Remember when we thought the internet was going to revolutionize the world?
It was going to change our everyday lives.
And it did. Oh, technology... but did it lead us where it should have?
Sometimes invention is a hardship.
Much to our chagrin.
Redditorscrabbleking1966wanted to know which life creations that were meant to bring about innovation actually brought about chaos by asking...
"What great invention has turned out to be a curse?"
Boomer Trouble.
"Those damn phones - boomers 2019."
WEERDMEMES
"Boomers are on their phones now more than millennials ever were. Every single boomer I know just reads Facebook during dinner and it's absurdly rude."
shadowmask
Beep Beep.
"Cars are a blessing and a curse. So many people die from car wrecks. Yet I cant imagine not having them. Yeah their value is almost immeasurable but they can and often do cause so much death and destruction. I think we forget how much of a death trap they really are or at least they can be."
Lukealloneword
Micro Successes....
"Microtransactions. Before its creation, publishers and developers were able to take their time making amazing games that everyone loved and they only costed 20-60 dollars. They were successful."
"After their creation, developers and publishers suddenly couldn't support themselves and constantly released rushed video games stuffed with microtransactions 'just to stay afloat.' It's not true, but that's what microtransactions do to people. They need more, more MOOOOOOORRRRRREEEE."
"It's a curse."
Bad Air.
"The Vape. It was supposed to be a device to help you stopped smoking, instead, it brought more people to do it."
Colonel37Sean
War Materials.
"Nuclear weapons."
Nighttime_traveller
"Even the people in the process of inventing them knew they were a curse."
"'I am become death, destroyer of worlds.' - Oppenheimer upon seeing his theoretical research turned into an enormous ball of plasma and gamma rays."
Revolution!
"Communism."
depshet
"Revolution from the ground up is what is needed, unfortunately it came from the top-down undermining the very rights of the people it aimed to protect."
tomatoaway
Bless Us....
"Religion, it has started way too many wars and caused way too much death. I'm not just thinking about Christianity, Jews aren't blameless they have done some things and Muslims are definitely not blameless at least as a whole because of all their radical members that they have (not all Muslims are radicals) but the people who blow up buildings and commit acts of terror for their god and their religion. Also The holocaust happened mostly out of the hate the nazis and Hitler had for the Jews."
Cursed Webs.
Giphy"To everyone saying internet is a curse. Stop it. At its worst the internet is morally neutral and at its best it's a universal database for nearly all the information in the world. The internet isn't a curse. The idiots who use it in bad ways are."
jelly-filled-ham
Big data and Data science.
"Big data and Data science. The early days (90s-early 2000's) were great. You could find anything you wanted to learn, anything you wanted to buy, communicate across he world, and pretty much everyone had the same ads and potential experiences."
"Now big data is being used to track every darn thing you do, and machine learning is being used to increasingly create echo chambers. Even worse, the corp world is using big data and machine learning to automate jobs people actually enjoyed doing, and may be the cause of the next big jobs crisis."
cowanon7
"The cold improved medical science, food preservation, and health in general. Of course it destroyed the ozone layer. Fun fact: one of the core inventors, also invented leaded petroleum. Thomas Midgeley Jr. His final invention was a pulley system to support him due to polio. He ended up being strangled in it."
CarNoob1337
The Famine.
Zyklon A. It started out as a extremely effective pesticide that caused no harm to the plants and had an extremely noticeable smell to let you know to back away because it was toxic. And then in ww2 the Germans took it and removed the smell and turned it into zyklon B the infamous gas used in the gas chambers in concentration camps and death camps. (Side note zyklon A was invented by a Jewish German scientist who also invented the first mass market fertilizer and pretty much saved Europe from a massive famine)."
m8key
Oh the Plastics....
"The plastic."
jkthor_9
"We overuse plastics and suck at recycling. Plastics definitely have a bunch of medical impacts that have advanced society."
"But we have over used plastics and can't clean up after ourselves. And they're finding micro plastics in fish now. The dire consequences of our plastic litter may not even be apparent for a couple more generations. It will cause a disruption of food chains and entire ecosystems."
HairyColonicJr
In Everything! Everywhere!
"High fructose corn syrup in everything!!"
SithLard
"Sugar in everything. HFCS is a red herring, and virtually no different healthwise than plain old sugar. Plain old sucrose sugar is, by definition, 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Most HFCS is sold as either HFCS 42 or HFCS 55, being 42% fructose and 55% fructose, respectively."
CutterJohn
Before the gin....
"The cotton gin. Before the gin, picking the seeds out of cotton and separating the fibers was a labor intensive process that made cotton too expensive for the mass market. When it was invented, demand for cotton boomed as the price started to come down and slavery boomed with it."
"There was a lot more traction for abolition until that happened. Instead slavery increased and we had to fight a war to get rid of it. A time whose social repercussions can still be felt today, to put it mildly."
ahfuq
Interweb Issues...
"The internet. When it became common, it was basically all of human knowledge in one, easily searchable database with instant results. Instant, global information and news. You could write a blog post or tweet and if it went viral, you'd get the same reach as international media conglomerates, overnight."
"Finally, everyone could easily fact-check, learn new things, debate with others. The potential was staggering. Today, the internet exists only to amplify polarizing bull."
'You get online only to find your own personal echo chamber, custom-tailored to suit your own view of the world, regardless of how far from reality that view is, and you'd find others to agree with you and reinforce what you already have decided to be true. Free speech has been weaponized for propaganda and profit."
"Man landed on the moon with a fraction of the computing power found in a twenty-year-old phone, and now that same power helps us argue that the Moon landing was faked and the Earth is flat. We have instant access to the total sum of all human knowledge at our fingertips, and we've never been less informed."
nrtlbwlitw
The MP3.
"The MP3. At first a great format, now a relic of the early 2000's that sounds inferior to CD's and records, yet we still insist on using it despite FLAC being far superior. Led to music being mastered and people dropping proper sound systems. Unlike video, where we thrive to get the sharpest, most dynamic image possible, music seems to content itself to la compressed dynamic range, low end quality sound and tiny speakers."
SiriusXAim
Gas Ways.....
Giphy"Leaded petrol and CFC gas. Incredibly both invented by the same person."
Cwlcymro
Dark Materials
"Zeppelins, they looked so cool. They are a given landmark in steampunk aesthetic, most recently I saw them in His Dark Materials and honestly I would have liked to see them fly around. But they were pretty useless, they were easily affected by strong winds. Hindenburg disaster was the nail in the coffin. Also they were mostly used for Nazi bombs."
aRkdtk
Progress doesn't always meant improvement.
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Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
We've all done things, or in some cases, regularly do things that others might consider weird.
Even so, we often feel no shame or embarrassment and embrace how unusual these habits are, and take our friends teasing or laughing at us for doing so in stride.
Sometimes, however, we might not like to advertise some of our unusual habits or actions and make every effort to keep them a well-guarded secret.
As raised eyebrows are much easier to take than blatant judgment from friends and peers.
Redditor Key_Nectarine_1969 was curious to hear all the weird things people have done which they still keep under lock and key, leading them to ask:
"What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done that you could only tell people anonymously?"
The Devil [Dogs] Is In The Detail...
"All throughout middle school, there was someone who tucked unwrapped Hostess Devil Dogs into the toilet paper dispensers in the bathrooms, so that when you pulled some toilet paper out, the devil dog would fall out into your hand."
"We had to have an assembly about it."
"That person... Was me."- bejeweled_sky
Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time
"Was drunk at an escape room with coworkers."
"It was an extreme one where you are handcuffed the entire time."
"I decided in my drunken state that it would be bada** to dislocated my thumb and slip off the cuffs like the movies."
"It wasn't."
"We got kicked out, my coworkers were weirded out and I had to go to the hospital."
"I quit a few weeks later."
"White collar wasn't for me."- Grotesque-penguin
The Bread Of Heaven
"Stole over 1,000 wafers from church because I really liked the communion wafers & didn’t know where else to get them."
"I felt really blessed & cursed for a long time."- hALLIEcinate
catholic the exorcist GIFGiphyRetracing Steps...
"Once I got off the subway in NYC and I was super early for an appointment."
"So I picked a random guy and just followed him on foot for like 30 minutes, pretending I was like a private detective or something."
"Always kept about a half block behind."
"He turned this way and that, and eventually went into a building I had lived in 9 years earlier."
"It was weird, and so was I."- OKsurewhynotyep
Hygeine Be Damned...
"I found a dead rat in a field when i was younger and kissed it bc I wanted to say goodbye."- qeleia
exercise push up GIFGiphyBad Decisions Have A Way Of Getting Back To You...
"We got super drunk and ate a ton of spicy food in New Orleans."
"Back at the B&B, the food started to come out the back side."
"I was sitting on the toilet sh*tting bricks of fire."
"At that moment, the booze decided to hang a u-turn."
"The trash can was out of reach and I couldn't risk standing up from the toilet for even 5 seconds."
"The closest receptacle was the bathtub."
"I managed to turn in such a way that I could keep shi*ting in the toilet while projectile vomiting into the tub."
"Both ended up clogged, and there was no plunger."
"I had to call the owner to explain that I had destroyed both their toilet and their tub simultaneously."- HoopOnPoop
Things Best Left To Professionals...
"My partner is weirdly prone to cysts."
"I had to drain a 3 inch cyst on her back (thankfully she had a dr's appt the next week), then multiple other little cysts on her legs and chest."
"I never told her to her face but that first giant cyst literally haunted me, the amount of pus and blood I saw....good heavens."- SleepyBiologist
uruguay spot GIF by sargentoPezGiphyAt Least A Lesson Was Learned...
"When I was walking to school one morning, I saw a kid (7-8 yo?) kicking a dog."
"I ran over & kicked the kid and asked him how it felt."
"He ran off and no one saw."
"Still not sorry."- sneezyailurophile
All Creatures Deserve Love
"I was extremely socially isolated as a child and tried to make friends with the coyotes who lived in the woods by our home."
'I caught one in a snare and fed and kept her."
"I wanted a friend."- letthetreeburn
That's What Friends Are For...
"My wife and her best friend pick me up from a frat party black out drunk."
"Then they helped me take a sh*t on the toilet, wiped my a** and then gave me a shower and put me to bed naked."
"Don’t remember any of it."- nc3100
Party Love GIF by Chris CiminoGiphyNot The Right Kind Of Manure...
"One time I went outside at like 2AM and put the garden hose nozzle into my butthole and sprayed some water into it, then farted it out onto the lawn."
"Basically gave myself an enema with a garden hose."
"I did this because I was bored."
"My neighbour saw me and told my dad (lived at home at the time)."- WaspsInMyGoatse
A Little Fantasy Now And Then...
"When I was younger I joined an international dating site that I figured was a scam."
"Put a black square as my picture and gave myself a fake name, and then looked through their users."
"And after about 10 minutes I had like a 100 messages."
"Most of them were messages telling me how handsome I was or how these women fell in love with me at first site."
"Now I knew it was a scam but when ever I felt down or got rejected for a while I would pop back on the site and read a few messages."
'Yeah it’s kinda cringy and probably pathetic but it made me feel better."
"I would just turn off that logical part of my brain that knew it was a scam for awhile and just pretend I was this popular and desirable guy."
"And it honestly got me through the day sometimes."- Demonking3343
dating app GIFGiphyIf anyone says they've never done anything they're ashamed, or at the very least less-than-proud of, in all likelihood, they are lying.
Or, more likely, they understandably want to pretend that it never happened.
Which might be a little easier than harboring a secret.
Who doesn't love a first date?
The anticipation. The hopes and dreams. The romance.
Even those first-date butterflies are fun.
You're hoping this could be the one.
Or maybe this will just be a lot of fun.
Then you sit down with one another and they open their mouth and BOOM... dating disaster.
Life is ruined. Or maybe you were saved.
Redditor MiloMilkOnDrugs wanted to hear about the conversations that can ruin a romantic time, so they asked:
"What's the worst thing someone can say on a first date?"
Having worked as a waiter as long as I did, I can't tell the things I've overheard without fainting.
I'll just say... sometimes it's okay to stay single.
Promises
Players Association Sport GIF by NBPAGiphy“'I need you to promise not to tell my wife.'"
FriendNegative6013
Honk Off
"My cousin (F) went on a first date where in the middle of the conversation, her date reached over and squeezed her breast and said 'Honk.'"
"She said 'What on earth do you think you're doing?'"
He said 'I've had quite a lot of success with that move.'"
"There was no second date. My cousin was the girl. I realized from a comment it was ambiguous."
blu3teeth
Circa 2005
"My mother was freshly divorced and we signed her up on a dating website (circa 2005) Helped her take pictures etc..."
"She met this guy online real smart, seems to have his sh*t together, independent, etc..."
"They set a date at a local restaurant they park side by side."
"The moment she greets him he says: WOW I love those big boobs I can't wait to taste them!"
"She 180° stepped back in her Mazda 3 and f**ked the right off this parking lot lol."
mageakeem
Safety First
"Does anyone know you're here?"
Baby-hazell
"It's a safety thing. Sometimes, people let others know where they'll be before meeting a stranger for a date. However for him to ask can be seen as a little creepy like he would be planning to do something to them and would need to know that info so he can figure out how long she'll be gone before the police are called. If that makes sense."
Hachiko75
Previously...
canadian what GIF by CBCGiphy"I was on a date once, the woman apologized before looking a bit rough because she had just had sex before coming."
REDDIT
What happened to putting your best foot forward?
My goodness, it's not that hard to at least run a brush through your hair.
Mirror Mirror
"'My ex looks way better than you.'"
Academic_Ingenuity84
"What a coincidence. My ex looks way better than you."
"Maybe they can get together and leave us ugly fools to mope about it together."
LurkerOrHydralisk
Oh Baby
"After pulling her chair out for her, you pet her head then rub her belly saying 'I’m gonna put a baby in here.'"
BuffaloInCahoots
"Ha, can you imagine, being a proper gentleman and then ending with a head pat and belly rub?"
phillmybuttons
"I once had a guy tell me on the first date he wanted to have at least six children. I heard later from his sister he married a woman who was already pregnant with someone else's kid, and he had her pregnant again within the year."
ashoka_akira
Family Dynamics
"'You remind me of my mom.' Bonus points if there is this weird attraction component to it."
Kiunan5
"My partner went on a date with a young woman shortly before we met, he said she repeatedly compared him to her father ('my dad drinks scotch', 'my dad is also bald,' etc). He said no amount of attraction could save the date after that."
Digital_Punk
"Oh God, I'm guilty of this one. It wasn't a date. but I told that to a woman I tried bedding later on. Honestly, she didn't look like my mom i was just shooting my shots at trying to keep her around."
Bobtheguardian22
Be Serious
Shouting The Goldbergs GIF by ABC NetworkGiphy"I went to a nice French bistro in the Bay Area, there was a table right behind me and the friend dining. The guy literally said to the girl 'I am the alpha of this relationship.' (in a serious manner). Me and buddy sort of looked at each other while the girl literally burst out laughing, grabbed her bag, and then walked out of the restaurant."
295DVRKSS
It feels like some men have no one to bounce conversation ideas off of.
Or do they really believe what they say?
