I Wish ... Was Never Invented

[Sue J]

Disposable diapers.

Yes, I know cloth ones create a lot more work rinsing, soaking, washing/drying.
Bit my kids never had diaper rashes when we used them, the ones I bought for #1 kid lasted through #2.
Plus make wonderful cloth rags afterwards.
And now they have cute snap cloth covers instead of the silly elastic plastic ones.

I bought my DD a month of newborn diaper service when DGS was born. She tried them one day and then used them only for burp cloths!
I get that disposable ones are more handy, especially when out of the house, and daycare requires them, but they are spendy and don't degrade very well.

My mother got us 4 months of diaper service when our kids were born in 1984 and 1987. I loved it and offered to do the same for our son and DIL when they had babies in 2018 and 2021. They wanted to use the disposables so instead of diaper service I paid for the disposables for 4 months.

I agree about the leaf blowers!

 

[Gumby]

"Exhilarating" sort of like nighttime carrier landings?

It is a regular occurrence on these entrances that there is a line of cars waiting for a break in traffic to pull out. Finally, the guy in front sees his chance and starts out. The guy second in line figures he can make it onto the road as well, so he follows hard on the heels of the first guy. Then the first guy chickens out and stops short. Almost invariably, the second guy rear-ends the first guy, because he's watching the oncoming traffic on the parkway and not the guy right in front of him who just stopped.

 

[COcheesehead]

Fulfilling grocery delivery/pick up orders during normal grocery store hours. I loathe those big carts roaming the aisles.
Cable news channels.
Tests of the emergency broadcast system. Only a test.
Battery powered smoke alarms.
Single ply, thin toilet paper.
Eye exams that make me decide between one or two, three or four. Shouldn’t we be beyond this?

For someone who mentioned K cups, Nespresso pods are recyclable. They even give you a postage paid package to ship them back.

 

[MichaelB]

High fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oil. I’m on the fence about gunpowder and plastics, because they do have some useful benefits.

I think it is the nature of the human species to invent, then use, then abuse.

 

[Jerry1]

I like the roundabouts. They're putting more of them up around me as they improve the roads. The thing about a roundabout is that you have to go for it. I can see how timid people would hate them. If they're crowded, you have to pick your opening and go. I'm fine with that.

What I do find hard to deal with is when that attach it to an expressway on/off ramp as show in Q's Laptop's post above. That gets to be a little too much for me.

 

[audreyh1]

High fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oil. I’m on the fence about gunpowder and plastics, because they do have some useful benefits.

I think it is the nature of the human species to invent, then use, then abuse.

And overuse and waste apparently!

 

[jazz4cash]

Social media

You mean like chat rooms and forums?

 

[fidler4]

These things.

 

[Qs Laptop]

These things. View attachment 46141

OH heck yeah! Hate those things.

 

[Qs Laptop]

What I do find hard to deal with is when that attach it to an expressway on/off ramp as show in Q's Laptop's post above. That gets to be a little too much for me.

Bingo. People coming off the freeway at roundabouts ignore or don't see the yield sign on their approach. Every time I go past that roundabout I have my hand poised over the horn button.

 

[aaronc879]

Gas powered leaf blowers, hate the noise

My neighbor just bought the loudest gas powered leaf blower I have ever heard. It is so loud I have to go to the basement to escape the noise. I don't understand why anyone buying a new leaf blower would buy gas when battery powered like EGO has become such high quality.

 

[EarlyandLate]

I learned to love roundabouts when stationed in England back in the 80s. Some in the cities were four lanes wide, maybe more. They were huge. Once you learn to use them they’re easy.

One of my former bosses who was English would often say "What you gain on the swings, you lose on the roundabouts." Everyone would just stare at him uncomprehendingly.

 

[Midpack]

Lots of intolerance, but we all have our biases

Great things
AI
Roundabouts (wonderful)
Smartphones (incredibly useful)
Smoke alarms, preferably hard wired

Neutral
Leaf blowers
Tip culture
Billboards (never had a problem ignoring)
Drones (non military)
Robocalls - don’t answer if it’s not among your contacts, simple - and you’ll probably get fewer if you stop answering
Digital assistants like Alexa, don’t use them if you don’t like them
Grocery shoppers (don’t use them if you don’t like them, they’ve never gotten in my way, they’re just providing a service some people evidently want)

Bad things
AI
K-cups
Debt ceilings
Most social media (though participants are largely what make them bad) and corporate media (because corp $ drive what we see and hear)
Spam, spam, spam emails
US tax code (unnecessarily complex and social engineering) - but it’s all been bought and paid for, so it’s not going to improve
HFCS
Partially hydrogenated oils
Single use plastics (should be illegal)

 

[rodi]

I have to agree with both k-cups (the disposable ones that the vast majority of keurig users use) as well as the pods for other machines (nescafe, etc). Too much garbage.

And I have to agree with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Traffic circles I have mixed feelings about. There's one near me that was on my way to my step-mom's hospice board and care... People treated it as the 'main street' had right of way, and the cross street had to yield. I was almost hit, while in the traffic circle on more than one occasion because of idiots. But in another neighborhood near me - people follow the rules and traffic flows.

 

[COcheesehead]

Grocery shoppers (don’t use them if you don’t like them, they’ve never gotten in my way, they’re just providing a service some people evidently want)
)

I made the original comment and I don’t understand your response. I don’t have a choice. The carts picking orders for delivery/pick up are store employees fulfilling orders during the day and are constantly in the way.

 

[Gumby]

These things. View attachment 46141

You can get regular replacement caps and spouts. I did.

 

[jollystomper]

Every invention has its upside and downside. Unfortunately few see the downside of a new invention until well after its "newness". But that is human name, in my view .

 

[COcheesehead]

I have to agree with both k-cups (the disposable ones that the vast majority of keurig users use) as well as the pods for other machines (nescafe, etc). Too much garbage.

And I have to agree with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Traffic circles I have mixed feelings about. There's one near me that was on my way to my step-mom's hospice board and care... People treated it as the 'main street' had right of way, and the cross street had to yield. I was almost hit, while in the traffic circle on more than one occasion because of idiots. But in another neighborhood near me - people follow the rules and traffic flows.

We just use a Nespresso machine and recycle the pods in a postage paid envelope.

 

[Gumby]

I cut open every k-cup we use and save the grounds for the composter. The cups go in the trash, which gets burned in a trash-to-energy electric plant here in CT (we don't have landfills).

 

[audreyh1]

We just use a Nespresso machine and recycle the pods in a postage paid envelope.

Same here.

 

[Amethyst]

I don't understand why people seem to have such a bad time with Facebook. Since joining many years ago, I've had a much easier time communicating with distant relatives and friends, plus I've found kindred spirits who enjoy the same niche hobbies I do.

As for the political and other nonsense that bothers so many others, I a) don't befriend the kinds of people who spout politics [my friends circle is very small] and b) I don't click on any stray nonsense that wanders into my feed. I've even made purchases from some well-targeted ads that serve niche interests of mine, and I routinely tell unwanted ads [usually age-based junk, such as grandma clothes] to take a hike.

 

[COcheesehead]

I don't understand why people seem to have such a bad time with Facebook. Since joining many years ago, I've had a much easier time communicating with distant relatives and friends, plus I've found kindred spirits who enjoy the same niche hobbies I do.

As for the political and other nonsense that bothers so many others, I a) don't befriend the kinds of people who spout politics [my friends circle is very small] and b) I don't click on any stray nonsense that wanders into my feed. I've even made purchases from some well-targeted ads that serve niche interests of mine, and I routinely tell unwanted ads [usually age-based junk, such as grandma clothes] to take a hike.

I agree. I cleaned up my contact list a few years ago (anyone posting political stuff I dropped) and use it to stay in touch with distant friends and relatives. I also like the groups. I am part of several groups I have an interest in. People forget, you can control what you see.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I agree. I cleaned up my contact list a few years ago (anyone posting political stuff I dropped) and use it to stay in touch with distant friends and relatives. I also like the groups. I am part of several groups I have an interest in. People forget, you can control what you see.

My drug addicted brother threatens to kill me, my wife, daughter, our mother and her sisters plus their friends on Facebook regularly. Great invention...........no help or control from anybody.

Controlling what you see is one thing, controlling what 99% of the people you contact is not possible.

 

[GenXguy]

Music. I would be a lot happier today if it never existed.

 

[badatmath]

smart phones