Our world moves at a staggeringly quick pace. Just think of how far humanity has come and how much we’ve all achieved in the last few decades alone. Whether it’s the slew of devices and gadgets or new fads, techniques, and patterns that seep into our day-to-day lives, it’s simply fascinating to watch how innovation unfolds right in front of our eyes.
But as we all know, time is a cruel creature. While we feel amazed by many technologically updated trends that make everything easier, this also means we have to say goodbye to some common everyday activities that were once a thing but not anymore, for better or worse. So one person who goes by pachungulo on Reddit decided to take a trip down memory lane and asked fellow community members: “What are we no longer in the golden age of?” And the thread immediately became a hit.
Thousands of people jumped at the chance to share what heydays we’ve left behind us. From nostalgic memories that warm our sentiment-addled hearts to obsolete things we already wish to forget, Bored Panda has gathered some of the most interesting examples to share with you all. So continue scrolling to enjoy the list, upvote your favorite entries, and be sure to share your own insights below in the comments!
#1
Reason, we are quickly devolving back into the Dark Ages where superstitions ran wild and the clergy dictated what is “truth”
Image source: random06
#2
Ownership.
I feel like we all just rent, borrow, stream, digital download, or straight up just consume and rebuy low quality products.
Image source: truci, Glenn Carstens-Peters
#3
Shopping Malls, they are super dead and getting a little deader every day
Image source: yitawo2335, Wendy Wei
#4
Journalism.
Image source: jayawir451, CineDirektor FILMS
#5
Streaming. There was a blissful 10 years where basically everything was on one or two platforms. Now we’ve more or less re-invented television with the fracturing of media platforms (but on demand, which is still an improvement but come on, it was so nice for a while there).
Image source: Notmiefault, John Schnobrich
#6
Democracy/Governance
Government for the people by the people has slowly slipped away thanks to money/power in politics. Elections don’t matter anymore, because the system is set up to corrupt whoever is in power.
Image source: jayawir451, Arnaud Jaegers
#7
Architecture.
At least not here in the UK, we seem to be obsessed with making loads of s****y carbon copy houses that haven’t in the slightest got any character. Bring back locally sourced materials and good community layouts not these cold sack bollocks.
Image source: bebivat845
#8
The middle class worker.
Wages relative to inflation have stagnated for years and the wealth gap is growing faster than ever. Further, this wealth has been used to tilt the scale even more towards those with means which accelerates the trend. On top of the dismantling of protections and creation of even more inequalities through law, technology is playing a role too through automation which seems poised to send even more wealth up to those with the current means to develop and deploy new wave automation.
Image source: xipiba2381, fauxels
#9
Internet for sure. Everything is way too centralized now and the majority of internet traffic goes to small number of sites. I miss forums and personal webpages. We should bring those back..
Image source: Aaronnoraator, Pixabay
#10
Neighborhoods full of kids.
I think the 90’s were peak.
Image source: ImpressiveShift3785, Annie Spratt
#11
Mobile games. I mean Jesus f*****g Christ I’m a gamer, and I despise mobile gaming in its current form.
Micro transaction riddled ad displaying b******t apps
Image source: bebivat845, Beata Dudová
#12
Society. It’s no longer about community and looking out for your neighbour. It’s now normalised that to think “Screw everyone else, as long I get what I want”.
Image source: Mongorize
#13
Gig economy. There was a brief moment when AirBnb and Uber was cheap, unique and awesome.
Image source: jceez, Uriel Mont
#14
China tea sets.
Image source: TheCheapo78, Karol K
#15
Comedy movies. Honestly, what’s the last blockbuster comedy movie you saw in a packed theater?
Image source: turns31, Krists Luhaers
#16
Fishing.
We’ve [took out] so many fish it’s a f*****g tragedy. By some estimates we’ve [took out] 90% of the world’s shark population alone. Reading old books and running into offhand comments about fishing is depressing as hell.
I love seafood, but we need like a decade-long commercial fishing hiatus followed by much stricter limits and better regulations. There are a bunch of really dumb rules right now; bycatch is wasted, for example. Let’s get by on sport-caught and farmed seafood for a while and let the fishes come back.
Fishing now is nothing whatever like it was even fifty years ago. A century ago it was like another planet. And this is coming from a kiteboarder, somebody to whom sharks are a genuine threat.
Image source: kavek88916, Fredrik Öhlander
#17
YouTube.
Image source: GinjaNinja1027, Christian Wiediger
#18
Radio
Image source: soIstartBlasting, Eric Nopanen
#19
Halloween trick or treating. I used to get anywhere from 25-50 kids to my door every year. Now I’m lucky if I see 10. People are not doing it anymore.
Image source: Rukawork, Jakob Owens
#20
House ownership
Image source: meatballlover1969, Alena Darmel
#21
CDs
Image source: Inivieni, Rudolf Ammann
#22
Medicine
Doctors talk about this all the time. Medical education has skyrocketed in price but payments for seeing patients and doing procedures have been steadily declining. Most doctors make about half in wealth than what they used to make only 20-30 yrs ago. And most leave school with 1/3 to 1/2 of a million in debt. Not to mention complete lack of control and power within the healthcare system, as the whole thing is now run by businessmen, insurance companies and nursing administrators.
If it wasn’t for the work itself, which is rewarding about 20% of the time, I’d quit. Oh and the debt. I can’t quit because of the debt.
Image source: hiyer2
#23
Music videos. So much money was spent on music videos in the 80s and 90s. We are talking six figures. Today, only artist at the very top get close to that kind of money for music video budgets. With the accessibility of the internet and the speed of which pop culture changes, it’s not worth putting that much money into a music video anymore.
One could argue the quality has gotten better but If budgets did increase again, there could be some pretty awesome music videos today.
Image source: ilikemychickenspicy, Give a shoutout to
#24
Kanye West
Image source: TheNewFrankfurt
#25
The old og app store games. Now we have false advertisements for the current app store games.
Image source: CDTED, Brett Jordan
#26
Sitcoms. It’s all different now. It doesn’t feel the same anymore.
Image source: thefireemojiking, tylerhoff
#27
Comic books – no feeling like rushing down to the comic book store (yes a whole store dedicated to comics) with some allowance and buy the latest Punisher or Spiderman series. The thrill of flipping through those huge boxes of comics to find ones you liked, the smell of the paper, the neckbeard at the counter (who was super-nice to us).
#28
Cities, they are practically all car infested pieces of s**t with no thought given to anyone outside of cars.
Image source: YetAnotherFinnishGuy, BLACKTATOR
#29
Kids cartoons for sure. The golden age was clearly like 1995-2007. SpongeBob, courage the cowardly dog, ed Ed and Eddy, basically everything was a classic back then and I don’t think anything has matched that level of creativity. Adult cartoons certainly fall into his category as well.
Image source: Altruistic_Media_299, Karolina Grabowska
#30
Capitalism.
Image source: TooClose2C, Karolina Grabowska
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