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

[nice hat dude!]

No idea if this is an innovation or not, but I can't stand that all the musical genres have pretty much morphed into one terrible "genre" -- which is basically the same terrible song over and over.

I do like country music to sound county. The 1970s was the best decade for country and I'll accept most of it up until about the early-mid 90s when it began to go "pop." Even "Achy Breaky Heart" has a great country sound to it (I have no shame for my love of this song!)

I do not like that hip-hop has invaded all genres, including metal. Yuck. Popular music began to leave me in the dust sometime in the late 1990s -- exactly when I got into vintage. As someone who really loves music (all kinds) and craves variety, I do not like the current homogenization of crap popular music. There are a few decent acts out today, but they aren't mainstream. Mainstream radio music is what grosses me out most now. ICK! Ok, I do like Lady Gaga, though. Some of her songs are terrible radio drivel, but some of the songs on her albums that don't get played are actually pretty great! I try everything!

That last bit sounded hipster-y...lol But it's true!!!

You mean that country cross over innovation,I hear your pain all my friends want to know why music interests stop at about 1980 well I think you just answered the question.Anybody tells you they don't like Achy Breaky they're the same folks that say they don't like the old Bubble Gummer music ie;Sugar Sugar,Yummy Yummy,Birds And The Bees ect they're just probably lying,IMHO

 

[_Nightwing]

The first 20 that come to mind:

Automated phone systems that make you talk to the machine
Body scanners
Auto-flush toilets
Auto-dispensing paper towels
Hand sanitizer
White colllar fist-bumping
Men who say "we're pregnant."
Single entendre popsongs
The forced first-name basis
Cheap-out CGI
Hair transplants
Breast implants
Botox
Viagra abuse
Steroid abuse
Restaurant crockery and glass made to look normal but actually it's made out of plastic
"Modesty" paper-coverings at the doctor
Forced fake grinning in photographs
Dog poop pick-up laws
Tazers

Also everything that LizzieMaine wrote and will write.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Could not agree more with you!

I do like country music to sound county. The 1970s was the best decade for country and I'll accept most of it up until about the early-mid 90s when it began to go "pop." Even "Achy Breaky Heart" has a great country sound to it (I have no shame for my love of this song!)

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Automated phone systems that make you talk to the machine
Forced fake grinning in photographs

Not only do you have to talk to machine but apparently it's also hard of hearing because half the time you have to shout into the phone. And the fake grinning really drives me round the bend. Sometimes when I photograph friends I'll set up the shot to make them look as natural as possible but when I take the pic they self-consciously assume that stiff phony looking pose.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Men who say "we're pregnant."

*gag*

Will "we" be having an episiotmy?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Another batch:

Automated toilets.
TV weathermen from Indiana who say "nor'easter."
Siri.
Bleached teeth.
Barry Bonds.
Skin-tight bicycle outfits.
Grocery scanners.
Any item ever sold in the "SkyMall" magazine.
SuperPACs
Fruit-scented cigars.
Novelty-colored ketchup.
Those idiotic little $6 halogen bulbs with the little contact pins that break off when you try to push them in the socket.
Sherpa hats worn by people who are not, in fact, sherpas.
Peeing Calvin.
Peeing Calvin's middle-class equivalent: those smarmy stick-figure families.
Peeing Calvin's upper-middle-class equivalent: those smug oval stickers with "ACK" or "OBX" on them.
The Euro.
Underweight bearded prigs who lecture you about eating at McDonalds while they're rolling a cigarette.
Self-service gas stations.
People who buy a new winter coat and then leave the label on the sleeve.
Commemorative quarters with irredeemably ugly designs.
Vegan pet food.
Vanity sizing.

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

Ew, yeah throw Veganism on that list too. I agree with most everything that has been said here. Country music simply ISN'T country any more. I loath rap, hip-hop or whatever else you call that garbage consisting of a mentally impaired individual dressed like a clown babbling incoherently and dancing so it looks as though he is suffering some sort of seizure.

I'd like to throw "The Superbowl" onto the list.

 

[CharleneC]

Espresso

 

[CharleneC]

Ubiquitous pornography

 

[CharleneC]

Excessive portions in restaurant meals

 

[Gregg Axley]

I'm a big Christmas fan, because it reminds me of my grandmother (gone 16yrs now). No matter how she felt, her spirit would pick up after decorating the house, and putting up the tree, as well as playing her Firestone Christmas albums on the console stereo.
That being said....
The innovation/idea to make all those Hallmark Christmas movies.
Thankfully I have the classics on DVD!

 

[_Nightwing]

Peeing Calvin's middle-class equivalent: those smarmy stick-figure families.

Whenever I see one of those I think of this.

Underweight bearded prigs who lecture you about eating at McDonalds while they're rolling a cigarette.

What's the deal with this? I had one end an online friendship once because they found out I eat eggs and they refused to watch me kill myself, and they were smoking during the argument.

 

[HungaryTom]

I wanna be just like you

"Give me the power of the ... red flower"
That's where it all went wrong.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ew, yeah throw Veganism on that list too.

If someone wants to eat a vegan diet that's their own affair -- I have no problem with it at that level. But when they start forcing it on dogs and cats that's where they need to get slapped across the head with a flank steak. Cats are obligate carnivores -- they have a very hard time digesting cellulose, and some of them can't digest it at all -- and forcing them to live on a vegan diet is willful abuse.

I'd like to throw "The Superbowl" onto the list.

I don't mind the game itself, but the show-biz pageantry of the "Event" makes me vomit. Spare me the sight of some superannuated rock diva lip-synching to a song that stunk in 1984. Even if that was good I wouldn't like it.

 

[this one guy]

Christmas retail stats - specifically the reporting of them as if they were sports scores.

 

[kiwilrdg]

Cats are obligate carnivores --they have a very hard time digesting cellulose, and some of them can't digest it at all -- and forcing them to live on a vegan diet is willful abuse

The gasses released when a dog or cat eats a lot of cellulose is abusive to humans that are in the room as well.

 

[nice hat dude!]

If someone wants to eat a vegan diet that's their own affair -- I have no problem with it at that level. But when they start forcing it on dogs and cats that's where they need to get slapped across the head with a flank steak. Cats are obligate carnivores -- they have a very hard time digesting cellulose, and some of them can't digest it at all -- and forcing them to live on a vegan diet is willful abuse.



I don't mind the game itself, but the show-biz pageantry of the "Event" makes me vomit. Spare me the sight of some superannuated rock diva lip-synching to a song that stunk in 1984. Even if that was good I wouldn't like it.

Off topic but I think my cats a little weird she doesn't like any veggies except canned peas which she's absolutely crazy about.Ok I'll let you get back to your regular programming now.

 

[kiwilrdg]

TV weathermen from Indiana who say "nor'easter."

It is surprising that any weathermen would attribute a storm to a Nor'Easter anywhere except along the Atlantic coast (which is part of the definition of the type of storm). A Nor'Easter can produce effects comparable to and sometimes worse than a hurricane but they are an unorganized storm system and seldom penetrate very far inland.

 

[vitanola]

Could not agree more with you!

Country music went bad after Uncle Dave Macon passed on.

Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers are about as modern as I get with the twangy stuff.

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

If someone wants to eat a vegan diet that's their own affair -- I have no problem with it at that level. But when they start forcing it on dogs and cats that's where they need to get slapped across the head with a flank steak. Cats are obligate carnivores -- they have a very hard time digesting cellulose, and some of them can't digest it at all -- and forcing them to live on a vegan diet is willful abuse.

I don't mind the game itself, but the show-biz pageantry of the "Event" makes me vomit. Spare me the sight of some superannuated rock diva lip-synching to a song that stunk in 1984. Even if that was good I wouldn't like it.

I don't care what a person does with their own life either. But to be honest, I have never encountered a Vegan who wasn't determined to change what I do with mine. My wife's mother partly disowned her because of her refusal to become a Vegan. Further, I find the entire idea to be simple absurdity.

Well my opinion in this is certainly not going to be popular but, I simply loath everything to do with the so called sport. Years of attending Superbowl parties as a kid and wondering why people would jump up and scream like mad men over something that is otherwise irrelevant when I don't see them doing that for anything that genuinely matters makes no sense to me. Watching grass grow would be more entertaining and you might even get the occasional snail to observe. Finally I think it seriously unfortunate that this country glorifies sports figures above all else.