You know how it goes.
A song becomes a hit, which is nice enough. But then it takes off, is played everywhere––at the gym, at restaurants, by some idiot with a mandolin on the subway––before showing up in a Dreamworks film.
The horror. The horror of it all.
Thanks to Redditor Floodseeker, who asked the online community, "What was a great thing ruined by popularity?" people reminded us that there's a lot more out there other than hit songs that people have destroyed for us all.
"Have you ever noticed..."
Have you ever noticed there's a threshold where a song gets too popular and will live on with the memory of everyone thinking it was overplayed and annoying.
"These fantastic gems..."
Any restaurant Anthony Bourdain featured in his shows. Even he acknowledged this. These fantastic gems would subsequently be overrun with diners that they suffered from overcrowding and lower standards.
"Arches really..."
Last year I did the Utah National and State parks during the early spring- off season- and the measures they are taking to try to accommodate the massive number of visitors during the summer is incredible. Parking, lodging, sanitation, and safety are all becoming problems, and I hope that these places don't become victims of their own popularity.
Arches really seem to attract people doing stupid, dangerous stuff. The iconic Delicate Arch is like a magnet for morons who don't prepare for the trail, take risky selfies, vandalize and climb on things, and drink in places where there's 360 degrees of cliffs around you.
"To some extent..."
To some extent, Amusement/Theme Parks. They have to be popular to justify building new, state of the art attractions, but eventually get so crowded that you need to buy special passes and get on a ride in less than 2 hours and can barely even find a place to sit when you want to rest for a minute.
I live near Six Flags Great America, outside of Chicago. Anytime I've gone in the last 10 years it's been a ridiculous mass of humanity. More rides then ever, but every decent ride is like a 2 hour wait.
"Especially since..."
Mount Everest. Especially since there's only one or two days a season that people climb (when conditions are optimal). There are literally queues of people waiting to go up some sections and the overcrowding contributes to the number of deaths there each year. That's before you even start to think about the rubbish/trash left up there.
"Once tourism starts..."
Beaches. Once tourism starts, it usually has devastating effects on the flora and fauna. They had to close a beach off from the public in Thailand to give nature time to recover.
"I absolutely fell in love..."
GiphyVisiting Iceland.
I absolutely fell in love with the country when I was there, but the popularity of it means, like any other trendy tourist destination, that it's now ruined by tourists being jack*sses. I grew up near a national park that is ALSO now ruined by overcrowding, so maybe I have a lower threshold for that sort of stuff than most, but watching idiots stomping all over fragile geothermal features two steps away from the "no walking on this area" sign just boils my blood.
"Cute and talented actress..."
Lindsay Lohan, seriously. Cute and talented actress received way too much popularity with no guidance.
"Unfortunately..."
Ok I'm going to mix it up. Silphium, the plant used as a form of (likely very effective) birth control in the ancient Mediterranean.
For this reason (and because it was apparently delicious), it gained popularity as a spice, aphrodisiac, and general cure-all and became worth its weight in gold. Julius Caesar stockpiled the stuff, and it is one of the most plausible origins of the "heart" symbol (and the association of that symbol with romance and doing the sex to people).
Unfortunately, it only grew wild in and around Cyrene, and over-harvesting by the Romans after their takeover of the city drove Silphium into extinction by the time of Nero.
Aaand that's why we had to wait 2,000 years for the pill.
"It was hilarious..."
Yik Yak. I loved Yik Yak in college. It was hilarious and had juicy anonymous gossip on it and it was a great place to just put down random thoughts. Then it started growing and people started using it for making blatantly racist comments anonymously. That led to more shit that assholes would put on there like putting peoples' full names in their stories and making bomb threats. A great example of a few people ruining it for everyone else.
