Counterpoint: I’m old and don’t miss any of that. Fewer devices is very, very nice. And fewer physical pieces of media is even nicer for the environment.

I actually don’t miss having to be kind and rewind, or spending 15 minutes with a pencil spooling my music back into a listenable format after being a bit careless with my tapes, only to have Glenn Frey sound like he’s eating marbles next time.

Less waste and less hassle. Nostalgia is overrated.

You miss the emotions the walkman brought, especially that nowadays you don't even own data that's on this small all-in-one device, let alone the music you listen to...

So of course you don't get as much joy out of it when it basically is a door to the hell where souls go to agonize wishing they'd die already

sigh but yeah, I get your point

I miss physical buttons for when I'm listening to music.

Having to unlock my phone to skip a track or advance a podcast is really annoying.

I used to be able to click a button in my pocket. I could even slide a bit to skip forward and back 30 seconds.

I also like to listen to music in bed in the dark. The bright screen, the messing around with the unlock, really breaks the flow.

Yes I have earphones that are touch sensitive, but poking it messes with any good isolated fit I've achieved, the touch doesn't always register and after a while, one ear starts to hurt. Especially when you need to tap three times to restart a track.

I've now got this stupid setup with a BT dongle in a usb a-c converter; which plugs into my phone and controls a tiny physical keyboard.

There are lots of mp3 players, but they don't support streaming platforms. The ones that do, also went mainly touch screen only and cost a fortune. There is one physical Spotify player with buttons but it's just a dumb cube with very basic functionality.

The problem is that this one device we adopted kept getting worse at what it was supposed to do and got repurposed as a real time ad delivery and social engineering machine instead.

People talk like the dedicated portable music player just doesn't exist anymore, but you can buy devices like that if you really wanted.

i only miss the device controls. the buttons and clickwheels were so awsome.

I remember getting my Nokia N95 nearly twenty years ago, and it was fucking awesome being able to reveal the four media control buttons, and blindly control music in my headphones from my pocket while walking to work or on the bus or train.

As other commenters have said - I look at my old Ixus camera or LG Soul MP3 player or Nokia 3330 with fond nostalgia memories... but thank fuck I'm not lugging all that about now.

I miss iPod. It’s easy to use. Doesn’t spam ads in my face. And the music is my own, I don’t need to pray it doesn’t disappear due to licensing deals.

CDs suck as a portable format but is nice since it’s like MP3s but not proprietary.

Cassettes suck, and I don’t miss them.

Records are a fun novelty. They are the worse format, but the art and the experience is fun especially since I need to be careful what albums I buy. I need to like the whole thing and not just a song or two.

i hear this a lot but it’s not like those things do not exist anymore? they are even still being produced.

The biggest problem we created is that you used to own things. Like music. Now you just lease them. Or stream them. And don’t forget the 65 minutes of ads for every 23 minutes of music. Or maybe that 33 minute ad in front of that 87 second long YouTube video. The device isn’t the issue, or the lack of devices. It’s the bullshit we have to deal with now that everything is a subscription or ad.

I'm glad I only have one device now. Fuck having 12 things.

Not missing discmen, though. Those sucked.

But yeah, seriously. Walkmen were extremely primitive and all kinds of inconvenient compared to later digital devices, but that also meant that they didn't contain ads, spyware or feeds full of propaganda. And they were fairly rugged (in stark contrast to the various mp3 players I had, which didn't even have touchscreens), didn't have glued-in batteries in proprietary formats (again in contrast to mp3 players), and definitely didn't just become unable to perform their functions because of software stuff.

Just the other day I was noticing how you don’t see vhs or cassette tape ribbon just littering the ground anymore. It’s better this way

I really do though. I would splice a guitar cable into one and use it as a portable guitar Amp so I could practice wherever

I for one like all of it being in one versatile device. My issue with smartphones isn't technology, but the corpos that profit from you even after you've bought the phone.

CDs and players still exist. Just go buy them and live how you want.

Can I get it all in one device without requiring an internet connection for functionality?

I still maintain the 4th gen iPod Nano was slick as fuck.

Nonono, smart phones and car manufacturers have proven that people love poking at tactileless glass for everything! Who needs to feel something and have physical feedback, or have a physical experience? You're playing music, not playing music!

the only answer is self-hosting

Personally I don't think the feature consolidation was the problem. It IS still nice to have my music library, a camera, and a fairly capable computer all able to fit in my pocket...

The problem is we consolidated around specific device makers, letting them get too big and too comfortable - we've gone from being customers to being money chattle.

Wait... is that a toasted sandwich maker?