One Reddit user asked, “What nice things did we used to have, until they got ruined by idiots?” Scroll down for some of our favorite responses to this question. You’ll most likely agree with some of the items on this list.
1.A Community Starbucks Card
Written by Reddit user g3istbot:
A few years ago a guy on Twitter shared his Starbucks card information, and told people to put it on their phones. The idea was to have a shared/community card thing. Get a drink if you wanted to, or donate to it so others could get a drink. You would think that people would just grab free drinks, but it actually had a surplus of donations versus people actually using it. I think the card ended up with like $200 at some point.Anyway, some asshole comes along and locks the card/account, effectively shutting it down. He said he did it because he wanted to prove how ineffective sharing was or something dumb like that. You always have that one guy who sees other people enjoying something and feels the need to disrupt it.
2.The Airport
dixieStates wrote:
I used to be able to walk into an airport, book a flight, walk to the gate and get on the plane. I have flown from SFO (where I live) to LAX (where my sister lives) countless times in just that fashion.
3.Church
shaggyscoob shared:
We used to keep our church doors open 24/7. But then vandals wrecked that so we locked up at night. Then we left it open during the days on Saturdays and vandals wrecked that. So now we keep the place locked up except almost exclusively during banking hours and Sundays mornings.
4.Travel
Shared by The_Late_Gatsby:
In a way, traveling. Overtourism is an issue in part because idiots have no idea how to care for a space that they’re in. Really, it’s a privilege to travel, but these people treat it like a joke. Littering, getting drunk and trashing an area, not honoring local customs, being rude and more can destroy a place.
5.Parents’ Lake House
Back2Bach added:
Our parents had a small summer cabin on a quiet, wooded lake. The water was pristine and ideal for fishing and swimming. The air smelled of fresh pine.Then it caught on, and the lake became overtaxed and ruined with powerboats – polluted with gasoline, oil, and junk tossed into the water (tires, mattresses, washing machines, solvents, etc.) Now, the fish are gone, the water stinks, and the pine trees have been cut down.
6.The Playground
Written by edheadredemption78:
Playground equipment. The rolly slides, teeter totters, the merry-go-rounds, and there was even a park I used to play in as a kid that had an old, retired train car we could go in. The rolly slides apparently pinched too many fingers, the teeter totters were too hard to get off of and the merry-go-rounds were spun too fast. As for the train, I’m pretty sure there were people shooting up drugs and/or homeless people sleeping in it. Plus graffiti. Now it’s gated off and no fun for anyone.
7.Sense of Community
optcynsejo added:
A sense of community in your neighborhood.As a kid (2nd grade ish) I used to walk over to my friends and wemd play in each other’s backyards. We learned how to bike together, would “explore” the woods between yards, play with the older middle schoolers. A lot of paranoia kinda ended that. The DC sniper shooting, fear of kidnappers, it all kinda hit at once. Well that and cicada season. After that summer people around here kinda kept to themselves more.
8.Ebay
cexshun wrote:
Ebay used to be this amazing multi-national garage sale. Filled to the brim with people selling their used stuff. Then people started filling it with garbage no-brand products and drop shipping it to the winning bidders. Then came the people that started using it as a store front and charging full retail value for NIB items. Now Ebay is nothing more than resellers that find it more affordable than developing an actual web store. Leaving me scratching my head wondering why people don’t just order it from Amazon for $20 less, or walk to a big box store and buy it for the same price without shipping nor a wait.I’ve permanently checking the “used” button and the search results have been far better, but there’s still people that keep the original box and try to sell it in like new condition for full retail.
9.Hitchhiking
An example shared by CriticalEntree:
Hitchhiking. When my parents were growing up in the 60s and 70s it was normal here, in the middle of a city, to grab a ride from a stranger you might not have known.Someone went around murdering people they picked up and all of a sudden it became illegal to hitchhike.
10.YouTube
Another Reddit user wrote:
Youtube. Used to be about uploading amateur videos. Old school youtubers put out quality content as well. Now it’s all corporate, with companies promoting their stuff, and majority of the content being crap.
11.Free Garage Sales
Written by TheGreenListener:
There used to be an annual free garage sale near me. People would bring in boxes of things to donate, volunteers would set them out on tables, and everyone could take what they wanted. Then a couple of people pretended to be volunteers and loaded the boxes of donations directly into their own cars. A lot was also stolen from the church that hosted the event, including the stool from their organ. They no longer have the free garage sale.
12.Towels at the Gym
DareWright added:
I belong to a small, local 24-hour gym. They used to have small white towels (hand-sized) that you could use while you worked out. There was a laundry basket you could throw them in as you were leaving. They’re weren’t great quality, in fact they were rather rough from being washed every day, but they were nice to wipe down your treadmill, wipe your face, etc.Last month I enter the gym & there’s a sign stating that they’re no longer stocking the towels because people are stealing them. WTF. Why would anyone steal these small, scratchy towels? It’s probably the gym rats who forget to put them in the basket and now have a huge collection in their trucks. Pisses me off.
13.Inhalers
Shared by caitxiii:
Inhalers. My bestie who had asthma use to be able to get inhalers without going through the counter when he was a kid and he needed it desperately. Now they quit selling them over the counter and you need a prescription because druggy gotta drug. I imagine a lot of different kinds of medicines ended up this way.
