People Are Calling Out Things That Used To Be Great But Are Really Bad Now, And I Agree With A Few Of These Myself
A while ago, Reddit user u/Open-Outcome-660 posed the question, "What’s a thing that used to be great but has now become really bad?"
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And there were so many excellent responses! Here are some of the top-voted answers:
1."The search to buy your first home used to be exciting and filled with choices. Now, it’s 'take it or leave it' overpriced homes you can’t afford in a terrible neighborhood. Or continue paying your super high rent."
"I always thought buying a house would be fun, but three rejected offers later, I'm absolutely exhausted and never want to do this again."
2."The internet in general. I used to be able to search Google for a subject and then get a list of reliable websites to read from. Now, it's 99% crap, ad-ridden sites that all want to sell me shit I don't need."
"It really is awful now. Before, it was great to go to a site, instantly click to wherever you wanted to go, and get the information you wanted. Now, it’s between one and four pop-up boxes for cookie tracking, email subscribing, an ad, or adblocker disabling. And then, there’s the ads…ads everywhere. Paywalls left and right. Endless scrolling on tons of sites instead of concise information and well-considered site navigation and layout. To go back to the days when the worst sin of a website was when it autoplayed music, and you had to search around for the mute or pause button…sigh."
3."Flying. From the shrinking seats, poorly-behaved people, no food, baggage fees, and carry-on fees to questions about plane safety."
4."Social media. When it started or even as far back as 2012-2017, it was fun. Just a platform to post silly, goofy pictures and stay in touch with people...until the rise of the influencers, content creators, and whatnot! Now, it's just a filtered, carefully curated, negative, toxic wasteland."
5."OkCupid. Used to be an innovative dating site with a multitude of features that distinguished it from its competitors. Everything went downhill when the Match group bought it."
"I met my husband on OKC years ago with a 96% match rating. Recently, when a friend was talking about online dating, I told him to try OKC. I helped him set up his account and was so confused by the redesign, and how it was changing to be more like Tinder. There are so many swipe dating apps that put your face front and center. I loved OKC because I always went straight to the questions section to learn more about the person's personally, which felt very unique in comparison."
"It used to be the best dating site. Now they all suck unless you’re gorgeous."
6."Theme parks. Rising crowds, rising ticket prices, rising costs for everything. Last time I went to Disney World, there were, like, seven vloggers all in everyone's way and acting crazed to get on attractions. I wish they would all go away."
7."Cooking websites. Everyone knows the struggle of scrolling through 273 paragraphs of bullshit before getting to the recipe, but now some actual antichrist websites are putting a second page inside the first, where after you get past the 273 paragraphs, it’s like, 'Now, click here for the recipe.' Rage-inducing."
8."MTV. It was so good back in the '90s. Actual music videos, shows that featured artists, MTV Unplugged, Daria, Beavis and Butt-Head, Æon Flux, TRL, Celebrity Deathmatch...Then, Pimp My Ride and Cribs were pretty fun, though it was the start of reality TV-style shows."
9."Thrifting. All the rich kids ruined it."
"Not only that, but the prices they put on some secondhand items these days is RIDICULOUS. You may as well buy them brand new in some cases."
"Kinda reminds me of a comment my uncle made the other day. 'What exactly is trendy about thrifting? I'm shopping here because these are the clothes I can afford.'"
10."Hollywood. They ran out of ideas."
"Movies in general. I feel like they used to have substance, but now everything feels like a cash-grab."
11."Yahoo! Answers. It's dead now, but it used to be fun and worked kind of like Reddit. But then Karens took over...Couldn't even ask a simple question about cooking or anything innocent without getting a lecture."
"The high schoolers ruined it, too."
12."Makeup. In the '90s/early 2000s, you needed concealer, eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara, and some lip stuff to get the standard 'attractive' look. Now, social media makes it seem like you need 100 different primers, fixers, gels, mattifiers, creams, eyebrow tools, and contouring equipment."
"It feels like these fashions (basically the huge eyebrow/eyelash/contoured/glowing looks) are directly a result of companies trying to create new products that nobody actually needed or wanted before."
13."Dr. Martens."
"Yep! My wife bought a pair in 1998, and they're in great shape (obvious wear, but holding up well). The pair I bought a few years ago look just as old now."
14."Disney Channel really sucks now. I miss old Disney, when they actually had good quality shows/movies and talented actors."
15."Being able to go outside. Maybe not so much in the cities, but in the suburbs, there were all these open fields and forests to go into. You could stay out 'til the sun went down, just riding your bike. Now, those fields and forests are paved over and turned into a strip mall."
"Those big areas with playgrounds? Bulldozed. Can't go out on the streets anymore. Kids get the cops called on them constantly. And if you wanna go somewhere that isn't outside, you better cough up some money. Every place charges you to be there now."
16."YouTube. Try watching it for an hour without adblocker on. It's wild. They literally penalize you for using their platform."
"I was watching YouTube with my wife, and her mom called. I paused it while they talked. Took about 10 minutes. When I hit play again, boom, commercial. We rewound two clicks because we forgot what happened, got back to the original pause point, commercial. At minute 30, commercial. 30 seconds after that, commercial. Literally unwatchable without adblock. Try it for an hour. Guaranteed you won't make it that long."
17."AAA games. They used to be really good, but now, it's just big companies putting out unfinished games because they know they will sell."
18."Streaming. Back when Netflix moved away from sending DVDs in the mail, they turned to streaming. You had everything you wanted in one place, for one small price! Now, there are about 15 different streaming platforms. Might as well pay for cable at this point."
19."Cars. They used to be awesome. Affordable. And fixable. Now, they're mostly pieces of crap and highly overcharged. They're faster than they used to be maybe, but the cost isn't worth the parts. And they fail so easily."
20."Geocaching. A few years ago, it used to be amazing good fun, but the app is basically killing it because you have to pay for everything."
21.And finally, "Concerts. I remember being able to go to shows for $15-$30 to see three to five bands in a scummy, poorly lit bar. Everyone had so much fun, just enjoying the music. Now, you’ll never find a show under $50 unless it’s a local unknown band, and everyone’s so aggressive about trying to get to the front and get a photo op for social media that they ruin it for the people who want to go and enjoy the music."
What do you think used to be great, but totally sucks now? LMK in the comments below!
Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
