# What do you think is the most useless development/invention of the last 50 years? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 2, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888 "2018-11-02T14:05:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/182 "2018-11-07T00:15:36Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > It is screening calls on the answering machine that I miss. I have yet to see a cell phone that has that feature. On thinking about this, it occurs to me that it could be a very dangerous idea. You are in an important meeting, you forgot to switch off automatic screening (which you use in the car) and a call comes in from Miss Randipants. Or, you are in a police station for questioning … I think the implementation details would have to be very strict, to be safe. Perhaps it should require a plug-in or BT speaker to enable automatic screening audio. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/183 "2018-11-07T02:10:49Z")
The entire market of anti-aging skin-care products. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/184 "2018-11-07T05:32:05Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > \*\*Fax machines.\*\*If you had the technology to scan it into the fax machine, you had the tech to scan it into email. In the 80s and 90s, if you were able to make full page scans and email them, you were in the top 1%. Back then, two things were missing to make this viable for most people - broadband connections and server space. In 2000 or so, you were doing pretty well to have a 1.5 meg down and probably a quarter meg up DSL line, and back in 2000, my corporate email account was limited to 10 MB, so I’d be upset if someone sent me a scanned page when they could have just faxed it over using a method that wasn’t hampered by slow connections and didn’t clobber my mailbox. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/185 "2018-11-07T05:41:18Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Bottled water. > The same stuff you get for free in your kitchen–but now you get the privilege of lugging it home in heavy bottles, and it’s only 50,000% more expensive. > > When it first appeared on the supermarket shelves (about 30 years ago), I thought it was a joke, like the pet rock was in 1975. I went to college in a town that had potable but foul-tasting water, and inherited my old roommate’s 5-gallon water bottle and tippy thing for pouring it out. It’s also convenient to use while traveling. That’s really what it’s for. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/186 "2018-11-07T05:44:19Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > The entire market of anti-aging skin-care products. Just the past 50 years? People have been doing this for as long as they’ve been trying to find the perfect remedy for erectile dysfunction. :o ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/187 "2018-11-07T06:22:42Z")
I remember 50 years ago, or so, they had these really amusing ads for Benson&Hedges, where the extra long cigarettes were getting stuck in elevator doors (!) and causing the users other problems. We traded those for Plenoxfiddiril (may cause every side effect imaginable) and Sharkey McSharkface will win you big bucks for pretending you have mesothelioma. Lawyers, doctors and pharma simply did not advertise in general media, which was not worse than what we have now. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/188 "2018-11-07T07:27:00Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > **Fax machines.** That’s a hot take on an invention that\* predates the telephone by more than a decade\*. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/189 "2018-11-07T08:38:25Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I remember 50 years ago, or so, they had these really amusing ads for Benson&Hedges, where the extra long cigarettes were getting stuck in elevator doors (!) and causing the users other problems. We traded those for Plenoxfiddiril (may cause every side effect imaginable) and Sharkey McSharkface will win you big bucks for pretending you have mesothelioma. Lawyers, doctors and pharma simply did not advertise in general media, which was not worse than what we have now. Pretending you have mesothelioma?! What the fucking hell? People are dying. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/190 "2018-11-07T12:35:22Z")
> [@Limmin](#): > > If I were to nominate a “useless” but must-have item from our modern world, let me nominate Facebook. I think most users liked it at first because it provided a curated view of the internet. But I’ve always disliked that it needed to duplicate information already out there, you know, on the regular internet. > > But what I’ve come to call the “private” internet, Facebook, is the sole owner of the platform and can and will use it to get as much valuable information they can about you and all other users, and let paid promoters manipulate you into whatever it is they want you to do. To me this is more a danger than a convenience, so you won’t see me there (but Mrs Limmin still uses it every day). > > So when a club I’m interested in only maintains a FB page I’ll hold my nose and briefly look at it via my browser, then back out when I’m asked to log into FB. Wish I didn’t have to do that; the internet is really one of the best knowledge-sharing ideas humanity has ever had, why spoil it by having your entire internet experience be through a private provider with possibly nefarious purposes? Nah, most people liked it at first because it let you keep in vague touch with a large range of people. At first, your friends feed was pretty much it, there was very little corporate or club stuff. It was really low effort and allowed contact with large numbers of people, no need to try and find current addresses or email addresses, and that was handy. You knew that Kim, who you hadn’t seen since school, was visiting the area because she announced it, which meant no fuss trying to track down who was still in the area and wanted to meet up. Oh, and you know that Bob’s wedding didn’t happen because he posted a summary, no waiting for 3rd hand gossip, no awkward mistakes when you bumped into him. Friends moved half the world away, but stayed in my ‘village’. I could still see pictures of how big the kids were getting now, still got tips on how to unblock the sink from them, got to help choose how to decorate their house, though I didn’t see them in person for years. Sure, I’d probably have got the odd email, but an annual update just isn’t the same. Facebook let us stay part of each other’s lives. Initially it showed stuff strictly as most recently posted/commented on, it was a few years really til it started getting crap and showing you corporate stuff and ‘shared’ stuff from the rest of the internet in preference to actual posts by actual people. But by that point, facebook was where the people were and too big for the competition. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/191 "2018-11-07T18:14:22Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > In the 80s and 90s, if you were able to make full page scans and email them, you were in the top 1%. Back then, two things were missing to make this viable for most people - broadband connections and server space. > > In 2000 or so, you were doing pretty well to have a 1.5 meg down and probably a quarter meg up DSL line, and back in 2000, my corporate email account was limited to 10 MB, so I’d be upset if someone sent me a scanned page when they could have just faxed it over using a method that wasn’t hampered by slow connections and didn’t clobber my mailbox. True. OTOH, why type out a letter on your computer, print it out, walk it over to the fax machine to send it… …when you could just email the text of your letter instead? _That’s_ what 90% of the fax traffic was in those days: letters. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/192 "2018-11-07T18:49:42Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > True. OTOH, why type out a letter on your computer, print it out, walk it over to the fax machine to send it… > > …when you could just email the text of your letter instead? _That’s_ what 90% of the fax traffic was in those days: letters. My first thought it whether whoever they were being faxed _to_ had email (and would check it). Doesn’t matter if it’s better and would be easier to email, if the customer/client will only receive it via fax, you send it via fax. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/193 "2018-11-07T19:19:29Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > True. OTOH, why type out a letter on your computer, print it out, walk it over to the fax machine to send it… > > …when you could just email the text of your letter instead? _That’s_ what 90% of the fax traffic was in those days: letters. The one guy I work with who insists on fax instead of email never learned to type. It’s faster for him to fax me his handwritten notes. It would indeed be preposterous to type something, then print it (if you didn’t use a typewriter :), and then fax it. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/194 "2018-11-07T23:49:45Z")
Sadly, the [drinky bird](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_bird) is too old to qualify for this thread. It would be the cutest useless invention. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/195 "2018-11-07T23:57:24Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Sadly, the [drinky bird](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_bird) is too old to qualify for this thread. It would be the cutest useless invention. OH NOES! You just have to [make good use of it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_rF4kcqLkI). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/196 "2018-11-08T00:05:47Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > True. OTOH, why type out a letter on your computer, print it out, walk it over to the fax machine to send it… > > …when you could just email the text of your letter instead? _That’s_ what 90% of the fax traffic was in those days: letters. When faxes really took off, in the 1980s, the much-maligned “Cathy” comic strip had a series where employees were using them as a dating service; when the boss confronted them about it, a secretary interrupted the meeting with a fax in hand from a nearby deli asking him if he wanted pastrami or ham on his sandwich. 😛 Before we had e-scripts, I handled oodles of faxed prescriptions. Those were VERY convenient, and it also worked well when we had to inform doctors of drug seekers. We could print out the patient’s RX record and fax it to the doctor, instead of mailing it like we had to previously do. I know that lawyers used them a lot, and in some cases may still. They sure weren’t useless at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/197 "2018-11-08T16:23:52Z")
Has anyone mentioned cell phones yet? ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/198 "2018-11-08T16:44:13Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Has anyone mentioned cell phones yet? Complete rubbish, they are! * * * Posted from my iPhone ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/199 "2018-11-08T20:29:11Z")
Vote for: 1. Everything that the Walkman begat. You can’t use a pavement now without some twat with speakers in their ears walking into you because they’re so divorced from reality that they can’t use their feet properly; or 2. SatNav. Honest to God, I know sensible, intelligent thirty-year-olds who have no idea where the next town up the road is. Ask them to point and they’re lost. They could not walk into the town centre without some disembodied recorded voice telling them to take the next left (etc); or On the other hand someone said the Tablet. Vote for that instead. j ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/200 "2018-11-08T20:40:19Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Vote for: > > 1. Everything that the Walkman begat. You can’t use a pavement now without some twat with speakers in their ears walking into you because they’re so divorced from reality that they can’t use their feet properly; or > [ Before earphones, everyone in the area got to enjoy your music with you. I prefer to step around the oblivious than to listen to their music. > [@](#): > > 1. SatNav. Honest to God, I know sensible, intelligent thirty-year-olds who have no idea where the next town up the road is. Ask them to point and they’re lost. They could not walk into the town centre without some disembodied recorded voice telling them to take the next left (etc); or People have been getting lost since we’ve been traveling. My father never had a GPS growing up, and yet fights to find his way out of a paper bag. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888/201 "2018-11-08T20:44:04Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Before earphones, everyone in the area got to enjoy your music with you. I prefer to step around the oblivious than to listen to their music. Ah. We come from different cultures… j [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-is-the-most-useless-development-invention-of-the-last-50-years/823888.md?page=11)