"We Rode That Burning Ship All The Way To The Bottom": 24 Things That Were Meant To Change The World, But Actually Flopped So Hard They Were Almost Forgotten By Time
Every so often, a new gadget, app, idea, or technology arrives on the scene, and we think, "This is the next big thing!!!" Sometimes we're right, but often these things quickly rise in popularity and fade out just as fast.
Reddit user Independent-Bat9545 recently posed this question: "What’s something you thought was going to be really big that never caught on?" The answers were a GD blast from that past and had me like, "Waaaait, what did happen to that??" But maybe it's not too late for us to resurrect some of these. What do you think?
1. "MoviePass. For a few glorious months, I felt like a god seeing unlimited movies for $10 a month. We all knew the business model was basically 'lighting money on fire,' but we rode that burning ship all the way to the bottom. RIP."
2. "Those phones with keyboards you could fold out. They appeared not so long before the first touchscreen phones came out that completely took away the need for a physical keyboard. But for those few years, having a whole keyboard attached to your phone felt like some cool sci-fi technology."
—u/Digitijs
"I miss old cellphone technology; each one was different and weird. Now we just get weird vape technology."
—u/GlitterEnema
"That sliding keyboard click was pure dopamine. You’d flip it open like you were about to hack the Pentagon, then type a whole paragraph without autocorrect ruining your life. The battery lasted three days, and the phone survived falling onto concrete. We really had it all, and we didn’t know it."
3. "3D printed houses. I've seen some applications of it, but I thought it was going to be bigger/larger scale by now."
4. "Lab-grown meat. 10-15 years ago, I assumed this new tech would really become a big thing very soon, saving the lives of countless animals. It never took off, though. The only news I hear about it now is the bankruptcy of the companies that invested in this."
5. "After Pokémon Go! I thought that there would be a boom in augmented reality gaming. I guess gaming and actually being in the real world didn't fit as well as I was expecting."
—u/RickHard0
"The summer of 2016 was so awesome. I loved how nearly every person I knew was out catching Pokémon, even if they had never bothered with the show or game before."
6. "Space exploration. There have been a lot of projects, but I thought we'd be farther along."
"It seems like every time humanity gets close to something like colonizing another celestial object (project Artemis comes to mind), politics shift, and funding gets cut."
—u/UncagedJay
7. "The BeReal social media platform. For a while in my uni circles, it was HUGE, everyone literally stopped whatever they were doing and yelled 'BE REAL TIME!!!' It was wild."
—u/uhrilahja
8. "High-speed trains. I thought there would be way more trains going across the country than there are by now."
"This upsets me on a regular basis. There are so many places that would just be an hour or two away by a high-speed train. It would significantly improve my life/travel options to have an established network."
—u/House_T
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9. "After COVID, I thought covering your mouth when coughing, not going out when you're clearly ill, wearing masks when you are sick, and regular handwashing would catch on, but we're all just still catching sickness."
—u/redjessa
10. "A second Renaissance via all human knowledge being freely available and communication across all boundaries. Oh well. Maybe next time."
—u/AlecMac2001
"I was born in a communist country with strict information laws, and I wrongfully assumed open information would benefit society. Now there are huge Facebook groups and TikTok stars spreading disinformation."
—u/cryptme
11. "I believe Segways were before their time. They are better than scooters. We should be renting Segways for short trips instead. I wish they had taken off more."
—u/suitopseudo
12. "Working remotely. It saves people time, money, and companies get more productivity."
"Don't forget infrastructure and traffic. We could easily save on both of those things by pushing WFH more."
13. "Minidisc! I loved it, but MP3 was just around the corner."
—u/Chopper3
"Omg I thought minidiscs were so cool, I was desperate to buy a minidisc player!"
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14. "After each massive corruption scandal of politicians, I expect that the people will finally snap, and outrage and revolution will topple this rotten system. But nope. No one really cares anymore. And that's why it will go on."
15. "I thought every house would have solar power by now, but we all got too poor to go green. "
—u/Sir-Realz
16. "The Zune, lol."
—u/BIGG_FRIGG
"I loved my Zune! Zune HD is still the best industrial design of any handheld device to date."
"The Zune was awesome. Arguably better than the iPod. Yet it lacked the marketing magic of the latter and wasn't seen as 'cool'."
—u/TheSJDRising
17. "TiVo. I was convinced it was going to revolutionize how people watched TV. In reality, the digital streaming leap fogged it so fast, it got left behind pretty quickly."
—u/87CSD
18. "Motion gaming. Xbox Kinect, PlayStation Move, Nintendo Wii. Wii had a good run, to be fair, but the other two jumped on the fad and fizzled out so quickly."
—u/SlowAgency
19. "The future value of Beanie Babies. That was my dad’s plan to pay for my college. Now there are about 500 of these things in my mom’s house collecting dust."
20. "Self-driving cars. I’m beyond annoyed we don’t have fully autonomous vehicles yet. People suck at driving."
"Unfortunately, bots also suck at driving."
21. "People forget how many times the 3D fad has come and gone. It’s a fun novelty, but that’s about it. Nobody wants to watch dramas or rom-coms in 3D."
22. "Sega Saturn...sigh. All of my friends bought a PS1, adding insult to my injury. My parents were also mad because it was an expensive system."
—u/El_Frijol
"I remember the first time I saw someone with a Saturn and being awestruck, thinking this was going to be the biggest thing ever (because the Genesis was already the biggest thing in my child brain). I think it was 20-something years before I ever saw another one, lol."
—u/red_rob5
23. "Small smartphones. I’m continually shocked that there isn’t a lucrative market for smartphones the size of the original iPhone. People with small hands, people with smaller pockets (i.e. women’s clothing), people who do outdoor activities like cycling or running, etc. Folks laughed at phablets 15 years ago, but now it’s the norm, and everyone seems to be okay with it."
24. And finally, "The American Dream. 🤣🤣🤣"
Are there any things you were convinced would be huge today that just kind of fizzled out? Tell me in the comments, or use the anonymous form below! Your response may be used in an upcoming BuzzFeed article!
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
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