technology

I thought that if you listen to a cassette tape, the band is inside the player, playing just for you. I used to play it NON-STOP. JUST REWIND AND START OVER. I swear I thought that I could hear the tiredness in their voice.

Tina

When I was young, I thought that the best solution to running out of photocopy paper was to photocopy the last blank sheet a number of times.

Jimbo

In the early days of the internet, the first time my computer gave me the now ubiquitous error message "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down" I was honestly scared. I immediately logged off, shut off the machine, and went to the window to see if the cops were coming to arrest me for trying to find help for my math homework.

Anon

I used to believe that when my parents were recording anything on TV, I had to be quiet around the VCR because any sound I make would also be recorded onto it.

Waffo

I use to believe that when you faxed someone something the paper would somehow travel through the machine through some wires and tunnels in the ground where workers would read it and laugh at the sender and into the next machine. The first few times I used a fax machine i would fold the paper I wanted faxed in half so that no one else coud read my message then fax it. It was a few months later, and many blank faxes before someone told me (amid laughter) how a fax machine worked.

Anon

I used to believe an answering machine was a device that answered ANY questions you asked it, through some kind of magic.

Andres Cabezas

My little nine year old cousin (she's ten tomorrow, actually) is currently under the impression, thanks to me, that if you cut a piece of cheese into the shape of a DVD and put it in a DVD player, it will play a short film about cows. And if you do the same with a piece of ham, it will play a short film about pigs.

Katrina

When I was younger, my mom used to put me to bed listening to classical music tapes. Sometimes, the tape player would make a crackling sound, and I thought it was the mice re-wiring the tape player to make a bomb. Every morning I woke up relieved that the mice hadn't been able to finish the re-wiring before the sun came up...

Panda

I believed that there was a giant gathering where a man in red and white pin stripes stood at a podium and would hold up an item and declare the name it would be known by. Ex: I declare this a toaster; no long will bread be uncooked.

Matthew B.

I used to believe that if you photocopied a piece of blank paper, the copy would make a new piece of paper. I thought that I was the first one to come up with this and was convinced my family could save millions of dollars in paper :)

Lauren

I thought the “rec” button on tape recorders said wreck and it would wreck your tape if you pushed it!

Alberto Richardson

My parents got our first computer when I was about 9 and windows 95 was just released. I had no idea what I was doing and was just going through all the random "folders" looking for games. My cousin's computer had Oregon Trail, and this computer was way better so my "Oregon Trail" game must be amazing!

I must have done something wrong and the computer froze up saying "This program has been shut down due to an illegal operation." I FREAKED OUT and unplugged EVERYTHING from the computer... The power, the screen, the keyboard, mouse, and the printer before hiding under my bed for hours. I was convinced 'they' were coming to arrest me for breaking some law. I remember literally crying that I was going to be taken away in handcuffs.

Joe

I honestly thought that every time I used the vacuum cleaner, it was going to blow up and kill me. I loathed having to do that particular chore, and I'd always try to do it as quickly as possible so as to not get blown up by the exploding vacuum cleaner. I think I just hated the noise it made.

Cookie

When I was young I believed that the windmills found in farmers fields were used to keep the cows cool.

Linda

When I was probably about four or five I used to hear about "skyscrapers" and I assumed that these were machines that scraped the sky clean. I have vivid pictures in my head of little upside down yellow bulldozers that would drive back and forth cleaning the clouds away.

st dog

As a child I was afraid of elevators. I was afraid that if you were inside and the door closed with no buttons pushed, the elevator would either go somewhere out of the building, pulling near-fatal Gs, or just vanish taking you along with it.

NedTheScientist

(Some back-info for young people: When I was young, there were no such things as digital cameras. So if you wanted to see a picture immediately after taking it, you'd have to use a Polaroid camera. After you snapped a picture, a square sheet would slide out of the camera, and then the picture would develop on the square sheet during the next few minutes.)

As a child, my family would never let me see a Polaroid picture in the process of developing (they probably didn't
want me to get fingerprints on the pictures).

Consequently, I got the misconception that the pictures would be ruined if you looked at them before they were completely developed.

J-L

I used to believe that if you plugged an electrical extension cord into itself (instead of the wall outlet), that the electricity would go round and round inside the cord.

John

When we had Computer class at primary school - someone told me that if you touched the red F1-12 keys, the computer would blow up! somehow it went round the whole school, and no-one would touch those keys! I still have a hard time today touching them!!

Michael

this is actually my wifes belief; she usedto believe the theodolite levels that surveyors use to read levels etc on road works and building sites. (The orange camera like objects on a tripod) had a picture inside of what the site or job would look like when it was finished. I put her straight as I am a builder.

Bulldog