Nostalgia is a funny thing. It romanticizes where we’ve been, even if, at the time, we hated it. Or, at the very least, you could say that we didn’t know what we had.
Reddit user u/Open-Outcome-660 asked a question:
“What’s a thing that used to be great but has now become really bad?”
And the responses were very dead on. Here are some of the best ones.
1. MTV
“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.” –u/Sure-Top-4676
2. The Internet. Like, all of it.
“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.” –u/MitoCringo
3. “Thrifting. All the rich kids ruined it.” –u/MWBPLH
“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.” –u/Questions_It_All
4. OK Cupid –u/Vondarrien
“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.” –u/TzarineJador
“It used to be the best dating site. Now they all suck unless you’re gorgeous.” –u/Conatus80
5. Yahoo Answers
“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.” –u/princessmatcha0
“The high schoolers ruined it, too.” –u/Donkey_Kahn
6. Flying
“Flying. From the incredible shrinking seats, poorly-behaved people, no food, baggage fees, carry on fees to questions about planes’ safety.”–u/real_voiceofreason
7. Doc Martens
“Doc Martens.” –u/fiddlenutz
“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.” –u/tmokes242
8. YouTube
“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.” –u/DumbDan
9. Going outside
“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 play grounds? 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.” –u/Igothisway
10. Cooking blogs
“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.” –u/dogbert730
11. AAA Games
“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.” –u/JillyJonas
12. Cars
“Cars. They used to be awesome. Affordable. And fixable. Now, they’re the 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.” –u/Hugebluestrapon
13. Geocaching
“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.” –u/SnufflingGlue
14. Home buying
“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.” –u/SloDancinInaBrningRm
“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.” –u/ohmygoyd
15. Nickelodeon
Late 1990’s Nickelodeon, sooooo good! Rugrats, Angry Beavers, Hey Arnold <3
Don’t forget early-to-mid ’90s Nickelodeon. Ren and Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, Doug, Hey Dude, Salute Your Shorts, Pete and Pete, Alex Mack, Clarissa Explains it All, Legends of the Hidden Temple, GUTS, Pinwheel, Stick Stickley, and so on.