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

[Widebrim]

We have a thread about what vintage items have disappeared in your lifetime, but this one asks which "modern" invention/innovation do you wish had never materialized. (For uniformity's sake, let's define "modern" as post-1960 or so, okay?) Granted, many items developed in the last fifty years have been a God-send (medical/dental field comes to mind), but some have not only made life more complicated, but annoying/dumbed-down/unimaginative as well, to validate their existence in the eyes of some of us. So, give it some serious thought, and tell us what you think would have been better left in the recesses of someone's gray matter...

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

Cell phones. I hate them a great deal. My wife and I do not and will not own one.

 

[Shangas]

Dance-Dance-Revolution.

iAnythings.

Segways.

Autotune.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I would immediately have to agree with H_A_S, above!... cell fones and texting devices!!! What dehumanizing devices these have become. Perhaps I should throw in iPods as well and their precursor the 'WalkMan' for the same reason. I guess having said that, I'd have to include the "Boom Box" prior to the 'WalkMan'. No wonder my mates call me a Ludite!! -dixon cannon

 

[Widebrim]

Cell phones. I hate them a great deal. My wife and I do not and will not own one.

That was my first choice, Scotty.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Globalization -- and cellphones. The twin horns on the Devil's head.

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

That was my first choice, Scotty.

It's funny, we have often been accused of lying about not owning one! It is normally people older than us who tell us they can't remember life with out them. Well, I do and I am only 27. Some people try to text our home phone number when we give it to them. Sure they do have their uses, but in my opinion they have overall been a hindrance to communication between folks rather than a help.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

video games

 

[St. Louis]

Besides cell phones: any plastics invented after bakelite or celluloid; high-speed interstate freeways; spandex; strip malls; megabox stores; vulgar situation comedies; multiplex cinemas; office parks; "designer" anything (note ironic quotation marks); huge blank buildings in the middle of a city (rather than human-sized shops and restaurants); those awful new CFL lightbulbs, McMansions; Justin Bieber (sorry ladies); gated communities; celebrities who are famous for lack of talent and absence of virtue; whatever those awful sound-amplifying things are in cars that make my house groan and rattle; botox; Moms of Prostitots; in short, anything bland, faceless, charmless, oversized, overdone, comfortless, pre-digested, and oh, well, you know where I'm going with this.

 

[CharleneC]

The pill.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A few more:

Spandex.
High Fructose Corn Syrup.
The Designated Hitter Rule.
Those new nickels where Jefferson is looking straight at you.
Digital Cinema.
Celebrity chefs.
Synthesizers.
Sport-Utility Vehicles.
Expansion teams.
Those narrow rectangular glasses that make everyone look like they're peeking thru a slot.
Blister packs.
Syndicated talk radio.
Backlit plastic signs.
"Jeggings."
Mechanically-separated meat slurry.
Lip implants.
Monday holidays.
ESPN.
Plastic soda bottles.
Computer animation.
Lawyer ads on TV.
Pharmaceutical ads on TV.
Lawyer-suing-Pharmaceutical-Company ads on TV.
Lawyers endorsing certain Pharmceuticals on TV.
TV.

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

Half these things I've never heard of..... And I am glad of it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And more:

"Manpri" pants.
Restaurants with inscrutable one-word names.
Raised crosswalks made of brick that buckle all up and become ridiculous after one winter.
Plastic-board film shipping boxes.
Sideline reporters at baseball games, which don't even have sidelines.
Pop-top soup cans.
Flavored Alka-Seltzer.
Middle-aged white men who say "Yo, 'sup" when you see them on the street.
Fabric stores who won't sell to anyone who isn't a quilter.
People who say O-M-G and L-O-L out loud in conversation.
Robocalls.
Adult sippy-cups.
Those wool hats with crocheted beards attached.
Interleague play.
Untalented twenty-something blondes who insist on Whitneying-up the National Anthem.
People who call the living room the "Great Room."
The phrase "baby bump."

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Might I add, FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING and the private institution that started it! (Say no more!)
And, that monstrosity that resides in Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan. (Saying no more!)

-dixon cannon

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Cell phones...and most of the built in electronics in autos that many now somehow super crave. GPS to get you somewhere...backup cameras to back you up...sensors to even keep you out of the other lane...and a rescue button to push if you somehow still get lost anyhow,for only a monthly fee. Many are becoming so dependent..they just can't live without them. A continuing download of updates and never-ending re-learn to the latest and greatest 'something else to fail' computer controlled soon to be in 3D digital sound for the forever happily spoiled.
HD

 

[Carl Miller]

There are some excellent examples.

CFL bulbs are a pet peeve of mine.

Electronics in cars

pretty much everything LizzieMaine said.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

There are some excellent examples.

CFL bulbs are a pet peeve of mine.

Electronics in cars

pretty much everything LizzieMaine said.

Agree...everything LizzieMaine said for sure.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Skinny jeans.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Jeans that come from the factory with premade rips & tears & stains.

 

[W4ASZ]

I think the cell phone, and its ilk, and video games have fundamentally altered the way people who use them behave and interact with others - for the worse.

I could really have done without compact discs, too.