Facts can and do change as new evidence comes to light—it’s a core part of what science is all about. As we learn more and more about how the world works, we have to update our existing bodies of knowledge.
This does, however, mean that some information that we learned in the classroom can become outdated within our lifetimes, as members of the r/ask online community recently shared in a viral thread. We’ve collected some of these internet users’ insights about what facts have changed since they learned them in school. Scroll down to read what they had to share.
Bored Panda got in touch with the author of the viral thread, redditor u/karatass91. They were kind enough to share a few insights on facts changing over time. You’ll find their thoughts as you read on.
#1
“High school’s gonna be the best four years of your life!”
Reader, it was not the best four years of my life
Image source: astarisaslave, cottonbro studio / pexels
#2
You can’t carry a calculator all day!
Image source: Heximalus, Karolina Grabowska / pexels
#3
Trickle down economics
Image source: DntQuitYaDayJOB, energepic.com / pexels
#4
If you learn well, you`ll get a good job and will have a nice future. Total BS.
Image source: Steven_Dj, RDNE Stock project / pexels
#5
My teachers used to say “Video games will make you braindead.” Turns out video games were all about solving puzzles and problem solving and ended up increasing the cognitive abilities and critical thinking skills for children from a young age.
Image source: dasaigaijin, Jessica Lewis 🦋 thepaintedsquare / pexels
#6
The food pyramid
Image source: drifters74, bigbrand . / flickr
#7
Animals don’t use tools.
Image source: Canadianingermany, Mike R / Wikipedia
#8
Grade school in the US, mid 1970s: We will be converting to the metric system soon.
Image source: tlf555, Los Muertos Crew / pexels
#9
While I was in college biology our teacher said she was forced to teach us that cell walls were rigid because that’s what the text book said but, she told us, it was not true–the phospho-lipid cell wall had just been discovered. So we learned it wrong and corrected all at the same time.
Image source: OutOfBody88, Monstera Production / pexels
#10
That Christopher Columbus discovered America. Just ask native Americans about this one.
Image source: Hungry-Performer-363, Pixabay / pexels
#11
Areas of taste on the human tongue
Image source: prosperosniece, Pavel Danilyuk / pexels
#12
Gen X here.
We’ll run out of oil by 2000.
Image source: RredditAcct, Istiaque Hossain / pexels
#13
That your permanent record really does follow You for Life a bunch of Bologna
Image source: confessionofanartist, cottonbro studio / pexels
#14
Nerves can’t regenerate and electron orbitals are circles. Basically, science keeps getting better and I had no idea these had changed for a long time.
Image source: Accomplished-Bad-481, RF._.studio / pexels
#15
That you have to do lots of extra curricular activities, sports, and volunteer work just to get into any colleg. Joke’s on them. I went to college 10 years after high school so none of it mattered.
Image source: greeneyes826, Mary Taylor / pexels
#16
That microwaves kill all the nutrients in food.
Image source: Acrobatic_Sport_4580, osseous / flickr
#17
A lot of things that we learned about dinosaurs when I was in elementary school turned out to be wrong. We thought they were scaly and reptilian, turns out a lot of them had feathers, and were very brightly colored, and were more like birds in a lot of ways than reptiles. Dinosaurs we thought existed like brontosaurus, turned out to not have actually existed.
Just everything dinosaur. Everything dinosaur was wrong.
Image source: Ambitious-Try-3289, Mike Bowler / flickr
#18
That the English language has comprehensive and consistent rules.
Image source: FafnerTheBear, Ivan Samkov / pexels
#19
Just about everything they taught about nutrition was a lie… which is kinda insane when you think about it. An entire generation who doesn’t know how food works in your body
Image source: pigtailrose2, Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas / pexels
#20
Basically any idea promoted by the D.A.R.E campaign
Image source: Mort332e, Jay Reed / flickr
#21
Blood is blue until it is oxidized
Image source: Blue-Cuboid-Thing, Karolina Grabowska / pexels
#22
Pluto being a planet
Image source: TheKiwiQueen, NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker
#23
1970’s elementary school – Global Cooling was in process. We would be out of oil by the end of the 80’s
Image source: Elvisruth, Guillaume Falco / pexels
#24
Cracking your knuckles will cause arthritis, plus basically everything in history class.
Image source: DanOfAllTrades80, Eren Li / pexels
#25
Eating fat causes you to get fat.
Image source: DMIDY, Towfiqu barbhuiya / pexels
#26
Earth had 4 oceans.
The 5th ocean plot twist was revealed to me in my late 30s. I didn’t know, guys!!
Could someone please update Gen X when this stuff happens? There should at least be a weekly memo or something. We are all over here failing easy trivia questions because no one told us that there was a 5th damn ocean. 🤣
Image source: 27Jarvis, Kellie Churchman / pexels
#27
I before E except after C.
Image source: NateThePhotographer, Houcine Ncib / unsplash
#28
That breast feeding was a form of contraception
Image source: alchemicalqueen, MART PRODUCTION / pexels
#29
That by 1999 all the landfills would be full and we would have to use the Grand Canyon and valleys for our garbage
Image source: ToddHLaew, Leonid Danilov / pexels
#30
That 98% of our genes are unused, a throwback of evolution.
Image source: ArachnidGuilty218, Martin Lopez / pexels
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