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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Lobotomy.
In hindsight very few unlucky people actually underwent lobotomy but still.
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.
Guns. Literally their only purpose is to take the life of another living thing.
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
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..
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.
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.
#Inventions #People #Existed #Sake #Society
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