With the evolution of humanity also comes the evolution of invention.
From the invention of the wheel to to electric cars, there are countless inventions which have no doubt made the world a better place.
But are there some inventions which we might have been better off without?
Redditor DJWP137 was curious to hear which inventions the Reddit community thought may have done the world a disservice, leading them to ask:
"What, in your opinion, is the worst thing humans ever created?"
My kids couldn't grow up soon enough
"Caillou."- Cerinthus
Benefits absolutely no one
"Torture devices."
"All of them."
"A tool with no other purpose than to inflict misery is about as far from humanity as humanly possible."
"I’m referring to the definition of humanity which means 'humaneness or benevolence'."
"Not 'having to do with human kind'."- Willzyx_on_the_moon
"Chemical and biological weapons."- SuvenPan
Always remember to hold your breath when pumping gas.
"Leaded gasoline."
"It's believed that in the U.S. alone, leaded gasoline caused the loss of about 824,000,000 IQ points."- DeletedImmediately
gas gasoline GIFGiphyJust round up the measly penny!
"Items that end in .99 cents."
"Pure evil!"- CarloTheGoat
One less step to damage your lungs!
"Pre-rolled and packaged cigarettes."
"In the 1950’s, a pack of cigarettes was just 25 cents."
"Cheap, convenient, and easily available, even to children."
"While a responsible store might not sell them to a ten year old, supermarket vending machines didn’t care."
"The public didn’t know much about their danger back then and ads even told the public about how Doctors loved to smoke, implying that smoking had the blessing of the medical establishment."- Sxzym
Hours wasted in front of a screen
"League of legends."- _Duckling04
"Social Media in some ways."
"Social media has had an amazing amount of influence, but for all the good that it does, it also creates a 'toxic mirror' effect."
"This is the concept of making people feel bad about themselves by constantly being exposed to information that would make them create negative opinions about themselves."
"The toxic mirror makes anything that isn’t physical, emotional, and mental perfection, ugly and bad for that person."
"Beyond the toxic mirror, many people use social media in ways that hurt the people around them."
"The manifestation of a social persona can often present the opportunity for a user to put out very public misinformation."
"This break from reality further muddies people’s ability to properly identify risk, putting them in harmful situations."
"The Internet is filled with trolls, stalkers, and bullies."
"These groups are allowed to run rampant, as people don’t have a lot of resources to ward against them."
"These individuals hide behind their Internet persona, making civil action against them extremely difficult."
"Cyberbullying, specifically, can cause great harm to people of all ages."- KnotKarma
social media facebook GIF by weinventyouGiphyThey achieve nothing except making me feel bad about myself
"Credit scores and algorithms that value engagement over quality of content so that sh*tty provocative things which get 100s of hate responses and volatile comments are all anyone sees and thinks we're all the worst of humanity."
"It's like that South Park arc about the Danish trolls coming to fruition, a posts something to get a rise out of b who responds which makes c and d respond and so on."
"Only it's like all the internet is."
"A pyramid scheme of rage clicks."- renaaria
Only time will tell what else modern inventors have in store for us.
For better or worse.
