The year 2024 approaches, and with it the promise of “out with the old, in with the new.”
But sometimes, it’s not just unsavory personal habits that need throwing out in the new year. But rather, things that fall in to a more collective category. Those common, everyday societal norms that simply don’t do humanity today any favors…and are downright annoying.
Clearly folks have been contemplating this subject, because when Reddit user u/MustPlayVR recently asked “What needs to die out in 2024?” there were plenty of passionate answers. Luckily, we’ve gathered some of the notable highlight to save you from scrolling.
What’s really interesting that a huge majority of the comments reflect major themes of 2023—frustrations with with an imbalance of corporate power, a disillusionment with social media and technology and a general desire to get back to a more authentic way of living.
Check out these 20 common things that people are ready to ‘die out’ in 2024, and you’ll see what we mean:
1. “Social media “challenges” to break the law or hurt people.”
2. “Lifetime politicians.”
-u/rthomas10
3. “Subscription services — but they won’t. They’ll keep replacing single upfront purchases. It’s a shame.”
“I hate this. There are many products I see that I would probably try if I didn’t have to sign up for a subscription. I don’t care if I can ‘cancel anytime’ either. I just want to try the product. If I like it, I’ll buy it again. If I don’t, I won’t.“
4. “’Accept all cookies’ as the only option.”
“‘This webpage would like to send you alerts’ is a close second.”
5. “EVERYTHING BEING CROPPED. I hate cropped things. If I find a cute shirt, it’s cropped. A cute jacket? It’s cropped. A cute sweater? IT’S CROPPED. I don’t care if people wear it, but IT’S EVERYWHERE.”
6. “Pumping in more and more advertisements into everything, even premium or paid-monthly subscriptions and streaming. Sports are taking longer and longer due to more ads. It’s hard to imagine most ads are even effective at all. How many people have bought an item or service based on advertising? If anything, it makes me more likely to not buy it, especially if the ad is particularly annoying or way overplayed. Also, ad agencies used to put much more effort into ads/commercials. Commercials were never a good thing, but some used to be slightly funny or entertaining at least.”
7. “Five-day workweeks.”
“This one needed to die YEARS AGO.”
8. “Ridiculous cost of living.”
“It infuriates me how it is casually referred to as a ‘cost of living’ crisis like it’s some natural disaster that’s out of our control. Shops and energy companies are boasting record profits while this so-called cost of living crisis is occurring.”
9. “Bedbugs.”
“Those bastards deserve no mercy.”
10. “Celebrity worship.”
“YES, athletes included.”
11. “People who use their phone speakers in public.”
“I’ve witnessed this 10x more in 2023 than ever before. It is definitely not dying out next year.The other day I was sat behind a guy at a quiet diner who was on a work meeting of some sort, his entire time there. His speakerphone was at full volume, and he also talked way too loud. After like 30 minutes, he said ‘OK, I gotta let you go, I’m about to leave the restaurant.’ He specifically ended the call because he was no longer going to be causing a huge disruption inside the restaurant.I honestly don’t know why I didn’t tell him to stop. I was just sort of frozen in furious disbelief the entire time.”
12. “Layoffs while CEOs get paid 300x the average employee and still get a raise five times the percentage of the average employee as well.”
13. “Gender reveal parties where they start forest fires just to announce their unborn child’s gender. Seriously, just send an [announcement] text to everyone.'”
14. “Strong opinions on things we are too lazy to research. I still do it, I try to rethink important issues and say have I honestly researched this, or am I just saying what I heard someone else say?”
15. “Tipping culture.”
16. “‘Back to the office’ corporate nonsense.”
“Agreed. My job can’t be performed from home, but my commute was a hell of a lot easier when people who could work from home were allowed to.”
18. “Identity politics.We are all human beings. It’s high time we united and started acting like it.”
19. “Influencers filming themselves “helping” others, you’re not helping them, you’re exploiting them for your own gain.”
—u/Andaz1
…and last but not least…
20. “Alpha male podcasts.”
Source: https://www.upworthy.com/things-that-can-die-out-in-2024