25 Things That Have No Excuse to Exist in 2024 But Somehow Still Do
#2: Paid Ads
It’s a sign of how desperate streaming services are that they still need to push ads in our faces to turn a profit. That being said, if your business model isn’t working, maybe you should figure out how to provide better quality content and attract more consumers rather than punishing those who are subscribed.
#3: “This will cost you $1, not including $100 in extra fees”
This might be a relatively new phenomenon but it’s one that certainly belongs in the dark ages. Surely we’re not living in a time where corporations can rely on us consumers being stupid and ignorant. Please just give us all the information. We’ll find out in the end anyway and then we’ll just be extra mad.
#4: Vicarious Pursuits for Moms
I think you might be onto something here. Maybe this should be the measure for assessing whether any behavior should be permitted today – asking whether it could be successfully pitched as a new idea. And as for the example you’ve given, no need to say more. Child pageants should’ve died out at least twenty years ago.
#5: Emergency Charges
Paying to park in any public place should be disallowed as far as I’m concerned, but putting that aside for a moment, even in the given circumstances, hospitals should be an exception. It’s crazy to force sick people and their loved ones into the absurd situation of worrying about not getting a ticket while undergoing an operation.
#6: Please Hold
You may have thought that by the year 2024, people would’ve figured out a more sophisticated way to deal with routine things like telephone customer service, but somehow, we find ourselves using the same primitive systems year after year. In other words, everyone in every customer service department is permanently “experiencing longer than normal wait times.”
#7: Seedy Sports
I think these phenomena are fairly marginal, at least where I’m from. For the most part, in order to find some sort of animal fight, you either have to fly to a country far away, search the dark web, or hang around some dark alleyway late at night. Personally I’ve never managed through any of the methods.
#8: Obscuring Ads
It’s a shame that the people who want to sell us stuff don’t care whether we care about what they’re selling or not. Otherwise, I’m sure they’d be very happy to cooperate with our request to stop interrupting our viewing habits with their ads. For now, we can only hope that they find some other, less annoying method.
#9: Knock Knock. Who’s There?
It might be about the neighborhood I live in, but I don’t get door-to-door salesmen, and I kind of wish that I did. If anything it’s an outdated phenomenon that I wish could somehow continue. They’re a symbol of the unexpected. You could be sitting at home on the couch, and suddenly, you’re having a conversation with a total stranger.
#10: An Itchy Problem
It seems like no matter how advanced we become as a race, nature will always have a few advantages over us and mosquitos might just be some of the best evidence. I mean how have we not yet developed some sort of pill or elixir that makes us totally immune? I guess scientists must have other priorities.
#11: Reckless on the Road
While I completely agree with the sentiment, I do think the author has a somewhat naive perspective on human nature. As far as I’m concerned, the only way to totally eliminate drunk driving would be to eliminate alcohol, eliminate cars, or eliminate human beings. It doesn’t seem like any of those is going to happen any time soon.
#12: I’d Like to See a Physical Men, Please
Although it was only invented a few years ago, the idea should have been dropped as soon as it was proposed. I’m all for the environment and conservation and nice things like that, but I also like when a waiter gives me a menu, and I look at it and order food from it. Like a normal person in a normal restaurant.
#13: Nighttime Needs
Especially now that self-service checkouts have become so normalized, there’s really no excuse for convenience stores to close their doors at all. I should be able to buy my microwave pizza, six-pack of soda and laundry detergent at 3am without driving around looking for the only open branch.
#14: A Big Turnoff
It really makes me wonder what is wrong with our education system that people still don’t use their turning signals. Maybe it’s because no one has made a cool enough video campaign where some B-list celebrity or TikTok star explains why it’s important to communicate your intentions to other drivers.
#15: Silly Humanity
In all seriousness, more than any of the other things I’ve included in this list it really does stump me that we’ve come so far as a society but still haven’t been able to overcome these challenges. The Earth has enough resources for everyone (at least at the moment), so surely we should be able to all live in relative comfort.
#16: In Other Words, Scams
I wish I could share the innocence of many of you folks on the internet. I’ve fallen victim to various subscription scams many times myself, but my standard has been lowered so much that I expect nothing more from the companies and believe it’s all my fault. Hey, is that what it’s like to be gaslit? Maybe I’ve been gaslit.
#17: Give Me Some Credit
I could be expressing an unpopular opinion here, but I tend to think the problem lies at the root. In this case, the entire university system probably needs to be abolished. Some of these institutions were founded in the 11th and 12th centuries, so it only makes sense that they’re losing relevance almost 1,000 years later.
#18: Stayin’ Alive Is Costly
I don’t want to go too far into politics here because I might get punished by my editors but I don’t understand how this is not the most obvious opinion. Life-saving medication should be available to everyone everywhere at no or limited cost. Also it should all be provided as a vaccine to everyone through a breathable substance in the air.
#19: A Sticky Price to Pay
Oh my gosh! I’d never even contemplated the possibility that the sticky residue could be prevented but now that idea is in my mind I’m going to be thinking about it obsessively. It’s especially true seeing as we all know we’re supposed to remove the prices immediately so no one knows that we buy cheap stuff.
#20: Charge the Machine
They don’t even really bother giving us an excuse for those fees, do they? What is that fee for? I suppose people will stick a fee on anything if they think that they can. Ugh. It’s almost exhausting to complain about it so much but the frustration never ends. I think I’m ready for the 22nd century – where everything is perfect.
#21: A Tip to Restaurants
And to this, I say something that I don’t tend to say a lot – why can’t we be like the Europeans? There it’s all clear. If they expect you to tip they’ll tell you. You pay the required amount. End of story. It’s nothing like here, where it’s not mandatory, but if you don’t leave a tip, you might find your tires slashed on the way out.
#22: It’s Honestly Garbage
Apologies if any of you find yourself in this category but I really do find it somewhat mystifying that people are still doing this. I mean where do they think the garbage is going? Oh well, at least it keeps fifth-grade garbage patrols in business and provides fifth-grade teachers with potential punishments to dish out.
#23: Fax Them Into the Past
As much as fax machines do not deserve a place at the table in 2024, I do find their presence relatively unimposing. At worst, they’re devices that just sit around gathering dust, and at best, they can even be a touching reminder of how we used to live. But yeah, all fax machines should be thrown out the window.
#24: It’s a Job, But Upaid
Unpaid internships should really just be known as slave labor for the corporate world. I mean, we all spent our years fetching coffee for Mr. Gleeson, the CEO, and shredding papers, but even then, it seemed like quite an archaic practice. Oh well, I guess if we had to go through then Gen Z can too. Somehow I can’t see it being a resounding success.
#25: Where Is the AI When You Need It?
Well yes, I do identify with the pain of this seriously backward practice. I did recently discover that my bank was accepting checks submitted as photos via its app but I tried it out and it didn’t work so I was back to square one. It’s crazy that we have robot waiters but still need to mail checks.
