s homes.

Actually … should we be concerned?

7. Pagers

Imagine having a specific machine just to send someone a text message. That’s it – nothing else.

The iPhone can now count your steps, send photo messages, film in slow-mo and make phone calls. Just saying.

8. Cheque books

Thanks to internet banking, keeping track of a small piece of paper no longer means the difference between eating and starving for the next week.

9. Cassette tapes

Weren’t mix tapes the bomb? So many opportunities to rock out on both side A and side B. Yes, occasionally the tape unwound and it was heart-wrenching but their fragility helped make them special.

Got other suggestions? Let us know in the comments section below