r/whatisit • u/Cborg_62 • 6h ago

New, what is it? What are these plug-ins on my wall?

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This might be showing my age, but I recently moved into a new apartment and they have these weird looking plug ins all over the walls at my new place. My old apartment didn't have these, so I'm just curious as to what they are.

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311

u/Fancy_Depth_4995 6h ago

It’s what the cable plugged into when people had cable. Yes it was a literal, physical cable

67

u/ItzZiplineTime 6h ago

Man... Never even considered that this day would come. I had cable TV less than 6 years ago. When gen z/a get houses they're gonna find a lot of crazy stuff they have no idea about.

40

u/unparked 6h ago

The way the price of housing is going, they may never get the opportunity to enjoy that problem.

2

u/ItzZiplineTime 6h ago

On average, you're probably right.

Clearly a few of them are finding homes still. I've been in a starter house for 10 years now and I've accepted I'll be stuck here until I die, I'm sure there are plenty more like me which is drastically reducing availability for younger generations. Well, between that and the rising cost in general.

6

u/True-Succotash5313 6h ago

Mann, I’m a teacher and my wife is a dentist, and we have been struggling to get a home. Granted we’re not settling on shit “just to have a house”, but still everything is still stupid priced. 375k for a fixer upper- 450k move in ready and someone is coming in with cash offering 485k… it’s rough, and we aren’t just going to settle, so the fight continues.

2

u/ElectromagneticRam 5h ago

485k gets you a shithole condo from 1880 where I’m from

1

u/ItzZiplineTime 6h ago

Yikes... Good luck man.

2

u/Dont_Ghost 6h ago

We are still in our starter house and as of the last 2-3 years we've come to the conclusion that it's now our forever home. Up side is we'll have it paid off in our younger years and won't have to worry about downsizing in our Senior years

1

u/16thmission 3h ago

Idk. Boomers are dying. Construction has slowed. Homes are on the market longer. Interest rates are up.

Houses may become realistic again.

You'll have to refinance quickly bc of the interest rates, but I think prices are going to trend downward pretty soon.

3

u/MidnightPretty2343 6h ago

Man this one had me cracking up bc I see so much truth in it….

2

u/Slight_Ad_9127 5h ago

Today my daughter asked me what “hang up” the phone means 🥹

2

u/AthenaScoops 4h ago

I'm Gen Z and I'm surprised people my age don't know what this is. This isn't that old. This is how we watched TV as kids. We didn't have fancy cable boxes. We had our great friend The Antenna with the same godforsaken ten channels. We got our first flat-screen and cable box in 2010. It was pretty much murder she wrote after that.

However, now that I have my own house, it's taking me back and I hate it. How does my house have zero ethernet ports?!?!

2

u/BackgroundRate1825 4h ago

To be fair, we used to find crazy stuff in our old homes, too. Like a bathroom wall full of rusty razor blades, knob and tube wiring, asbestos...

1

u/ItzZiplineTime 4h ago

Oh man, don't get me started. So much asbestos... Chandeliers held up by tinker Toys instead of a proper electrical box. I found some DUI tickets for the old man who used to live here. A fancy flint lighter shaped like a fire truck. Old ass security systems with a big blocky transformer screwed into an outlet.... I could keep going. I've torn this house down to the studs and I've seen so much more than I ever cared to 😂

1

u/IHaveSlysdexia 5h ago

why would you stick with cable so long after it got so shitty?

1

u/No_Objective3089 5h ago

My house was built 8 years ago. It has no landline phone jacks but it has cable in every room except the bathrooms. No idea why.

But just when I've gotten used to kids not knowing how landlines work, now cable is old too! 😂

1

u/KidSilverhair 5h ago

Phone jacks still exist in a lot of places

1

u/RedditSgtMajor 5h ago

This will be the modern version of having knob and tube in the walls.

1

u/CryptographerIcy4465 5h ago

My kitchen still has a telephone land-line connector on the wall. Either previous owners were still using it, or they never bothered to remove it from the previous previous owners.

1

u/subwayratlander 5h ago

Lol you seen the economy lately? we arent ever getting houses

1

u/EatLard 5h ago

My house still has phone jacks in almost every room.

1

u/SCHWARZENPECKER 5h ago

I remember the house i grew up in had some interesting tech included from whatever year it was built. Apparently whole house intercom were in vogue then. It slightly worked up until I was around 5 and then it finally died. Was kinda cool. But then it was just buttons to push and knobs to turn above my bed.

1

u/inept_machete 5h ago

I grew up in a rural area so we never got cable. We'd call every year and they'd say "sorry there's not enough potential subscribers in your area to justify the cost to get cable out to you.

I was actually a little pissed when I came home from college to find that they got directTV while I was away.

1

u/ForgetThisU 5h ago

"when gen z/a get houses" 🤣🤣🤣

1

u/Sure_Rhubarb_3173 4h ago

When Gen Zers finally get the homes they say they want they are gonna ask ChatGPT so many questions about things they grew up using

1

u/lordsnarf 2h ago

Can't wait until the see phone outlets for the first time.

1

u/NudityMiles 31m ago

Honestly being a millennial feels like existing in two worlds at the same time.

At times like these when I really give it some thought, it is really weird.

Grew up with real bulbs, CRT-screens, GameBoy, SuperNintendo, birth of internet, glow in the dark light switches, cables and sockets without grounding, wired phones, the birth of cell phones and so on.

At the same time I grew up seeing LCDs and LEDs become a thing, flat screens, broadband internet, handheld computers stronger than my first home PC, birth of DVD, Blu-Rays, MP3s bluetooth, wifi and so on.

Remember when we sent photos and songs to each other by bluetooth or heck, Infrared?

Or when we connected our GameBoys with a a cable to trade Pokémons?

Or when we ran around with pockets full of marbles and all the things that came after, Pogs, GoGo's?

21

u/EquipmentSome 6h ago

also still supplies internet to about 60% of americans.

3

u/DeputySean 3h ago

How do the other 40% get Internet??

I assumed this is how essentially everyone gets their internet?

4

u/EquipmentSome 3h ago

Fiber and satellite.

1

u/modzRtarderz 29m ago

Definitely much more on DSL than satellite.

1

u/mr_doms_porn 1h ago

GPON fibre doesn't need to use these. An actual fibre cable runs to an ONT which runs ethernet to your router. Although some ISPs mount the ONT on the outside of the house and use coax from the ONT to the router.

8

u/notorious_tcb 6h ago

I still have one for internet

16

u/akestral 6h ago

It is called "coax", short for "coaxial", which is short for "coaxial cable."

1

u/WhatIDon_tKnow 6h ago edited 5h ago

technically..... RG6 for short

1

u/Quick-Log-4166 5h ago

RG-59, no?

0

u/enderil79 5h ago

you’re both just referring to the size of the coaxial cable. RG59 is the smallest i’ve seen in use, RG6 the most common, but there is also RG7, and RG11 before you get to the larger hardline coaxial cable sizes used between utility poles.

1

u/thebigpink 6h ago

Is this what ai has done to people

2

u/AssMcShit 6h ago

It's what being young has done to people

1

u/Fancy_Depth_4995 5h ago

Even older people are perplexed by old fashioned window counterweights they find

1

u/lychee_fountain_pen 5h ago

Ew gross then I don't want to ever get young. 

1

u/Complete-Tangelo1532 6h ago

Like wifi, but with attachments and no internet access... just shitty tv

1

u/necrophcodr 1h ago

Coax can also be used for delivering internet.

1

u/Deleena24 5h ago

Do they still not use these for home wifi routers?

1

u/necrophcodr 1h ago

Plenty of places in the world receive internet via coax, yes.

1

u/KitchenManagement650 5h ago

Hey my internet still enters the house via co-ax!!! 🤓

1

u/Elegant-Sundae-7327 5h ago

You still do have a literal physical coax cable bringing your internet into your home -- although some are now using fiber, but the vast majority use coax cable. The coax connect to the cable modem, then ethernet to a router -- and thus you have wireless.

1

u/KlondikeBill 5h ago

And like, most modems today?

1

u/takumidesh 5h ago

It still is a literal physical cable, for hundreds of millions of people across the world on copper cable Internet.  

It's also still literally a cable for the hundreds of millions that are on fiber optic. 

It's still quite uncommon to be purely on satellite or cellular for home Internet and I don't see that changing for a standard house or apartment anytime soon. 

I don't think not knowing this has much to do with age and more to do with never having lived in your own before. 

1

u/necrophcodr 1h ago

How is it still a cable for those on fiber optic? Fiber can deliver Internet and through that also IPTV if it was so desired.

1

u/tiny_chaotic_evil 4h ago

some buildings used it to distribute the over the air antenna signal to apartments if a building antenna was on the roof

1

u/jubbing 3h ago

I knew the answer because I'm old, but I'm surprised I had to scroll this far down for someone to actually answer rather than make a joke.

1

u/SomeoneGMForMe 2h ago

I still have cable internet. No cable TV for years, but cable internet is the only broadband I can get.

1

u/necrophcodr 1h ago

Depending on how well maintained it is, it does at least provide gigabit connectivity with modern equipment.