What modern invention/innovation do you wish had *never* been developed?

[V.C. Brunswick]

Agreed, Evan Everhart.
I would say television - makes people dummer and dummer, instead of watching a good movie or reading a good book they sink into their sofa and get their brain washed by it. Foolish cartoons and series make them dummer, and educational series are only half-truthes and are censored. Besides, it's a tremendous waste of time.
Another modern innovation which I despise is fast-food.

Interesting bit of syncronicity. They say that reading is food for the intellect so it stands to reason that the electronic media is the intellectual equivalent of fast food. And yes, I avoid Les Arcs D'Or like the plague.

 

[John in Covina]

I detest the lack of encouragement and bias against the self-discipline and attention span necessary to read, comprehend, and appreciate a damned book!

It's the texting thing people feel like they have been reading all day, reading is not what is was. Texting small bits of code about ones vapid life while reading about what others are doing is much more constructive for society and civilization.

 

[frussell]

Watching television doesn't impair my ability to spell "dumber." Maybe it was all that Sesame Street. Frank

 

[Widebrim]

Kindle. It's just...unnatural...

 

[Gregg Axley]

Kindle. It's just...unnatural...

And the fact a book can be "taken back" without you being able to stop it. :eeek:

 

[vitanola]

Air Conditioning.

 

[Touchofevil]

Air Conditioning.

For me, it is one of Man's greatest inventions, but I run warmer than most.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Same here. An absolute blessing.

For me, it is one of Man's greatest inventions, but I run warmer than most.

 

[Touchofevil]

Kindle. It's just...unnatural...

I too thought that I would dislike kindle but it makes it much easier for me to get the non musty out of print books I want.

 

[missjo]

I love kindle, can't start a fire without it.
Oh you mean a different kind of kindle?
Don't know what that is, had to google it, books are fantastic, don't want some gadgety thingy to read with.

HATE mobile phones, they played a large part in making society today even less nice.
Don't have one and am proud I don't.

Mind you, I don't have anything post 1940s in my apartment except my laptop that I have a love-hate relationship with, just like with the internet.

I hate TV and don't have one but do think TV is/was a great invention and some superb drama and tv programmes have been made over the decades, so I wouldn't want it to never have been invented.
It is the quality that is the issue here, not the device.

Living in Amsterdam, where a LOT of people own a bicycle and can't live without them, I am very happy to ride my bike from 1937 and have never and will never wear a helmet, even if they make it law.
I doubt they will anyway because it just won't work, just like with smoking in bars, if too many Dutch people don't like it, they will just ignore the law.
Mind you, my bike is like a TANK, they don't make em like that anymore.
When I crashed into a car, the car had more damage then my bike.
I was undamaged but I damaged the driver after he got out of his car.

Skateboards, I agree, ban 'em.
Just like mopeds and scooters.
They have no use and make a lot of noise.

There is just too much to mention.
It might be easier to start a thread about the post 1960s inventions that we don't mind...

 

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

The ambiguous word "issues" Because we can longer say specifically, mental, physical, emotional, genetic, sexual, religious, ethnic, etc. Ahhhhh!
Especially when no names are given, and the people being described are from out of state.

 

[countryclubjoe]

BANKS, CREDIT CARDS, DEBIT CARDS,
Hate em

CCJ

 

[missjo]

Banks aren't really a modern invention, but credit and debit cards, yes hate them.
Mind you, a credit card is easy to avoid, I've never had one.

But what I truly hate about the banks today is that they often don't have proper counters but just an annoying person standing by a 'bar' or high table.
Actual human interaction and proper service is rare and hard to find, they so badly want you to use the machines.

Here in the Netherlands you buy your train tickets from a machine, also not very new, but what is really horrible about it that you now have to use a sort of travel debit card, they are phasing out the nice paper tickets.
And when you decide to use the counter and buy your ticket from a real human... they charge you extra for the privilege.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It might be easier to start a thread about the post 1960s inventions that we don't mind...

Clumping cat litter. It's much better than clay, sand, sawdust, or Oil-Sorb.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Credit cards do have their purpose, especially if you shop online.
Saves dealing with crowds, fighting for a parking spot, and finding out (after you do all this) the store doesn't have your size.
Just keep up with what you spend, and pay it off at the end of the month.

I'll agree with air conditioning, that it's one of the greatest inventions.
In the Summer months down South, when it's 89 degrees at 7am with 85% humitidy, air conditioning is really nice.
I've found around 95 degrees and hotter, there is less crime in my town. Is what you want to steal that important, or can it wait until the fall?

 

[wahine]

GPS
RFID
credit cards
customer loyalty cards (those cards companies give you to "collect" "points", and that are truly only to collect information about you)
everything else that is meant for collecting information on people about their habits, and that's used afterwards to pool "groups of income", "groups of consumption habit", "credit ranking groups" and the like (I think it's ridiculous that you can't make a purchase order on account just because you have the wrong address-age-sex combination, regardless of your real financial credibility)
the Euro currency
"ranking" of countries
and the most perverted of them all: stock exchange trade with staple food

(sorry that I don't know all the correct English words, hopefully you still understand what I'm talking about)

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Banks aren't really a modern invention, but credit and debit cards, yes hate them.
Mind you, a credit card is easy to avoid, I've never had one.

But what I truly hate about the banks today is that they often don't have proper counters but just an annoying person standing by a 'bar' or high table.
Actual human interaction and proper service is rare and hard to find, they so badly want you to use the machines.

Here in the Netherlands you buy your train tickets from a machine, also not very new, but what is really horrible about it that you now have to use a sort of travel debit card, they are phasing out the nice paper tickets.
And when you decide to use the counter and buy your ticket from a real human... they charge you extra for the privilege.

On a somewhat related note electronic "keys" that they give you when you stay at a hotel instead of an actual key to your room.

 

[St. Louis]

I regret the general homogenization of American culture and, I suspect, a similar process in Europe. No matter where I travel in the U.S. I see strip malls, big box stores, and franchises everywhere. I know each of those abominations has been listed in earlier pages of this thread, but I think they're part of a bigger process that really bothers me: the fact that slowly but surely our regional differences are being eradicated. In another generation or two it will be hard to tell a New Englander from a Deep Southerner.

 

[Edward]

I regret the general homogenization of American culture and, I suspect, a similar process in Europe. No matter where I travel in the U.S. I see strip malls, big box stores, and franchises everywhere. I know each of those abominations has been listed in earlier pages of this thread, but I think they're part of a bigger process that really bothers me: the fact that slowly but surely our regional differences are being eradicated. In another generation or two it will be hard to tell a New Englander from a Deep Southerner.

It's common everywhere. It has its upside and its downside, I suppose, but it is a shame to see good things which have survived over time driven out. Camden is but one area of London which is a mere shadow of its former self after gentrification. Still, that's capitalism.... and that is not a particularly new thing.

[video=youtube;BRce8HzHuoM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRce8HzHuoM[/video]

I do miss localism... some of it, at least. I have a fond nostalgia for the peculiarly Northern Ireland brands I grew up with - but certainly not for the conditions which preserved them for so long... And I'd rather a decent, ethical chain than an over-priced, rubbish local one. All things in moderation, as it were. There is certainly a palce for these things; my objections are to them encroaching on areas that are genuinely unique and deserve to be preserved. Savile Row for one: Abercrombie and Fitch deserve to go bust for sullying that ground.

 

[m0nk]

Does reality TV count as a modern innovation? I personally don't think it should, but for those who do consider it to be, I'd like to include it on this list.... the dumbing down of society has increased 10-fold because of this drivel.