With technology and nearly everything around us developed in leaps and bounds nowadays, it’s clear that innovation has become one of the driving forces for change in our world. However, not all inventions or innovative solutions have resulted in positive change only, which is why some people would rather that they weren’t invented in the first place.
Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community recently discussed what things they would like to “dis-invent” if they had a chance. With answers ranging from cigarettes to social media, netizens provided some interesting perspectives, which you can find on the list below. Scroll down to view their answers and learn what inventions might not have changed our world for the better.
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#1
Influencers.
Child Beauty Pageants. They just seem really toxic and creepy.
#3
Pop-up ads.
ChefExcellent13:
The creator of them even apologized for creating them.
#4
Mandatory cookies to view websites.
#5
Certain dog breeds, like all the brachycephalic (flat-nosed dogs such as frenchies and bull dogs).
#6
The tipping option when I check out on those computers at the checkout counter.
Euphoric_Wolf7227:
Maybe tips in general. Just pay people for the work they do.
#7
Those nearly-blinding, unnecessarily bright car head lamps.
#8
Spam calls, robo calls, phishing emails.
#9
Coffee Pods – they are disgustingly wasteful.
#10
Cars with screens on the dash. Give me back my buttons and dials goddamn it!!
#11
Slavery.
#12
Planned obsolescence.
Jealous-Network1899:
Here’s my go to planned obsolescence example. My mom bought her first microwave in 1984. It’s traveled to 3 houses and still works perfect. She redid her kitchen and got all new appliances EXCEPT for a microwave. I have lived out of the house for 23 years and have had at least 7 microwaves. They keep cr*pping out and I buy a new one. That is planned obsolescence in a nutshell.
#13
Landmines. Seriously. They f**k up people long after wars are finished.
Redshift_1:
There’s an estimated 800,000 TONS of unexploded ordnance still in Vietnam, that would take hundreds of years to clear out. For context, the bomb dropped in Hiroshima had a yield of about 15,000 tons of TNT.
#14
The medical insurance industry.
Perturabo_Iron_Lord:
The problem with modern insurance is that it’s been completely corrupted with the drive for profit. In a pure form insurance has the potential to be incredibly beneficial to the people who use it, but the profit incentive causes companies to use every trick and loophole in the book to not give out what is owed.
#15
Our two-tiered justice system; One for the wealthy and politically connected, and one for the rest of us.
#16
That dumb paper sticker that gets put on stuff that is IMPOSSIBLE to remove cleanly.
#17
Subscription services. Either let me try it for free then buy it full Price or let me rent it and charge me only for the amount of time I used it for.
Of course, it doesn’t apply to everything. Subscriptions make sense for something like Apple Music, Xbox Game Pass or Costco, but I don’t want to have to pay Adobe 60 dollars a month for Photoshop when I could just rent a license. You don’t subscribe to a car, you just rent it for how many days you need it for.
#18
The concept of lobbying.
#19
Phones and computers in which you can’t easily replace the battery.
#20
Cigarettes.
#21
Social media.
DestinyInDanger:
This! It was innocent in the MySpace days. Then Facebook came along and everything after that ruined it. I don’t see anything good that has come of it. Nothing but toxicity, hate, division and arguing.
#22
TikTok.
#23
Organized religion.
#24
Nuclear bomb probably. Let’s put that back in Pandora’s box.
#25
Patents for Insulin.
lutz164:
I’d say medicinal patents In general, let the prices fall, and the diabetics rejoice.
#26
The packages they put scissors in… that you need scissor to open. Wtf?
#27
Household appliances that are tied to subscription services.
#28
Vapes. Tossed mine in the trash an hour ago, though.
#29
The ad-based internet.
#30
Corporate personhood.
#31
Pyramid schemes
#32
A lot of inventions mentioned here that have had positive outcomes alongside of negative ones. HOA’s however may look good on paper, but hath wrought no good to this world.
#33
Glitter. I seriously consider it to be the worst human invention.
#34
CAPTCHA. That’s not a motorcycle, that’s a moped. And I still don’t think the rider should count as part of the motorcycle.
#35
AI.
OftheGates:
AI for practical purposes like medicine is great. But generative AI in the way we’re mostly seeing it applied has the dual effect of putting us in an information dark age by making anything able to be fabricated, while also ruining industries based on art. Hands down my choice for what needs to be disinvented.
#36
Advertising. The primary goal of advertising is to manufacture desire, and the Buddhists are on to something with the claim that desire is the root of all suffering. It’s the enemy of being content and satisfied with your life. It’s an omnipresent lie that’s repeated over and over that says this or that product will finally make you happy when it never will. It’s contributed to the worst parts of consumer capitalism. Cigarettes, the obesity epidemic, and more generally the mass overconsumption that has led to the rapid degradation of our planet.
#37
Earphonejack-less iPhone.
#38
Plastic.
Kozakyw:
A gift, and a curse.
#39
Agent orange, the chemical not the band.
#40
The algorithms used by real-estate moguls to buy up new homes the moment they’re listed on the market.
#41
House remodels with materials so cheap they instantly need replacing.
#42
Everything that Thomas Midgley Jr invented – specifically leaded gasoline and CFCs (the things that destroyed the ozone layer).
He is the person in history who can be directly attributed to the most environmental damage done by the inventions of a single person.
#43
Autocorrect. It’s like that well-meaning friend who jumps into your conversations with totally off-base corrections. You’re trying to type something heartfelt or important, and it’s over there like, “Did you mean ‘duck’? No, Autocorrect, I did not mean to tell my boss I’ll have the report done ‘ducking soon.
#44
Micro-transactions and live-service games have completely ruined the videogame industry and I don’t see it ever recovering.
#45
40 hour workweek. F**k that guy.