We had a good thing going for about a year before kids started absolutely wrecking themselves on improperly maintained equipment - getting caught in rollers, hung up on nets, stabbed by sketchy stuff in the foam pit, breaking bones...
Discovery Zone was like Disney for us but hiring a bunch of 15-year-olds and paying them minimum wage to maintain safe and sanitary play conditions just wasn't cutting it. The decline was hard and fast - and then it was gone.
Reddit user Open-Outcome-660 asked:
What's a thing that used to be great but has now become really bad?
I Want My MTV
mtv promo GIFGiphy"MTV. It was so good back in the 90s."
"Actual music videos, shows that featured artists, MTV Unplugged, Daria, Beavis and Butthead, Aeon Flux, TRL, Celebrity Death Match... Then Pimp My Ride and Cribs were pretty fun though it was the start of reality tv style shows" - SureTop4676
"I adored MTV from 1981 to 1984. I want an MTV Time Warp channel that just loops that three years of programming, veejays, commercials and all."
"They can take a break occasionally to air the entire 16 hours of Live Aid from 1985 and sneak in the first few years of Headbanger's Ball." - LatkaGravas
What's Up Doc?
happy reno 911 GIF by Comedy CentralGiphy"Doc Martens. They sold the trademark to a Chinese company and changed the real product to Solevair." - Fiddlenutz
"Oh so true! I've had my handmade in England ones for I think 6 years now and was wearing them daily. Except for the sole (just worn down) they're still good boots."
"My husband has bought 2 pairs over the last 2 years and both of them are… well broken!" - beebik6rv
"Yep! My wife bought a pair in 1998 and they're in great shape, obvious wear, but holding up well. The pair I bought a few years ago looks just as old now" - tmokes242
Crack Is Now Whack
"I used to read every new article Cracked put out. Somewhere along the line the quality started dipping and and the site's ad cancer went through the roof. I haven't been on there in years now." - sharrper
"Same here, was my daily ritual to check Cracked every morning with coffee when I was in Uni (like 8-9 years ago). I think it went to sh*t after like 2016-17 though, no idea why." - KentuckyDriedChicken
"It was when more and more prolific writers stopped writing and when they stopped doing those day in the life of articles. I remember always being excited to read a John Cheese, Jacopo, David Wong, Robert Brockway and especially Seanbaby article. And that's barely scratching the surface."
"Then John Cheese got outted as a sex pest black mailing interns to get sexual favors and the rest of those good writers found better pastures and forged out on their own."
"After some new company bought them, they made people pay to use the comment section and then just dumped it all together."
"Now, those two page articles about strange/unique tales or interesting people you would have never expected to take interest in have been replaced by two paragraph fluff pieces that are essentially "WOW is losing players cause Final fantasy 14 is so great!' Ain't that something?"
"It fell and it fell hard. On the bright side, Seanbaby and Brockway have their own project and it's pretty great" - igothisway
"Long story short, a new company bought it and they fired all the good writers in 2017." - deseretrain
Rich Kids Ruined It
Shocked Price Tag GIFGiphy"Thrifting. All the rich kids ruined it." - MWBPLH
"The internet & resellers ruined it. You go into your average thrift store, and they've priced anything cool based on what some nincompoop on ebay is asking for it."
"Sure, you can ask 150 for an old T shirt or some vintage doo-dad, but that doesn't mean it's worth that much." - Booji-Boy
"Same with yardsales/fleamarkets."
"Seller: 'Look, it's listed for $100 on ebay, so $90 is a deal!' "
"Me: 'Yeah, but it hasn't sold for $100, and yours is in worse condition.' "
"I have had this conversation so many times." - knob-turned-past-uhf
OK Cupid Is Just OK
Whatever Shrug GIF by MOODMANGiphy"OKCupid. Used to be an innovative dating site with a multitude of features that distinguished it from its competitors. Everything went downhill when the Match group bought it." - Vondarrien
"Yeeeeep. I met my husband on OKC 7 years ago with a 96% match rating. Recently when a friend of mine was talking about online dating, I told him to try OKC cause thought it was the best dating site."
"I helped him set up his account and was so confused by the whole redesign and moving to be more like Tinder. Like there are so many swipe dating apps that put your face front and center."
"I loved OKC cause I always just went straight to the questions section to learn more about the person personally, which felt very unique in comparison." - TzarineJador
Outside
Happy Music Video GIF by Chrissy MetzGiphy"Being able to go outside."
"Maybe not so much in the cities, but in the suburbs there was all these open fields and forests to go into, you could stay out till the sun went down just riding your bike."
"Now those fields and forests are paved over and turned into a strip mall. Those big areas with play grounds? Bulldozed for some sh*tty half-a**ed jungle gym."
"Can't go out on the streets no more. Kids get the cops called on them constantly. So much more private property too."
"And if you wanna go somewhere that isn't outside, you better cough up some money. Every place charges you to be there now. And not for long." - igothisway
"When I was in high school in the mid 90s, we'd all pile into somebody's car and go driving on these back woods roads to get to this little town center we'd hang out in."
"It was a half hour ride through rolling hills of one lane forest roads, so we'd get stoned before we got to town and hung out in a coffee shop all evening. A few years ago I was back home and was going to visit the old town so I decided to take the backwoods route, for nostalgia's sake."
"It was all gone!"
"All of it. Just development after development of McMansions the whole way there, punctuated by sh*tty little strip malls."
"It was like something got ripped out of me." - GozerDGozerian
YouTube? YouCant!
Angry GIFGiphy"Try watching YouTube for an hour without adblocker on. It's insane."
"They literally penalize you for using their platform."
"Was watching YouTube with my wife and her mom called. I paused it and surfed my phone while they talked. Took bout 10min."
"When I hit play again, boom, commercial. It was not in one of those yellow ad blocks, We rewound two clicks cause we forgot what happened, get back to the original pause point. Commercial."
"Bout 10sec later, commercial. Minute thirty later, commercial. Thirty seconds after that, commercial."
"Literally unwatchable without adblock!"
"Try it for an hour. Guaranteed you won't make it that long." - Dumb_Dan
Home
xyngular reviews first home GIF by XyngularGiphy"The search to buy your first home used to be exciting and filled with choices. Now it's 'take it or leave it' overpriced homes you can't afford, in a terrible neighborhood. Or continue paying your super high rent." - SloDancinInaBrningRm
"I always thought buying a house would be fun, but three rejected offers later with no irons in the fire, I'm absolutely exhausted and never want to do this again." - ohmygoyd
Is That Patriotic?
GIF by Broad CityGiphy"Patriotism."
"It used to feel like a good thing to be proud of my country, to be grateful for the blessings of living here, trusting that our government is at least trying to do the right thing."
"But now this has devolved into this nasty 'My country first, best, and alone' crap, all others are bad, wrong, and are enemies. It doesn't have to be that way."
"Nationalism is a mess. Just because I love my country doesn't mean I have to hate other countries or their people." - ststeveg
"Used to be I'd see the flag & think yep, that's my country alright! Now I see somebody flying the flag and wonder what kind of nonsense they're involved in or if they're a threat." - booji-boy
"American exceptionalism is a hell of a drug. Needs to be called out more, in my opinion." - hockeyrugby
Now that we're all nostalgic and bummed out, tell us something in your world that used to be way better than it is now.