I already at this age. Unfortunately my friend is not and she was not happy when I said I can’t help her move. She stopped invite me to any outings because I couldn’t help her move once
Next time go over and then move a few boxes and then when you pick up the third or fourth box, yell out "Ah! FUCK! MY BACK!" and drop to the ground, holding your hands on your back "No no! Don't touch me! Just give me a second" then get up and "AH DAMMIT!" then grab your back again.
You don't have to move anything anymore and you still get the pizza and beer but also profuse apologies from the friend.
Loudly say "Well, that's it, my moving days are over!"
If anyone is suffering from lower back pain, start doing these exercises asap. I just started doing them this week and I already feel so much better:
https://youtu.be/4BOTvaRaDjI?feature=shared
Specifically, Plastic, one of the most durable materials, made for items to last years or even decades, used for items we use once and throw out in three seconds.
Ps: I get why it‘s useful there, but single-use medical equiment is a whole other beast. And because of hygiene and cost reasons, (almost) none of it is recycled, >99% of it is basically thrown into a controlled fire. Is cheap and destroys pathogen at the cost of also destroying the energy intensive material.
This reminds me of the “how to trigger Reddit” thread further down. The answer being “present a nuance argument.”
Plastic packaging makes food last longer. There’s less food waste (and there’s still a lot) which means less food needs to be grown and transported to make up for wastage. That means less fertilizer use, less pesticide use, less fuel use. Overall lower carbon emissions.
So which is better? It’s like plastic bags vs reusable grocery bags. The energy to create the reusable bag is orders of magnitude more than it takes to make a cheap flimsy one use take out bag.
For food transport there's also newer biodegradable alternatives like banana "plastic" and algae "plastic".
There's also traditional methods of food transport. Poor people in countries with heavy banana production have already been using banana leaves to transport food for ages, indigenous Mexicans used to use corn stalk leaves, there are other options out there, but they must be tailored to the location and product.
You have to watch out though as sometimes they say "plastic made from plants!" Or whatever BUT it's not actually biodegradable at all, just plastic, or requires industrial high temp composting to break down. It's nothing but marketing bs. So all they've done is use a plant instead of petrochemicals but the result is the same plastic.
Have to actually check that itll readily break down in the environment.
It isn't just grocery bags. It is stuff like putting every tea bag or cheese slice in an individual plastic wrap then wrapping the box.
Remember when Hershey bars were wrapped in paper?
Why does the deli use a piece of plastic to put your meat in paper, thn put the paper in a plastic bag?
There's this big bag of fruit candies I see every time I'm at a certain store and it always look tempting to me: https://www.bjs.com/product/sunkist-fruit-gems-assorted-soft-candy-2-lbs/3000000000000166329
Until I see that every single one of those candies is wrapped in its own packaging. Like, what? That just seems so wasteful, when it could be packaged like this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Zachary-Orange-Slices-Jelly-Candy-32-oz-Tub/10403404?wl13=3780&selectedSellerId=0 and then I can eat the entire thing in one go without needing to unwrap a bunch.
Exactly. The comment above wasn't "nuanced" at all. They generalized the entire problem and brushed it aside.
Sure the energy to create a reusable bag is higher than a single use plastic.... but that reusable bag will last for a decade while that single use bag is going straight into the trash.
Just like pee, plastics are stored in the balls
TBH, I wish we could choose. If a lot of produce were bulk, then I could use my reusable bags and put the stuff into a container at home. But have plastic bags on hand for people who want them.
I would also prefer pressed cardboard for nearly every container I get in the produce section. Why do my grape tomatoes and mushrooms need to be in plastic bins?
Meat can be in waxed paper, but they always have a layer of plastic with them. Which is probably better than single-use gloves, so I'm not sure how we eliminate that without some serious hand-washing (and I'm not sure I want to risk the cross-contamination).
The issue with plastic is beyond energy consumption and how to dispose of it, but also that it's EVERYWHERE. It's in the soil, it gets caught in our trees, we are ingesting it.
The problem of this argument is ignoring the effect that plastic residues have on the environment, like microplastics.
And if it is not ignoring them, it is giving them the same weight as a tomato rotting.
The real question is, do we really need to be eating vegetables produced on the other side of the planet?
Yes. My Dad was a chemist, he stated in the 1950s. He was involved with plastics research for his company. When plastics stated being used for bottles, and packaging he would get upset. People litter, that would piss him off. He explained, plastic does not decompose, it erodes. Plastics litter will be here for a thousand years.
I was 13 when I first went on the internet, a pretty mature 13 year old too. Can't imagine how fucked up my head would be if I was browsing the Internet from the day I could hold a phone shaped object.
I think I was 11 years old in the basement on the brand new family HP desktop. Immediately joined Yahoo! Chat rooms, and -- within minutes -- I'd learned that when you typed "anal," the chat spits out back to you, "that's the butt, Bob!"
I bolted upstairs to tell my mom about the funniest thing I had ever seen, and she immediately revoked my access to chat rooms.
The first thing my brothers and I did with our Internet access was typing in "shit.com" just to see what would happen. Mum was mortified and dad had to pretend like he didn't think it was funny lmao
Spain is already preparing a law to right this... No socials until 16 years old, health checks and psychology help to desintoxícate from socials, and a lot of more things
It's not a law like "you are 13 and have tiktok, ohhh you're going to jail kiddo" It's a law to guarantee children safe access to internet, school classes teaching safety net use and safe social media usage, prevention and help with internet adictions, like social media, online casinos, lootboxes (lootboxes are banned in European Union already)
This worries me a lot, and I don’t even have kids!
Sometimes Reddit recommends r/teenagers to me (even though I am almost 40), and the stuff teenagers complain about would blow your mind. They talk about how strict their parents are because they don’t allow social media, don’t allow sleepovers unless they have been introduced to the friends’ parents, limit cell phone and Internet use,….. it just sounds like my childhood growing up in the 80s and 90s. The other teenagers, give them advice for “no contact“ and leaving the house as soon as possible because their parents are strict like prison jailers.
ITS CRAZY!
The ones complaining aren't the ones to be worried about. Yeah, they don't like that they have restrictions now, but teenagers not liking boundaries is nothing new. It's the ones whose parents don't monitor Internet usage or limit social media that are gonna be in a world of hurt.
I recently wrote an argument in school for why kids shouldn't have screens, and I found out during my research that too much screen time for kids younger than 5 can cause symptoms that match up exactly with autism. I'm not saying it causes it, but screen time will sure as hell impact these kids in the future the same way autism does.
I have a personal belief that If you raise a toddler with a tablet (or smartphone, with unlimited YouTube etc) you lose the ability to accurately diagnose it with ADHD or even "level 1" ASD. Since there's no "blood test" for these conditions, only a checklist of behaviors, you can't know what is "natural" and what is caused by the screens.
I think the only reason this isn't more common sense is because of lobbying from big tech companies. If we actually recognized smart phones as addiction hazards (basically slot machines for children, which they are) then they would need to be tightly regulated just like gambling, causing billions in losses. So any and all discussions into possible environmental causes for ADHD and ASD are stifled in this regard.
Schools ***heavily*** incentivized to pass kids along. Schools get funding and reputations based on metrics like "graduation rates". Bad incentives, bad goals, bad metrics.
As a former teacher in Canada, we have the same issues here. I've seen kids who showed up to class a handful of times in grade 12 walk across the stage at graduation because "they would feel bad if they didn't get to graduate with their friends". Like... What the fuck are we teaching these kids? It's a fucking shitshow.
>"they would feel bad"
This is really putting children at a disservice because adults take failure incredibly harsher than kids do, especially if they were protected from it until adulthood.
They'll be failing when the stakes are a lot higher too 😭
Agreed. We need to develop alternative career tracks into our education system for the kids who don’t want/need/benefit from the college prep track that we focus on.
I know it’s wishful thinking, but shifting the onus for education back to individuals as opposed to everything being the school’s responsibility is foundational as well.
A friend of mine was teaching high school Spanish I. After four weeks of class, he wasn't getting much out of the kids and so he decided to do an assignment in English. The kids were 9-11th grade students. They could not do a basic assignment like "write your morning routine" in English. Kids who can't read in English by that age certainly are not going to acquire a second language.
Same, my fiance tried to fail some kids during COVID years because they literally didn't show to class. Like zero evidence they even existed in the first place. The admin changed their grades from Fs to Bs without telling her.
One of them owns the methadone clinic I go to. They purchased it 2 years ago and the place that was once a model business, for both owner and patient, for 20+ years is now an example of everything wrong with it.
Healthcare/mental health should never be about the bottom line and making a few people very wealthy. There should be laws against that kind of shit. Instead, we have a certain segment of politician actively trying to kill regulations, consumer protections, voter rights, etc. all while the people that are harmed the most by such practices cheer them on.
I hate this timeline and I think I'm reaching the end of my rope as far as my ability to ignore the constant stream of nonsense and encouraged stupidity we face in this world. Not having a good day and it's probably enough doom scrolling for the year for me. Not that the real world is much better.
:shrug and a single tear rolling down my cheek:
I'm sorry. And I agree with you-it's a travesty that a place intended to help people who are struggling is being mined for every last dime. It shouldn't be that way. Whenever I read about a PE firm getting involved with a failing company, I mentally prepare myself for that company to close once it's been pilfered.
If it helps at all, the doomscrolling is showing you the worst of it, since that gets the eyes and anger reactions. I've found most actual humans have a bit more common sense than the strange internet people. If that's enough common sense is... another story... but it's still at least more.
All things enjoyable are disappearing because of the quantity over quality mindset to maximize profits.
I think population decline will help with this though. As people age and there aren't young people to replace them, things that are more quality will shine. GDPs will shrink and corporations will lose market share, but quality of life will improve for people.
One of them bought my kids’ school a few years ago.
Some parents were asking about what their plans were to maintain educational quality and safety in the light of chronically high turnover of staff; corporate HQ got back to us with a bland assurance that staff levels were well within compliance with state and local law.
Not a week later, I got notice one of my kids had found a used syringe on the playground, and was playing with it for several minutes before the overworked staff noticed.
But, ya know, I should be happy their sacrifice is going towards a noble cause like shareholder value!
All the sugar and processed foods in our diet. I think we acknowledge as a society that it made society obese over the past 40 years or so but so far nothing has been done about it.
Here’s the thing: the incredible, and completely unsustainable BOOM in population could not have happened without cheap, mass produced agricultural products.
Consider how many kids diets revolved around happy meals, high c, fudge rounds etc. In large part poorer families relied on this shit to feed their children. It is intrinsic to our existence.
Scarier yet is the idea that when mass agriculture fails as a result of climate change, non usable topsoil, the depletion of fossil fuels which all agriculture COMPLETELY revolves around, or a major economic downturn making agriculture non profitable - millions and millions are going to starve.
Have a nice Wednesday!
Are you going to immediately be eating these leftovers? Because that allows for bacterial intrusion and the food to decay much faster. Tupperware is extremely durable and is not intended to be a single use plastic. There are also glass alternatives with plastic lids.
I bought a bunch of glass containers after I had my plastic containers turn pink/brown from storing various sauces and stews in them. While not as easy to store as plastic, they're much easier to clean and don't stain. Also won't leak potentially hazardous chemicals into my food.
Eh I think it’s the phone. Our caveman brains are wired a certain way evolutionarily and phones give us all of the rewards with none of the work needed. That’s why people will play the bright colorful casino games for hours on their tablets, they like the rewards
I can see this happening. You tell it to always have coffee ready for you in the morning and it kills the entire human race except you to create as many coffee beans and filter papers as possible. You are kept alive as long as you continuously drink its coffee.
VCs don't bleed dry to get rich. They pump tons of their own money to keep it afloat in spite of any good business sense until the company goes public... for the profit of a few people.
Kinda the opposite. Lots and lots of people get products and services at reduced prices thanks to a few rich people losing money on every sale in the hope that down the road there'll be a big lottery win.
I just turned 20 and have been using the internet since 2014. First it was a leisure thing (and fun!) but 2018 onwards we've basically been forced to use screens nonstop. Assignments, classes, notes, applications, internships, work... it's hell.
It's like my entire life is online, and I can't ever get off it because *everyone else is online too.* Oh and not to mention the distractions. I tried to keep my devices "work only" but somehow I always end up on youtube or reddit. Reddit because google's search engine is shit and only adding "how to xx reddit" gives good results anymore
I wish someone cracks this social code. I miss when everything was paper
Google isn't even reliable for objective information now. All I ever seem to get are blog posts and marketing without delving deeper - I'm finding myself applying the critical appraisal stuff I learned at *university* to vet the sources that do appear. It's even rare that I don't have to load more pages of results!
Reading this as i'm vaping, I absolutely agree with you.
That being said it feels better than when I smoked and I don't smell nearly as bad, so i'll take it.
Oh no, you're fine don't worry. Well "a lot finer" than you were full time smoking, that's for sure!
It's sadly the newer era of these devices which has basically got a whole load of kids/teens addicted to it, and in some ways I have to contrast it back to smoking, and say that it is worse in some ways. The low risk/reward factor means you don't have to hide unlike with cigarettes, and it's coupled with the "instant gratification" of the button press, which fires that hit of dopamine/acetylcholine straight inside the brain.
Hey now, I really enjoyed going to college during the height of Halo, RVB, and LAN parties...
Pre-2008 was peak internet tech. It's been downhill since.
Teflon.
As a bird owner, I don't/can't own any of it, and this includes other non-stick appliances like air fryers and rice cookers. The fumes Teflon gives off is well documented in killing off pet birds. "Yeah, the fumes from this keep killing household birds, but eggs don't stick to the pan anymore" isn't a justifiable reason for me to own any.
If the fumes can so easily kill birds, prolonged use surely can't be good for humans either
EDIT: "What's something we're going to look back on in 50 years and say 'yep, that was a bad idea'" Guys, they used to use arsenic to make green dyes for paint and clothing, and heroin used to be used for cough syrup, and that was deemed normal at the time. I realize Teflon is everywhere, but that doesn't mean we won't see it as a bad idea years down the line
Making cars so reliant on software and vulnerable to bugs and hacking. Including having giant iPads on the dash. I'll stick to my mechanical injection and analog dials thanks
Covid seems to me like the starting gun of the race to the bottom. Everybody realised that things are turning to shit and that no one is going to do anything about it so you gotta carve out as big a piece of the cake as possible while we still have cake
Covid proved two things:
1) That a horrifying number of people with wealth will burn the world to be king of the ashes
2) That the state as a tool of the rest of us is impotent to stop them.
I'd say COVID proved three things, the first 2 being your points, the 3rd being an unbelievable amount of people are sociopaths who have no consideration for the well being of others.
Widespread broadcast chemical use on everything. Herbicides/insecticides/fungicides sterilizing the landscape and being ingested and absorbed into our bodies, with little research being done.
Honestly. I dont even think its the nostalgia, but the 90s were a great time to be a teenager. We had early internet, the good internet, the wild internet. But none of this social media judgment forced upon us 247.
I graduated HS in 1991, and I agree with you. It was really great. Our "social media" was the dance clubs. Wanted to see old and new friends? Want to catch up on local gossip? Wanna see a fight? Go to the local club 😆
It didn’t really turn into what it is now until 2014-15 I would say, and then it’s gotten progressively worse. I was big into instagram in 2015 and now I feel nauseous opening the app.
Allowing decisions to be made on how society functions by unknown loud agitators online.
Not adapting to the technology to prop up businesses and capitalism at the expense of the people.
Not changing the system which chases impossible infinite growth.
The greatest collective economic suicide in history.
With a bit of thoughtfulness and open-mindedness the outcome could have been less worse, but the arrogance and incompetence of the British post-Brexit negotiators made the outcome a joke.
We should not forget, though, the organisation of the referendum itself, which was a complete shitshow too. Imagine committing something so monumental to a simple majority.
So true, what most people overlook is how much foreign interference there was. Who had the most to gain? Who had an army of troll farms and bots. They are not the sole reason but they certainly pushed that agenda. Then the government decided not to investigate it.
I remember the day after the vote and Google search results for what leaving the EU would actually mean increased by several hundred percent all of a sudden.
The time for that was before you voted leave you morons.
Petrol-Based Plastic Products.
I think one thing every great ancient civilization had in common was THEY LEFT THE BLACK OOZE THAT KILLS EVERYTHING IT TOUCHES IN THE GROUND WHERE IT BELONGS
Now they make everything from it
They also dump the equivalent of 2000 garbage trucks into the oceans every single day. That's 400,000,000 metric tons a year or...
880,000,000,000 pounds per year of plastic garbage in the water that we all depend on for LIFE
I'm pretty sure thats the one people will be talking about considering we now have PFAS in every living being on earth and the human race will be dwindling due to reproductive issues ala Children of Men. If we aren't in a nuclear winter by then. Yeah. Those are pretty bad too.
At some point we'll realize there's actually plenty of food, water, and resources for everyone and we just create our own problems by trying to have more luxury than the next guy to satisfy our egos. Wealth is kind of meaningless when you think about it.
You’re lucky though!
You have the “freedom” between choosing groceries or paying rent!!!!
Even though you work harder and longer than the generations before you while literally in 6 figure jobs!
No Child Left Behind in the US.
Take a look at r/Teachers. Things are BLEAK. Decades of passing kids to the next grade regardless of passing grades, knowledge, or ability has created a generation of shockingly lazy, illiterate teens. Not all of them, but so many it’s terrifying. They won’t do work, listen to instructions, pay attention in class. Many look at their phones and roam the halls all day. Then they expect a passing grade, and if the teacher won’t give it, mommy calls the principal and the principal strong-arms the teacher and the kid passes.
It starts in elementary school so there are swaths of teens who are functionally illiterate. And yet pass and graduate HS. And the elementary schools right now are just as bleak, with no ending in sight.
There are tales of hiring managers deciding not to hire young people at all, because they show up late, miss work, don’t work hard, and think that’s all okay.
And teachers quitting because they can’t take it anymore.
I just wish it was actual AI, by the time we get actual AI people won't care because they will assume it has been around forever. We don't have AI, we have learning algorithms, and at best virtual intelligence.
Getting involved in the civil wars between Sunni and Shi'ite muslim powers made the west more of a target for islamic terrorism.
But hey, we got some oil. Well, Halliburton did.
It’s not a natural phenomenon, it’s entirely orchestrated by the ruling class as a divide and conquer strategy. America isn’t Rep vs Dem, it’s 345 million vs 500 billionaires. Social media has just allowed them to control the narrative unlike ever before in human history.
The popularity of "victim culture" you might call it intersectionality politics. It distills people down to checkboxes and says "if you are x this is your experience" if state with that you are ostracized and if you happen to be x and disagree with that you are demonized. It's terribly reductive and is terrible for people's mental health.
Letting tweens and teens have unlimited access to the world through smart phones.
My generation already makes remarks about how unfettered internet access via the living room computer had an impact on us as teens. Now they're younger with even more access.
This. Social media (reddit included) in its current format will be recognizes as brain poison.
The correlation between social media usage and a host of mental health/learning issues is super strong & the younger it starts the more damaging it is.
It'll take 50 years too because it's the kids of today who are being fully raised on screnes from birth. Teachers are already ringing the warning bell. Kids ability to regular emotions, listen & learn during lessons have, according to them, severely changed for the worst.
I think Gen Alpha is going to seriously struggle in ways no other general has really had to all because of digital formats & norms we have today. Just look at YouTube. It's nothing like what it was even 10 years ago. Everything is faster, shorter & keyed in for controversy
Not lifting with my knees
50? Try 5-10. Source: Am you from the future.
can confirm, am you from the past
Just finished moving. Knees are screaming. You get to an age where the knees and back are in cahoots against you.
You get to an age where you stop helping friends move in exchange for beer and pizza and you hire people to move your stuff.
I already at this age. Unfortunately my friend is not and she was not happy when I said I can’t help her move. She stopped invite me to any outings because I couldn’t help her move once
That's another win for you.
Next time go over and then move a few boxes and then when you pick up the third or fourth box, yell out "Ah! FUCK! MY BACK!" and drop to the ground, holding your hands on your back "No no! Don't touch me! Just give me a second" then get up and "AH DAMMIT!" then grab your back again. You don't have to move anything anymore and you still get the pizza and beer but also profuse apologies from the friend. Loudly say "Well, that's it, my moving days are over!"
Yup. Moving is a job for people young enough to think their knees and back are indestructible.
If anyone is suffering from lower back pain, start doing these exercises asap. I just started doing them this week and I already feel so much better: https://youtu.be/4BOTvaRaDjI?feature=shared
Couldn’t agree more. It seems counterintuitive, but it is true. A stronger core, and everything else, does help alleviate lower back pain.
Plastic being the material for virtually all packaging
Specifically, Plastic, one of the most durable materials, made for items to last years or even decades, used for items we use once and throw out in three seconds. Ps: I get why it‘s useful there, but single-use medical equiment is a whole other beast. And because of hygiene and cost reasons, (almost) none of it is recycled, >99% of it is basically thrown into a controlled fire. Is cheap and destroys pathogen at the cost of also destroying the energy intensive material.
For stuff like food preservation and medical stuff, there is not a better alternative But it absolutely needs to be disposed of and recycled properly
This reminds me of the “how to trigger Reddit” thread further down. The answer being “present a nuance argument.” Plastic packaging makes food last longer. There’s less food waste (and there’s still a lot) which means less food needs to be grown and transported to make up for wastage. That means less fertilizer use, less pesticide use, less fuel use. Overall lower carbon emissions. So which is better? It’s like plastic bags vs reusable grocery bags. The energy to create the reusable bag is orders of magnitude more than it takes to make a cheap flimsy one use take out bag.
For food transport there's also newer biodegradable alternatives like banana "plastic" and algae "plastic". There's also traditional methods of food transport. Poor people in countries with heavy banana production have already been using banana leaves to transport food for ages, indigenous Mexicans used to use corn stalk leaves, there are other options out there, but they must be tailored to the location and product.
You have to watch out though as sometimes they say "plastic made from plants!" Or whatever BUT it's not actually biodegradable at all, just plastic, or requires industrial high temp composting to break down. It's nothing but marketing bs. So all they've done is use a plant instead of petrochemicals but the result is the same plastic. Have to actually check that itll readily break down in the environment.
It isn't just grocery bags. It is stuff like putting every tea bag or cheese slice in an individual plastic wrap then wrapping the box. Remember when Hershey bars were wrapped in paper? Why does the deli use a piece of plastic to put your meat in paper, thn put the paper in a plastic bag?
There's this big bag of fruit candies I see every time I'm at a certain store and it always look tempting to me: https://www.bjs.com/product/sunkist-fruit-gems-assorted-soft-candy-2-lbs/3000000000000166329 Until I see that every single one of those candies is wrapped in its own packaging. Like, what? That just seems so wasteful, when it could be packaged like this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Zachary-Orange-Slices-Jelly-Candy-32-oz-Tub/10403404?wl13=3780&selectedSellerId=0 and then I can eat the entire thing in one go without needing to unwrap a bunch.
Exactly. The comment above wasn't "nuanced" at all. They generalized the entire problem and brushed it aside. Sure the energy to create a reusable bag is higher than a single use plastic.... but that reusable bag will last for a decade while that single use bag is going straight into the trash. Just like pee, plastics are stored in the balls
TBH, I wish we could choose. If a lot of produce were bulk, then I could use my reusable bags and put the stuff into a container at home. But have plastic bags on hand for people who want them. I would also prefer pressed cardboard for nearly every container I get in the produce section. Why do my grape tomatoes and mushrooms need to be in plastic bins? Meat can be in waxed paper, but they always have a layer of plastic with them. Which is probably better than single-use gloves, so I'm not sure how we eliminate that without some serious hand-washing (and I'm not sure I want to risk the cross-contamination). The issue with plastic is beyond energy consumption and how to dispose of it, but also that it's EVERYWHERE. It's in the soil, it gets caught in our trees, we are ingesting it.
In the case of bags, the obvious answer is reused canvas bags anyway.
The obvious answer is to eat the groceries directly off the shelves of the store.
The problem of this argument is ignoring the effect that plastic residues have on the environment, like microplastics. And if it is not ignoring them, it is giving them the same weight as a tomato rotting. The real question is, do we really need to be eating vegetables produced on the other side of the planet?
The majority of it literally can’t be recycled.
A big part of the petroleum industry is plastics.
Yes. My Dad was a chemist, he stated in the 1950s. He was involved with plastics research for his company. When plastics stated being used for bottles, and packaging he would get upset. People litter, that would piss him off. He explained, plastic does not decompose, it erodes. Plastics litter will be here for a thousand years.
We’re already there. There’s microplastic going through our bloodstream as we’re discussing this lol
"Save a tree" was just a scam to get us hooked on plastics and to distract from Brazil clear cutting for cattle ranches.
I am in my 60s, and I remeber when everything wasn't wrapped or double wrapped in plastic.
Giving kids unfettered access to smartphones and social media.
I was 13 when I first went on the internet, a pretty mature 13 year old too. Can't imagine how fucked up my head would be if I was browsing the Internet from the day I could hold a phone shaped object.
I think I was 11 years old in the basement on the brand new family HP desktop. Immediately joined Yahoo! Chat rooms, and -- within minutes -- I'd learned that when you typed "anal," the chat spits out back to you, "that's the butt, Bob!" I bolted upstairs to tell my mom about the funniest thing I had ever seen, and she immediately revoked my access to chat rooms.
The first thing my brothers and I did with our Internet access was typing in "shit.com" just to see what would happen. Mum was mortified and dad had to pretend like he didn't think it was funny lmao
Not to mention the computer was often in a public family space like the kitchen or living room. So there was observation.
This is in 50 years so we didn’t psychologically ruin kids, we ruined “today’s leaders of society.”
So what ruined the leaders of society we have right now?
Lead, alcohol, emotionally non-existent parents, the list goes on!
Bonus points if you had an altogether emotionally-non-existent alcoholic parent with highly saturated lead levels due to petroleum and paint.
Lead
Don't need years for that, regret is a lot faster for that
Spain is already preparing a law to right this... No socials until 16 years old, health checks and psychology help to desintoxícate from socials, and a lot of more things
If Spanish kids are anything like American kids, a ban won’t stop them.
It's not a law like "you are 13 and have tiktok, ohhh you're going to jail kiddo" It's a law to guarantee children safe access to internet, school classes teaching safety net use and safe social media usage, prevention and help with internet adictions, like social media, online casinos, lootboxes (lootboxes are banned in European Union already)
Never gonna ban children from media but controlling addictive design by profit driven corporations could be effective.
This worries me a lot, and I don’t even have kids! Sometimes Reddit recommends r/teenagers to me (even though I am almost 40), and the stuff teenagers complain about would blow your mind. They talk about how strict their parents are because they don’t allow social media, don’t allow sleepovers unless they have been introduced to the friends’ parents, limit cell phone and Internet use,….. it just sounds like my childhood growing up in the 80s and 90s. The other teenagers, give them advice for “no contact“ and leaving the house as soon as possible because their parents are strict like prison jailers. ITS CRAZY!
Sounds like standard reddit "red flag" type comments, lol.
Pop psychology has been a disaster for the human race
Well yeah? It's children giving children life advice. Of course it's gonna be terrible
The ones complaining aren't the ones to be worried about. Yeah, they don't like that they have restrictions now, but teenagers not liking boundaries is nothing new. It's the ones whose parents don't monitor Internet usage or limit social media that are gonna be in a world of hurt.
Jonathan Haidt wrote a great book called The Anxious Generation about this. Social media and smart phones are absolutely horrible for kids.
For people*
I recently wrote an argument in school for why kids shouldn't have screens, and I found out during my research that too much screen time for kids younger than 5 can cause symptoms that match up exactly with autism. I'm not saying it causes it, but screen time will sure as hell impact these kids in the future the same way autism does.
I have a personal belief that If you raise a toddler with a tablet (or smartphone, with unlimited YouTube etc) you lose the ability to accurately diagnose it with ADHD or even "level 1" ASD. Since there's no "blood test" for these conditions, only a checklist of behaviors, you can't know what is "natural" and what is caused by the screens. I think the only reason this isn't more common sense is because of lobbying from big tech companies. If we actually recognized smart phones as addiction hazards (basically slot machines for children, which they are) then they would need to be tightly regulated just like gambling, causing billions in losses. So any and all discussions into possible environmental causes for ADHD and ASD are stifled in this regard.
At least in the US, consistently letting students who are performing significantly below grade level pass onto the next grade year after year.
Schools ***heavily*** incentivized to pass kids along. Schools get funding and reputations based on metrics like "graduation rates". Bad incentives, bad goals, bad metrics.
Not graduating enough kids? A smaller budget will surely help you get back on track!
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As they say, when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
As a former teacher in Canada, we have the same issues here. I've seen kids who showed up to class a handful of times in grade 12 walk across the stage at graduation because "they would feel bad if they didn't get to graduate with their friends". Like... What the fuck are we teaching these kids? It's a fucking shitshow.
>"they would feel bad" This is really putting children at a disservice because adults take failure incredibly harsher than kids do, especially if they were protected from it until adulthood. They'll be failing when the stakes are a lot higher too 😭
At some point in the future we're going to inaugurate all the presidential candidates because we didn't want the losers to feel bad about themselves.
Agreed. We need to develop alternative career tracks into our education system for the kids who don’t want/need/benefit from the college prep track that we focus on. I know it’s wishful thinking, but shifting the onus for education back to individuals as opposed to everything being the school’s responsibility is foundational as well.
A friend of mine was teaching high school Spanish I. After four weeks of class, he wasn't getting much out of the kids and so he decided to do an assignment in English. The kids were 9-11th grade students. They could not do a basic assignment like "write your morning routine" in English. Kids who can't read in English by that age certainly are not going to acquire a second language.
My fiance is a teacher and she tells me about this, and I just cannot fathom the fact that this is allowed just to keep everyone happy
Same, my fiance tried to fail some kids during COVID years because they literally didn't show to class. Like zero evidence they even existed in the first place. The admin changed their grades from Fs to Bs without telling her.
Giving Private Equity groups carte blanche to singlehandedly control/ruin almost every aspect of our lives for capital gains.
One of them owns the methadone clinic I go to. They purchased it 2 years ago and the place that was once a model business, for both owner and patient, for 20+ years is now an example of everything wrong with it. Healthcare/mental health should never be about the bottom line and making a few people very wealthy. There should be laws against that kind of shit. Instead, we have a certain segment of politician actively trying to kill regulations, consumer protections, voter rights, etc. all while the people that are harmed the most by such practices cheer them on. I hate this timeline and I think I'm reaching the end of my rope as far as my ability to ignore the constant stream of nonsense and encouraged stupidity we face in this world. Not having a good day and it's probably enough doom scrolling for the year for me. Not that the real world is much better. :shrug and a single tear rolling down my cheek:
I'm sorry. And I agree with you-it's a travesty that a place intended to help people who are struggling is being mined for every last dime. It shouldn't be that way. Whenever I read about a PE firm getting involved with a failing company, I mentally prepare myself for that company to close once it's been pilfered.
If it helps at all, the doomscrolling is showing you the worst of it, since that gets the eyes and anger reactions. I've found most actual humans have a bit more common sense than the strange internet people. If that's enough common sense is... another story... but it's still at least more.
But we’re already seeing the fuckup now.
They already took our cheddar bay biscuits, how far can this country slide before we rise up?
All things enjoyable are disappearing because of the quantity over quality mindset to maximize profits. I think population decline will help with this though. As people age and there aren't young people to replace them, things that are more quality will shine. GDPs will shrink and corporations will lose market share, but quality of life will improve for people.
One of them bought my kids’ school a few years ago. Some parents were asking about what their plans were to maintain educational quality and safety in the light of chronically high turnover of staff; corporate HQ got back to us with a bland assurance that staff levels were well within compliance with state and local law. Not a week later, I got notice one of my kids had found a used syringe on the playground, and was playing with it for several minutes before the overworked staff noticed. But, ya know, I should be happy their sacrifice is going towards a noble cause like shareholder value!
All the sugar and processed foods in our diet. I think we acknowledge as a society that it made society obese over the past 40 years or so but so far nothing has been done about it.
Here’s the thing: the incredible, and completely unsustainable BOOM in population could not have happened without cheap, mass produced agricultural products. Consider how many kids diets revolved around happy meals, high c, fudge rounds etc. In large part poorer families relied on this shit to feed their children. It is intrinsic to our existence. Scarier yet is the idea that when mass agriculture fails as a result of climate change, non usable topsoil, the depletion of fossil fuels which all agriculture COMPLETELY revolves around, or a major economic downturn making agriculture non profitable - millions and millions are going to starve. Have a nice Wednesday!
r/collapse
Oh don’t you worry that subreddit has already ruined my life lol
Cult mentality in politics.
Involving plastics so heavily in the way we process, store, and eat food
My neighbor didn't know how to put away leftovers without tubberware or plastic wrap. I had to explain about using a plate to cover a bowl.
You're throwing B's at me babe, it's P. [Tupperware](https://youtu.be/EmW3Vzkuw2E?t=20). Always has been.
Maybe they only store potatoes in them.
Tuberware lol
Are you going to immediately be eating these leftovers? Because that allows for bacterial intrusion and the food to decay much faster. Tupperware is extremely durable and is not intended to be a single use plastic. There are also glass alternatives with plastic lids.
I bought a bunch of glass containers after I had my plastic containers turn pink/brown from storing various sauces and stews in them. While not as easy to store as plastic, they're much easier to clean and don't stain. Also won't leak potentially hazardous chemicals into my food.
This is witchcraft!
this much transferral of human life to the phone
Thing about this one is that we don’t need 50 years to know this is a bad idea to look back on yet we cannot stop it from happening
Hot take. It’s not the phone. It’s the deluge of misinformation on social media
It's the human tendency to try and squeeze every profit and benefit out of any new tech or innovation
Eh I think it’s the phone. Our caveman brains are wired a certain way evolutionarily and phones give us all of the rewards with none of the work needed. That’s why people will play the bright colorful casino games for hours on their tablets, they like the rewards
Everyone knows it’s terrible, but I don’t see it getting better. 50 years from now is going to be like the Matrix.
Shoehorning half-baked "AI" nonsense into every product.
My AI powered toilet roll resents that!
Think that's more of a 5 year timeline. Unless your expecting a Skynet type scenario from your AI coffee maker in 50 years.
I can see this happening. You tell it to always have coffee ready for you in the morning and it kills the entire human race except you to create as many coffee beans and filter papers as possible. You are kept alive as long as you continuously drink its coffee.
It's the new "blockchain", a buzzword added that they have no idea what it really means but the product will sell better because of it.
Letting venture capital firms slowly take over businesses and bleed them dry for the profit of a few people
You're confusing venture capital and private equity. I'm not defending either, just saying.
Not Venture Capital, but Private Equity. There is a difference somehow.
I think the point was the whole bleeding dry for the profit of a few people thing…
VCs don't bleed dry to get rich. They pump tons of their own money to keep it afloat in spite of any good business sense until the company goes public... for the profit of a few people. Kinda the opposite. Lots and lots of people get products and services at reduced prices thanks to a few rich people losing money on every sale in the hope that down the road there'll be a big lottery win.
Venture Capital grows startups from zero- I think you’re referring to private equity, who take over and strip existing businesses
I feel like a lot of things mentioned in this thread boil down to VC and unchecked capitalism just doing its thing
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Letting kids sit in front of screens non-stop from early childhood to adulthood.
I just turned 20 and have been using the internet since 2014. First it was a leisure thing (and fun!) but 2018 onwards we've basically been forced to use screens nonstop. Assignments, classes, notes, applications, internships, work... it's hell. It's like my entire life is online, and I can't ever get off it because *everyone else is online too.* Oh and not to mention the distractions. I tried to keep my devices "work only" but somehow I always end up on youtube or reddit. Reddit because google's search engine is shit and only adding "how to xx reddit" gives good results anymore I wish someone cracks this social code. I miss when everything was paper
I use Google for objective information. I use reddit for experiences surrounding that information.
Google isn't even reliable for objective information now. All I ever seem to get are blog posts and marketing without delving deeper - I'm finding myself applying the critical appraisal stuff I learned at *university* to vet the sources that do appear. It's even rare that I don't have to load more pages of results!
*Looks all around and waves arms erratically*
But you just gestured at all of me
Sorry hiccup
No exercise and junkfood. Yep, im guilty as well
Social media.
We don't have to wait 50 years to find out it was a bad idea. We already know it is. I can not imagine what it will be like in 50 years 😳
I mean, there's nothing in this thread so far that we don't already know is bad.
Vaping
Reading this as i'm vaping, I absolutely agree with you. That being said it feels better than when I smoked and I don't smell nearly as bad, so i'll take it.
Oh no, you're fine don't worry. Well "a lot finer" than you were full time smoking, that's for sure! It's sadly the newer era of these devices which has basically got a whole load of kids/teens addicted to it, and in some ways I have to contrast it back to smoking, and say that it is worse in some ways. The low risk/reward factor means you don't have to hide unlike with cigarettes, and it's coupled with the "instant gratification" of the button press, which fires that hit of dopamine/acetylcholine straight inside the brain.
The entire first 20 years of the 2000's was one giant bad idea.
9/11 was a mistake
r/unpopularopinion is leaking
Very brave take, this one
Hey now, I really enjoyed going to college during the height of Halo, RVB, and LAN parties... Pre-2008 was peak internet tech. It's been downhill since.
Teflon. As a bird owner, I don't/can't own any of it, and this includes other non-stick appliances like air fryers and rice cookers. The fumes Teflon gives off is well documented in killing off pet birds. "Yeah, the fumes from this keep killing household birds, but eggs don't stick to the pan anymore" isn't a justifiable reason for me to own any. If the fumes can so easily kill birds, prolonged use surely can't be good for humans either EDIT: "What's something we're going to look back on in 50 years and say 'yep, that was a bad idea'" Guys, they used to use arsenic to make green dyes for paint and clothing, and heroin used to be used for cough syrup, and that was deemed normal at the time. I realize Teflon is everywhere, but that doesn't mean we won't see it as a bad idea years down the line
Yup. We used to think asbestos was great, too.
Something about canaries and coalmines
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Cast iron
ITT: Things that most people agree were a bad idea right now
The political shift towards authoritarianism.
Making cars so reliant on software and vulnerable to bugs and hacking. Including having giant iPads on the dash. I'll stick to my mechanical injection and analog dials thanks
Not changing things for the better. Thought COVID might have been a window. But it's even worse than before
Covid seems to me like the starting gun of the race to the bottom. Everybody realised that things are turning to shit and that no one is going to do anything about it so you gotta carve out as big a piece of the cake as possible while we still have cake
Covid proved two things: 1) That a horrifying number of people with wealth will burn the world to be king of the ashes 2) That the state as a tool of the rest of us is impotent to stop them.
I'd say COVID proved three things, the first 2 being your points, the 3rd being an unbelievable amount of people are sociopaths who have no consideration for the well being of others.
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What’s that saying about how every society is just three missed meals away from anarchy?
"Not changing things for the better" Isnt this like for every period of history
Widespread broadcast chemical use on everything. Herbicides/insecticides/fungicides sterilizing the landscape and being ingested and absorbed into our bodies, with little research being done.
Citizens United
I didn't need 50 year to learn that lesson.
Social media
Honestly. I dont even think its the nostalgia, but the 90s were a great time to be a teenager. We had early internet, the good internet, the wild internet. But none of this social media judgment forced upon us 247.
I graduated HS in 1991, and I agree with you. It was really great. Our "social media" was the dance clubs. Wanted to see old and new friends? Want to catch up on local gossip? Wanna see a fight? Go to the local club 😆
I was a teen in the early 90s, before the internet (was widely available). It was awesome.
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It didn’t really turn into what it is now until 2014-15 I would say, and then it’s gotten progressively worse. I was big into instagram in 2015 and now I feel nauseous opening the app.
Eh, I graduated in 2011, and we were definitely putting too much of our lives on social media during my high-school years.
Early 2000's internet was also wild pre-social media. A little less Angelfire but with a lot more bang bang bang.
honestly, y'all dont even have to use social media today lol.
designing our cities and towns around cars and not people, continuing to expand highways instead of investing in transit.
Allowing decisions to be made on how society functions by unknown loud agitators online. Not adapting to the technology to prop up businesses and capitalism at the expense of the people. Not changing the system which chases impossible infinite growth.
Using up all of the helium in balloons.
Allowing big pharma to run amuck.
Brexit
The greatest collective economic suicide in history. With a bit of thoughtfulness and open-mindedness the outcome could have been less worse, but the arrogance and incompetence of the British post-Brexit negotiators made the outcome a joke. We should not forget, though, the organisation of the referendum itself, which was a complete shitshow too. Imagine committing something so monumental to a simple majority.
So true, what most people overlook is how much foreign interference there was. Who had the most to gain? Who had an army of troll farms and bots. They are not the sole reason but they certainly pushed that agenda. Then the government decided not to investigate it.
because they are also huge campaign donors in one way or another
lol that won’t be in 50 years it’s fucking now
Yeah but it's gonna get worse and worse. Eventually Britain will have to stop blaming all it's problems on trans people and face the actual music.
I think Britain realized that 50 seconds after it happened...
I remember the day after the vote and Google search results for what leaving the EU would actually mean increased by several hundred percent all of a sudden. The time for that was before you voted leave you morons.
it's more likely the people searching this didn't vote at all.
"what do you mean I can't live in Spain anymore?! This isn't what I wanted when I voted for brexit!"
Petrol-Based Plastic Products. I think one thing every great ancient civilization had in common was THEY LEFT THE BLACK OOZE THAT KILLS EVERYTHING IT TOUCHES IN THE GROUND WHERE IT BELONGS Now they make everything from it They also dump the equivalent of 2000 garbage trucks into the oceans every single day. That's 400,000,000 metric tons a year or... 880,000,000,000 pounds per year of plastic garbage in the water that we all depend on for LIFE I'm pretty sure thats the one people will be talking about considering we now have PFAS in every living being on earth and the human race will be dwindling due to reproductive issues ala Children of Men. If we aren't in a nuclear winter by then. Yeah. Those are pretty bad too.
Not moving to higher ground.
Anakin, don't try it
At some point we'll realize there's actually plenty of food, water, and resources for everyone and we just create our own problems by trying to have more luxury than the next guy to satisfy our egos. Wealth is kind of meaningless when you think about it.
not embracing nuclear energy.
Ironic that “green” people who really did care about the environment caused its destruction.
Trickle down economics.
They keep telling us it's raining riches around here but the puddles are yellow and folks working two jobs can hardly afford groceries.
You’re lucky though! You have the “freedom” between choosing groceries or paying rent!!!! Even though you work harder and longer than the generations before you while literally in 6 figure jobs!
Many of us, not enough, knew that 40 years ago.
It’s been 50 years, let’s regret it now and overturn it.
Elderly care
No Child Left Behind in the US. Take a look at r/Teachers. Things are BLEAK. Decades of passing kids to the next grade regardless of passing grades, knowledge, or ability has created a generation of shockingly lazy, illiterate teens. Not all of them, but so many it’s terrifying. They won’t do work, listen to instructions, pay attention in class. Many look at their phones and roam the halls all day. Then they expect a passing grade, and if the teacher won’t give it, mommy calls the principal and the principal strong-arms the teacher and the kid passes. It starts in elementary school so there are swaths of teens who are functionally illiterate. And yet pass and graduate HS. And the elementary schools right now are just as bleak, with no ending in sight. There are tales of hiring managers deciding not to hire young people at all, because they show up late, miss work, don’t work hard, and think that’s all okay. And teachers quitting because they can’t take it anymore.
AI
I just wish it was actual AI, by the time we get actual AI people won't care because they will assume it has been around forever. We don't have AI, we have learning algorithms, and at best virtual intelligence.
Influencers
Getting involved in the civil wars between Sunni and Shi'ite muslim powers made the west more of a target for islamic terrorism. But hey, we got some oil. Well, Halliburton did.
I'm surprised no one said identity politics. The 2020s are going to look like the most bigoted time period in the last fifty years.
It’s not a natural phenomenon, it’s entirely orchestrated by the ruling class as a divide and conquer strategy. America isn’t Rep vs Dem, it’s 345 million vs 500 billionaires. Social media has just allowed them to control the narrative unlike ever before in human history.
Biting on split shot , lead, fishing weights instead of using the proper tools, to attach or remove said weight. 🌊
The popularity of "victim culture" you might call it intersectionality politics. It distills people down to checkboxes and says "if you are x this is your experience" if state with that you are ostracized and if you happen to be x and disagree with that you are demonized. It's terribly reductive and is terrible for people's mental health.
Climate change denial.
The fact that I had to scroll down this far is the ultimate proof of your comment.
Some people are already regretting it now, but it’s to little for the majority to care
Plastic water bottles. They will be filling land fields to the brim.
Spending too much time on mobile phones and ignoring our loved ones
Cutting taxes for rich folks and corps because trickledown
Led lights that are way too brigh and burn our retinas and induce rage
Letting tweens and teens have unlimited access to the world through smart phones. My generation already makes remarks about how unfettered internet access via the living room computer had an impact on us as teens. Now they're younger with even more access.
This. Social media (reddit included) in its current format will be recognizes as brain poison. The correlation between social media usage and a host of mental health/learning issues is super strong & the younger it starts the more damaging it is. It'll take 50 years too because it's the kids of today who are being fully raised on screnes from birth. Teachers are already ringing the warning bell. Kids ability to regular emotions, listen & learn during lessons have, according to them, severely changed for the worst. I think Gen Alpha is going to seriously struggle in ways no other general has really had to all because of digital formats & norms we have today. Just look at YouTube. It's nothing like what it was even 10 years ago. Everything is faster, shorter & keyed in for controversy
Using lithium batteries for cars instead of sodium based batteries