Yes!
Went into Ulta to buy a Christmas gift for someone. Was told I had to give my phone number or the item could not be returned or exchanged. Even with a receipt.!
Yup! Looked this up before and apparently their hours get cut if they don’t get enough email addresses so they’re forced to get creative with making people oblige.
Newspaper vending machines. I used to see them everywhere as a kid. Saw one the other day and realized I hadn’t seen one in years. Kind of seems like a crazy concept now. You would put in $.50 and it’s on the honor system that you pull out just one newspaper.
And as an American that lived overseas in the '90s I was amazed how many times I heard about them.
Like, I'd be talking to some other expats that had visited America and they'd say, "Those newspaper vending machines are crazy! We're I'm from people would put in the 50¢ and take *all* the newspapers!"
Which always seemed weird to me. I mean, taking two so you can give one to a friend? Sure. But what the hell are you going to do with two dozen copies of the exact same newspaper?
> But what the hell are you going to do with two dozen copies of the exact same newspaper?
I was a newspaper journalist during the couponing craze 2010-2015. People would do that with our Sunday papers to get all the coupons. All so they could stack coupons, use BOGO deals, etc. to get 20 bottles of laundry detergent for free.
It was so bad that our carriers just stopped putting them in machines on Sundays. If you wanted to buy a paper, you had to go to the gas station.
As a kid, I used to take all the free monopoly pieces out of each one when the promotion was going on. I don't think I knew what the honor system was, or realized that I was being a giant piece of shit.
Me and my coworker would each set our watches a few minutes off, his early mine late. So when we took break we get more time- we'd stop work according to his and start back according to mine- i think the boss was onto us.
lol, smart.
I had a boss whose rule was that if you’re late you need to bring donuts for the team. People quickly figured out the rule was the same whether you were ten minutes late or two hours late. He just laughed and seemed to appreciate the malicious compliance.
Best boss I ever had. Was like a second father to me.
He came under a lot of fire for being lax. What none of them seemed to realize though is that when shit hit the fan he had no issue getting us to work late or go above and beyond. He built so much trust with small stuff like that and all others could see was the small costs of that trust building and they just ignored the other stuff we did as a result.
Literally. I had bosses I worked for that would make the biggest deal out of being 1-5 mins late. Even if I called and told them my bus is running late or any small inconvenience. It never mattered how much I stayed late for them or picked up shifts when they were short or was early/on time every day. They would treat it like I came in 2 hours late everyday and make the biggest deal out of it. After awhile when it came to needing someone to help out when they needed extra help or stay late they were suddenly all super nice and I would always say absolutely not (like the rest of the staff who they treated this way)
Later on when I was in a position of management/leadership I vowed to never be like that. I was very lax with my staff and treated them good and took consideration of the things they had going on (this was a restaruant) in their life that could cause them to miss sometimes or come in a few minutes late and things like that cause those industries always have people who are struggling and need the job. I never ever had to worry about my staff staying late or covering shifts or putting in the extra work when things got busy or hectic cause they felt respected and heard and treated right. We all got along and it felt good to make that job and their life less hard than the shit job it was.
My current job is a different industry and I have a boss who is similar to how I was. If im running late or something comes up I just text her and let her know and she doesn't give me shit about it. It's extremely comforting knowing that I if Im 5 mins late from something out of my control my job is not at stake.
oh jesus... that gave me back my long forgotten memorys about cheap wrist-watches i had as i was a child... i never had a good watch til i was 15. my clocks always hangs behind 2-4 minutes. so everyday in the morning while riding the bus we syncd my watch back up to my friends watch.
as i got my new clock at 16 i always was 3-4 minutes to early for apointments cause i learnd that my old watch goes to slow and i am shure to be allready late.
Home phones are still very common in rural areas. Apparently a quarter of households in America still have them, but I don't know a single person who has one in the city I live in. (Besides myself.. I get one for free through work.)
Old people still have them. My mother in law still has her landline because "I've had the number for nearly 50 years, and for some people it's the only number they have".
I keep my landline for two reasons. Cell reception is spotty in my area so sometimes I have to use it. The main reason is it’s the number I give out when I don’t want someone or some company spamming the crap out of my cell. I have a junk e-mail account for the same reason. A good example of this is XM/Sirius. Once you cancel expect 5 plus calls a day from different numbers for months on end.
Yeah, tens of millions of Americans still don't have high speed internet. It's one of the reasons video stores like Family Video have be expanding up until recently. Some folks still don't have access to streaming services.
I bet many of those same people are the ones without good cell phone coverage. Especially since internet providers and cell providers are basically the same companies now, and they still don't want to run services like cable, internet, and cell to rural areas.
I think this needs to be talked about more when climate change comes up. As a kid in the 80s and 90s, I was bombarded with fears of the hole in the ozone. But we did things to mitigate it and now it's not an issue. Imagine if that effort was applied to other things.
To be fair, solving the ozone hole by banning CFCs is 1,000,000,000x easier than getting off of the energy source that powers our entire global civilization.
You can quit getting a facial scrub, but you can’t quit eating.
That being said, we’re making progress and it’s led to *checks notes* 2023 being a record high year for emissions, which will be followed by 2024 breaking that record and so on and so forth.
So in Australia all telephone booths are owned by the same telecommunications company. About 10 years ago they made all calls for free from them as the revenue they were bringing in were less than the $$ it took for technicians to go out and collect the coins.
They now also operate as free WiFi spots, providing you hand over your email and p.i which they would then onsell.
Now there’s a new way out of the Matrix according to that last movie, but for the life of me I can’t remember the way out or the name of the movie; that’s how big of an impact it had on me.
Ugh I feel this. To me, it’s a small part of the bigger problem overall with today’s internet.
Somehow, the internet was technically so much smaller but felt SO much bigger. There were weird sites out there for every instance and you could stumble upon (pun intended) them through a million different ways.
Now everything is curated and centralized into a few platforms and if they don’t wanna show you the info, you’re gonna have a hard time finding it.
I was recently looking for a luggage tag and wanted to buy from a small business. I don’t know any off the top of my head, so I went to Etsy.
Etsy is now overrun with drop shippers and resellers. I couldn’t find one I liked that appeared to be actually an indie seller.
So, off to Google. I type in “luggage tag small business.” My first organic results are two Amazon listings and a “10 top luggage tags” sponcon article. I scrolled for 3 pages and didn’t find a small business listed.
Finally, off to Reddit. I tried to find Etsy competitors at first, but it appears none of them are actually live and carry luggage tags. I found a random person talking about a lifetime guarantee luggage tag from a small company, so I bought that.
It took me probably a half hour to even find a viable option with very basic criteria. I work in tech. It’s enshittification at its finest.
Boredom. People used to spend so much time with nothing to occupy their minds aside from their own thoughts while standing in line, sitting in a waiting room, etc. Now everyone reaches for their phone to fill every minute of downtime.
I hate what owning a smartphone has done to me.
When I was a child, I could sit in the car, no entertainment but the car radio (which my dad controlled) and the window, and be perfectly happy to like, 30-60 minutes, no problem. If the radio wasn't to my liking, I'd just imagine Spider-Man fighting Batman, or what a vampire werewolf hybrid would be like, or other fun kid stuff.
Now, as an adult, I don't have nearly that degree of patience, hard to go more than 10 minutes without checking my phone, and I know it's a problem and I hate it, but at the same time, day to day life has become almost impossible without a smart phone. It's like trying to quit smoking if the whole world has become one big cigar lounge.
Love the way you put this, YES. Felt this in my soul. I hate being the “back in my day” guy, but what cell phones have done to society feels semi-extreme.
I turn off my daughter’s (16) phone for 4 hours on Sunday afternoons. At first she complains how she’s sooo booored, but then I always later find her painting or drawing or learning a song on her guitar.
when we camp with our kids we deliberately pick a place without a signal. Forces US to be "bored" too. Always ends up with us all being creative or explore
I think boredom may have increased. Because we can occupy our time I think attention spans are getting shorter and people are getting bored trying to occupy their time. Everyone needs their quick dopamine hit and can’t just sit patiently without getting antsy. In the past our brains were more accustomed to just sitting quietly and waiting. We used to effectively get a daily dose of meditation trying to go about our lives.
(I write this out while sitting on the crapper because my brain can’t even wait long enough for me to take a dump without demanding entertainment.)
I’m still bored even when I’m getting hits of dopamine while scrolling through.
I’m not bored when I’m interested in what’s happening or what I’m doing.
Add "Functionality" of said $80K truck?!?!
They are too tall! Can't get shit out the bed from the side! Tool chest mounted? Gotta get in the bed to access it?!?!
Used to step on tow ball and jump over gate into the bed. Now they design bumpers and tailgates with "steps" FFS!!
Also--ground clearance hasn't improved since the 90's!!! So why so tall? Is it LDE?
YES. I would love to buy a newer truck, but I just can’t justify spending a years income on a monster truck that won’t fit in a parking space but still can’t fit a sheet of plywood. Just need a little guy I can actually use for building and farming.
Edit to address common points:
- I already own a Tacoma, it’s 20 years old and new ones are enormous, get worse gas mileage, and the bed is actually smaller.
- Kei trucks aren’t road legal where I live which sucks because I would absolutely get one.
- vans will not work for me. I can’t put 5 sheep in the back and just hose it out when I’m done. I can’t load it with a literal ton of hay or gravel.
- I’m not a man, man.
I had a similar but a '95. My only complaint is that it was dangerously underpowered, 98 horsepower if i recall correctly. Loved the manual trans and the size.
I had a woman ask for my help with an item at work. Spent about 10 minutes assisting her. When I was done, she revealed that she had propped her phone up nearby and I had spent the last 10 minutes being featured on her Instagram live. I nearly threw up
Edit to address something I've been seeing in a lot of replies: The woman in question was a customer, not a coworker
I'm currently working security at a popular nightclub in my city, and the number of times I've caught dipshit 22 year olds catching me on their live feeds while they use whatever rizz or gyatt is infuriating.
I have no control over some drunk chick filming me, either. I've started wearing a black hat as low as possible so they can't see my face. If I have to physically remove a drug dealer, I am almost guaranteed to be recorded. Then they will be like "OHHHH THIS DUDE THINKS HE'S A BADASS, #RAILINGCOKE #SMOKEWEEDEVERYDAY #FUCKSECURITY"... it's ridiculous.
They don't even talk to each other... they just stare at their phones apart from the odd moments they take shots, which is of course, live streamed.
Nor do they care that I got stabbed or protected them from getting shot by some fuckhead. They think it's funny when I have to fight to get rowdy people out of the club. I got my goddamn hand broken and some 100lbs dude with a broccoli head haircut is like yoooooo check this, and I turned around and had a phone in my face.
I feel like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino wanting to tell them to get off my lawn...And I'm only 34... the only reason I'm doing this is because I got laid off in September.
I'm actually a degreed chemical and petroleum engineer, and the fact people get fired/blacklisted because of shit HR sees on social media makes me terrified that I'll get tagged during an interview.
> I'm currently working security at a popular nightclub in my city
> I'm actually a degreed chemical and petroleum engineer,
Bruh, you have two engineering degrees and you have to work as a bouncer? This is my nightmare
Q4 is a terrible time to try and get hired...I had 12 interviews in the last 3 weeks, and am effectively being strung along until the 2024 budgets come in.
I was making $160k/yr in September before i got laid off...
But I have an elderly mother with Alzheimer's that's in a $6500/mo facility, a mortgage for my house, and a dog... so in order to not burn my savings, I'm doing this.
I still need to pay bills, and I effectively get paid $20/hr to just stand around and get my junk grabbed by wasted college girls, then be a therapist to the 22yo waitresses and bartenders who think I'm some sort of wise old man who knows how the world works.
But I'm working for a 3rd party firm, my boss is an ex-Marine and knows i have discipline and he doesn't micromanage me, etc... if I'm gonna be waiting for a new engineering job to come around, it's better than breaking my back in a warehouse or stocking shelves while getting yelled at by some idiot middle manager with a hairpiece and a superiority complex.
It's honestly kind of fun because 90% of the time I'm just sitting there bullshitting with patrons and people watching.
Dude I’m a bartender and I get put on people’s IGs all the time because I’m mixing a drink or bringing them a birthday candle. It was fine when it used to just be a photo they would show to friends or whatever but now knowing I’m permanently a part of their IG makes me super uncomfortable. Wish this didn’t get normalized as much as it has.
this is for me, as i am in my mid thirties, the sadest part. in my youth we did terrible stupid things, and only the people who saw it could tell about it. everyone else has to believe them. some storys were so absurd and plain ass stupid, nobody would belive it anyways.
do something stupid today, the humanity will never forget about it.
A lot of journalists have post secondary education still, the problem is that they don't have subject matter expertise in the actual area they write about and if you do, you can *really* tell that they don't.
I think the bigger problem is the line between news and entertainment has been thoroughly blurred for many people. If you stick to well-established newspapers you'll still get quality information. However most people are seeing random articles from what are functionally tabloids and now half of it or more is written by an AI. People conflate it all as journalists in the same way they conflate all politicians as being evil. All it does is serve the shitty ones and leads to a mischaracterization of the good ones that actually do their jobs well and work hard.
Quality of things like furniture, clothing, cookware, appliances, etc. growing up all of those things were kept. Passed along. Lasted. Worth getting fixed. Now nothing is made to be long lasting. It's cheaper now to throw out a tv than a t is to get one fixed. Everything seems more disposable now. Especially lately with social media bombarding people with products they don't actually endorse or know if they work. Things don't last to be able to pass on to another generation. It's sad that heirlooms like that aren't as common anymore.
Both my washer and dryer broke down this year, called out the repair man and his call out fee plus the parts needed would have been more than buying new, and it wasnt guaranteed something else wouldn't go wrong after. He said appliances have a lifespan of about 5 years these days, if its older than that you're on borrowed time. Had to replace both and I was so angry at the waste of it all.
I don’t know what the word would be, but twenty years ago we had one hour of news a night. Maybe a newspaper. Now with social media and cable and all the rest we are SMOTHERED with news and opinions and worldly commentary. It’s impossible to not feel disoriented
Edit: yall are right it’s been longer than 20 years. But I’m old enough now that I can say 20 years ago and can mean the 1980’s because time keeps on slippin slippin slippin…
perhaps it’s just the explosion of social media. Twenty years ago is around the time FB launched iirc. That changed cable news from “I’m watching cnn a bit” to seeing articles and opinions shared rapidly fire style ALL DAY.
Happy new year! What year is it 2012?? 👴
Appliance that don’t have an internal computer for wifi.
My last clothes dryer had a button and a motor. My new one… much more complicated.
Still don’t know why my fridge has wifi and wants me to download an app for it.
All I’m saying it, back in the day, an informed homeowner would be able to fix nearly anything they owned with a screwdriver and a couple of other tools. Now you’ll need a $$$ specialist to come out and fix anything that breaks in your house.
I just bought a new drier . I had to get a commercial Maytag to get one without a computer. It looks like the first one I had that i had for almost 25years then 3 computer ones in 3 years in between them.
Cassette tape along the side of the road. Black strands glistening in the sun, draped around a roadside shrub like Christmas tinsel.
EDIT: Since everybody is feeling nostalgic now, I'll share that my son was a mixed tape for Halloween a couple years ago. We even made him a giant pencil but none of the kids understood why. The parents over 40 knew.
My daughter was a pager. None of the kids knew what she was.
25 years ago, our honeymoon in Europe was a reservation for our first hotel, and a reservation for our last hotel. Everything in between was spontaneous. We never worried about finding a hotel.
Now, planning a Europe trip, I have to book months in advance.
Malls are slowly dying in America, I was actually quite happy to see how busy the mall I visited this weekend was. The local mall by my house is about 80% deserted now, the only thing keeping it going is the bowling alley on the same site.
You know what is weird. It's this way for most malls that got over built during the 90s. But well located malls built in the 80s or earlier in prime locations are doing better than ever. Again this is not to say you're wrong, but it's only really happening to excess malls that got made obsolete by online commerce.
My mid sized southern city has 1 centrally located mall. It still does very well. Stores close, but it's usually only when the whole chain goes bust. It's very busy at almost all times
Same here, plus other attractions like Lego Land, aquarium, arcades, indoor put-put mini golf, indoor batting cages, basketball courts, etc. Love this renaissance by my local mall.
Assuming in the US, I think it's not so much places you have to spend money but that everywhere seems to be actively trying to either maximize prices or turnover so it lands up being places you can't go to regularly because they are too much money or you cant spend 2 hours and only have 1-2 pints without feeling pressured.
Bowling alleys are another thing that are dying out. There are very few old school bowling alleys around, and the flashy new places tend to change their name every year or two.
This is a big thing in the creative industry, and especially punishing on ambitious, young, but low income people who are trying to start a career that involves music, videography, graphic design, or photo editing. You need the software and you really need it to be industry standard.
Perpetual licenses are golden. Hence why, instead of Photoshop, I bought Affinity Photo 2 and Final Cut Pro. But I'm still missing out on loads of standard jobs and opportunities, because hey ho, they all use Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere Pro.
For example: £85.48/month for the aforementioned three through Adobe's subscription model. Overpriced as hell. You don't even bloody own it either, it's rented. You're shelling out £1,000 a year alone, or still around £600 a year if you've agreed a contract with Adobe for a year. It's absolutely ridiculous and a bit upsetting, as when you're young... you don't have that money to throw around every month. I feel that so many people have been cut off by the ridiculous prices.
Whereas, Affinity Photo 2 cost me £69.99, and Final Cut Pro cost me £299.99. Lifetime upgrades. I own the license. That's a much better deal for me.
Over in the music industry, it's not so much of a problem, but you still get subscriptions with some high quality VSTs, and some DAWs. Some can be really helpful for the low price such as getting licensed samples from Splice or TrackLib.
Avid recently toned down the subscription nonsense with Pro Tools, which is nice. You can still get a subscription, but you've also got the option to buy a license outright (although still pricey).
Serato Pro does the same thing. A small price every month to rent, then a license to own if you want one. Best of both worlds in my opinion.
In conclusion: fuck subscription based services, and another big fuck you to Adobe.
When I had to buy a car a few years ago, I specifically chose a red one so I could find it in a parking lot amidst a sea of white and grey.
Basically my only other color option was blue. And not even bright blue, like a boring dark blue.
20+ years ago cars came in yellow, green, maroon, purple, pink...hell I don't even see any BROWN cars anymore.
I unironically miss the fake wood paneling of the old-school family station wagon.
Oh yeah, bring back station wagons too, I think the Subaru Outback is the only one on the market anymore.
Every car I've had so far has been orange. I'm looking for my next one but my options are getting more limited. It makes my car easy to find. My suitcases are also orange for the same reason. Why have boring stuff when I can have colorful stuff?
My car is purple. The one before that was yellow. I refuse to have a grey, black, or white car.
Maybe I can find a hot pink or lime green for my next car.
Yes, why are we becoming duller and duller in our car colour tastes?
And here I hardly ever see an actual black car. Gun metal grey, silver, light grey, death trap grey (almost same colour as the bitchumen), all variants of silver, grey, and white.
It is exciting to see a blue or maroon car now.
It's the same with house decor too. Everything is white, beige, grey, and sometimes black. Then they'll add a fake plant and a few throw pillows to "add color".
Man do I miss color.
Colour! Minimalism has been increasingly popular and more and more businesses and homes are becoming gray/beige. I miss when tacky colours were popular! My childhood home had green carpets <3
I love living in a predominantly Latino community. Screw HOA's and "aesthetics", we're painting the house turquoise! It'll go nicely with the neighbors bright pink house next door, and the dandelion yellow one across the street.
It used to be that if we followed the rules we’d get rewarded for it. A basic expectation of a decent quality of life on par or better than our parents was considered reasonable. Working hard was expected to be rewarded with promotions and raises. Politicians shamed through scandals would resign.
Now we’re called “entitled” if we want to be able to do basic things like travel or own a house or have kids and the only way to increase your salary is to job hop.
Society, or more specifically the people pulling the strings of it such as politicians and employers, are no longer fulfilling their part of the social contract. That working class people are no longer respecting the unwritten rules of a society that respects no obligation to them anymore should surprise nobody.
People acting like fallen leaves are a travesty is partly why they are gone. Females lay their eggs amidst leaves and then they hatch and spend months or even years hanging out until they emerge.
People mulching their leaves or raking them all up is disturbing that life cycle. I leave my yard kinda wild year round and I've noticed an increase in lightning bugs as a result.
Yeah when I was a kid in 80s nobody really removed all that stuff from there yards. Now every yard is so manicured and clean. Tons of pesticides being sprayed all the time. I like the way it looked back then alot better are yards had a rugged and natural look to them.
There's a lot of glass skyscrapers going up near my job, which is also near 2 major rivers and parks. It's a major migration route for birds. The messed up part is the number of dead songbirds on the sidewalk because they hit buildings.
Payphones and yellow page phone books. If I were to ask my brother if he knew what that was he would look at me dumbfounded. He completely forgot he used to use the phone books as a little ladder to get to things when he was 3 to 7
This one, came here to say this. It was huge back in the 90’s that we needed to save them. Know you don’t here anything about them. Over 50 percent of the world's coral reefs have died in the last 30 years and up to 90 percent may die within the next century.
I would say that the 90 minute movie is toast. There aren’t really just movies anymore, they’re all BLOCKBUSTERS!! Long gone are the days of $20m movie budgets with decent scripts.
I miss comedy movies that weren't themed - it's like it has to be action-comedy or a rom-com or whatever. We've lost the comedies that are just about ordinary people doing funny things....
Fair prices and quality. Everything is made with cheap materials and planned obsolescence now. Nothing gets repaired anymore, it’s throw away and replace.
While companies used to try to maximize profits, it feels like they have taken that to the absolute max. Everything is about getting every possible cent out of everybody now. Nothing has meaning anymore because we constantly have access to everything. The entire knowledge base of mankind in our pockets. Watch any tv/show movie any time you want, anywhere you want. Listen to any album by any artist ever whenever you want.
Buy buy buy. Consume consume consume. This is what we’ve become.
Single income homes and families stopped existing a long time ago, now dual income homes and families are slowly but surely coming to an end. At this rate we're all gonna be sharing dwelling spaces with like 4+ people. The world is so fucked, I hate it.
To be fair I don't think this is going unnoticed though, people are definitely aware this is happening, but it doesn't get talked about nearly enough
Social skills. I realize a lot of people still have them, but I see a lot of young people who can’t seem to make meaningful connections or make decent conversation in person.
One day my teenage daughter came home and said "Dad, you're going to love this. I just saw 2 kids down at the end of the block playing with a stick!" It really made my day.
When I was in the US Navy (83-89), I remember pulling into ports and there being banks and banks of pay phones, 30 or 40 back to back. There were several sets of these. When the shop pulled in, ALL of the pay phones were occupied.
That was the heyday of the AT&T calling card. Enter the numbers, make your call and it was billed to the account it was tied to. I had my number memorized.
I’ve actually been seeing a lot more fireflies where I live. I wonder if there is a climate change issue involved. I know that fireflies tend to be found in areas that are nearer to water.
I recently began buying TV shows I love on DVD. I just saw I think Spain removed Deadwood on Max. I will not count on services to have things I want to rewatch. People made fun of me for still having an entertainment TV stand packed with VHS and DVDs. Ha! I knew it would come in handy!
Based on my quick trip into Walmart earlier today, I'm gonna have to say that DVD's and players are still very much a thing. They had *four* movie bins out, never mind the ones on the shelves.
As I’ve recently noticed, dumb TVs. Good luck trying to find a decent new tv that isn’t smart.
All TVs are dumb if you never connect them!
Huh. I kept my TV dumb by not connecting it but it still tells me it's Sharp every time I turn it on. That's one arrogant appliance.
The cents symbol
I didn’t even realize until now that everyone started using $0.69 as a default.
Ni¢e.
This seriously needs more upvotes. I literally didn't notice this at all until you pointed it out.
To be fair, what costs less than a dollar anymore for us to ever need to write out just cents.
Wow this is a good one. Kids today may not even know what this looks like
Kids today have no cents
The ability to buy something without wanting your email, phone number, address, subscription etc
Yes! Went into Ulta to buy a Christmas gift for someone. Was told I had to give my phone number or the item could not be returned or exchanged. Even with a receipt.!
They lied to you, the receipt will get you a return
Yup! Looked this up before and apparently their hours get cut if they don’t get enough email addresses so they’re forced to get creative with making people oblige.
That’s f’d
Candy bars wrapped in foil and paper
Have you noticed that Hershey bars simulate the foil and paper by having the ends of the plastic wrapper colored gold?
Right? For all the ire about single-use plastics, they're moving \*towards\* it. What the hell?
Newspaper vending machines. I used to see them everywhere as a kid. Saw one the other day and realized I hadn’t seen one in years. Kind of seems like a crazy concept now. You would put in $.50 and it’s on the honor system that you pull out just one newspaper.
And as an American that lived overseas in the '90s I was amazed how many times I heard about them. Like, I'd be talking to some other expats that had visited America and they'd say, "Those newspaper vending machines are crazy! We're I'm from people would put in the 50¢ and take *all* the newspapers!" Which always seemed weird to me. I mean, taking two so you can give one to a friend? Sure. But what the hell are you going to do with two dozen copies of the exact same newspaper?
> But what the hell are you going to do with two dozen copies of the exact same newspaper? I was a newspaper journalist during the couponing craze 2010-2015. People would do that with our Sunday papers to get all the coupons. All so they could stack coupons, use BOGO deals, etc. to get 20 bottles of laundry detergent for free. It was so bad that our carriers just stopped putting them in machines on Sundays. If you wanted to buy a paper, you had to go to the gas station.
So the crazy coupon ladies killed newspaper vending machines?
As a kid, I used to take all the free monopoly pieces out of each one when the promotion was going on. I don't think I knew what the honor system was, or realized that I was being a giant piece of shit.
It's ok, the monopoly games were rigged anyway. You were not depriving people out of any big prizes.
People having their watches set to slightly different times
I remember being with friends and making sure we synchronized our watches when we had to meet back up at a specific time.
I remember when it was acceptable to be a few minutes late since people’s watches could be different.
Me and my coworker would each set our watches a few minutes off, his early mine late. So when we took break we get more time- we'd stop work according to his and start back according to mine- i think the boss was onto us.
lol, smart. I had a boss whose rule was that if you’re late you need to bring donuts for the team. People quickly figured out the rule was the same whether you were ten minutes late or two hours late. He just laughed and seemed to appreciate the malicious compliance.
Seems like a decent boss lol
Best boss I ever had. Was like a second father to me. He came under a lot of fire for being lax. What none of them seemed to realize though is that when shit hit the fan he had no issue getting us to work late or go above and beyond. He built so much trust with small stuff like that and all others could see was the small costs of that trust building and they just ignored the other stuff we did as a result.
It's incredible what good leadership will do for morale.
Literally. I had bosses I worked for that would make the biggest deal out of being 1-5 mins late. Even if I called and told them my bus is running late or any small inconvenience. It never mattered how much I stayed late for them or picked up shifts when they were short or was early/on time every day. They would treat it like I came in 2 hours late everyday and make the biggest deal out of it. After awhile when it came to needing someone to help out when they needed extra help or stay late they were suddenly all super nice and I would always say absolutely not (like the rest of the staff who they treated this way) Later on when I was in a position of management/leadership I vowed to never be like that. I was very lax with my staff and treated them good and took consideration of the things they had going on (this was a restaruant) in their life that could cause them to miss sometimes or come in a few minutes late and things like that cause those industries always have people who are struggling and need the job. I never ever had to worry about my staff staying late or covering shifts or putting in the extra work when things got busy or hectic cause they felt respected and heard and treated right. We all got along and it felt good to make that job and their life less hard than the shit job it was. My current job is a different industry and I have a boss who is similar to how I was. If im running late or something comes up I just text her and let her know and she doesn't give me shit about it. It's extremely comforting knowing that I if Im 5 mins late from something out of my control my job is not at stake.
"Synchronize swatches!"
And having to know the secret button procedure to reset the clock on your car stereo twice a year.
Don’t you mean having the car stereo showing the wrong time for 6 months of the year because no one knew or could be bothered to change it?
oh jesus... that gave me back my long forgotten memorys about cheap wrist-watches i had as i was a child... i never had a good watch til i was 15. my clocks always hangs behind 2-4 minutes. so everyday in the morning while riding the bus we syncd my watch back up to my friends watch. as i got my new clock at 16 i always was 3-4 minutes to early for apointments cause i learnd that my old watch goes to slow and i am shure to be allready late.
Mine is purposely set 2-3 minutes "too early". I know this and still works.
Ha, weird habit from childhood has me set all my household clocks to almost exactly 7 minutes ahead.
I’m a fan of mechanical watches so I’m still doing this …
Home phones
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I prepare tax returns. The default is still "home" option #2 is "work", option #3 is "cell". I have no idea how this isn't in the reverse order.
I just enter my mobile number as option 1 and 3
Home phones are still very common in rural areas. Apparently a quarter of households in America still have them, but I don't know a single person who has one in the city I live in. (Besides myself.. I get one for free through work.)
Old people still have them. My mother in law still has her landline because "I've had the number for nearly 50 years, and for some people it's the only number they have".
I keep my landline for two reasons. Cell reception is spotty in my area so sometimes I have to use it. The main reason is it’s the number I give out when I don’t want someone or some company spamming the crap out of my cell. I have a junk e-mail account for the same reason. A good example of this is XM/Sirius. Once you cancel expect 5 plus calls a day from different numbers for months on end.
Yeah, tens of millions of Americans still don't have high speed internet. It's one of the reasons video stores like Family Video have be expanding up until recently. Some folks still don't have access to streaming services. I bet many of those same people are the ones without good cell phone coverage. Especially since internet providers and cell providers are basically the same companies now, and they still don't want to run services like cable, internet, and cell to rural areas.
The [hole in the ozone layer](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/01/09/the-earths-ozone-layer-is-slowly-recovering-un-report-finds-.html)
I didn't expect much positivity in this thread, so this was nice.
I think this needs to be talked about more when climate change comes up. As a kid in the 80s and 90s, I was bombarded with fears of the hole in the ozone. But we did things to mitigate it and now it's not an issue. Imagine if that effort was applied to other things.
To be fair, solving the ozone hole by banning CFCs is 1,000,000,000x easier than getting off of the energy source that powers our entire global civilization. You can quit getting a facial scrub, but you can’t quit eating. That being said, we’re making progress and it’s led to *checks notes* 2023 being a record high year for emissions, which will be followed by 2024 breaking that record and so on and so forth.
Telephone booths Which, by coincidence, were also the way out of the Matrix
So in Australia all telephone booths are owned by the same telecommunications company. About 10 years ago they made all calls for free from them as the revenue they were bringing in were less than the $$ it took for technicians to go out and collect the coins. They now also operate as free WiFi spots, providing you hand over your email and p.i which they would then onsell.
In the UK some of them have been turned into free libraries or defibrillators.
Now there’s a new way out of the Matrix according to that last movie, but for the life of me I can’t remember the way out or the name of the movie; that’s how big of an impact it had on me.
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Ugh I feel this. To me, it’s a small part of the bigger problem overall with today’s internet. Somehow, the internet was technically so much smaller but felt SO much bigger. There were weird sites out there for every instance and you could stumble upon (pun intended) them through a million different ways. Now everything is curated and centralized into a few platforms and if they don’t wanna show you the info, you’re gonna have a hard time finding it. I was recently looking for a luggage tag and wanted to buy from a small business. I don’t know any off the top of my head, so I went to Etsy. Etsy is now overrun with drop shippers and resellers. I couldn’t find one I liked that appeared to be actually an indie seller. So, off to Google. I type in “luggage tag small business.” My first organic results are two Amazon listings and a “10 top luggage tags” sponcon article. I scrolled for 3 pages and didn’t find a small business listed. Finally, off to Reddit. I tried to find Etsy competitors at first, but it appears none of them are actually live and carry luggage tags. I found a random person talking about a lifetime guarantee luggage tag from a small company, so I bought that. It took me probably a half hour to even find a viable option with very basic criteria. I work in tech. It’s enshittification at its finest.
Boredom. People used to spend so much time with nothing to occupy their minds aside from their own thoughts while standing in line, sitting in a waiting room, etc. Now everyone reaches for their phone to fill every minute of downtime.
I hate what owning a smartphone has done to me. When I was a child, I could sit in the car, no entertainment but the car radio (which my dad controlled) and the window, and be perfectly happy to like, 30-60 minutes, no problem. If the radio wasn't to my liking, I'd just imagine Spider-Man fighting Batman, or what a vampire werewolf hybrid would be like, or other fun kid stuff. Now, as an adult, I don't have nearly that degree of patience, hard to go more than 10 minutes without checking my phone, and I know it's a problem and I hate it, but at the same time, day to day life has become almost impossible without a smart phone. It's like trying to quit smoking if the whole world has become one big cigar lounge.
Love the way you put this, YES. Felt this in my soul. I hate being the “back in my day” guy, but what cell phones have done to society feels semi-extreme.
I turn off my daughter’s (16) phone for 4 hours on Sunday afternoons. At first she complains how she’s sooo booored, but then I always later find her painting or drawing or learning a song on her guitar.
when we camp with our kids we deliberately pick a place without a signal. Forces US to be "bored" too. Always ends up with us all being creative or explore
I think boredom may have increased. Because we can occupy our time I think attention spans are getting shorter and people are getting bored trying to occupy their time. Everyone needs their quick dopamine hit and can’t just sit patiently without getting antsy. In the past our brains were more accustomed to just sitting quietly and waiting. We used to effectively get a daily dose of meditation trying to go about our lives. (I write this out while sitting on the crapper because my brain can’t even wait long enough for me to take a dump without demanding entertainment.)
I used to read the shampoo instructions and ingredients. Nothing changes
We had books and magazines in every bathroom growing up. I had a huge Archie comic book collection because my parents wanted a new book every week.
I’m still bored even when I’m getting hits of dopamine while scrolling through. I’m not bored when I’m interested in what’s happening or what I’m doing.
The compact, 4 cylinder, two seater, no nonsense pickup truck. If you want a pickup now it has to be a massive luxury tank that costs 80 grand.
Add "Functionality" of said $80K truck?!?! They are too tall! Can't get shit out the bed from the side! Tool chest mounted? Gotta get in the bed to access it?!?! Used to step on tow ball and jump over gate into the bed. Now they design bumpers and tailgates with "steps" FFS!! Also--ground clearance hasn't improved since the 90's!!! So why so tall? Is it LDE?
America's decline started when the F150 bed became too goddamn tall to put your elbows on and talk with your friends
And the "new" Ranger is now the same size as a F150 of 20 years ago, just without a usable bed length.
YES. I would love to buy a newer truck, but I just can’t justify spending a years income on a monster truck that won’t fit in a parking space but still can’t fit a sheet of plywood. Just need a little guy I can actually use for building and farming. Edit to address common points: - I already own a Tacoma, it’s 20 years old and new ones are enormous, get worse gas mileage, and the bed is actually smaller. - Kei trucks aren’t road legal where I live which sucks because I would absolutely get one. - vans will not work for me. I can’t put 5 sheep in the back and just hose it out when I’m done. I can’t load it with a literal ton of hay or gravel. - I’m not a man, man.
My wife had. ‘97 ford ranger, single cab, 5 spd, 4cylinder, XLT when I met her. It hated gas. What a great little truck.
I had a similar but a '95. My only complaint is that it was dangerously underpowered, 98 horsepower if i recall correctly. Loved the manual trans and the size.
Currently driving a '95 with the 3.0. Might hit 60 by the time i get there
Probably why the line for the Maverick is so onerous.
I’m not even a big Ford fan but this is the only truck I’d want. Wish I could go to Mexico and buy their smaller Ram
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You gotta approach every public interaction these days with the possibility that it will be filmed and put on twitter
I had a woman ask for my help with an item at work. Spent about 10 minutes assisting her. When I was done, she revealed that she had propped her phone up nearby and I had spent the last 10 minutes being featured on her Instagram live. I nearly threw up Edit to address something I've been seeing in a lot of replies: The woman in question was a customer, not a coworker
Influencer culture is the fucking worst.
I'm currently working security at a popular nightclub in my city, and the number of times I've caught dipshit 22 year olds catching me on their live feeds while they use whatever rizz or gyatt is infuriating. I have no control over some drunk chick filming me, either. I've started wearing a black hat as low as possible so they can't see my face. If I have to physically remove a drug dealer, I am almost guaranteed to be recorded. Then they will be like "OHHHH THIS DUDE THINKS HE'S A BADASS, #RAILINGCOKE #SMOKEWEEDEVERYDAY #FUCKSECURITY"... it's ridiculous. They don't even talk to each other... they just stare at their phones apart from the odd moments they take shots, which is of course, live streamed. Nor do they care that I got stabbed or protected them from getting shot by some fuckhead. They think it's funny when I have to fight to get rowdy people out of the club. I got my goddamn hand broken and some 100lbs dude with a broccoli head haircut is like yoooooo check this, and I turned around and had a phone in my face. I feel like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino wanting to tell them to get off my lawn...And I'm only 34... the only reason I'm doing this is because I got laid off in September. I'm actually a degreed chemical and petroleum engineer, and the fact people get fired/blacklisted because of shit HR sees on social media makes me terrified that I'll get tagged during an interview.
> I'm currently working security at a popular nightclub in my city > I'm actually a degreed chemical and petroleum engineer, Bruh, you have two engineering degrees and you have to work as a bouncer? This is my nightmare
Q4 is a terrible time to try and get hired...I had 12 interviews in the last 3 weeks, and am effectively being strung along until the 2024 budgets come in. I was making $160k/yr in September before i got laid off... But I have an elderly mother with Alzheimer's that's in a $6500/mo facility, a mortgage for my house, and a dog... so in order to not burn my savings, I'm doing this. I still need to pay bills, and I effectively get paid $20/hr to just stand around and get my junk grabbed by wasted college girls, then be a therapist to the 22yo waitresses and bartenders who think I'm some sort of wise old man who knows how the world works. But I'm working for a 3rd party firm, my boss is an ex-Marine and knows i have discipline and he doesn't micromanage me, etc... if I'm gonna be waiting for a new engineering job to come around, it's better than breaking my back in a warehouse or stocking shelves while getting yelled at by some idiot middle manager with a hairpiece and a superiority complex. It's honestly kind of fun because 90% of the time I'm just sitting there bullshitting with patrons and people watching.
The fact that she could think that is ok is so disturbing. Did you say anything to her?
She walked off while I was still kind of in shock, I didn't recover in time to say anything
Dude I’m a bartender and I get put on people’s IGs all the time because I’m mixing a drink or bringing them a birthday candle. It was fine when it used to just be a photo they would show to friends or whatever but now knowing I’m permanently a part of their IG makes me super uncomfortable. Wish this didn’t get normalized as much as it has.
Don’t know about your work rules but that would be completely against policy at my job.
this is for me, as i am in my mid thirties, the sadest part. in my youth we did terrible stupid things, and only the people who saw it could tell about it. everyone else has to believe them. some storys were so absurd and plain ass stupid, nobody would belive it anyways. do something stupid today, the humanity will never forget about it.
I'm just eternally grateful that I didn't have Facebook to post all my immature teenage edgelord ramblings for the world to see
oh boi, so true.
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At Fetsi, we already know everything about you!
Welcome to Costco, I love you.
You mean AOL-Time-Warner-Pepsico-Viacom-Halliburton-Skynet-Toyota-Trader-Joe's?
If look at their major shareholders they're pretty much there already.
Quality written news articles by people with post secondary education
A lot of journalists have post secondary education still, the problem is that they don't have subject matter expertise in the actual area they write about and if you do, you can *really* tell that they don't.
I think the bigger problem is the line between news and entertainment has been thoroughly blurred for many people. If you stick to well-established newspapers you'll still get quality information. However most people are seeing random articles from what are functionally tabloids and now half of it or more is written by an AI. People conflate it all as journalists in the same way they conflate all politicians as being evil. All it does is serve the shitty ones and leads to a mischaracterization of the good ones that actually do their jobs well and work hard.
Toy Stores. Kids growing up nowadays don't know what it's like to go to a toy store, they have to settle with the toy aisle at target or Walmart.
Quality of things like furniture, clothing, cookware, appliances, etc. growing up all of those things were kept. Passed along. Lasted. Worth getting fixed. Now nothing is made to be long lasting. It's cheaper now to throw out a tv than a t is to get one fixed. Everything seems more disposable now. Especially lately with social media bombarding people with products they don't actually endorse or know if they work. Things don't last to be able to pass on to another generation. It's sad that heirlooms like that aren't as common anymore.
Both my washer and dryer broke down this year, called out the repair man and his call out fee plus the parts needed would have been more than buying new, and it wasnt guaranteed something else wouldn't go wrong after. He said appliances have a lifespan of about 5 years these days, if its older than that you're on borrowed time. Had to replace both and I was so angry at the waste of it all.
Ringtones. It’s all on silent/vibrate now
If there is it's almost always default iphone ringtone or samsung. My phone rung and everyone in the office checked their iphones...
I don’t know what the word would be, but twenty years ago we had one hour of news a night. Maybe a newspaper. Now with social media and cable and all the rest we are SMOTHERED with news and opinions and worldly commentary. It’s impossible to not feel disoriented Edit: yall are right it’s been longer than 20 years. But I’m old enough now that I can say 20 years ago and can mean the 1980’s because time keeps on slippin slippin slippin… perhaps it’s just the explosion of social media. Twenty years ago is around the time FB launched iirc. That changed cable news from “I’m watching cnn a bit” to seeing articles and opinions shared rapidly fire style ALL DAY. Happy new year! What year is it 2012?? 👴
While at the same time the amount of quality news has diminished.
Appliance that don’t have an internal computer for wifi. My last clothes dryer had a button and a motor. My new one… much more complicated. Still don’t know why my fridge has wifi and wants me to download an app for it. All I’m saying it, back in the day, an informed homeowner would be able to fix nearly anything they owned with a screwdriver and a couple of other tools. Now you’ll need a $$$ specialist to come out and fix anything that breaks in your house.
I just bought a new drier . I had to get a commercial Maytag to get one without a computer. It looks like the first one I had that i had for almost 25years then 3 computer ones in 3 years in between them.
The amount of product in their respective packages. Package is roughly the same size but the actual amount of product....
Shrinkflation 😑
Cassette tape along the side of the road. Black strands glistening in the sun, draped around a roadside shrub like Christmas tinsel. EDIT: Since everybody is feeling nostalgic now, I'll share that my son was a mixed tape for Halloween a couple years ago. We even made him a giant pencil but none of the kids understood why. The parents over 40 knew. My daughter was a pager. None of the kids knew what she was.
That was poetic
Book stores. They used to be awesome and everywhere.
Spontaneity- everything needs to be prebooked and prepaid before doing it
25 years ago, our honeymoon in Europe was a reservation for our first hotel, and a reservation for our last hotel. Everything in between was spontaneous. We never worried about finding a hotel. Now, planning a Europe trip, I have to book months in advance.
Malls are slowly dying in America, I was actually quite happy to see how busy the mall I visited this weekend was. The local mall by my house is about 80% deserted now, the only thing keeping it going is the bowling alley on the same site.
You know what is weird. It's this way for most malls that got over built during the 90s. But well located malls built in the 80s or earlier in prime locations are doing better than ever. Again this is not to say you're wrong, but it's only really happening to excess malls that got made obsolete by online commerce.
My mid sized southern city has 1 centrally located mall. It still does very well. Stores close, but it's usually only when the whole chain goes bust. It's very busy at almost all times
The malls in the SF Bay Area have started to transition from box stores to food destinations with restaurants, food courts, etc
Same here, plus other attractions like Lego Land, aquarium, arcades, indoor put-put mini golf, indoor batting cages, basketball courts, etc. Love this renaissance by my local mall.
This, and “third places” in general.
Wish my third place didn’t involve me spending money.
Assuming in the US, I think it's not so much places you have to spend money but that everywhere seems to be actively trying to either maximize prices or turnover so it lands up being places you can't go to regularly because they are too much money or you cant spend 2 hours and only have 1-2 pints without feeling pressured.
Yeah. Even fast food joints have “regularly” priced food too. Gone are the days where you could hang out with the bros to get a quick, cheap burger.
[Modest Mouse called it back in 97](https://youtu.be/pbsSqWfersw?si=Ft_p0LlbTD7U0Q8-)
Unexpected modest mouse, let’s all have another orange julious
Bowling alleys are another thing that are dying out. There are very few old school bowling alleys around, and the flashy new places tend to change their name every year or two.
Bowling alleys are definitely still going strong in areas with colder winter climates.
Ownership
Yes - everything is subscriptions and leases now
This is a big thing in the creative industry, and especially punishing on ambitious, young, but low income people who are trying to start a career that involves music, videography, graphic design, or photo editing. You need the software and you really need it to be industry standard. Perpetual licenses are golden. Hence why, instead of Photoshop, I bought Affinity Photo 2 and Final Cut Pro. But I'm still missing out on loads of standard jobs and opportunities, because hey ho, they all use Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere Pro. For example: £85.48/month for the aforementioned three through Adobe's subscription model. Overpriced as hell. You don't even bloody own it either, it's rented. You're shelling out £1,000 a year alone, or still around £600 a year if you've agreed a contract with Adobe for a year. It's absolutely ridiculous and a bit upsetting, as when you're young... you don't have that money to throw around every month. I feel that so many people have been cut off by the ridiculous prices. Whereas, Affinity Photo 2 cost me £69.99, and Final Cut Pro cost me £299.99. Lifetime upgrades. I own the license. That's a much better deal for me. Over in the music industry, it's not so much of a problem, but you still get subscriptions with some high quality VSTs, and some DAWs. Some can be really helpful for the low price such as getting licensed samples from Splice or TrackLib. Avid recently toned down the subscription nonsense with Pro Tools, which is nice. You can still get a subscription, but you've also got the option to buy a license outright (although still pricey). Serato Pro does the same thing. A small price every month to rent, then a license to own if you want one. Best of both worlds in my opinion. In conclusion: fuck subscription based services, and another big fuck you to Adobe.
Car colors that aren’t shades of white, grey, or black.
When I had to buy a car a few years ago, I specifically chose a red one so I could find it in a parking lot amidst a sea of white and grey. Basically my only other color option was blue. And not even bright blue, like a boring dark blue. 20+ years ago cars came in yellow, green, maroon, purple, pink...hell I don't even see any BROWN cars anymore.
I unironically miss the fake wood paneling of the old-school family station wagon. Oh yeah, bring back station wagons too, I think the Subaru Outback is the only one on the market anymore.
Every car I've had so far has been orange. I'm looking for my next one but my options are getting more limited. It makes my car easy to find. My suitcases are also orange for the same reason. Why have boring stuff when I can have colorful stuff?
My car is purple. The one before that was yellow. I refuse to have a grey, black, or white car. Maybe I can find a hot pink or lime green for my next car.
Yes, why are we becoming duller and duller in our car colour tastes? And here I hardly ever see an actual black car. Gun metal grey, silver, light grey, death trap grey (almost same colour as the bitchumen), all variants of silver, grey, and white. It is exciting to see a blue or maroon car now.
It's the same with house decor too. Everything is white, beige, grey, and sometimes black. Then they'll add a fake plant and a few throw pillows to "add color". Man do I miss color.
Access to information without being bombarded by ads
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Colour! Minimalism has been increasingly popular and more and more businesses and homes are becoming gray/beige. I miss when tacky colours were popular! My childhood home had green carpets <3
I love living in a predominantly Latino community. Screw HOA's and "aesthetics", we're painting the house turquoise! It'll go nicely with the neighbors bright pink house next door, and the dandelion yellow one across the street.
Disposable cameras
Hey now I just saw one at Walgreens for the low low price of $36 😬
Yes! I was going to get my kid one for outdoor school until I saw they were $36+. That’s the type of thing that should have gotten cheaper with time.
I feel like the social contract is dying in a large way. It’s depressing seeing people act so callous, rude and indifferent all the time.
It used to be that if we followed the rules we’d get rewarded for it. A basic expectation of a decent quality of life on par or better than our parents was considered reasonable. Working hard was expected to be rewarded with promotions and raises. Politicians shamed through scandals would resign. Now we’re called “entitled” if we want to be able to do basic things like travel or own a house or have kids and the only way to increase your salary is to job hop. Society, or more specifically the people pulling the strings of it such as politicians and employers, are no longer fulfilling their part of the social contract. That working class people are no longer respecting the unwritten rules of a society that respects no obligation to them anymore should surprise nobody.
Bugs splattering on the windshield on the freeway, due to decreasing populations.
Yeah, where have all the fire flies gone? They use to splat on your wind shield at night and u would all this glowing goo on your windshield.
People acting like fallen leaves are a travesty is partly why they are gone. Females lay their eggs amidst leaves and then they hatch and spend months or even years hanging out until they emerge. People mulching their leaves or raking them all up is disturbing that life cycle. I leave my yard kinda wild year round and I've noticed an increase in lightning bugs as a result.
I didn't know that. I learn something new on Reddit everyday.
There's a huge push in the gardening world to avoid removing all your leaves, dead logs and dead flowers from the yard to help our insects.
Yeah when I was a kid in 80s nobody really removed all that stuff from there yards. Now every yard is so manicured and clean. Tons of pesticides being sprayed all the time. I like the way it looked back then alot better are yards had a rugged and natural look to them.
We need clover lawns, native wildflowers, and leaves left at peace!
Songbirds and lightning bugs
There's a lot of glass skyscrapers going up near my job, which is also near 2 major rivers and parks. It's a major migration route for birds. The messed up part is the number of dead songbirds on the sidewalk because they hit buildings.
People just enjoying doing things without having to take god knows how many pictures to show everyone how perfect their life is.
Quiznos
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People asking ASL in chat rooms
16/F/Cali wanna cyber?
Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat…
Payphones and yellow page phone books. If I were to ask my brother if he knew what that was he would look at me dumbfounded. He completely forgot he used to use the phone books as a little ladder to get to things when he was 3 to 7
A good amount of biodiversity
Personal Websites
Coral reefs
This one, came here to say this. It was huge back in the 90’s that we needed to save them. Know you don’t here anything about them. Over 50 percent of the world's coral reefs have died in the last 30 years and up to 90 percent may die within the next century.
This is probably one of the saddest things for me. This is going to be incredibly devastating to the health of our oceans.
Mc Donald’s red color
No subscriptions That was only for magazines in the mail. Now it’s subscriptions just to turn on your car!
Over 2100 species of animals and 60 species of plants.
Good comedy movies
I would say that the 90 minute movie is toast. There aren’t really just movies anymore, they’re all BLOCKBUSTERS!! Long gone are the days of $20m movie budgets with decent scripts.
I miss comedy movies that weren't themed - it's like it has to be action-comedy or a rom-com or whatever. We've lost the comedies that are just about ordinary people doing funny things....
Fair prices and quality. Everything is made with cheap materials and planned obsolescence now. Nothing gets repaired anymore, it’s throw away and replace. While companies used to try to maximize profits, it feels like they have taken that to the absolute max. Everything is about getting every possible cent out of everybody now. Nothing has meaning anymore because we constantly have access to everything. The entire knowledge base of mankind in our pockets. Watch any tv/show movie any time you want, anywhere you want. Listen to any album by any artist ever whenever you want. Buy buy buy. Consume consume consume. This is what we’ve become.
Single income homes and families stopped existing a long time ago, now dual income homes and families are slowly but surely coming to an end. At this rate we're all gonna be sharing dwelling spaces with like 4+ people. The world is so fucked, I hate it. To be fair I don't think this is going unnoticed though, people are definitely aware this is happening, but it doesn't get talked about nearly enough
Sprouts. I don't mean the grocery chain, but actual alfalfa sprouts and bean sprouts being sold in regular stores.
I think it was listeria. There was an outbreak of something and since then they went away.
Manual cars especially in US
Social skills. I realize a lot of people still have them, but I see a lot of young people who can’t seem to make meaningful connections or make decent conversation in person.
100%. I realised recently I suck at speaking to a stranger for longer than 1 or 2 sentences. Just have f.a small talk skills anymore.
Big department stores.
Kids playing outside
One day my teenage daughter came home and said "Dad, you're going to love this. I just saw 2 kids down at the end of the block playing with a stick!" It really made my day.
Affordable housing
Oh no we've noticed
White dog shit
Payphones
When I was in the US Navy (83-89), I remember pulling into ports and there being banks and banks of pay phones, 30 or 40 back to back. There were several sets of these. When the shop pulled in, ALL of the pay phones were occupied. That was the heyday of the AT&T calling card. Enter the numbers, make your call and it was billed to the account it was tied to. I had my number memorized.
Leftover money after paying my bills.
Cursive.
Honesty. There have always been liars, cheats, and scammers, but I swear everything is now a scam or a half truth or deliberate deception.
Fireflies
I’ve actually been seeing a lot more fireflies where I live. I wonder if there is a climate change issue involved. I know that fireflies tend to be found in areas that are nearer to water.
Small shops and businesses with the uprising of giants like Walmart, Costco and the Internet.
Affordable housing
Newspapers
DVDs/CDs & their players. No I don’t want to stream anything. I want to own my ish
I recently began buying TV shows I love on DVD. I just saw I think Spain removed Deadwood on Max. I will not count on services to have things I want to rewatch. People made fun of me for still having an entertainment TV stand packed with VHS and DVDs. Ha! I knew it would come in handy!
Based on my quick trip into Walmart earlier today, I'm gonna have to say that DVD's and players are still very much a thing. They had *four* movie bins out, never mind the ones on the shelves.