What's something modern you won't miss when it becomes obsolete?

[RadioWave]

I saw this question posed on another website, and figured it'd be appropriate for the lounge. What inventions/concepts could you gladly do without?

 

[shopgirl61]

Mark Zuckerberg.

 

[rue]

^ :rofl:

 

[Formeruser012523]

I was gonna say "facebook", but I like that answer better. :laugh:

 

[rue]

also......Twitter... formspring.... myspace.... etc.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Multiplex theatres.
The Designated Hitter rule.
Tap water sold in plastic bottles.
Talk radio.
"Upscale," both the word and the concept.
Capri pants on men.
Textured soy protein.
"Helicopter parents."
Wikipedia.
People who quote Wikipedia to win debates on internet fora.
People who say "internet fora."
Introspective singer-songwriters.
Grassroots movements created by marketing consultants.
Marketing consultants.
Pop-top soup cans.
Those new nickels where Jefferson is looking straight at you.
People who call their living room the "Great Room."
Celebrity chefs.
Monopoly played with a credit card.
People who go to gallery openings just to slurp up free wine and cheese and then think they're supporting the creative economy.
Pretentious indie documentaries.
Sideline interviews.
High-fructose corn syrup.
Modern takes on the Classics.
Digital 3D movies.
Middle-aged men with ponytails.
Businesses with cutesy names.
Arty black-and-white photos of depressed teenage girls.
The word "edgy."
Chin-strap beards.
Smarmy commercials for erectile-dysfunction products.
"All Natural" junk food.
Fad websites.
Exploitation books based on fad websites.
Spray-on tans.
People who go to ballgames only to get blind stinking drunk and always end up sitting behind me.
"Pay Per Bag" at the city dump.
Ken Burns.
People who sneak their own snacks into the movies and think they're "sticking it to the Man."
Power windows.
Singers who stretch every word in the National Anthem out to six syllables, and then forget the lyrics halfway thru.
Helvetica.
Standup comedians who know only one joke.
"Comfort Socks" that are not comfortable.
People who think the Sherwin-Williams paint logo is environmentally insensitive.
Men who brag about the size of their TV screens.
Styrofoam packing peanuts.
Smirking irony.

 

[mflemming]

The iPhone and all its misbegotten ilk.

 

[Shangas]

iThings. Anything with an i in front of it. iPod, iPad, iPhone...*yawwwwn*

 

[mflemming]

Great minds think alike.... Or is there just an echo in here here here?

 

[scottyrocks]

also......Twitter... formspring.... myspace.... etc.

As ridiculous as facebook is, twitter is actually facebook cubed when it comes to stupidity.

 

[Pompidou]

I won't miss gasoline and its price at the pump.

 

[Lady Day]

Pretentious snark about modern technology.
And Justin Beiber.

LD

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

"Reality" TV. Gargantuan T-shirts and equally gigantic pants/shorts ensembles. Flip flops that go with said aforementioned garments. Baseball hats worn by those other than ball players, especially women. Rap music. Anything "Gangsta" The Orwellian concept of political "correctness".

 

[Shangas]

- Tweeny teeny pop-singers. Justin Bieber. Rebecca Black. Cody Simpson. Need I name anymore such sickening names? Whatever happened to singers who had actual talent?

- "Designer" jeans.

I don't care what you call them. Saggers, ripped, acid-washed, sandblasted, designer-ripped, hip-huggers, crotch-crushers...Can't we just have trousers that are TROUSERS anymore?? The day those things go out of fashion won't be soon enough for me. Along with logo T-shirts, hoodies and fugly baseball caps.

- "Reality" TV. *Yawn*. If I want reality I'll watch the news.

 

[Gray Ghost]

Cell phones, cell phones, and oh did I mention cell phones.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Manufactured "outrageousness."
Manufactured "rebelliousness."
Manufactured "spontaneity."

 

[Yeps]

Pretentious snark about modern technology.
And Justin Beiber.

LD

Agreed on both counts.

Also CDs and DVDs. I am glad they replaced tapes, but I am perfectly fine having my media in incorporeal form (plus my old records that I keep picking up from my school's library sales). It is interesting that there is still a market for vinyl records, and new ones are being pressed even though it is three or four technologies ago.

 

[Edward]

Pretentious snark about modern technology.

YES.

Manufactured "outrageousness."
Manufactured "rebelliousness."
Manufactured "spontaneity."

Haven't those always been around? The second is tedious, but not nearly so much as the first.

Agreed on both counts.

Also CDs and DVDs. I am glad they replaced tapes, but I am perfectly fine having my media in incorporeal form (plus my old records that I keep picking up from my school's library sales). It is interesting that there is still a market for vinyl records, and new ones are being pressed even though it is three or four technologies ago.

I like vinyl and CD. The latter is technically inferior in terms of sound quality (though most of us will never notice that), but wins out on convenience. Can't stand downloads, though: inconvenient, overpriced, and inferior sound quality. I'm also a collector, and I'd hate to not have the physical objects available.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Haven't those always been around? The second is tedious, but not nearly so much as the first.

The real onslaught of manufactured outrageousness/rebelliousness/etc starts with the fifties, I think. You had intimations of it earlier, but it wasn't until the whole "Join The Beat Generation!" campaign in the late fifties that you really started to see the cynical appropriation and exploitation of such things. The sixties and seventies saw it explode, and today it's so much a part of the culture that few people know the difference between a real rebel and a marketing-created one. When you buy the accoutrements of your "rebellion" at the mall, you're no rebel -- you're just as much a tool of the system as the most rigid conformist.

And that's another thing I won't miss. Modern marketing -- focus-grouping, demographic targeting, all that stuff. One of the most corrupting influences western culture has ever had.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Pretentious snark about modern technology.

LD

This.

LAME. *yawnnnnn*

Modern technology brings me closer to vintageness. Without my iPod, no vintage music or OTR -- since my husband is not really a fan.
Facebook brings me closer to family and old friends who have moved away. I've also met some real great vintage-loving gals whom I'd *like* to meet one day! What's bad about that? Please let me know how this is negative.
Cell phone brings me closer to my husband when he is away in the military. Again, can someone please tell me how evil this is?