Nowadays, some things are simply not made the same quality as they used to be. Take clothing, for instance; that pair of jeans your dad has been wearing for what feels like a decade now would never have survived this long if it was produced by one of the fast fashion brands we see plenty of today. Granted, such situations depend on many different factors, from the item itself and the materials used to who the manufacturer is.
To be fair, the same goes for things the quality of which seems to be only getting better, such as modern technology, for example, developed in leaps and bounds nowadays. Redditors recently discussed the products that, in their eyes, have gotten better over the years after the user ’esreveR_Psychology78’ started a thread on the topic. The netizens’ answers covered all sorts of matters, from shoelaces to car exhaust systems, pointing out that not everything is going in the direction of quantity over quality (which consumers seem to care for more than the price). Scroll down to find their answers on the list below and see what other things redditors feel optimistic about.
Below you will also find some thoughts from ‘esreveR_Psychology78’, the curious user who started the thread, which they shared with Bored Panda in a recent interview.
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Cancer research. My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer 2 years ago— we were looking at months. A year of chemo and radiation and she got into a clinical trail with immunotherapy. Cancer free last year.
AMAZING.
I have a rare disorder. When I was diagnosed 11 years ago at age 14, I went home and looked up what was going to happen to me. The Google results for lifespan was around 25-37 years old.
Now, most doctors will say the lifespan is fairly close to average.
Scans, medications, and research have all gotten better remarkably fast even for a disorder that has barely any funding towards fixing it. It's so rare that I have to tell doctors what it is and what it effects every time I get a new specialist, because I'm always the first patient they've met with it.
And yet still, the treatment has gotten so much better. So grateful.
GPS, and maps in general. Old paper maps I could get a rough idea of where my house might be in a town. Now I can read the street signs in a city on the other side of the planet.
According to the OP, Reddit is a great place to ask all sorts of questions, as the responses tend to be quite interesting; hence, their inquiry about the good quality products. But out of all of the answers their question got, “shoelaces” was the one that surprised them the most. “It’s something I would never have thought of,” they told Bored Panda.
And indeed, despite using them arguably every day, shoelaces are something we typically don’t pay that much attention to. But something that’s been around for seemingly forever reportedly had companies competing over who would create the best shoelace, and that ought to make the product’s quality rise.
Frozen pizza. 20 years ago they were s**t, now they can actually be pretty good.
Flashlights.
Maglights were 27 lumens. Now an everyday carry flashlight might have 4500 lumens of light.
Join us at r/flashlight
Personally I miss maglights. They were hefty! Can't find them in my area anymore.
The quality of sexual health information that young people can access online. Obviously there are good and bad things about the internet. But a nervous 17 year old kid having a pregnancy scare or a concern about an STI has access to good information online that didn’t exist when I was that age in the 1990s.
The redditor shared that the product they believe developed the most is vehicles. “As someone has said before, 100K was once thought to be amazing, but now if you can get 200-300K that is money well spent.”
According to NBC News, thanks to all sorts of improvements, hitting 100,000 miles with your car—which was once considered an alarming number—is now viewed way differently than it was. However, at around 100,000 or 120,000 miles, maintenance might have to be done.
As a lactose intolerant person: DAIRY FREE/PLANT-BASED ANYTHING. dairy free milk, dairy free butter, dairy free cheese, dairy-free icecream/yogurt. Everything's delicious now!! Same goes for vegan meats imo
Shoelaces.
When I was a kid, they broke if you pulled on them too hard, and then you had to knot them up and tie them short. As an adult, I don’t think I’ve ever had a pair break on me.
Mental health awareness and advocacy. When I first got help ten years ago, it was super hush hush and nobody talked about it. Now mental health is an everyday conversation, people are outspoken about their conditions. Even stickers that say things like “live, laugh, Lexapro” make my heart warm because recovery is finally becoming a part of society.
This one is very interesting. While I do think that many people give themselves labels, for whatever reason, I'm sure some kids I was at school with had problems. I went to English state schools in the 1970s and 80s and there was a "special " school for kids with behaviour problems called The Briars. Being sent there was regularly used as a threat by teachers to get us to behave. I have to wonder now, looking back, how many of the kids that were sent there could have had a relatively normal mainstream education if they had received a proper diagnosis and support?
Brussel sprouts and broccoli. They’ve been bred to be less bitter.
Originally all broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, etc. were just mustard. Over the course of thousands of years, humans have selectively bred different strains to emphasize leaves or flower buds or stems.
The OP shared their opinion on the products on the other side of the scale, too. “The type of products that are going downhill nowadays in terms of their quality would be most of the streaming services,” they told Bored Panda.
“To increase rates and still have ads is absurd; but they know someone will continue to pay without a blink of an eye, and here we are. But with raising prices on any product, the margin of customers will get smaller and smaller, eventually reaching the point where instead of having 10M people paying, they’ll have only 1M.”
Non alcoholic drinks, in particular beer and cider. Wine is still getting there I think, but even just the amount of choice is amazing compared to what there used to be.
I totally agree! Now with non-alcoholic beer, I haven’t had a drink in over 3 years. Turns out I don’t like as much as I thought to be wasted but I do enjoy the taste of beer. Now it’s a win win situation! (And yeah, I do know that there a small percentage of alcohol in nonalcoholic beer)
Small technology. Cameras, smartphones, headphones to name a few. You can purchase a very cheap piece of technology that works equal to the super expensive technology from a few years before.
Lightbulbs are my favorite. Going from incandescent to compact florescent was great because it was a couple years rather than months between bulb changes. Now with LEDs I can't remember changing a bulb, I usually buy new bulbs only when I buy a new lamp.
Cheap guitars. You can buy one for a few hundred bucks that absolutely blows away the one I started on like 25 years ago.
Oh, no question: Garbage bags. WAY better than they used to be.
They used to be super flimsy, back in the 70s and 80s. Garbage-bag commercials would always show "the competitors'" brands tearing and spilling garbage all over. I literally can't remember the last time that happened.
And now you can easily get compostable garbage bags in all sizes! This is the best aspect, IMO.
Vegan replacements!
I tried Vegan replacements but they are still my friends and they are not the pushy types so I don't mind them
Sneakers. I cannot imagine trying to go play basketball in a pair of Chuck Taylors at this point. Or running on the original Nike waffles.
The improvement in padding in shoes and around feet has saved millions of people from foot injury.
Apples are much better now. It used to be the standard was a mealy red delicious, but there are new breeds like Fuji, gala, honey crisp etc that are sweeter, tarter, and have better texture (crisp, firm). This changed in the last few decades.
Environmentally friendly products. Especially soaps and the like. Apart from the benefits I find myself preferring a lot of them over big brands.
I'm going to down vote this one. Not so long ago, everything was environmentally friendly because it was all made from natural ingredients. Not much more than 100 years ago.
Car exhaust systems. That’s why do don’t see all the muffler shops that used to be around.
I have a dedicated tyres and exhausts place round the corner. I remember that my first car went through exhausts very quickly, but they were cheap and made of very thin metal. I've only had to put one back box on my current car, which is 25 years old. This has a double skin, so it takes a lot more to rust through it. I have also had to replace the cat, and was disappointed that the OEM replacement only lasted 2 years (just outside its warranty - grrr). It now has a cheap repro cat on it, which has done at least 5 years.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
MapInfo and similar. For example I can now freely download and plot on a world map the processed data from any one of dozens of satellites.
All PC components. They're way easier to install and generally last longer. And the software and bioses/firmware that ensure they're compatible. And tweaking, at least at a high level, is tons easier and safer. Time was, you needed to understand jumpers, ram allocations, manual bios flashing. Bonus if you could solder. Nothing was shrouded, so you could easily short something or knock off a capacitor. And even still, you'd run into compatibility issues or blow outs.
Cash readers on vending machines and self checkout. I can remember a time when they barely worked without constant cleaning. You'd have to put the same note in over and over before it would take.
Where I live they’re still really picky with accepting notes. I figure it’s to discourage folks from using cash in the drive towards a cashless society.
Pistachios. They're now much easier to shell than 10-20 years ago. This goes across many food/produce products. Oranges are easier to peel, Brussels sprouts are tastier, apples crisper, etc etc.
Science is making food so much better.
Airplane engines... Growing up you would hear the planes and sometimes had to stop your conversation. Nowadays, it never ever happens
Diet Soda Pop. I'm just talking about the taste here. Not interested in hearing about how it's gonna kill you. The taste is light years ahead of how it tasted when I was a kid. Except maybe Diet coke still tastes like s**t but Coke Zero Sugar is pretty great. If you could go back 25 years you'd be surprised how much better diet soda is these days.
Coffee in America.. From Folgers and Yuban to now mega hipster stuff.
Lay’s potato chips. Have you noticed the size of the individual chips is much bigger than 20 years ago and much less breakage. I swear as a kid that the “normal” size of a chip was about 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter and now it’s common to see chips that are 3+ inches in diameter
Rechargeable batteries. Not only the ones in things like phones, tablets, etc - but the sized ones like AA, AAA, C, D, etc.
Rechargeable batteries. Not only the ones in things like phones, tablets, etc - but the sized ones like AA, AAA, C, D, etc.
