From Typewriters to Screen Time: How Office Tech has Evolved from 1985 to Now
As A-Z celebrates 40 years in business, imagine walking into an office in 1985. The sound of clacking typewriters fills the air, punctuated by the screech-hum of bulky fax machines transmitting documents at the speed of molasses. Employees are huddled over file cabinets, sorting through stacks of paper. Oh, and the office phone? It’s firmly attached to the wall, with no caller ID in sight. Fast forward to today, and that bustling, paper-filled scene has transformed into a quieter hum of laptop keys, Slack pings, and someone subtly muting themselves on yet another Zoom call. The office machines and tools we rely on have undergone a breathtaking transformation – and boy, are we glad they did.
The Tech of 1985 (and Its Awkward Charm)
Back in ‘85, the office was all about big, loud, and mechanical things. Think typewriters, complete with correction tape for fixing your inevitable typos. Fax machines were the high-tech heroes of the day, allowing businesses to send grainy documents across town or even the country — as long as the connection didn’t fail halfway through. That was peak innovation. Monthly interoffice memos and snail mail flowed like water, while file cabinets and office-bound Rolodexes stood as symbols of organization.
Photocopiers were lifesavers – and paper eaters. If you’ve never wrestled with a jammed copier that seems intent on ruining your life, count your lucky stars. And the phones? Desk phones dominated, with landlines and switchboards at the heart of communication. Nobody back then could have dreamed of texting their colleagues or sending a quick GIF to sum up their feelings in a meeting (which is arguably an essential work skill today).
The Clunky Misfits in Today’s Office
Now, take any office machine from the 1980s and plop it into a modern workplace. Can you hear the collective scratching of heads? Imagine trying to convince someone to use an actual fax machine today. “Wait, I have to stand here the whole time, listening to this death scream? Why not just attach it to an email?” is the inevitable response.
And typewriters? Sure, they look cool on Instagram, but the idea of mechanically banging out a memo just to make a tiny typo and start over sounds like a special kind of torture. Even the beloved office pager – yes, pagers were legit a thing – feels like ancient history. Phones that don’t scroll, swipe, or fit in your pocket are more antiques than tools now.
The Office Revolution
The late ‘80s and early ‘90s welcomed new inventions like personal computers and early email systems. Slowly but surely, work began shifting from stacks of paper to digital files. By the early 2000s, clunky desktop towers sat on every desk. Laptops popped up soon after, freeing us from our desks entirely. And while this ushered in an era of greater productivity, it also marked the beginning of our 24/7 relationship with work. Thanks, technology?
Enter cloud storage and collaboration tools. Remember when sharing a file meant physically handing it over or – gasp – mailing it? Today, Google Drive and Teams allow us to collaborate in real time from anywhere. And the invention of smartphones took things even further, letting us carry an unreasonably large portion of our office in our pocket.
Don’t Forget Remote Work
By now, we’re no longer bound to work stations. Remote work has gone from a niche option to a standard expectation. Platforms like Zoom, Slack, and Notion have replaced the tedious in-person meetings, and while not all of us miss corporate boardrooms, we might miss the occasional free doughnut leftover from those meetings.
The workday has also become beautifully asynchronous. You don’t need to be logged in at the same time as your colleague in another time zone – they’ll just leave you a message to catch up on later. Goodbye, 9-to-5 rigidity. Hello, working from anywhere.
The Trade-Offs and Chuckles
Of course, no technological evolution is all sunshine. For example, while digital tools improve communication, they’ve also blurred boundaries (who among us hasn’t checked a Teams message before bed?). But the productivity gains are undeniable. Mistakes are easily corrected, we’re better organized, and we spend far less time untangling stuck paper.
Plus, we’ve gained a sense of humor about it all. Office culture has shifted, too. Instead of griping about jammed typewriters, we’re sharing memes about “Zoom fatigue” or setting Slack statuses like “BRB – walking dog.”
From the Past to the Present
Looking at the evolution of office machines, it’s clear that while the tools we use have changed, the goal remains the same: working faster, smarter, and more creatively. But deep down, maybe we’re still the same too – humans figuring out the best way to roll with our (occasionally exasperating) tools.
And hey, if someone suggests reviving fax machines for old time’s sake? Politely excuse yourself from the room.
