10 things that the future generations will find mind-boggling about the current times

Shocked by the past

Oftentimes people hear their previous generations' stories and can't help but think, "What were they on?" Certain behavioral patterns were just unhinged. Speaking of our current generation, from smoking to sheer carelessness about the environment and many similar acts, they just go with it without any care about consequences. The present generation doesn't have the information that the future will hopefully have in their hands as upcoming generations get a chance to learn from the mistakes made in the past. u/SixandNoQuarter asked the question, "What is the current thing that future generations will say, 'I can't believe they used to do that?'" The answers covered everything from science to societal drawbacks. Here are 10 things done by people in the present that are sure to shock individuals in the future out of their minds.

1. Internet addiction

This is wishful thinking but, post their entire f*****g lives onto the Internet. u/BoomerQuest We'll probably have to wait to see how Gen Z's children react to their parents' habits. u/thx1138 My Gen Z kids are pretty selective about what they post. Also, they will purge everything off their pages every few months. I know that’s a small sample but they act like everyone their age is the same on social media. u/digitydigitydoo  I think there might have been a tipping point like 10 to 15 years ago where we could have stopped for a second and gone "I am not going to act the fool on this forever machine". I feel like we've dove off a cliff with cement shoes on this one. u/Mike7676

2. Constant use of plastic

Science: "This plastic stuff is really difficult and expensive to recycle, never truly goes away, and likely has horrible long-term effects on the bodies of all organic life on earth, humans included." People: Use plastic for everything, all the time, everywhere. u/Patarokun For real. How is it not blatantly obvious to everyone that the infinite growth that capitalism seeks is not sustainable? u/TDAM Plastics are a symptom of shortsightedness. In theory, they were a great idea. A material that can be re-used so that we don't use finite/slower replenishable materials instead? Get rid of cotton farms and animal wool/skins/furs. And for so much cheaper? Unfortunately because of the cheapness of plastics, we made a lot more disposable materials (especially clothing) - more than any populace could consume in a generation, never mind in the ridiculously fast-paced season turnover of goods. And now we realize, that plastics stick around for a long time, possibly forever. Wood, plant, and animal materials degrade and decompose. So you could poison the environment but not exploit some animals or not suck up all the water, or you could accept that unless we wanna be naked and live in far more limited environments, we're gonna have to use natural resources, even animals, for our clothing and goods. u/Totally_Not_An_Auk

3. Overuse of antibiotics

Overuse of antibiotics. u/TiredPanda3 Not just on humans, most antibiotics are used on livestock and animal agriculture. Human use only accounts for about a third of all antibiotic use. u/vinli University ag. scientist in the US here. This is often overstated or outright misunderstood. Most antibiotics used for livestock are either ones not feasible for human use (i.e., human toxicity) or ones we basically wrecked with human use already. Then you have some chemicals classified as antibiotics that are more pro-biotic for beneficial bacteria in the gut that help with feed efficiency. These often don’t really pay for farmers, but they also aren’t affecting human medical use. Adding antibiotics like this that have a high volume end up biasing “by weight” usage estimates when you try to compare to human use (in addition to comparing across classes in general). u/braconidae

4. Treatment of mental health

The way the mental health system treats psych patients in hospitals and programs when they have severe symptoms. You’ll get drugged up and the whole experience is pretty traumatizing. it’s also quite surprising how little people in hospitals know about mental health. it’s not always specific people either, it’s just the system as a whole. getting sent home in the middle of a mental health crisis because your insurance cuts out, or losing a bed in a program because someone is “worse” than you. Being in hospitals makes you rate everyone’s symptoms and how “bad” they are. you’ll subconsciously start putting people in order from worst mental health to best. it’s a toxic experience. once you get put into a long-term program, it’s just so terrible. So much goes under the radar when it’s government-run. u/julia_is_confused

5. Insurance scam

Insurance is another one in which the current implementation needs to f*****g go, it's insane that these f*****g leeches are using AI programs to deny coverage with a 90% error rate in the hopes that their customers simply give up and the insurance company never has to pay out. They are swindlers and thieves of the sick and dying. The worst imaginable kind of business that preys on people during the most vulnerable times of their lives. I know a judge who was invited on a trip to the Bahamas by insurance executives for an all-experience paid "vacation." The insurance CEOs were trying to pull favor for some law or another that was going to limit the amount they could fuck people over, and they didn't like that idea, so, they had this Bahamas getaway for the judges/lawmakers involved where they would also have presentations that boiled down to "our business model works because, when we deny coverage, a certain percentage of people will either die while fighting the claim or give up while fighting the claim". He broke down what they were saying as: "We count on delaying or outright denying coverage to eligible customers for us to continue making money for shareholders which we are legally obligated to do, and closing any loopholes that prevent us from putting some customers under an indefinite review will cause us to not uphold our duty to the shareholders" The whole business is a f*****g scam. At times, a government-mandated scam in which the citizens are legally obligated to take part, or end up breaking the law for not having some type of insurance. The kickbacks to our lawmakers and judicial branches are commonplace in keeping this scam going, it's fucked. u/jakeandcupcakes

6. Stalking for advertisement

The incessant inundation of marketing in our daily lives. Our technology gathers our data to tailor ads to sell us more useless trash. Your TV records you so people in an office somewhere can socially engineer ways to sell you another TV. We see something like ~5000+ advertisements a day, and they’re still trying to put big ads in the night sky, it’s far too much and the future will consider us barbaric for allowing it. u/INTP36. I see so many ads now that my brain is programmed to ignore them all now...overkill from the advertisers. u/reindeer_duckie. The Stock market and ads are two of the worst inventions of modern society. It controls our lives in a very f****d up way. u/Chakramer. Both are good things... in moderation. Stocks were invented as a means of financing corporations. Advertisements are just a way to get the word out for whatever. It's the way those and adjacent things evolved that's dreadful. u/FelixAndCo

7. Attitude towards animals

I really think a long time from now we’ll view how we treat animals pretty distastefully. Elephants bury their dead and can paint, dolphins have language and some are growing thumbs. They’re clearly more sentient than we give them credit for and we use our lack of understanding of consciousness to justify it. u/Difficult-Lion-1288. Pigs, fish, and mice are among the animals excluded from protection under the Federal Animal Welfare Act (most state anti-cruelty laws don’t cover these types of animals either, and those that do on paper are rarely enforced in actual practice with regard to animals raised for food production or research). I think a lot of people have a (very understandable) misconception that cruelty to animals is illegal, but in many cases in which it occurs on a mass scale with business interests involved, it is legal depending on which species the animal is. And all of it would inspire a rightful outcry if the same treatment were happening to dogs or cats. u/rarepinkhippo

8. Single service subscription 

I think having multiple monthly services for essentially the same thing. There are people out there who pay for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and even some more AT THE SAME TIME!

I think in the future we will either go back to having one central service or have at least learned to only have one active and cancel the others in the meantime. u/Wundawuzi. It seems like what we're getting is basically the re-invention of cable. u/Jim_Lahey68. At first it was cheaper than subscribing to cable television. Now it's getting more expensive. u/Fixes_Computers. That's what I do. Subscribe to 1 for like 6 months, watch what I want until I'm tired, cancel and subscribe to a new streaming platform, and repeat. u/reddicyoulous

9. Public access to clean water

Being able to drink water from the tap and easy and clean access to water. We take it for granted in most developed countries and don’t treat it with respect. We misuse it and pollute it as if we will never run out. u/dozerdaze. Water in my town wasn't really drinkable but it didn't smell and looked clean. Boil a kettle with it, and you can make normal tea. Last year our main water pipe got blown up by assholes (war going on) and we have to live with smelly, oily river water in our taps. At least you can flush with it. I shiver when I remember those couple of weeks when I had to take a bus to a river to get water to flush my toilet. Soon after that, the river water was sent into the town's water piping. You start appreciating such everyday conveniences only when you lose them. u/Poonis5

10. Medical gaslighting of women

The way people treat women with undiagnosed or under-researched diseases. u/ruimtekaars. Endometriosis sufferer here, yes! Hoping that one day my grandchildren will have a cure for this awful disease.u/Cat_fanatic7 Negligent Women health care. Like how pain management for many, dare I say most procedures is minimal or nonexistent. IUDs for example. Abandoning women who deal with endometriosis, which is a systemic disease by the way, and similar conditions. u/assngrassncash. The way doctors treat patients' pain, especially women's pain. u/NowIsNew Prosecute women for getting abortions. It started back in the 1800s, I can't believe we're still embroiled in this s**t. u/KirbyxArt