Right off the top, I can think of a whole lot of things we WON’T be nostalgic for in 40 years, because the world seems like a total sh*t show right now.
Am I right, or what?
But, you never know. We might look back at 2020 someday and say, “ahhhh, remember the good old days?” I really hope that’s not the case, but you never know what’s coming around the corner…
AskReddit users pondered what people might be nostalgic for 40 years from now.
1. The fall of the mall.
“Honestly, probably malls.
I feel like a lot of them are going out of business and getting torn down.
Well at least the old mall experience.”
2. Unlimited.
“I think YouTube.
Like how us ’80s/90s babies miss early Nickelodeon and Saturday morning cartoons I think future generations will miss the unlimited content.”
3. No more lies.
“Being able to say “it must have got lost in the mail” or “I didn’t get your text” as a lie for ignoring someone.”
4. The old days.
“Probably gaming.
It will be VERY different in 40 years.”
5. Privacy.
“How about privacy?
If the governments do it “right”, they’ll erode people’s
privacy rights, and few will notice or complain.In fact, it’s already working. Congress renewed the Patriot Act last November, and the Senate voted this year to allow the CIA and FBI the ability to view US citizens’ browser history without a warrant.
Do you remember either event being seriously covered in major media outlets, and do you remember any mass public outcry?
Me neither.”
6. No more theaters?
“Movie theaters.
A small local theatre near me just shut down for good, and I can’t express how disappointed I’d be if the movie theater industry just never pops back up after this pandemic.
Some of my best childhood memories are from the the movie theaters.”
7. I hope not.
“Driving a car yourself.
I hate this because I haven’t had my license in a while and I kind of wanted to maybe drive again but, probably not.
Maybe you can go to a track or something in the future, drive an old-timey combustion engine car.”
8. Sound bleak.
“Drinks full of sugar, food full of salt.
Oh and antibiotics that still work.”
9. Sad.
“Polar bears.
One million species may be pushed to extinction in the next few years, with serious consequences for human beings as well as the rest of life on Earth.”
10. We might be in trouble.
“Clean air.
I am already nostalgic for the time before forest fire season.”
11. Explain that one.
“Payphones.
Imagine trying to explain to your grand children, “back in my day if I needed to be picked up from the park, I called Collect on the payphone to my Mom and when the machine asked who was calling you said ‘pickmeupat5:30please’ so you didn’t have to pay for the call”.”
12. Cold, hard cash.
“Cash money.
Besides the occasions when dealing with cash is just a lot more convenient, it’s art–all those paper bills and coins are designed.
Some are beautiful.”
13. Do it manually.
“Manual cars.
I’m pretty young, and I can imagine a world where my grandchildren want to ride in a manual car for the same reason I like to listen to vinyl.”
14. What to watch?
“Flipping through cable aimlessly not really sure what will be on any channel and just going til you hit something decent.
The place I’m at now has free cable included and sometimes I’ll waste hours just flipping through. It feels just like the early 2000s again and is a crazy throwback feeling to watching TV before everything was on apps and on demand.
You kinda forget you used to watch TV by finding the channel and how you felt like you just found five bucks if you happen to catch a good episode rerun of one of your favorite sitcoms late at night when most of the channels were doing late night infomercials. Or how if you couldn’t find anything good so you’d just sit there and watch an infomercial about bowflexes for half an hour.
And watching the news air on TV instead of getting news through YouTube videos or posts on social media. If you wanted to know whether it was gonna rain that weekend you had to wait til the news cycled back to the weatherman every 20 minutes or so.
Having to plan bathroom sprints around commercial breaks so you didn’t miss a big play during a big championship game. The experience of watching porn by Cinemax late at night when everyone else in the house was asleep. Planning your whole afternoon around getting all your errands done by dinnertime so you could catch Jeopardy or Judge Judy.
Watching cooking shows in your underwear and trying to write down a recipe and getting mad because you missed a step and it’s live so you cant rewind it like you can now with DVR or on demand.”
Now it’s your turn!
What do YOU think people will be nostalgic for in 2060?
Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
