A question about the future posed by an innocent Reddit user brought to light many of the concerns that people have in the modern world. It also brought attention to the things that we ought to cherish while they are still here.
“What will people be nostalgic for in 50 years?” Klausbrusselssprouts posed the question on the AskReddit forum. and there were two types of responses. Some people talked about how they think certain things, like the role technology plays in our lives and climate change, will get much worse in the future.
For others, the question was a means of valuing what we currently have, which might not endure in the coming decades.
It’s difficult to predict what things from today will make people nostalgic in the future, but as they say, you never know what you have until it’s gone. Nobody could have predicted in the late 1980s and early 1990s that people would get nostalgic for commonplace activities like visiting Blockbuster Video or hearing the sound of a dial-up modem. However, many people feel good about them when they think about them now.
It’s reasonable to assume that many of the authentic experiences we have today will be supplanted by digital technology in 50 years. Therefore, make time to value in-person interactions, technology that isn’t inserted into your brain, and going to events.
These are the top 17 answers to the query, “What will people be nostalgic for in 50 years?”
1.
“Owning something you don’t pay a subscription for.” — JohnnyNumbskull
2.
“Drinking water from the tap.” — Credible cactus
3.
Grandparents will say to their grandkids, ‘When I was your age, I had to get off the screen and actually GO to school.'” — Truck_Stop_Sushi
4.
“Privacy. Even babies are overexposed today.” — birdiewings
5.
”Being able to do basic maintenance on your car without needing a shop manual and a years salary worth of special tools.” — kilroy-was-here-2543
6.
“Keys. Even more specific vehicle keys.” — UpMan
7.
“Social media. Not because it’s good, but because whatever comes next will probably suck more.” — RockoTDF
8.
“The number of wild animals that exist and can be seen. They are already on the decline.” — SpikedBubbles
9.
“Wired earbuds with an actual headphone jack. Not USB version 93 delta.” — Rodeo6a
10.
“The abundance and availability of power, water, and food.” — wrath__
11.
“Retail shopping. There will be these cutesy, extremely expensive retro shops selling things you’d find at the convenience store.” — shay1990plus
12.
“I’d say people will miss being uncontactable. Like back in the day, you could just go to your bedroom, and block the rest of the world away for a couple of hours. Now we’ve got video calls, phone calls, texts, emails. Urgh.” — mr_wernderful
13.
“Probably movie theaters.” — rsvredditacct
14.
”Life before covid.” — ButterflyGirlie
15.
“Human made art and music without the use of AI. Or even just knowing it was made without the use of AI tools like DALL-E 2 or similar. Kind of like how before autotune you knew for certain a singer could sing that way.” — ConfidentlyNuerotic
16.
“Democracy.” — K3b1N
