When they were invented: 1843Purpose: Sending copies of physical documents over phone lines where they're still used: Doctors' offices, lawyers, the CIA (which demands the FOI requests be faxed, rather than mailed or sent online), people in Japan why they're still used: Sometimes you have to send a paper document, and sometimes you have to send it where there is a phone line but no internet access. Faxing can also be more secure than email; faxes are hard to intercept because they are a direct communication from the sender to the receiver, while emails get moved through a central server. That means you need physical access to a specific phone line at just the right moment to intercept a fax instead of being able to just access the main server everything goes through. Though if it's just left on the machine, a fax is particularly easy for any random person in the office to pick up. Nowadays, fax machines are most widely used in Japan, where 1.7 million fax machines were purchased in 2013 for use in for business transactions, restaurant orders, and other communication.
Vinyl records
When they were invented: 1948Purpose: Music storage that's durable and cheap who still uses them: Hipsters, record collectors, DJs why they're still used: In 2015, people bought 11.92 million records; 10 years earlier, they bought just 900,000. General reasons for the resurgence is the popularity of the big, beautiful sleeve artwork, the rise of music streaming which has mostly killed the utility of the CD, and the belief that vinyl sounds "better." This last one isn't really true compared to high-quality digital and considering the limits of human hearing, but it does sound different, and if you prefer that sound, more power to you. And most of all, it's used because people want to be cool.
Cassette tapes
When they were invented: 1963Purpose: Music storage that's cheap and portable (if not high quality)Who still uses them: Prisoners (and people sending them stuff), bands looking to give away something music-listeners might actually hold onto, post-hipsters why they're still used: Cassettes are cheap, small, and easily personalized. Perhaps more importantly, nostalgia sells—where else were people supposed to turn after vinyl became so popular that it's basically mainstream again? There is now a Cassette Store Day to boost already rising sales; National Audio, a major manufacturer of cassettes, saw sales increase 31 percent between 2014 and 2015; those sales included a tape by Justin Bieber.
Beepers
When they were invented: 1949Purpose: Sending (and sometimes) receiving simple text messages; playing voice messages who still uses them: Doctors and nurses why they're still used: In 1994, there were 61 million pagers in use. Today, there are only around 5 million. The drop off is unsurprising, given cell phones, which are more capable, to say the least. But compared to cell phones, pagers have much longer battery lives use stronger signals that can penetrate the labyrinthine interiors of hospitals. Rather than sending out a single signal that uses earthbound cell towers, pagers simulcast, sending out the same signal from multiple satellite-based transmitters at the same time. Plus, there's tradition.
Checkbooks
When they were invented: Sometime from the ninth century to the 18th century, depending on whom you ask purpose: Transferring money from one account to another who still uses them: Americans, landlords, people without bank accounts why they're still used: While check use has dwindled in many countries, in the U.S. it's still thriving, if not exactly popular. Half of U.S. businesses prefer paying with checks, according to the Wall Street Journal, and 70 percent of renters in the U.S. pay with checks, according to Pay Lease. Why? Habit, for one, and documentation—people and businesses like having a physical record of payment. Money orders, which are basically a kind of check, also let people without bank accounts pay rent.
Floppy disks
Floppy disks
When they were invented: 1967Purpose: Data storage who still uses them: The U.S. military why they're still used: "It still works," Valerie Henderson, a defense department spokesperson, told CNBC. The military still uses 8-inch floppy disks for the Strategic Automated Command and Control System, a communication system. A nice perk of using an outdated technology like floppies is that they're hard to hack because they don't have any fancy connectivity features—a boon to super secretive organizations like the Pentagon.
Travel agents
When they were invented: Around 1841Purpose: Handling the nitty-gritty of travel planning so you don't have to who still uses them: People with complicated trips, people intimidated or bothered by online booking, business travelers why they're still used: Even though the internet makes booking just about anything possible, the details can be too much to handle alone—or at least too much to want to handle alone. Some travel agents specialize in certain destinations or types of trips, so you can get a custom-made vacation without doing any of the customization yourself, and with the help of someone who knows places that might be off the beaten path. Businesses also use travel agents because they're familiar with corporate policies and business' airline contracts.
Dot matrix printers
When they were invented: 1970Purpose: Printing! Who still uses them: Airlines, distribution companies, kitchen workers why they're still used: Dot-matrix printers print by striking a ribbon against paper, much like a typewriter, so they can print multi-part forms on carbon paper in a way that inkjet and laser printers cannot. They can also withstand temperature extremes and dirty environments better than some of their more modern contemporaries.
Windows XP
When it was created: 2001Purpose: Making your computer work in a way that you can actually use it Where it is still used: ATMs; the U.S. Navy, maybe (it was supposed to upgrade by July of this year); the IRS why it's still used: Although Microsoft ended support for the operating system in 2014—leaving it unprotected in the face of new threats from hackers—nearly 11 percent of desktop computers still run Windows XP. The OS is still around for the same reason a lot of obsolete tech is still around, because people are used to it and don't want to change, even in the face of security risks. Sometimes upgrades will also break things; the U.S. Navy just isn't ready to upgrade for a multitude of reasons which is why it is paying Microsoft to continue security updates to XP specifically for the armed forces.
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