system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why were telephone/headphones cords spiraled back in the days, but they're straight now?
gpt
It used to be that phones were connected to a landline and therefore screwed into the wall, or at lest could not be moved far. So in order to allow people to walk around with the headset without tangling it the phones would have spiraled cords that would stretch out when needed and contract when not. This allowed people to walk around the room while talking on the phone. Nowadays phones are all wireless in some way or another. So if you want to walk around you can just carry the phone with you and there is no need to vary the length of the chord. It does not get tangled as easily. If you are sitting at a computer you are more or less locked to the screen and can not move around anyway. So there is no need for a spiral chord there either. That being said you can get spiral chords today as well. However they are more expensive and bulkier then their straight equivalents so most people do not bother with them.