Why we can't stop using old-fashioned symbols

Out of date symbols are all around us. But why do we keep using them? A look at the fascinating world of anachronisms!

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HASHTAGS: #history #symbols #art

[StevieQ]

My 6-year old son came to me with a folded pillow in his arms saying, "look it's an email!"

[johnchessant]

An auditory anachronism: When your phone takes a picture (or even a screenshot) you hear a shutter sound even though there's no actual shutter mechanism inside the phone

[adanactnomew]

As technology becomes more abstract we increasingly rely on physical objects, which are almost always just older tech, to symbolize these intangible ideas.

[genesisgryphon]

A sorta two-step anachronism I always like bringing up is "dashboard." Horse-drawn carriages had a literal board in front of the driver to keep the horse from kicking dash up at them. Motor cars had something in the same spot so it got called a dashboard. We started putting all the guages and dials on car dashboards. Now phones, computers, and applications may have a screen with various metrics and settings on it called a "dashboard."

[WiFi-qjkr]

Even a director saying 'cut' is going back to when we had film reels

[plomors]

Notifications is a bell, search is a magnifying glass.

[mockobscurity]

The magnifying glass is interesting because it's often used as the symbol for search but also used, generally with a + or - symbol added to it, as the symbol for zoom in and zoom out within the same overall user interface. We're using the same anachronistic symbol for two very different things within the same context and seem to have no problem with that.

[JayDagny]

Went to a martini tasting the other day and the guy running the seminar pointed out that nowadays a martini is considered anything in that glass, and separately pointed out that martini glasses are seen as a status symbol. I got to thinking about how even Apple maps uses a pint of beer for a dive-bar but a martini glass with an olive in it for more high-end drinking establishments

[colonelb]

What's even stranger is that now in the era of streaming services we not only refer to them as TV and radio but even the awards shows like the Emmys consider Netflix to be "Television", even though Netflix does not have any relationship to any national or local television stations or even any cable channels. Spotify has "radio stations" but again, they have nothing to do with transmitting any content over radio waves or any station affiliates.

Culturally we've gotten used to the idea that "music / audio content" is "radio" and "short form series / video content" is "television"

[liv]

The symbol to "attach files" being a paperclip always gets me. I also like the push pins to mark a spot on a map even though most people today have probably never even used a physical map, let alone marked places on it using push pins.

[huldanoren]

One of the most iconic visual anachronism has to be how trains are depicted as 1800s style steam trains. It really shows how much cultural significance these symbols have, since pretty much nobody living today have actually seen an authcentic steam train outside of a museum, unlike, for example, the floppy disk save icon.

[NegativeReferral]

I've noticed this with sound as well. Teen sitcoms still use recordings of actual bells in school, even though most modern high schools use electronic chimes, since the sound of a school bell is more specific than a generic square wave that could mean your laundry is done.

[EdwardJSteel]

In modern TV shows, whenever a character records something on their webcam or phone, there's still the old recording icons from the camcorder days stamped on the film when they play it back. Also whenever a show / youtuber wants to show what's happened in a previous episode they'll make the previous episodes footage greyer to show its old or decayed from time even though it was shot on HD.

[floydwhatchacallit]

I think some of these are just more distinct than their modern counterparts. A cell phone is just a cubed rectangle. While an old style phone can't really be mistaken for much else.

[Arianddu]

The red recording light is itself a representation of the red lightbulb that was switched on outside a recording booth to stop people entering while recording was happening, and that itself derived from the red light used to process photographs, where to prevent people entering and destroying the work in progress, red lightbulbs were put up outside as well as inside the developing room.

[BOABModels]

7:24 It's Bill Bailey! He's a fantastic comedian here in the UK.
Incidentally, the only time I have worn a top hat was when I was a groomsman at my cousin's wedding. I didnt wear one at my own wedding however.

[aviator]

Another visual anachronism I can think of is the Atari 2600 joystick to represent "gaming" as a whole. Even when I was a kid (I was born in 1998), you would see this Atari-style controller on the now cringy gamer t-shirts that every edgy middle schooler would wear. However more recently, you might see visual representations of gaming as a more PS1-ish style controller, which is still something most kids nowadays have probably only ever seen in pictures.
And on the topic of updating these symbols, a new one in the last couple years is appearing on "No Smoking" signage. The whisp of smoke on the old signs is being changed to a stylized lightning bolt, to represent electronic cigarettes. It's interesting, because this symbol looks absolutely nothing like most actual vapes, but vape designs change like the wind, so naturally they had to come up with a standard and recognizable symbol. But good luck stopping people from getting their nic fix in the movie theater when it smells like blueberries instead of an old bowling alley.

[CoreyJKelly]

The "paint-bucket" tool makes more sense if you somehow already know it's called the Fill Tool. I always pictured dumping a paint bucket out into the shape, and having it flow out to the edges.

[ryanliu]

Another visual anachronism I can think of is using head mirrors to represent doctors. They used to be in a lot of cartoons, including Spongebob Squarepants (google spongebob doctor and you'll see what I'm talking about) and head mirrors were actually quite commonly used to examine a person's ear, nose, and throat. These days though, doctors usually use pen lights or head lamps instead for the same purpose.

[hesterclapp]

In the UK the trains are operated by 20 different companies that keep changing, along with their logos. Because of this, the old British Rail double arrow has stayed as a symbol for train stations and non-tube trains in general, even though BR hasn't existed since 1994