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

[Dixon Cannon]

Neapolitan Ice Cream

Are you kidding? That's all I buy!...it's like getting three for the price of one! (Hmmm...maybe it's a trick to get me to eat more ice cream!!)

-dixon cannon

 

[LizzieMaine]

Plastic spoons given with Hoodsie cups. Half the fun is the taste of pine wood mixing in with the ice cream.

 

[CharleneC]

Music videos

 

[Edward]

It sounds like you may be alluding to the typically conflated understanding of what "discrimination" is. Many people confuse discernment with discrimination and claim that taking a moral stand on an issue is automatically equivalent to discrimination, which it definitely is not.

No, I'm too much a lawyer to make that mistake. Though 'discernment' might be as much a value judgement as anything.

Taking the view that the practice of homosexuality, for example, is ungodly and sinful in nature is not discrimination.

Of course it is not. And those who espouse such a view are fully entitled so to do, within the limits of the law.

Naturally, this does not potect them, nor should it, from being criticised by those who consider them bigots. And vice versa... Freedom of speech only truly exists where both are free to critique the other.

Refusing to give someone a job that they are otherwise the best candidiate for purely because they are gay (and any other similar practice) is discrimination and is and well ought to be illegal.

Likewise the form of discrimination to which my post referred: those who seek to deny legal rights that they themselves enjoy to others, despite the fact that the enjoyment of said rights by the latter affects the former not one jot. This is discrimination, yet there are those who choose to cry that they are being discriminated against simply for being denied the chance to see such discrimination continue to be enforced by the state.

The issue of abortion is a far knottier issue which is not purely a morality question, but for fear of completely derailing the topic at hand, namely modern stuff we wish wasn't invented, I will reserve any comment on that issue for another time and place.

The law (and sometimes even morality) is all shades of grey.

 

[countryclubjoe]

Lite beer

Frozen boxed PIZZA

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The Spork, that infernal tool of the Devil that doesn't seem to do the job of either very well.

 

[Shangas]

I hate plastic cutlery. Especially when they give it to you to eat food that could NEVER be eaten with plastic cutlery.

Like meat. Have you ever tried slicing steak with a knife and fork made out of the same stuff as your pencil-sharpener?

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

The Spork, that infernal tool of the Devil that doesn't seem to do the job of either very well.

Doesn't the spork go back a bit further than 1960 though? I know they were in use during WW1 and WW2.

 

[Shangas]

A "utensil"...called the Field Ration Eating Device was created during the early 20th century, for Australian soldiers to eat their meals and rations while on the go, and in the field (hence the name).

Apparently, it was so difficult to use, it was renamed/nicknamed as the F***ing Ridiculous Eating Device.

Here is a photograph of the FRED:

As you can see, it's part spoon, knife, can-opener, and bottle-opener.

What, no fork?

 

[kiwilrdg]

As you can see, it's part spoon, knife, can-opener, and bottle-opener.

It is a vast improvement over the American P-38 can opener. It may be of little use as a spoon but the spoon portion makes it much easier to use as a can opener because it is big enough to get a good grip. Anyone who has ever tyied to open a #10 can with a P-38 will know what I mean. Sometimes the things that make a device bad for one thing can provide more benefit in another way.

 

[John in Covina]

One thing that I really don't like is the sense that one is "On Call' 24 hours a day. The sense that if you're not monitoring all of the social media and responding to cell phone texts and calls immediately - you not 'with it' and some how selfish...

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I wish texting was never invented. I will call someone to ask a question or carry on a conversation. They never pick up so I leave a message. They never return my phone call. The next time that I see them they always say "you should of texted me." YOU HAVE A PHONE!!! I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOU!!!

 

[nice hat dude!]

I wish texting was never invented. I will call someone to ask a question or carry on a conversation. They never pick up so I leave a message. They never return my phone call. The next time that I see them they always say "you should of texted me." YOU HAVE A PHONE!!! I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOU!!!

Or better still Bruce kids will be sitting on the same school bus with each other texting back an forth..go figure?

 

[John in Covina]

Humans were once social beings, texting will make it so we don't speak one another and eventually the human race will collapse when we dont reproduce

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, they'll find a way to do that electronically, and they'll call it "progress."

 

[Shangas]

Oh, they'll find a way to do that electronically, and they'll call it "progress."

Isn't that already possible?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, I do know a lot of gals who really, really love their I-Phones.

 

[nice hat dude!]

Isn't that already possible?

I think they call it cloning........oops off topic.

 

[Shangas]

Yeah that's what I was thinking of.

This is purely a local thing for me, but one thing I could certainly do without is MYKI.

For those who don't know what MYKI is, it's the new ticketing-system that we have on trams around town. And it is a pain in the ass.

Basically, you charge your card with money from your bank-account, and you touch-on everytime you get on a tram.

Easy enough.

But if you lose the card...you have to buy another one.

If you lose the card. You can't buy an ordinary ticket anymore.

You MUST use the card.

If you're a tourist, you must buy a card. How you get the money to put into the card is up to you.

And then you have to swipe it. And it may not always work. So then you have an invalid card.

You can no-longer buy the original cardstock transport-tickets anymore. you MUST use the Myki card.

Whoever dreamt up this ridiculous system should be dragged into the street and shot in front of a crowd.

 

[sheeplady]

One thing that I really don't like is the sense that one is "On Call' 24 hours a day. The sense that if you're not monitoring all of the social media and responding to cell phone texts and calls immediately - you not 'with it' and some how selfish...

I do think the 24/7 expected work schedule is the absolute horrific thing that has come out of cell phones and email. I actually know a woman who left a job (which she did a darned good job at) because the dean of the school chewed this woman out for not answering an email that the dean sent after midnight.... until 8 am the next morning. The dean demanded that this woman get a cell phone with email capability so she could contact her anytime of the day or night, irregardless of the severity of the situation (which believe me, is never severe in these people's lines of work) or the activities the other person was involved in.

There are some jobs in which having a cell phone has made life so much easier and better- for instance- I had friends growing up who couldn't use their home phones when their parent(s) were on call because they worked in healthcare- in fact, the family couldn't leave the house to even go grocery shopping because they had to be by the phone. But other than those few professions, most work can wait until the next day.