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3 days ago
- General
- Buzz Feed
XX Things On The Brink Of Collapse No One Talks About
Between the existential chaos around the world and whatever we're all dealing with in our personal lives, it feels like we're collectively acting like everything is fine these days, but that's not really the case. Political turmoil is wreaking havoc across the globe, climate change is getting realer by the second, and the global economy is shifting, for better or for worse. Needless to say, we're in very trying times, and it feels like burnout is now a universal feeling. A recent post on the r/AskReddit sub asked users the following question: "What is currently on the brink of collapse but no one is talking about it?" From collapsing ecosystems to the rise of AI, these 19 responses highlight just how close our dystopian future might be: Note: these responses have been edited and condensed for clarity. "The orca pod known as J-pod, that are residents of the Pudget Sound, are starving as the salmon population is collapsing." "And to be specific, Chinook salmon. Chinook are their main food source because of the fat content, and they're on the brink of collapse. I mean, it's not looking good for all salmon species, but when/if the Chinook go extinct, that's the first big domino to fall in the Salish Sea ecosystem." "Here in the UK, the water table. Already seen a massive drought in the North with unprecedented lack of rainfall this year. Reservoirs and rivers are lower than they've been in decades. On top of leaking pipes that date back to WWII, we could honestly be talking about real drinking water shortages in 5-10 years." "Honestly, I'd say the internet. Everything requires an account, everything collects your information, you can't own anything because you can only get subscriptions to services. There are way too many social media platforms, which are somehow all owned by the same few mega corporations (Meta, Google, Microsoft, etc.) AI is slowly taking over everything and spewing out misinformation left and right." "Lots of collectively-owned private, professional businesses: Private equity has been relentlessly buying up veterinarian practices, CPA firms, and — I'm sure — all kinds of other businesses so they can egregiously increase prices, sell everything that isn't nailed down, cut staff to nothing, then sell the little bit that's left to some naive future buyer at a hugely inflated cost." "Teachers. Not teaching itself, but the whole system around it. So many teachers are underpaid, overworked, and just done. A lot are quitting quietly or switching careers, and schools are struggling to replace them. It's kind of scary how fast it's unraveling, but no one's really screaming about it yet." "Maybe not on the brink, but possibly approaching — The AMOC, or Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, is a large system of ocean currents that acts like a conveyor belt, circulating warm and cold water throughout the Atlantic Ocean." "Bridges, railroad lines, power grids, and water pipes. Some of them are decades old and unstable (Germany)." "A bunch of small ecosystems around the world." "The working class. Hopefully, the collapse will wake some folks up, but I don't have a lot of hope when they seem perfectly happy in their caves staring at the shadows." "Critical thinking. Humanity is over-reliant on devices and AI to do their thinking for them instead of using tech to enhance their own thinking." "The movie industry feels that way in Hollywood right now." "The Cascadia Subduction Zone." "The 'enrollment cliff' is starting. This year, the lack of kids born during and after the 2008 recession is starting to graduate from high school. In this population pyramid, you can see that starting at the 15-19 age group, birth rates went down and kept going down. Now, it was already going down on average, but right before the recession, there was a small uptick that could have been a turnaround." "Civilizations decline/collapse over generations — I'd suggest that there is a strong possibility that 'the free liberal West' is in the early stages of a multi-generational decline, not unlike that of the Roman empire. Facebook and Netflix are our bread and circuses while around us, cultures that are not compatible with our (democratic, egalitarian, progressive, liberal) values are rising to challenge and eventually displace us. It won't happen in my lifetime, but it is happening." "The Anthropocene." "Overly complex appliances, cars, TVs, etc." "I think our civilization's ability to write without Generative AI. I believe writing is thinking, and it provides clarity to our thoughts. A vast majority of university students are now relying on services like ChatGPT, which I believe will eventually affect us in the long run. I don't have research backing up my claim, and I hope I'm wrong. Regardless, I'm worried." "Surprised I didn't see many posts about insects. We are in a mass extinction event of something like 60% of their population."
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
People Are Sharing The Trends From Yesteryear That They Really, Really Want To See Come Back
You know when people always talk about the good 'ol days? There are just some things that the past did better. When a Redditor asked on r/AskReddit, "What's a good trend that slowly disappeared, but you'd like to see it making a comeback?" the answers poured in, and it was like entering a time capsule. Here's what people had to say: 1."Social media before advertisements, when it was just actual friends that you knew in real life and their albums of drunk photos from the weekend." Rotten Tomatoes Trailers / Via — Pleasant_Detail5697 "Timelines/feeds being defaulted to the most recent thing your friends posted instead of a stupid algorithm that's just trying to get me to stay on the app as long as possible." — hippstr1990 2."7AM and 6PM news and nothing more. Edit: I know there was other time slots but you get it." — angelicbitch09 "You don't want it ON THE HOUR ON THE HALF AND WHEN IT BREAKS???" — Historical_Tennis494 3."My parents watch a lot of HGTV. My god, they take homes and turn them into warehouses. Any non-load-bearing walls are taken out, and everything is painted white. Did we all just decide personalities are uncool?" — rainshowers_5_peace "Personality hurts resale 🥹." — PleaseGiveMeSnacc 4."When companies weren't afraid to make electronics FUN. Everything was translucent and came in, like, seven different colors. Atomic purple Game Boys, kiwi green iMacs, the see-through landline phones... Now, my options for a $1,000 phone are black, slightly less black, and sad beige. I miss when our tech had personality." — BlueeWaater 5."A company answering their phone." — No-Music-1994 "A company even having a phone number to call." — SoybeanArson "Real customer service instead of chatbots!!" — mayaaxo69 6."Leaving the house and not being reachable. A good 'Hey, I'm going out. Talk to you when I'm back.' No Life360, read receipts, and constant texting. Just pure freedom and vibes." — ShyLittleBrunette 7."When people see others having a problem in front of them in the real world, they pull out their phone instead of helping." — BlackFoxx 8."Kids getting hooked on reading, like when the Harry Potter series became famous." — boredproggy 9."Self-serve froyo places on every corner." Matthewennisphotography / Getty Images, ShotShare / Getty Images — keatonpotat0es 10."Not scrolling through your phone in the cinema!" — cheshire_kat7 11."Dance Dance Revolution." — Twostepsfromlost2 12."Similarly, I remember having a lot of fun playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band with friends back in the day." — icecream_specialist 13."Conspiracy theorists used to be seen as nut jobs. Now, every person has at least one conspiracy theory that they believe to be the truth." — No-Cauliflower-4661 14."U.S. presidents debating issues instead of having the equivalent of a rambling diss track with each other." — AlligatorMidwife 15."Critical thinking." — ginger_minge "I'll take common sense at this point." — mxjxs91 16."Housing affordability." — Intrepid-Artist-595 17."Democracy." — Potential_Sun6667 18."Manners and people forming their own thoughts and opinions instead of following whatever is popular online." — Zealous03 19."Punctuation! Paragraphs, and full words written out!" — fromhelley 20."Planking." The Office / Via — juancn 21."Pokémon GO." – Spirochrome "People going out to explore parks and cities and getting excited with Pokémon GO was fun. I know some still do, but it was a nice time." — Vanishingf0x 22."I really miss getting tons of Christmas cards in the mail and hanging them up for the season. It was such a nice little thing wishing you well, and it felt good to celebrate relations that way." The Office / Via — The_barking_ant "I still send them every year. DM me your address." — wuapinmon 23."One exciting Blockbuster movie in the summer, around the 4th like they used to." finally, "POGS." — Lou_Garoup The nostalgia is heavy with this one! 🥹 What other yesteryear things do you miss? Let me know in the comments!
Buzz Feed
4 days ago
- General
- Buzz Feed
Nostalgic Trends People Want To See Return From Reddit
You know when people always talk about the good 'ol days? There are just some things that the past did better. When a Redditor asked on r/AskReddit, "What's a good trend that slowly disappeared, but you'd like to see it making a comeback?" the answers poured in, and it was like entering a time capsule. Here's what people had to say: "Social media before advertisements, when it was just actual friends that you knew in real life and their albums of drunk photos from the weekend." — Pleasant_Detail5697"Timelines/feeds being defaulted to the most recent thing your friends posted instead of a stupid algorithm that's just trying to get me to stay on the app as long as possible."— hippstr1990 "7AM and 6PM news and nothing more. Edit: I know there was other time slots but you get it." "My parents watch a lot of HGTV. My god, they take homes and turn them into warehouses. Any non-load-bearing walls are taken out, and everything is painted white. Did we all just decide personalities are uncool?" — rainshowers_5_peace"Personality hurts resale 🥹."— PleaseGiveMeSnacc "When companies weren't afraid to make electronics FUN. Everything was translucent and came in, like, seven different colors. Atomic purple Game Boys, kiwi green iMacs, the see-through landline phones... Now, my options for a $1,000 phone are black, slightly less black, and sad beige. I miss when our tech had personality." — BlueeWaater "A company answering their phone." — No-Music-1994"A company even having a phone number to call."— SoybeanArson"Real customer service instead of chatbots!!"— mayaaxo69 "Leaving the house and not being reachable. A good 'Hey, I'm going out. Talk to you when I'm back.' No Life360, read receipts, and constant texting. Just pure freedom and vibes." "When people see others having a problem in front of them in the real world, they pull out their phone instead of helping." "Kids getting hooked on reading, like when the Harry Potter series became famous." "Self-serve froyo places on every corner." — keatonpotat0es "Not scrolling through your phone in the cinema!" "Dance Dance Revolution." — Twostepsfromlost2 "Similarly, I remember having a lot of fun playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band with friends back in the day." "Conspiracy theorists used to be seen as nut jobs. Now, every person has at least one conspiracy theory that they believe to be the truth." "U.S. presidents debating issues instead of having the equivalent of a rambling diss track with each other." "Critical thinking." — ginger_minge"I'll take common sense at this point."— mxjxs91 "Housing affordability." "Democracy." "Manners and people forming their own thoughts and opinions instead of following whatever is popular online." "Punctuation! Paragraphs, and full words written out!" "Planking." — juancn "Pokémon GO." "I really miss getting tons of Christmas cards in the mail and hanging them up for the season. It was such a nice little thing wishing you well, and it felt good to celebrate relations that way." — The_barking_ant"I still send them every year. DM me your address."— wuapinmon "One exciting Blockbuster movie in the summer, around the 4th like they used to." — Swiftiefromhell And finally, "POGS." — Lou_Garoup The nostalgia is heavy with this one! 🥹 What other yesteryear things do you miss? Let me know in the comments!
Buzz Feed
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
21 Things Kids These Days Will Never Understand
Recently, u/Hidden_lust__ asked r/AskReddit, "What's something kids today will never understand?" And we thought we'd share some of the top responses. "Going into a phone booth, especially when you're a kid, just to jiggle the coin return in hopes of scoring a nickel or dime so you can buy some candy. My cousin Brenda beat me to a phone booth at the beach & got $1.15. She was the first rich person I ever knew." "Spending hours curating the perfect mix CD — carefully choosing the songs, getting the order just right, and writing the track list in Sharpie like it was a love letter. If someone made you a burned CD… That was real love." "Limewire. God, I gave one of my laptops a wild amount of viruses with it but I got to listen to Simple Plan on my mp3 player, so it was all worth it." "Renting a VHS from Blockbuster." "Performing surgery on a cassette tape to get it working again." "Dial-up internet: The screechy connection tones, and being kicked off the internet because someone picked up the landline phone." "That weird, magical era where you made plans, kept them, and just showed up — no texts, no tracking, no group chats. Just: 'See you at four' and somehow… everyone did." "Needing to have a quarter (or a dime if you're THAT old) on you just in case you needed to call home with a payphone." "The desperation to get snacks from the kitchen quickly or going to the bathroom fast during a commercial break while watching an episode you waited all week for. Bonus points if your sibling screamed, 'it's back!' when you were still out of the room and you had to run back, lol. "Getting a new phone number every time you moved." "The peace of not having a cell phone." "Actually knowing phone numbers. Like your parents number, the numbers of several friends... Shit, I still know some of those numbers even today." "That sacred moment when your favourite song came on the radio, and you had to run to hit 'record' on the cassette player, hoping no one spoke over the intro." "How before Google you had to look through an encyclopedia in the library or in a large home collection and possibly spend hours looking, only to still not find what you're searching for. Yes, back then, if your parents and/or teachers didn't know the answer to something, and you couldn't find it in the library, then you really had no idea how to figure it out then." "The Dewey decimal system and the physical card catalogue at the library." "How exciting it was when Pong was invented. We could interact with the square ball on the TV! It was incredible! Being able to control the paddle (in that ever exciting up and down thing it did, lol) just seemed to be so futuristic." "We were really poor growing up and couldn't afford to buy VHS tapes so my parents would tape Wonderful World of Disney every Saturday night." "Playing outside all day and inventing your own games, using your imagination and without needing money." "People smoking literally everywhere. Airplanes, restaurants, hotels, even hospitals. So much that old technology like typewriters or radios are still often covered in nicotine residue when you find them. It's so rare now that when I come across a smoker, I can't get past the stench." "Blowing into a game cartridge like your life depended on it, praying it would finally load so you could play Mario before your sibling claimed the TV." "When I was a kid, if one of my parents was expecting an important phone call, it meant I wasn't allowed to use the internet." H/T to u/Hidden_lust__ and r/AskReddit for having the discussion! Any more to add? Let us know in the comments below!
Buzz Feed
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Buzz Feed
People Discuss If US Presidents Should Be Under 65
In the United States, the past three presidents sworn into office have a combined age of 226. There's a minimum age requirement to serve as US president (35 years old), but no maximum age requirement. On the always conversational r/AskReddit, Reddit user u/CountyOpposite7622 asked fellow Americans: Would limiting the age of the President to 65 be something you'd support? Why or why not? Here are some of the answers about a topic that is more split than you'd think: "Yes, if there is a young age limit, then an older one is justified as well." "I'd support age limits for all politicians. Asking someone to live a while in the world they create is a fair ask, in my opinion." "Politicians collecting social security have no business in Congress, the White House, etc." "Why are we letting folks who can die from a strong breeze knocking them over run the country?" "I think Americans need to ask themselves: Why are American politicians generally so old? Most of the world doesn't have maximum age limits either, yet older people in politics are much rarer elsewhere. Why?" "Mitch McConnell has been a Kentucky senator since 1985; he's had power longer than I've been alive." "Add in 20-year limits on Supreme Court and Federal judge appointments. Lifetime appointments are ridiculous. As far as an age limit on legislators, I agree for the most part, but Sanders makes me question it. He seems to grasp the moment better than many Democrats in Congress who are 30 years his junior." "There is a minimum, so a maximum makes sense. 35-70 seems reasonable. A 70-year-old running for election would finish the term at 74, maybe 75, depending on the time of their birthday, of course. Just for discussion's sake." "Considering Congress limits my profession to age 65, I'd love for that to be an age cap for ALL federal elected officials as well." "Without some sort of test for competency, it doesn't matter where you set the age limit." "Actual fossils running our government." "We've been stuck in a generational loop with presidents." "The US Constitution technically has a provision to remove a mentally incompetent president from office. It's just never been used before for a whole host of reasons. An age limit would at least help." "There is a minimum because the founders wanted life experience to be a factor. There's enough time for somebody to learn and understand how things work when it comes to people and management. I'm OK with the way things are. I like freedom, but I also appreciate having some structure within it. Let's say we eliminate the 35-year-old minimum, which would now allow a 10-year-old to be elected to the presidency. Probably not a smart move, but hopefully society isn't that silly." "I know plenty of 70-year-olds that I think would be perfectly competent to be president, and plenty of 40-year-olds I wouldn't trust to watch paint dry." "Maybe tie it in with a driver's test. If they can't be mentally or physically competent enough to make decisions while in a car, I don't want them behind the wheel of a country either." "I think 75 by election day is fair. I work in healthcare, and people over 65 should have an opportunity to be represented because they have a drastically different set of needs than people who are 55. " "I would probably say 65 when their term starts or 70 when it ends. Doing the job right is extremely stressful, and very few older folks can sustain that. I would also put caps on Congress: 75 years old at the end of their term." "100%. We need presidents who still have enough life left to actually face the consequences of their choices in office. That way they'll have incentive to do good." "Nope. The world does not need more techbro billionaires in politics. CEOs in general make awful politicians." "Use cognitive tests for metrics that matter. Do not use age solely because it's correlated with older age. Person A can be sharp as a tack at 85, person B can develop early-onset dementia at 63." "The House, Senate, Supreme Court, and president should all top out at 50, not because of any issues of mental competency. It's because you should be forced to live in the world you built after you leave office. So many octogenarian freaks are fine with passing sociopathic legislation because they're expecting to croak in the next three or four years. If it's guaranteed that you actually have to suffer the fallout of your actions for 20 or 30 years, then you might be more likely to pass legislation that won't kill all of us in 10." "No, because not all old people are senile." "Yes, and I would also pay a ham sandwich or five to see a Constitutional amendment limiting all federally elected officials to either two consecutive 4-year terms or a single 6-year term to ensure they aren't constantly campaigning." "I find it shocking how many people in the US government are over 70, at least at the higher level. I actually supported Biden for his polices, but not as a person because of his age. He was in his late 70s to mid-80s. WTF is he doing, trying to run for president again? Yeah, for sure, an age limit. I'd rather have someone who's mentally and physically alert and active enough to do the job. 65 is the retirement age, which should be the cutoff. Or like 67 or 68. Though older people can be mentally alert and aware, it's clear at that age that it goes down." "Absolutely. There is no reason we retire pilots flying commercially, and even in the military. The president is the Commander-in-Chief. 65 years old tops." "I'm not really in favor of limits like this, but also, it takes an unhinged person to, at 65, say 'I'd like to run for office,' let alone for POTUS." "No. Different people age at different rates, so it doesn't make sense to disallow someone in their mid-60s who is still sharp from being president. Also, we the people are responsible for voting for decent candidates. It's our fault that so many of us are dumbass Trump supporters." "You can't be the president if you're under 35. Nobody seems to have a problem with that. I sure don't. A 30-year window of eligibility makes pretty good sense to me. The person leading this country should be in their prime, and not someone whose mental faculties are potentially compromised by their advanced age." What do you think of a presidential age limit of 65? Comment below.
