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Buzz Feed
24-05-2025
- Buzz Feed
15 Things Older Adults Never Imagined Would Exist But Do
Recently on Reddit, @Late-Confidence339 asked, "What are some things that exist today that you couldn't even imagine back in your day?" Older people flooded the post with thoughtful and very informative answers. Here are just 15 responses about things that it's hard to imagine weren't always a part of everyday life: "If you had of told me back in the early 80s when I became a teenager that one day I could have a small box in my pocket that was not only a telephone but a compass, a torch, a camera, a recording studio, a newspaper, had maps (including satellite pictures) of the entire world and could guide me around them with pictures and voice commands, could house my entire record collection, that would hold my entire book collection, that would hold my entire videotape collection, that I could watch TV on (and not only that but watch TV that was on last night or last week or last month whenever I felt like it), could turn lights and heating in my home on and off when I am not there, could be flashed at a shopkeeper instead of using money, could have video calls with relatives on the other side of the globe with FOR FREE, and I could operate all of that just by talking to it (all this as well as being able to plug my guitar onto it)..." "...I would've told you that you are a freaking idiot."—DaveFoucault"I don't know of anyone who had any idea smartphones would be a thing. Hell, even when they were first introduced, I thought they were just going to be a novelty device, not a staple of life. I sure got that one wrong."—OftenAmiable "Medical advancements with DNA. A genetics test told my doctors that I have the BRCA1 gene mutation while I was going through breast cancer in 2016. I kicked its ass. Years later, in 2023, forensic genetic genealogy solved my aunt's unsolved murder from 1966. It was a serial killer that no one knew about." "When I was in my late 20s, I remember telling my new wife, 'When we get rich, I am going to hire a full-time librarian to answer any question that comes up.' Well, 50 years later, I have not gotten rich (yet), but I send $5 to the Wikipedia Foundation every month, via PayPal, because I get my questions answered every day." —BeBopBoy1945 "I am genuinely blown away by AI. Over the last few decades, we have gone through such fast innovation with regard to anything tech. But AI for me is such a giant leap forward. What I'm seeing today I couldn't have even imagined two years ago, never mind from when I was growing up." "Being able to watch on my television anything I want whenever I want it." —UserJH4202 "I'm in my early 60s. About 40 years ago, I was setting up my home entertainment system. Hi-Fi VCR, receiver, dual cassette deck, and my huge 40" TV. I told my wife I can't wait til they flatten out the TVs so I could just hang them on the wall. She told me it would never happen in my lifetime. I had put around $1500 into that setup. Sold it at a lawn sale for $100." "I can talk, via WhatsApp or a cellphone, to someone on the other side of the world in real time, face-to-(digital)-face, for practically free. This is incredible. My middle school self, eagerly checking the mailbox for letters from my foreign pen-pal, couldn't have imagined this." —candlestick_maker76 "Top Fuel dragsters & Funny Cars (used in drag racing) going sub-4 second runs at 330+ mph and shutting off at the 1,000HP mark, instead of going the full 1,320HP. I came from the age when those two classes were turning low six-second runs at 220 mph using the full quarter mile." "I have a tune running in my head. I ask Siri what it is, and soon I'm playing it on of humming it all day and wondering what it is." —Live-Ganache9273 "GPS. My father used to drive while my mother attempted to navigate with a big folding map that took up most of the front seat. She wasn't a good map reader, and he wasn't a good driver when he was frustrated. Now I just click the pin someone sent me and drive right to their location with a very calm voice telling me when to turn and have a clear map to follow on the screen. It still astounds me." "The Hubble & James Webb Space telescopes. Being able to see space without the limitations of looking through Earth's atmosphere. When I was a kid, Jupiter had 12 moons. Now it has 95!" —RudeOrganization550 "Digital cameras. Taking pictures without the use of film." "Bar codes. I once worked in a supermarket and had to stamp prices on vegetable cans." —TenAfterFive "An entire aisle in the grocery store devoted to water. I get that a lot of places in the world (and a significant number of places in the US) don't have drinkable water, but I have reason to suspect that a LOT of folks are spending a fortune for bottled water when the stuff coming from the tap in their house is perfectly fine and served generations more than adequately." Finally, "Working from home and online ordering for delivery. I used to be overwhelmed at trying to get everything done because my day involved commuting 50 minutes each way, taking breaks where I talked to the same people about the same things three times a day, desperate rushing to get the kids from daycare on time, and getting to the grocery store and figure out dinner. The only solution I could imagine was to reduce my work hours or hire a housekeeper. I could afford neither. Now I work from home, tidy the house on my breaks, and get groceries delivered to my door. I so wish this had been a thing when my kids were children." Smiling young woman standing on doorway and getting food delivery from young man Is there another item or societal staple that you never thought would exist but now can't live without? Let us know in the comments or the anonymous form below!
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Beware Progressive Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
The cravenness of intellectual elites is one of Americas saving graces. They may self-righteously advance incendiary ideas about race, gender, politics, and culture, but they are always just a pushback away from retreating into crocodile tears. President Trumps recent actions against leading universities, Democrat-connected law firms, and left-leaning mediaoutlets have exposed his liberal critics lack of spine. The crowd that just yesterday was denouncing our country as a racist cesspool, weaponizing the justice system, and endorsing censorship - as matters of principle - is now scrambling to memory-hole their egregious actions and words. NPR CEO Katherine Maher illustrated this kowtowing capitulation during her congressional testimony last week as she sought to fend off efforts to cut federal aid to her organization. Confronted with a series of tweets she sent in January 2020 declaring that "America is addicted to white supremacy" and "America believes in black plunder and white democracy," Maher stated that "much of my thinking has evolved over the last half-decade." This claim is hard, but not impossible, to believe. People do change their minds, but it is usually about small issues around the margins. Rethinking the big stuff, the broad conceptual frameworks and assumptions we use to process facts and perceptions, is rare because it is hard - especially when our careers and identities hinge on those beliefs. This is why confirmation bias is rampant, echo chambers abound, and the physicist Max Planck observed that science proceeds one funeral at a time. Mahers Tweets were not small beer but big picture. They reflected fundamental views about our nation, clearly siding with those who see America as a deeply flawed, even failed experiment rather than a shining city on a hill. She was not a college student trying on ideas when she hit send, but an accomplished woman in her mid-30s operating near the nations center of powers, including as executive director of the Wikipedia Foundation, who boasted about turning the famous online encyclopedia into a mechanism to further a progressive agenda. Yet, Maher testified under oath that in the five years since her revealing tweetstorm - a period during which the views she espoused were ascendant in those elite circles - her thought evolved in the opposite direction. Perhaps that happened, though one would never guess that from listening to NPR. All things considered, Mahers awakening from woke would be a counterintuitive conversion. Unfortunately, congressional hearings have largely become vehicles for creating social media gotcha moments rather than forums for true understanding, so Maher was never pressed to explain her remarkable transformation. Heres hoping an NPR journalist puts her behind the mic to hold that courageous conversation. Even as Mahers personal thoughts remain beyond our reach, her example suggests two scenarios, both rife with implications. The basic question: Is she a true believer or a sheep? If shes a true believer, Mahers testimony reflects the lefts strategic retreat in response to Trumps efforts to punish them for their excesses. Whatever they do or say, the forces that saw the eruption of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd as opportunities to weaponize the law and impose government mandates while pushing for trans rights and DEI programs have not seen the light. There is no road to Damascus for these committed ideologues, who are cravenly seeking to distance themselves from, rather than defend, their deeply held beliefs. They are hunkering down until the coast is clear so they can rise again. But maybe Maher is actually a sheep who really did experience an epiphany. Though this seems unlikely in her case, it appears to be the case for millions of Americans who surrendered to the moral panic generated by progressives during the last decade. Even as they recoil from Trump, many led-astray liberals are now asking themselves, what were we thinking? Much of this reconsideration is occurring in private because our deeply partisan politics make it hard to discuss such matters in public. Republicans would use such honesty as a cudgel to punish their opponents; progressives are loath to confess anything that might give the other side an edge. The result is a culture of silence: The only thing more astonishing than the momentous events of the last five years is the concerted effort to pretend they never happened. The price we pay for refusing to confront and process such traumatic history is hard to measure, though a classic American novel, "The Catcher in the Rye," offers some clues. The refusal of Holden Caulfields family to discuss his brothers death is a metaphor for what J.D. Salinger saw as Americas unwillingness to grapple with the wounds inflicted on our hearts and minds by World War II. This obliviousness in the name of moving on is a source of Holdens anger and alienation, and his famous claim that everyone is "phony." Wishing away reality is a fools errand that usually creates dysfunction in individuals and society. While Trumps allies may cheer his efforts to punish the left, retribution alone will not defang his ideological opponents. It may, instead, harden them in their beliefs. While recognizing that true believers are probably beyond hope, we must offer a generous and understanding spirit - especially in our conversations and daily encounters - with the many sheep who were led astray by those wolves. Otherwise, they will bite even harder the next time they are in power. J. Peder Zane is an editor for RealClearInvestigations and a columnist for RealClearPolitics. Follow him on X @jpederzane.
