The video above from the “Kids React” series is a great demonstration of the way that people often describe something as “complicated” when they really mean “unfamiliar.” I doubt that anybody who has owned a Walkman (or similar portable cassette player) would describe it as hard to use, but these kids can’t even figure out how to open the door to insert a cassette*. It is also interesting that, for some of them, familiarity with its labels occurs only after they are told that it plays music. In that context, it makes sense that the arrow pointing to the right means “play.” Without that context, they didn’t have a clue. I bet there are also a large number of people who can easily use a Walkman but have no idea how to listen to music using something like an iPhone.
*It is also interesting that they expect to be able to listen to music on a portable device without headphones, since headphones were a requirement until the rise of smartphones after most of these kids were born.
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