53 Things People Stopped Doing But It Only Got Worse Because Of It

Unionizing and working for a collective good rather than an "I got mine" or "Every man for himself" attitude.

Writing stuff down. My dad had notebooks for every job and I used to think it was old man nonsense, now I run a shop and half my life is scribbled notes so I don't forget who needed a call back.

This may shock many Redditors, who by definition choose to spend our free time reading and writing ...

Most people now do not know how to read or spell.

Holding politicians to higher standards.

Remember when Dan Quayle misspelled 'potato' and dropped out of the race in shame?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Self reliance? Whatever is contributing to "learned helplessness" and not even trying is doing y'all dirty.

My husband and I joined a weekly bowling league and it’s opened up so many friendships. It’s so interesting because you make friends with people your own age and then also have a 75 year old bestie name Arnold.

One of the best things we’ve done!

I feel like dating was probably a little more serious in older generations.

It seems like dating now can be very exhausting because people move on at the slightest bit of boredom in a relationship.

I just don't get it...

Kicking the kids out of the house after Saturday Morning Cartoons until dinner time. Also, Saturday Morning Cartoons.

Living in small houses.  you don't need that much space.  You don't need that much stuff.

Using iodized salt. It's actually a huge problem for huge chunks of the world where iodine isn't naturally occurring.

Iodine deficiency results in painful goiters, and extended deficiency can lead to an extremely bad birth defect historically known as "cretinism" which is physical and intellectual stunting during fetal development.

We don't really remember life before iodized salt, but introducing iodized salt proved to be such an improvement it just became expected, and it alleviated the problem so well most people don't even know it was ever a problem at all.

So much of the influencer driven culture around food and home cooking has actively derided iodized table salt in favour of sea and rock salts that haven't been iodized. This is actually driving up goiter rates in some places and could lead to a resurgence in associated birth defects.

Now I'm as big a fan of fancy sea salt as the next person, but throw some table salt into your food from time to time as well, just to be safe.

The subtle art of sitting and chatting together for hours. Or just companionable silence.

Writing checks to pay for things and using credit cards for emergencies. Our checking account was our money. When the account was low we quit spending. If you went over the bank charged $35 per transaction. We didn't overspend and rarely used a credit card.

My grandparents bought most things with the expectation that they would own it for a very long time. Every purchase was a very methodical process to ensure they were making a good long term decision. My parents bought things like cars and appliances with the expectation that they would have them for 10 years or more. My generation (and now my son's generation) has been robbed of that. Nothing is built to last that long anymore. The things we buy have all become so technologically complex that they are either obsolete in 5 years or cost prohibitive to repair. In the past 5 years I've had appliances and TV's break to the point where repairing them was more than the cost of buying a new model. What's scary is that cars are quickly becoming that way. A friend of mine drives a pretty modest SUV that was about $45k when it was brand new. It was recently vandalized and required a bunch of new glass, plastic trim and rubber seals along one side of the car. The cost of just the parts was several thousand dollars (covered by insurance). After labor, it was $4400, almost 10% of the cost when the car was new. It's crazy...

The it takes a village to raise kids thing.

Having community (of many different types). Even as an atheist, I recognize it's really unfortunate that nothing replaced the community aspect of church this century for people who aren't religious.

Living within our means.

Not tolerating the nonsense corporations and politicians are subjecting us to.

Having a sense of communal good. Advertising then the internet have convinced everyone in the global west to put themselves first.

Reading the local >!newspaper!< and a national newspaper every morning, and watching the local and national news every night. And no, listening to Fox, MSNow, and other talking heads shows don’t count. The actual news- if you still have access to good, local journalism.

House parties! Growing up as a child in the 80s we were constantly at house parties and it was so much fun. Sometimes there would be a theme, like Vicars and tarts (which I know is terrible by modern standards) but there would be a core of 50-60 people just socialising on a regular basis. My parents used to get 200-300 Christmas cards every year.

We just don't do these this anymore. The only house parties are when teenagers parents go away!

Using a clothesline to dry laundry in the summer. That electric dryer costs a fortune in electricity needlessly and brings in hot outside air to equalize pressure inside the home.