Indicators of economic development, like the GDP, do not always tell us how people are really doing. Or at least how they feel.
When the Pew Research Center asked 43,000 people from 38 countries if the world is better off now than it was 50 years ago, 43 percent said yes while 38 percent said no.
Interested in what things the latter group blames for their discontent, Reddit user Madbonkersbean made a post on the platform, asking everyone “What invention has most negatively impacted society?” Here are some of the most upvoted replies they’ve received.
Image credits: Madbonkersbean
#1
Subscription based everything.
Image credits: iGhast
#2
Social media
I’ve watched society go from mildly disgruntled over multiple decades, to flat out delusional and insane within 5 years.
Nothing else has touched that many people all at once and undermined how we used to think of ourselves
Image credits: horse1066
#3
> In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Image credits: jzolg
#4
Pop up ads… even the inventor hated it
Image credits: wtiger430
#5
LED headlights. F**k that guy.
Image credits: ProbablyBigfoot
#6
The thing that has the most negative long term impact on society is probably going to be something affecting us right now that we have yet to experience the full ramifications of
My bet is on the widespread presence of plastic in literally everything
Image credits: badgersprite
#7
Religion.
Hands down.
Image credits: Mushu84
#8
Trying to make money of almost every human need.
Image credits: tuvoksnightmare
#9
I think the way that capitalism is designed to bring psychopaths and sociopaths to the top. those heartless f***s would fire their own parents/siblings for personal gain.
Image credits: BiluochunLvcha
#10
Nuclear weapons: devastating impact, global tensions, potential for catastrophic conflict.
Image credits: EtherealSunseet
#11
Infinite Scrolling and I daresay algorithms that feed into an echo chamber.
Image credits: Swimming_Sun_1225
#12
Facebook. Hands down.
Millions of users that are basically technologically illiterate with no critical thinking skills finly connected. They put faith/trust in the articles with attention grabbing headlines that are shared by their peers because they trust their peers and grew up in a time where you relied on the people in your community. But with no critical thinking skills they don’t understand that an article about the earth being flat that was produced by an amateur crystal enthusiast has no scientific basis. They don’t even know at the bare minimum to verify the source.
“Well aunt Edna shared it and she knows a thing or two.”
It allowed misinformation and stupidity to spread incredibly quickly.
#13
AI, wait and see
Image credits: GrumpyGoblin94
#14
Deepfake, the fact this has lead to morphing of many women images to “punish” them or to sexualize them is scary af. Literally feels like revenge p**n
#15
Tiktok
#16
Plastic, right now you have microplastics in every single organ, including your brain.
Image credits: Carnir
#17
Daylight Savings Time, at least where I live. You go forward an hour for spring and summer months, and you go back an hour in fall and winter. If you don’t adjust very well to change, it can be a real b***h.
Image credits: Flat-Investigator-96
#18
Cigarettes killed 100million people in the back 80 years of the 20th century alone.
Image credits: FausttTheeartist
#19
Kid friendly ‘youtube shorts’. I just feel like it ruins the attention span of children, giving them short/one minute attention spans over time. They just get sucked into that s**t. I know it’s not super significant compared to other inventions that could’ve negatively impacted society. I’m trying to think of something that might not have been mentioned here yet lol.
Image credits: Bojack89
#20
Asbestos. I feel very bad for the people who were unknowingly affected by it.
Image credits: beligerentMagpie
#21
Warning labels. They impede the progress of natural selection.
#22
High-fructose corn syrup
Image credits: Moon_Jewel90
#23
Leaded petrol is estimated to have lowered the IQ of everyone born in the 60s and 70s by around 6%.
That’s my excuse anyway, what’s yours?
Image credits: night_of_knee
#24
Guns. Literally their only purpose is to take the life of another living thing.
#25
The invention of Fentanyl. Destroyed so many people, families and frankly society in general.
Image credits: Howry
#26
The 24-hour news cycle .
They have so much time that they have to make more stories to keep you informed. 24-hour news will be our downfall. Half an hour every night is enough.
Image credits: VeryFastTony
#27
Sugar in our food and drinks.
Image credits: PrizedMaintenance420
#28
Coffee pods
#29
Ive got a few here but if i have to pick one:
Fractional reserve banking and fiat currency. Giving the banks power to manipulate the value of currency has been a blight on society, it has been used to enrich the banks and steal wealth of money, i wish we could go back to money being a unit of value not a fiat currency that can be manipulated.
Image credits: SneakyLabradoodle
#30
Everyone here is only drawing from relatively recent examples , but if you go back longer then really alcohol is the winner here as it has had the most long lived and consistent negative impact on all societies around the world.
#31
Industial production of tobacco products.
#32
Nuclear arms race and proliferation…
#33
Shareholder Value
Image credits: PamelaOfMosman
#34
Junk food.
Image credits: yic0
#35
Adding lead to gasoline, adding lead to house paint, using lead pipes … I know that lead is a fundamental element, but exposure to lead in our environment causes cancer and brain damage.
Image credits: Count2Zero
#36
Lobotomy.
In hindsight very few unlucky people actually underwent lobotomy but still.
#37
PFAS
pipocapop:
This should be higher on the list. Almost all waterproof products and stain resistant products contain PFAS. Even fast food wrappers contain them. It is found in majority of water supplies and 90% of people’s blood and we don’t fully understand the health effects. It does not degrade and accumulates in the food chain.
Image credits: Robertorgan81
#38
The 9-5
#39
The leaf blower: Satan’s own instrument.
Image credits: ED_the_Bad
#40
Bitcoin
#41
Highly processed food. I can understand the mass production of it at a certain time but now there’s no need for it. Eat whole foods people. “But it’s expensive” NO IT ISN’T.
#42
The real answer is the misuse of psychological research. People learned how to use words and imagery to manipulate the masses, and it spiraled into modern times: instant gratification at our fingertips, advertisements guiding us by the nose, the dopamine hit of seeing engagement of social media, etc.
Without a good understanding of human psychology, these things might have still come about, but it would have been slower, less effective, and people could have learned. Instead, we have companies that focus on encouraging the populations addictions and marketing the..
#43
The stock market. 100% serious
#44
It’s often speculated that had the cotton gin not been invented, slavery might have ended sooner
Image credits: limasxgoesto0
#45
The snooze button
Image credits: Livid-Ability1653
#46
Smartphones
#47
Protestant work ethic
#48
Kids with early access to the information highway.
My friends child, a 6 year old built a webpage for homework yesterday. It was very basic, but he was asking the right questions and utilizing them while building the site.
And we, my friend and I were talking about how scary this is, because now this child will be bored out of his mind as an adult, and most likely will be depressed beyond what we can imagine. And since this is being done from school and everywhere, we can’t really limit the usage.
#49
The private automobile. Gigatons of carbon in the atmosphere, largest source of microplastics in the ocean, smog, millions of deaths and hundreds of millions of injuries, pollution of fresh water through oil run off and salted roads, fragmentation of ecological habitats by bisecting contiguous habitat with death corridors, promotion of sprawl development, promotion of social isolation and disintegration by creating a culture of McMansions in said sprawl in which they have nothing to do but watch Fox News, defunding or outright destruction of public transit networks, underfunding of sidewalks and bike lanes to the point where obesity-related diseases are destroying public finances.
F**k. Cars.
Image credits: fantasticmrspock
#50
The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in “advanced” countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in “advanced” countries.