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technology
Just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should do it.
Some advancements and inventions yielded inadvertent disastrous byproducts or side effects.
Reddit user Constant_Luck9387 asked:
"What is one thing that has changed the world for the worst?"
Information Overload
"The total overwhelming amount of information thrown at you every minute of every day.:
"I can't even pump gas without being subjected to a f**king commercial."
"It's like all of creation has determined you will never have another quiet moment in your life."
"Like your only reason for being is to buy useless sh*t."
~ WhataKrok
"I can’t f*cking stand those goddamn commercials at the gas pumps.
"When the pumps are all going off at once, it makes me feel like im in some dystopian Idiocracy reality."
~ ballsyftm
Sports Book
"Right now in North Carolina, everyone is getting fed up with all the sports betting ads. When you go out in my city, there's a plane flying around dragging one of those MGM banners every day."
~ OxtailPhoenix
"Gambling ads need to go the way of tobacco."
"I don't have any problem with it being legal but when gambling has become half the content of every sports talk show and every single ad break has a draft kings ad it's gone away too far."
~ alexm42
"Sports betting was recently legalized in Kansas. Now every commercial break on every channel, just multiple sports betting ads."
"Go outside and you'll pass a dozen billboards for sports betting while listening to an ad on the radio for sports betting."
"At least we don't have commercials on gas pumps here."
~ EvilDarkCow
Media Misinformation Is Money
"Large scale news outlets that get to present themselves as factual news vs actually being just a form of entertainment that's as factual as wrestling and reality show."
~ darthmastermind
"The 24/7 news cycle has watered the media down significantly."
"Too much free air time ends up filled with opinions or deliberate provocation for ratings, which is the exact opposite of what a news channel should be providing."
~ phreakzilla85
"Almost all the remaining TV 'news' organizations have adopted essentially the same business model of rage and fear baiting."
"Their programs and 'reporting' are mostly just viral social media posts presented by actors pretending to be journalists."
~ Bishop_Pickerling
Speed Of Access
"The dopamine-high of instant gratification in a digital world."
~ Sufficient_Syrup_57
"Dating Apps. Only Fans. Immersive Porn. Instagram fake lifestyles. Tiktok influencers and their goldfish brain audience."
~ RikardoShillyShally
"It feels like technology has allowed every company to be engaged in psychological warfare with its consumers in the pursuit of profit. Not that this is new, but it feels like its in overdrive now that we live with computers in our pockets."
"It's increasingly hostile and they strip away any expectation of customer service. Even grocery stores operate this way now."
"It's exhausting, and the only way to combat it is to disengage, put away the phone, refuse to use apps, and generally reject the tech world insistence that their 'products' are actually providing a benefit to your life."
~ popularcolor
Dating Apps
"Unfortunately dating apps have sorta taken over dating in general."
"Nowadays I think everyone uses them and it’s surprisingly becoming tougher to use more traditional methods."
~ mahavirMechanized
" Tinder to me represents the ultimate commodification of dating."
"I used it off and on in my mid-twenties and stopped in part because it felt like shopping for a human."
"Human connection isn't something you can always predict or plan via physical attraction or a brief description of yourself."
"I found that if I'm attracted to them first, they're generally all wrong for me."
~ hexensabbat
"If you're a dating-app company, you don't want people to get matched with folks they 100% hit it off with. It's basically removing your best customers."
"That's my crack theory why all dating apps have undergone massive ensh*ttification. They want you to keep using their apps over and over."
~ Mr-Troll
Devices
"Probably children getting devices at such a young age."
"I rarely go outside anymore. And I rarely see any other kids go outside anymore."
"I should probably go out and soak up some sun as well."
~ Muchosgrassyass123
"This is so true. As a pre-k teacher, I see behavioral health and mental health issues are on the rise. Children are having incredibly hard times dealing with their emotions, and basic coping mechanisms and skills."
"So many parents, especially during COVID, just stuck a screen in front of their child and this has had such a negative impact on so many of their lives."
"To see these kids not being able to have basic social skills is so heartbreaking."
~ 5280lifeee
Going Online
"The internet is an amazing invention, but might ultimately be the cause of our long term demise."
"When we should have embraced nature we will have embraced the digital world instead and opted to download our brains to the cloud instead of trying to solve climate change."
~ bigbombusbeauty
"I’d say coupled with that is Pocket internet. Access to that 'news' and social media drama has had an astounding negative impact on the planet.
"Versus just a daily physical newspaper. The upside though is also drastic.
"Pocket internet also makes almost the entirety of human knowledge accessible. And this is amazing."
~ 11PoseidonsKiss20
Influencers
"The good thing about influencer culture was anyone could become famous, opening doors for people who never would have had a chance in the past."
"The bad thing about influencer culture was anyone could become famous, including some incredibly toxic, exploitative sociopaths who would do anything for attention in the form of clicks, shares, likes and subscriptions."
"For every artist sharing and monetizing their doll making hobby or their drain unclogging, power washing or lawn care business, there's a dozen Paul brothers or Andrew Tate 'alpha' bro wannabes spewing cruelty for laughs, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and assorted other forms of hate."
~ LakotaGrl
"TikTok or other platform online influencers making their fans do some questionable stuff as 'challenges'."
"Kids have been maimed and killed."
~ Death_Blur24
Social Media
"Social media fried my brain early."
"I remember I joined Instagram back in 2011 when I was only 12. I started competing with strangers for compliments and seeking approval."
~ Interesting-Click-12
"You think you need social media to maintain your self esteem, but the fact of the matter is you likely don’t."
"Social media companies have just convinced you that you do. I feel bad for Gen Z."
~ royalewithcheese79
"Social media's dark side has arguably changed the world for the worse, fostering division, spreading misinformation rapidly, and contributing to mental health issues."
"While it connects us, the platform's addictive nature and the echo chambers it creates have profound negative impacts on society and individual well-being."
~ yiboh86053
Monetizing Parenthood
"Parents filming and taking photos of their children and uploading it online for millions of views by random strangers."
~ lekhachun
"I remember when I started using the internet around 2009 when I was 12 and my mother would lecture me constantly on being careful of what I’m posting because the internet is forever and you don’t know who’s looking."
"Now parents don’t think twice about posting a picture of their half naked toddler potty training and it’s quite worrying. But, hey, what if Huggies or Pampers sees it and offers them an endorsement deal?"
"I also had a few mothers on Snapchat I knew from school who seemed to post 30 minute long stories about their kids playing instead of just being present with their kids."
"Many of these family/mommy vloggers only seem focused on perfection to monetize their kids and become internet famous."
"I don't want to know what's in the outtakes or what happens when the camera is off. I know there have been some high profile arrests for abuse and even some deaths."
"Only a handful of these obsessed individuals become famous, while millions try to at all costs. Sharing parenting tips or connecting with family and friends became toxic pretty quickly."
~ LakotaGrl
Capitalism
"Companies answering to shareholders rather than consumers or employees."
~ purpleflowers1010
"Capitalism in its current form is an absolute failure, corrupted by greed, cronyism, and the chase for infinite growth of profits. We can thank Jack Welch for showing everyone how it's done."
~ DellSalami
* Jack Welch was an American business executive, chemical engineer, writer and served as Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) between 1981 and 2001. Welch is criticized for practices that harmed workers and GE.
He eliminated thousands of jobs at GE—contributing to a reduction of the U.S. manufacturing base—at a rate of about 10% of employees every year, a practice adopted by many other companies. He was a leading proponent of mergers and acquisitions, helping to give rise to an economy that is more concentrated and less dynamic.
He pioneered "financialization", changing GE from a manufacturing company into an unregulated bank, which all but destroyed GE over the long-term but made record profits short-term. *
"This is one reason why corporations must be again taxed at least 75% and personal wealth at like 90% which was standard until Reagan took office."
"If the surplus of their profit windfall is not benefiting the employees or anyone other than some already unnecessarily oligarchs, then they are only helping a handful of executives become richer and encouraging predatory practices like buying other companies and relying on hired help that they can dispose of rather than actually employing people and keeping them employed."
"The handful of megacorporations running everything today is the result of their ability to buy and dissolve many other corporations. Inevitably, they control the market, they dictate prices, they dictate salaries, and turn otherwise good jobs into mercenary tasks."
"As for the rest of us, we get no real options, we are all stuck with 2 choices both offering really expensive and sh*tty service and no real competition for quality and fair pricing. And of course, they control the job market. They get to decide who has a paying job and who doesn't."
"It's time to tax multimillion dollar corporations at least 75% and executives this wealthy 90% so that all that hoarded cash goes back into circulation and put to good use, maybe even build a fence around that pond."
~ slyballerr
Play For Pay Politicians
"The Citizen's United Supreme Court decision in the United States."
"It has allowed for unfettered and uncapped income to get involved into US politics from any source including foreign companies."
"The US has never been the most moral actor, but allowing people to buy elected officials in our government has heavily influenced the US's domestic and international actions."
~ johnydeviant
"You can thank John Robert's Supreme Court for that turd on our daily American meals."
"Two disastrous Supreme Court decisions—Citizens United v. FEC and McCutcheon v. FEC—have opened up the floodgates and allowed wealthy insiders and corporate special interests to drown out the voice of the American people through nearly unlimited campaign donations."
"Meaning: Corporations are people."
"Except of course, corporations do not bleed, corporations do not sleep, corporations do not go to jail and they have unlimited funds to contribute money to political campaigns of EVERY politician WITH COMPLETE ANONYMITY."
"This is why Americans should vote blue. Only Democrats are trying to get this sh*t fixed."
~ slyballerr
Organized Religion
"As if religion wasn’t radical enough... throughout history—as people have begun shifting away from it—they shifted right into politics to radicalize it."
~ inspiredguy40
"Organized religion should be at the top of the list, if you ask me."
"I can’t think of anything more detrimental to all living creatures on earth, not just humanity."
~ Ecstatic_Sandwich_38
Homo Sapiens Sapiens
"Humans."
~ BinaryEgo
"Humans will be the thing that puts a stop to itself one day."
~ Vindicktyv
"All of the other problems people mentioned—social media, consumerism, pollution, etc...—exist because humans exist."
"We really are a parasite to this planet."
~ sweetness_incarnate
Not The Coffee!! 😱
"Waking up and realizing that you have no more coffee."
~ AsleepDay_
"I cannot even begin to understand how this happens?"
"Don’t you make sure to have some waiting?"
~ Finishweird
"Wait, you don't have an alarm clock that starts to boil a pot of coffee to be ready for when you wake up?"
~ Th3_Accountant
"I can only imagine."
"My bank account says no to almost all my wishes."
~ AsleepDay_
Some of these changes began well, but went off the rails at some point. While others were never a very good idea.
What would you add to the list?