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“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention

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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

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Influencers.

satanscough_ , Ivan Samkov / pexels Report

Final score:

375points

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#2

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Child Beauty Pageants. They just seem really toxic and creepy.

evilprozac79 , TLC UK Report

Final score:

352points

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#3

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Pop-up ads.

ChefExcellent13:

The creator of them even apologized for creating them.

AviatorShades_ , Pascale PirateChickan / flickr Report

Final score:

277points

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#4

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Mandatory cookies to view websites.

Mandrake_m2 , BBC Report

Final score:

235points

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#5

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Certain dog breeds, like all the brachycephalic (flat-nosed dogs such as frenchies and bull dogs).

tnderosa , Creative Workshop / pexels Report

Final score:

228points

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#6

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention 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.

PotatoshavePockets , Furry-atack / reddit Report

Final score:

215points

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#7

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Those nearly-blinding, unnecessarily bright car head lamps.

anonicrow , Ali Alcántara Report

Final score:

208points

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#8

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Spam calls, robo calls, phishing emails.

Hungry-panda23 , Karolina Grabowska / pexels Report

Final score:

191points

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#9

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Coffee Pods - they are disgustingly wasteful.

Anim8nFool , Karsten Seiferlin / flickr Report

Final score:

187points

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#10

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Cars with screens on the dash. Give me back my buttons and dials goddamn it!!

bri_2498 , Jeremy Buckingham / flickr Report

Final score:

187points

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#11

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Slavery.

RainbowsandCoffee966 , 60 minutes Report

Final score:

185points

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#12

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention 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.

w0rlds , cottonbro studio / pexels Report

Final score:

181points

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#13

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention 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.

NaughtyDaisyDelight , HH58 / Wikipedia Report

Final score:

173points

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#14

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention 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.

PizzaPastaRigatoni , Pixabay / pexels Report

Final score:

164points

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#15

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Our two-tiered justice system; One for the wealthy and politically connected, and one for the rest of us.

Daflehrer1 , Sora Shimazaki / pexels Report

Final score:

145points

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#16

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention That dumb paper sticker that gets put on stuff that is IMPOSSIBLE to remove cleanly.

BlankWallSpace , WikiHow Report

Final score:

145points

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#17

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention 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.

SwiftlyIntrestedFr , Anete Lusina / pexels Report

Final score:

135points

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#18

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention The concept of lobbying.

Phyose , Sora Shimazaki / pexels Report

Final score:

135points

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#19

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Phones and computers in which you can't easily replace the battery.

MostlySpiders , Fairphone / flickr Report

Final score:

133points

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#20

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Cigarettes.

SageOfShadows54 , Revival Vape / flickr Report

Final score:

128points

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#21

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention 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.

Sarcastic_Fridge , Tracy Le Blanc / pexels Report

Final score:

123points

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#22

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention TikTok.

PurpDoesPixilart , cottonbro studio / pexels Report

Final score:

121points

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#23

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Organized religion.

JayKay11 , Woody Hibbard / flickr Report

Final score:

119points

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#24

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Nuclear bomb probably. Let's put that back in Pandora's box.

Anonymous_katniss , Federal government of the United States / Wikipedia Report

Final score:

116points

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#25

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Patents for Insulin.

lutz164:

I'd say medicinal patents In general, let the prices fall, and the diabetics rejoice.

ApartmentCapital8880 , Mikhail Nilov / pexels Report

Final score:

112points

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#26

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention The packages they put scissors in… that you need scissor to open. Wtf?

AnxiousTelephone2997 , osseous / flickr Report

Final score:

110points

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#27

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Household appliances that are tied to subscription services.

TheJH2M , tomemrich / flickr Report

Final score:

100points

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#28

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Vapes. Tossed mine in the trash an hour ago, though.

whatataco , Lindsay Fox / flickr Report

Final score:

100points

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#29

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention The ad-based internet.

mohirl , BoredPanda Report

Final score:

95points

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#30

Corporate personhood.

LordPenvelton Report

Final score:

95points

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#31

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Pyramid schemes

Mandrake_m2 , Rene Asmussen / pexels Report

Final score:

93points

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#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.

Dreambourne Report

Final score:

89points

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#33

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Glitter. I seriously consider it to be the worst human invention.

Wayard_1 , cottonbro studio / pexels Report

Final score:

85points

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#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.

themightyfoxtwo Report

Final score:

81points

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#35

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention 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.

MooPixelArt , Djordje Petrovic / pexels Report

Final score:

78points

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#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.

lonepotatochip Report

Final score:

69points

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#37

Earphonejack-less iPhone.

ConsistentBroccoli97 Report

Final score:

66points

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#38

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Plastic.

Kozakyw:

A gift, and a curse.

cyper_1 , Gabriel White / pexels Report

Final score:

65points

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#39

Agent orange, the chemical not the band.

punsarelazyhumor Report

Final score:

62points

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#40

The algorithms used by real-estate moguls to buy up new homes the moment they're listed on the market.

NaiveMastermind Report

Final score:

56points

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#41

House remodels with materials so cheap they instantly need replacing.

davemchine Report

Final score:

56points

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#42

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention 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.

HappiHappiHappi , Skitterphoto / pexels Report

Final score:

51points

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#43

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention 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.

negativediscord , Laura Brunow Miner / flickr Report

Final score:

49points

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#44

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Micro-transactions and live-service games have completely ruined the videogame industry and I don’t see it ever recovering.

Phoenix6995 , RDNE Stock project / pexels Report

Final score:

48points

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#45

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention 40 hour workweek. F**k that guy.

Grow-away123 , Anna Shvets / pexels Report

Final score:

48points

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#46

The modern credit system. It rewards bad habits that are simply good for companies.

benhereford Report

Final score:

24points

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#47

Software as a Service. Just release a full new build every few years like they used to.

The concept of the Day One patch. Fix your damn software before shipping!

Sky_Katrona Report

Final score:

22points

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#48

Sticky traps. There are more humane ways. I remember crying my eyes out as a child when I found a lizard on the one my parents had under our computer desk for fleas. I tried saving him and ripped his legs off

riverandthecats Report

Final score:

22points

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#49

Single-knob showers.Those damn things can be turned like 360* around but everyone knows that there’s only a single *molecule* of that distance that doesn’t make the water blazing hot or frigidly cold. Two knobs. Give me my choices back.

Certain_Shine636 Report

Final score:

21points

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#50

I don't know if I could de-invent it but I'd sure like to ban it 24-hour news cycle there was a time when people could read a paper or watch 26 minutes of news in the evening and share what they felt and saw with each other. Now everybody has to have a riot a movement lawyers it's gone insane a lot of these people act like their babies on fire.

WolfThick Report

Final score:

20points

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#51

Those persistent forever chemicals.

AlphaCygnus6944 Report

Final score:

17points

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#52

Microsoft outlook’s search function.

Tellmeirule Report

Final score:

16points

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#53

“I Don’t See It Ever Recovering”: 45 People Shame The Single Worst Human Invention Weapons.

Smart_Chocolate3185 , Wes Dickinson / flickr Report

Final score:

16points

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#54

VX Nerve agent.

FantasticPear Report

Final score:

15points

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#55

Speed bumps (and no,not because I speed. I don't.).

jacyerickson Report

Final score:

12points

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#56

The smart phone. The Internet is great, and cell phones are great. Being able to so easily share your opinion and emotions has been detrimental to our society as a whole.

Aruaz821 Report

Final score:

10points

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#57

Fireworks.

Sharp_Following5753 Report

Final score:

10points

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#58

Stupid grey vinyl flooring.

marpelle Report

Final score:

9points

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#59

Personal automobile. Cars in general are fine, fire trucks and ambulances for instance. But America's cities are designed around cars and made for them instead of people. If the automobile industry hadn't lobbied city officials in the early twentieth century to design city's in such a way that you need a car to live in them, then we could have cities with safe and efficient public transportation. We could have residential areas designed in such a way that you wouldn't need a car, and we could have high speed rail between cities.
Cars are expensive, polluting, inefficient, and worst of all, dangerous.

TheWanderingPrince Report

Final score:

-2points

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Miglė Miliūtė

A writer here at Bored Panda, I am a lover of good music, good food, and good company, which makes food-related topics and feel-good stories my favorite ones to cover. Passionate about traveling and concerts, I constantly seek occasions to visit places yet personally unexplored. I also enjoy spending free time outdoors, trying out different sports—even if I don’t look too graceful at it—or socializing over a cup of coffee.

A writer here at Bored Panda, I am a lover of good music, good food, and good company, which makes food-related topics and feel-good stories my favorite ones to cover. Passionate about traveling and concerts, I constantly seek occasions to visit places yet personally unexplored. I also enjoy spending free time outdoors, trying out different sports—even if I don’t look too graceful at it—or socializing over a cup of coffee.

Viktorija Ošikaitė

I'm a visual editor here at Bored Panda and I enjoy a good laugh. My work ranges from serious topics related to toxic work environments and relationship difficulties to humorous articles about online shopping fails and introvert memes. When I'm not at my work desk, checking if every single pixel is in the right place, I usually spend my free time playing board games, taking pictures, and watching documentaries

I'm a visual editor here at Bored Panda and I enjoy a good laugh. My work ranges from serious topics related to toxic work environments and relationship difficulties to humorous articles about online shopping fails and introvert memes. When I'm not at my work desk, checking if every single pixel is in the right place, I usually spend my free time playing board games, taking pictures, and watching documentaries

What do you think ?

Charlotte A. 7 months ago

"Humans"

9points

Amanda Moore 7 months ago

This should absolutely be the number one answer,lol😋

1point

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DB 7 months ago

Surprised no one mentioned Amazon. People complain Amazon kills local businesses and mistreats workers but you won't stop buying from them.

8points

I just work here 7 months ago

And Walmart. Payment so low most of the workers on medicaid.

5points

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Luis Hernandez Dauajare 7 months ago (edited)

Notice how "influencers" is #1 and landmines is #12? We humans certainly have strange priorities.

5points

Hey! 7 months ago

Yes, but we are more touched by influencers than landmines. If I lived where landmines were it would be higher in my priorities.

3points

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Charlotte A. 7 months ago

"Humans"

9points

Amanda Moore 7 months ago

This should absolutely be the number one answer,lol😋

1point

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DB 7 months ago

Surprised no one mentioned Amazon. People complain Amazon kills local businesses and mistreats workers but you won't stop buying from them.

8points

I just work here 7 months ago

And Walmart. Payment so low most of the workers on medicaid.

5points

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Luis Hernandez Dauajare 7 months ago (edited)

Notice how "influencers" is #1 and landmines is #12? We humans certainly have strange priorities.

5points

Hey! 7 months ago

Yes, but we are more touched by influencers than landmines. If I lived where landmines were it would be higher in my priorities.

3points

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