Top Stories

People Imagine What Society Will Be Most Nostalgic For In 40 Years

Nostalgia is a funny thing. It can make us think back fondly on things that, at the time you hated. It can make things precious to you when, at the time, you totally took them for granted.


With our current lives being as bonkers as they are in 2020, the question of nostalgia becomes a bit more complicated. One reddit user asked:

In 40 years what will people be nostalgic for?

And we'll be honest, some of this seems like romanticizing inconvenience (looking at you, "flipping channels" response.) but some of this really got us thinking. Will we miss some of the ripple effects of this pandemic? Will there be a time when stars are harder to see? In 40 yrs will Trump be looked back on as a wacky old grandpa?

Here are some of the more popular responses.

YouTube

I think YouTube. Like how us 80/90s babies miss early Nickelodeon and Saturday morning cartoons I think future generations will miss the unlimited content.

- StonerLB

Yeah, I don't dislike the stuff that's on there now [well, other than the obligatory ads], but there was definitely a DIY quality to a lot of the older YouTube videos. Now they all seem like professional productions, which again isn't bad, but it's just different.

- chewytime

I already miss the early days of YouTube where you had friends instead of followers and you rated videos out of 5 stars and you could directly reply to vids with other vids sigh the good ol' days

Oh and the algorithm was actually good! God knows why they messed with that, I used to spend hours on there stuck in a tunnel, now I watch 1 vid and I'm done.

- Artaxxx

Privacy Please

black and white goodbye GIF by FilmStruckGiphy

Privacy

If the governments do it "right", they'll slowly erode people's privacy rights, and few if any will notice or complain.

In fact, it's already working. Congress renewed the Patriot Act last November, and the Senate voted this year to allow the CIA and FBI the ability to view US citizen browser history without a warrant. Do you remember either event being seriously covered in major media outlets, and do you remember any mass public outcry? Me neither.

Many people are repeatedly bringing up private data collection by companies. This is also a serious issue, and it's not mutually exclusive. Both problems need to be fixed.

- EndoShota

Gaming Through The Years

"Back in my days we used videogames with controllers!"

- AmaterasuWolf21

I was talking to my sons the other day, they asked me about my first job.

I was telling them how fun it was working at McDonald's in high school and a friend that I made.

"We would finish our shift then go to the mall and play games at the arcade"

At that instant I realized I might as well said "We would get a root beer float at the soda shop then go to the sock hop to meet some girls in our hot rods"

Crazy how fast things change

- 4mygirljs

Stealing A Simple Joy

Poppable bubble wrap.

- armyofmoose9

In case you haven't seen, there is now bubble wrap that will not pop. All the bubbles are connected and have plenty of free space. It's bad.

- markhasnodad

I hate that bubble wrap that the air just moves to the next bubble when you try to pop it. That stuff should be illegal.

- mynextthrowaway

From somebody who likes to pop bubble wrap,

what. In the fcking hell. Did you just say?

- thoseepicpokemons

If you are taking about what I think you are taking about, it is technically more effective because it is cushioned but doesn't pop. But I found out that you can pop it by bunching up one row of them and squeezing. It honestly just as satisfying if not more, in my opinion, once you learn how to do it. Safer transport and better popping

- AndyWR10

High Quality Guns

High quality nerf blasters

- NyeGuyTheBillNye

Nerf no longer makes anything worth buying unless you think it looks nice in my opinion. If you are not already, buy all your blasters and darts from Dart Zone!

- got-milk74

Kind of related... what happened to good super soakers?

When I was a kid we had super soakers that you pumped up and they stored air pressure in a tank, then you could shoot a consistent water stream.

Now when I see kids play with "super soakers", the guns don't seem to have a pressure tank. The gun fires on every pump. It doesn't store pressure.

What the hell. That's obviously a downgrade.

I think I saw something once that said it was related to a patent dispute or something?

- redditor1983

This is so true. They used to be the sh!t, and now they are just ... sh!t. They literally glue their blasters now, and use plastic springs instead of actual springs!

- SKENDRIK_PUGON

Aww, A Wholesome Answer

We just spent 5 months with family. Having dinners together, watching TV together, playing games, just being a family. Kids are going to grow up remembering the time they had with their parents and siblings. There will be good memories.

Adults forget how resilient kids are. I can guarantee most of the adults complaining about getting "back to normal" would love to go back and have just 1 month with there dad playing catch or watching TV.

- LTJoe86

Predictions

40 years ago was 1980. I was a teenager.

If that question had been asked then, some very similar answers would have been given:

  • clean air, clean water, clean earth
  • non-radioactive land (between Three Mile Island and the getting hot Cold War, we thought there was a pretty good chance of some kind of nuclear apocalypse)
  • various species of animals (neither the California Condor nor the American Buffalo, among others, were looking too good)
  • there was some general fear about computers and what they could/would do (see films like 1983's Wargames)

And yet, here we are. A little better in some aspects and a little worse than others. 2020 is quite a downer of a year, but human beings are endlessly optimistic and adaptable.

I predict in 40 years we'll look back on some of our fears today like 80's folks look back on things like Genesis' "Land of Confusion" video - a little nostalgic, a little embarrassed and a little humbled by both how much and how little has changed.

- pcnauta

Adventures On Internet

The Internet.

Hell, I'm nostalgic for it now. Not the final form that the internet has taken over the past decade or so, but those wild west days before youtube, facebook, social media, reddit. Finding weird sites, geocities pages, looking up cheat codes for GTA, hanging out on forums, seeing something go truly grassroots viral and not just because it's trending on instagram or something. Those days when no company knew what the hell the internet was or how to market on it, it was just left to the nerds and the kids who were making up the rules as they went along.

I miss when the internet felt like a little adventure rather than a timesink or utilitarian tool to get the day to day done.

- shawnisboring

Physical Media

Movie DVDs. With everything going digital, I think production houses will soon stop making DVDs and just start streaming the movies in either their respective streaming platforms or sell them to other platforms like Netflix.

- a_guy_named_guy

I like physical Movies, CDs, Books, and Video games. I'm 16. Sure digital is more convenient. But some reason i like to HOLD my possessions. Plus being able to save movies/cds to my computer and "lending them" to my pals.

- FlamngVikavolt

Sea Snacks

Sea Jesus GIF by Nate MakuchGiphy

Seafood. There won't be anything left in 40 years

I get that there will be some sort of sea life clinging on to eat. My point is nobody will be eating halibut and tuna on the regular because we killed 90% of them

- qpv

Factory farming fish's calling, they want you to quit your bs! Jokes aside, we'll always have fish. They're the easiest animal to farm that way, and they're ecological, too. You can even hook them up to hydroponics.

The future is, if not lab grown meat, fish and chips.

- Lorenzo_BR

Flipping Aimlessly

Flipping through cable aimlessly not really sure what will be on any channel and just going til you hit something decent. The place I'm at now has free cable included and sometimes I'll waste hours just flipping through. It feels just like the early 2000s again and is a crazy throwback feeling to watching TV before everything was on apps and on demand. You kinda forget you used to watch TV by finding the channel, and how you felt like you just found five bucks if you happen to catch a good episode rerun of one of your favorite sitcoms late at night when most of the channels were doing late night infomercials.


Or how if you couldn't find anything good so you'd just sit there and watch an infomercial about bowflexes for half an hour. And watching the news air on TV instead of getting news through YouTube videos or posts on social media. If you wanted to know whether it was gonna rain that weekend you had to wait til the news cycled back to the weatherman every 20 minutes or so.

Having to plan bathroom sprints around commercial breaks so you didn't miss a big play during a big championship game. The experience of watching porn by cinemax late at night when everyone else in the house was asleep. Planning your whole afternoon around getting all your errands done by dinnertime so you could catch Jeopordy or Judge Judy. Watching cooking shows in your underwear and trying to write down a recipe and getting mad because you missed a step and its live so you cant rewind it like you can now with DVR or on demand.

- sushi_and_wrestling

Having A Social Life

Playing physical games with friends.

Going to friends' houses to play basketball/soccer and a few video games, and then have a sleep over.

Socializing to the extend even the youngest here have experienced.

- semeon_

Why wouldn't they do that! Human contact will never go old. We are saying that kids today are always on their phones etc, but we are, too, and kids today are still playing on the streets and with sticks and riding bicycles and everything. We tend to be cynical about "kids today", like every generation.

- [reddit]

At The Mall

Honestly probably malls. I feel like a lot of them are going out of business and getting torn down. Well at least the old mall experience.

- BalakayyTheGoat

I loved going to Hot Topic and Claire's and Spencer's as a kid and going to the food court for an Orange Julius but today if I go to a mall I just see a bunch of overpriced stuff that I don't want to spend money on. It's a lot easier when you're 13 and spending your parents money lol.

- w1nd0wpane

You might have something like the World Showcase at Epcot. There could be a era-specific mall-themed recreation, a disco-themed recreation, a blockbuster video...

- TemperPeeDick

Stargazing

The night sky.

By that time, Musk, Bezos, and god knows who else, will have hundreds of thousands of satellites in orbit. Our cities will have doubled in size, and urban sprawl will cause further light pollution. Stargazing will be something future generations will only hear stories about...

- iron40

For me, the night sky has always been black with white dots. I was mesmerized by just how many dots there were when i was out on the lake i mentioned with my grandfather, on his boat. It was, what, 40km out, at the end of a bay? Something like that. But it was still just... black with white dots. Yet, i must've spent 20-30 minutes just looking up on that folding chair... i felt like a kid, stargazing again!

I've seen the pictures of how it's meant to look like, they're everywhere, the ones that look like you're just looking out in space, y'know? But I've never seen it in person. I wonder how far away from cities i'd have to go... clearly further out.

- Lorenzo_BR

Strawberries and Vanilla

Strawberry & cream or vanilla bean Starbucks Frappuccino's. I made soooo many in college for hordes of teens. It will be the pop tarts and eggs waffles of 2010.

- mtbbebe

Simpler 

I don't wanna live in the world where someone says "Don't you miss 2020, it was simpler time"

- Franka035

Or the reality in my state, which is people being laid off, going on 5 months now, and not receiving ANY unemployment benefits they are qualified for this whole time, Because Oregon.

Or the essential workers like me, some of whom might have had temporary wage bumps, but in my case, I made the same hourly wage while having my hours cut for about 4 months. Now my hours are closer to normal, but it's because we somehow have a staffing shortage, so I'm doing twice the work, again, for the same wage. And I'm just a bank janitor; I have it real easy compared to most.

I'm just glad I'm not in a customer-facing position, so I don't have to deal with all the ratlickers throwing public tantrums over masks, and I'm not in healthcare, so I don't have to watch a dozen people die every day.

No, I don't think grocery workers and nurses and teachers are going to look back at this time and miss it much.

-poppysmear

The Movies

A small local theatre near me just shut down for good, and I can't express how disappointed I'd be if the movie theater industry just never pops back up after this pandemic. Some of my best childhood memories are from the the movie theaters.

- DoctorDonut0

The Golden Hour

Privacy and the ability to go somewhere without seeing 75 cameras all the time.

Went to the beach today and no one was in the water except for me and my friend. Everyone else was waiting for "golden hour" in their dry beachwear so they could get good selfies.

- BarryWeasley

An Expensive Hobby

Combustion cars being mainstream. I'm a petrol head who isn't rich, so storing away an assortment of petrol motors isn't viable.

- HowHardCanItBeReally

A Vampire's Perspective 

The harpsichord ...hell I already am but I'm a vampire so I guess that makes sense... don't know what I do without my spooky Jams playlist.

- AdventurousSelf471

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Historical Events So Ridiculous They Sound Made Up

A Redditor asked: 'What’s an event in history that is so ridiculous it sounds fake?'

historical reenactors
Sigmund on Unsplash

We've probably all heard some variation of the saying "Truth is stranger than fiction."

Real life isn't just strange, it can also be downright ridiculous.

History is riddled with moments of absurdity.

So ridiculous that people have a hard time believing real life is, well, really real.

Keep reading...Show less
person holding photo of three girls near chainlink fence
Anita Jankovic on Unsplash

Life is all about learning new things, including learning new things about the people in your life. Sometimes, the things you learn are shocking, disgusting, or even scary.

I was the new kid in town when I was in fifth grade and my first friend was this quiet (and cute) boy in my class. He and I remained friends through middle school, and even though we drifted apart in high school, our interactions when we ran into each other in the halls or the cafeteria were really nice.

All throughout school and even beyond, he remained quiet, polite, and reserved. Just a few years ago, I read a news article written about him. He had apparently fatally wounded his father after an argument.

I had to reread the article several times to make sure it was really about my old friend. I think about it a lot, and still can't believe it!

I'm not the only one that has a shocking story like that. A lot of Redditors learned shocking or scary things about people from their childhood, and are ready to share.

It all started when Redditor ValuableHovercraft90 asked:

"What's the scariest thing you have found out about someone from your childhood (old friends, teachers, etc)?"

So Creepy

"That the boy who lived across the street and moved when I was 6 is still obsessed with me and my sister 30+ years later and posts ramblings on Facebook with our names and that he's going to be with us. Pretty terrifying honestly."

– mrscrawfish

The Worst List

"A neighbour died when he was 30. Police searched a trailer he owned and found weapons, bombs and a list of people he wanted to kill. My uncle was on that list."

– Flashy_Somewhere_648

"I'm glad this ended the way it did."

– CreepyCandidate4449

Terrifying

"One of my best friends (and locker partner) from high school was kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq. After a nightmare of 6+ months, all went silent. We buried an empty casket in his memory 10 years later."

– francois_du_nord

"This is horrifying. How incredibly sad for family to never get any closure. Very sad to read this. :("

– fizzycherryseltzer

"About 15 years ago my dad received a very good offer for work in Iraq, as a construction specialist. He was considering going, since at the same time the financial crisis started in Europe, but then one of his friends, a civil engineer, was kidnapped. Never returned back either."

– 19lgkrn70

"Same thing for my dad old coworker told him how great the money was. Dude got sniped working on a radio tower or something. My dad luckily was like, "I got a wife and family that would kill me for doing something so dangerous.""

– tristanjones

End Of The Friendship

"One of my dad's good friends, and my "uncle", just stopped coming around one day. I was told he was always busy with work, away, etc."

"Turns out, he killed 3 people in a drug deal gone bad and got life in prison."

"What's scary, is that we were over at his house for a weekend BBQ with a bunch of people earlier in the day of the night he did it, and it happened at his house."

– pnwking509

School Friends

"Don't know if it was scary, but I grew up with a kid whose birthday was the day before mine so we almost always shared birthdays in elementary school. We were friends, even spent the night at his house growing up. Later on in our teens, he started getting into some really dark stuff. I recognize that now as his being a sociopath, but like most everybody else at the time, figured it was just him going through some kind of emo phase. Over the years, we lost touch but I would occasionally run into him around town and our meetings were cordial, if not friendly."

"Last year, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for killing a man back in 1993, roughly 3 years after we got out of High School. Apparently he, his sister and another man lured this guy out to the boonies and killed him to steal money he had gotten in an insurance settlement."

"The only reason they were caught is the other guy got religion, felt remorse and went on the local TV station and aired a confession before turning himself in (He got 25 to life)."

– 530_Oldschoolgeek

"A girl I went to school with did the same thing. She was the nicest girl, got good grades & was kind of a dork. Mixed with the wrong people after graduation. She and two others lured an old man into an abandoned building, stabbed him and robbed him. He later died from his wounds."

– HereF0rTheSnacks

The Worst Afternoon

"I had a friend in grade school who was being raised by her single dad. She had a unique name and pretty face. She never talked about her mom, and she was super outgoing, so all us kids just made friends with her quickly. It was weird her dad never brought her to our birthday parties, even though she was always invited, but we didn’t think much of it. A couple times, she was allowed to ride the bus home with me after school, and we played and had fun until her dad came to pick her up. Later in the school year, she invited me to ride the bus to her house, and my mom agreed. I was 10. It was the scariest afternoon of my young life. I cannot articulate the extreme tension in her home. We weren’t allowed to make any noise, and we mostly stayed outside, me desperate for my mom to arrive."

"Her dad screamed at us for opening the door, and I was too nervous to go into the house to use the restroom. I knew she was embarrassed that there were no snacks or comforting interactions, like at my house. I didn’t really tell anyone how uncomfortable the experience was. After that day, I didn’t hang out with her a lot. We were in different classes, drifted apart, and decades later, when my own daughter asked to go to a friend’s house, I thought about that girl."

"As an adult, I figured out her dad probably worked a night shift and tried to sleep during the day…or he was an alcoholic who was really angry. Maybe both? I looked her up on social media, and thanks to her unique name and face, I recognized her immediately. She’s a perfectly well-adjusted woman with a beautiful family. She even had pictures of her kids with her dad and tributes to him as the greatest father and grandpa. Her whole page made me wonder what the hell I experienced that afternoon in the 4th grade?"

– OlderAndTired

School Is Supposed To Be Safe!

"In our school, we had something called "de halte." In English, it means "the halt" literally translated. Basically time out. BIf you had a meltdown in class or you were just a little sh*thead, you were sent there for 15 minutes or so to cool off.

The de hatle teacher got fired and jailed for breaking 4 different wrists of 4 different students by bending them the wrong way..."

– Ok_Win7358

*Skin Crawling*

​"There was this classmate a grade below me but all grades shared the same drama class. She was weird and kind of "off." I tried to befriend her at one point and was rebuffed. It later came out that she was actually an almost 30-year-old woman who would show up in a new area claiming to be a 15-year-old runaway. Kind of freaked me out."

jackfaire

It turns out it was a good thing that the friendship didn't work out!